Declining enrolment, retrenchment (cutback) strategies, and demands from the public for increased accountability have forced university administrators to re-examine the efficiency of the university and adopt managerial techniques that advocate increased accountability, centralized authority, and objective resource allocation. Cynthia Hardy argues that this approach has failed to take into account the political realities of university life and the conflict which arises from competing demands for scarce resources.

In The Politics of Collegiality Hardy uses six case studies to explore how power and collegiality interact within institutional contexts during periods of fiscal restraint. Examining the funding cutbacks implemented by McGill University, Université de Montréal, University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, University of Toronto, and Carleton University, Hardy demonstrates that institutional context and retrenchment strategy are linked in such a way that what works in some institutions will not work in others.

By offering insights into how financial restrictions have been managed in particular universities, these individual case studies provide a conceptual framework for understanding institutional decision making on a larger scale. Hardy reveals that university administrators must recognize this broader context if conflict is to be avoided and the consensus needed to implement effective retrenchment plans created.