Title: Exploring organisational culture in higher educational institutions: a comparative study

Authors: Marina Sousa; Maria João Raposo; Jorge Mendonça; Beatriz Corchuelo

Addresses: Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Politécnico do Porto, Rua Doutor António Bernardino de Almeida, Porto, Portugal ' Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Politécnico do Porto, Rua Doutor António Bernardino de Almeida, Porto, Portugal ' Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Politécnico do Porto, Rua Doutor António Bernardino de Almeida, Porto, Portugal ' Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales, Universidad de Extremadura, Avda. De Elvas, s/n., 06006 Badajoz, Spain

Abstract: The concept of organisational culture has been the object of increasing attention of the scientific community. In this study, we analyse the organisational culture of two higher education institutions, one from Portugal and another from Spain, and how it has changed - or should be expected to have changed - following a modification in their legislative frameworks and mission definition, imposed coercively by their governments in the transposition of European directives. To achieve this study, the concept of Competing Values Framework (CVF) and Organisational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI) was used. The main conclusion of this study is that it is not clear that there has been a statutory change oriented towards the implementation of a market model and there has clearly not been a significant change in the pre-existing organisational culture in these two institutions, which may indicate weak levels of organisational effectiveness.

Keywords: higher education; organisational culture; institutional change; competing values framework; organisational culture assessment instrument; comparative study; Portugal; Spain.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMIE.2022.119683

International Journal of Management in Education, 2022 Vol.16 No.1, pp.62 - 82

Received: 22 Dec 2020
Accepted: 10 Apr 2021
Published online: 14 Dec 2021 *

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