Abstract   This editorial-cum-introduction to A Critical Response to Managerialism in the Academy uses the dialectic between components of New Public Management (namely, cost efficiency and public accountability) to connect all papers in this special issue. It draws on earlier studies on the New Public Management ethos to explain academics’ responses to managerialist teaching and research initiatives. And in the aftermath of the Enron et al., disasters it also explores means to revive accounting as an ethical discipline.