Internal Marketing and Labor Precarization in universities: Discourses and meanings of academic work
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35997/cz5eyg21Keywords:
Organizational discourse, higher education, internal marketing, labor precarization, meaning of workAbstract
This article examines how university professors working under unstable employment conditions interpret the internal marketing strategies implemented by higher education institutions. The aim is to understand how these practices influence the construction of meaning in academic work and shape professors’ perceptions of the university as an organization. Drawing on a hermeneutic phenomenological approach, conversational interviews were conducted with faculty members employed under flexible contractual arrangements, complemented by institutional document analysis. The findings reveal tensions between institutional discourse and professors’ lived work experiences. Three patterns emerge: first, a dissonance between organizational rhetoric and actual labor conditions; second, a fragmented configuration of meaning regarding academic work according to contractual stability; and third, the development of symbolic strategies of reinterpretation and resistance to labor vulnerability. The study suggests that internal marketing should be understood beyond its motivational purpose as a symbolic device influencing work experience and organizational culture. The research contributes a critical perspective on human management in higher education and offers reflections on organizational leadership in the face of academic labor precarization.
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