Managing universities "is" different from managing in most other sorts of organisation. In this article, the author shows why this claim is more than just special pleading, and how it relates to the particular form of the organisation. Appreciating their integrative aspects helps people to understand some of the difficulties that they regularly encounter at their work in universities: these do not necessarily arise simply from colleagues being awkward (though that possibility should never be discounted). Understanding the peculiarities of the integrative organisation may help them to manage it better.