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Purpose What academic and managerial elements are particularly influential regarding performance? This study aims to address these questions as part of a broader longitudinal study. The current paper focusses on the results relating to performance management and measurement, and how the sectorial developments impacted on individuals and institutions. Design/methodology/approach An interpretive research methodology was used, which illustrates the institutional performance management and measurement system. The first part of the interpretive study was a single case study, focussing on one “old” research-intensive university. The second part included five institutions, three UK top-tier universities, focussing on top-level research and education, and two “new” universities with a greater teaching than research portfolio. Findings The current paper focusses on the results relating to performance management and measurement, and how higher education (HE) developments impacted on individuals and institutions, reflected in the notion of performance habitus. The qualitative element of the study sought to gain insight into which factors influence performance management and measurement and what changing effect these have on academic members of staff. The findings illustrate how academic values and managerial control practices create an academia-specific performance management approach, measured by particular key performance indicators that are used for the institution as a whole and then applied to units and individuals within institutions. With regard to institutional performance, more established and institutionalised performance management and measurement practices are relied upon. Both elements are addressed in this study, and the authors conclude that the interplay of human capital and institutional structure creates the most successful performance-related outcome. Originality/value The current study adds additional insights on how the changing HE context affects academic members and how the future of the UK HE sector is perceived. Insights can be derived for other HE sectors, as the contextual factors of international competition, tightening of resources and nature of the academic sector transcend national borders. Thus, practices illustrated in the current study are useful for institutions and academic managers of other HE sectors as well.

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Purpose The current study aims to investigate the development of the sustainability habitus in the Arab Middle East (ME) based on the pioneer case organisation, Aramex, which has been the pioneer of sustainability practices and reporting. The context of the Arab region, as well as the global logistics sector, has significantly influenced the development of sustainable development at Aramex, as illustrated by their sustainability and integrated reports. Design/methodology/approach The research approach of the current study is qualitative on the basis of open and selective coding techniques. The case organisation’s annual sustainability and integrated reports and additional relevant publicised information are analysed. Using publicised information from different sources increases triangulation and allows for more reliable findings. The theoretical context is Bourdieu’s habitus and field, which also reflects the interplay between habitus and field, and how Aramex’s sustainability practices and reports are being constructed. Findings The findings reflect Aramex’s sustainability practices and related reporting, subsumed in its organisational sustainability habitus. They span the sustainability reporting endeavours of the case organisation, commencing with the first sustainability report in 2006 until the most recent annual integrated report in 2018. Aramex is the precursor of sustainability and integrated reporting (IR) in the ME and is a significant contributor to developing a sustainability habitus in the region. The findings outline various elements of their reports as evidence of sustainability practices and reporting in the ME and the global logistics sector and as an illustration of the developing sustainability habitus. Originality/value This study reviews the original case of Aramex and its sustainability and IR practices. It also discusses the company’s practices and reporting details with regard to its organisational sustainability habitus and interplay with the local, Arab World and global, logistics sector, fields.