This paper discusses results from a research project which set out to investigate gender differences in the nature and experience of bullying within the higher education sector.Gender differences emerged in the form and perception of bullying as well as in target response. Results also indicate that, irrespective of gender, bullies can capture and subvert organizational structures and procedures (official hierarchies, mentoring systems, probationary reviews) to further their abuse of the target and to conceal aggressive intent.These outcomes are discussed in relation to gendered assumptions behind management practices and in relation to the masculinist ethic that underpins many higher education management initiatives. Overall, results indicate that bullying cannot be divorced from gender and that such behaviour needs to be seen in a gendered context.

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The use of fiction in management education, as described in recent management publications, implies the employment of a `common-sense' model of reading and interpretation. If fiction is not to be employed merely as the expression of what can be perceived as an outmoded desire for certainties and consistency and rules, management education needs to reject this model and seek how individual expression and interpretation may be accommodated within a flexible and open teaching framework. The analysis of fiction within management education offers the possibility of exploring a form of literary criticism that may support a management education that (among other attributes) questions its own content and context. In this paper the author describes some of her own uses of fiction within the management classroom and concludes that the management educator needs to employ a bold and imaginative approach to `literary criticism' with students, if the use of fiction is to be fully exploited.

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