Rank and file: Managing individual performance in university research

League tables are a common way for various competitive sports to judge team quality and identify winners and are also making increasingly frequent appearances in higher education globally. In this paper, we argue that this compilation of league tables is a product of the global hegemony of market-driven systems of higher education in which universities compete with each other for declining resources and students-as-customers. We explore why and how such exercises shape and define conceptualisations of the relative strength of organisations, and what the consequences of this are likely to be. Our analysis is grounded in a conceptualisation of universities, particularly in the UK, as marketised, neoliberal institutions for which rankings are essential to organisational transformation. We provide empirical data to support our argument via an exploration of the UK Association of Business Schools' Academic Journal Quality Guide. (HRK / Abstract übernommen).