using a competing values framework to examine university … · i using a competing values...
TRANSCRIPT
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Using a Competing Values Framework to Examine University Culture
Don Sanderson (Bachelor of Education, Early Childhood, Hons. 2nd class; Bachelor of Arts,
Distinction)
The Centre for Learning Innovation
Submitted for the degree of Master of Education
to the Queensland University of Technology
2006
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Key Words
case study, change, competing values framework , corporatisation, culture, higher education, organisation, mixed method, university
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Abstract
The presented dissertation reports the findings of an exploratory study that mapped
the perceptions of stakeholders on the changing nature of the organisational culture, in
terms of the corporatisation of higher education, in a single faculty from a large
Australian university. The study used a mixed-method, case study approach and it
tested the usefulness of an organisational culture measuring instrument based on the
Competing Values Framework (Quinn & McGrath, 1985; Quinn & Rohrbaugh, 1981,
1983). The presented work argues that the institution of higher education can be
viewed as being rudimentarily comprised of having two symbiotic cultural parts – a
collegial and a mercantile part and that these parts form the corporation that is an
institution of higher education. The generated hypothesis is that when the values of
these two competing cultures are in a particular configuration of influence with each
other, a university has its best opportunity to effectively attend to its core functions.
The research found that the relationship between the collegial and the mercantile parts
in the study site’s culture had shifted in favour of a mercantile culture and further
research is needed to determine if that means the organisation is operating at an
optimal effectiveness.
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Table of Contents
KEY WORDS..........................................................................................................................................I ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................................II TABLE OF CONTENTS ...................................................................................................................... III
LIST OF FIGURES ...................................................................................................................................V LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................................... VI GLOSSARY OF TERMS .......................................................................................................................... VII DECLARATION .......................................................................................................................................X ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ........................................................................................................................... XI
CHAPTER 1 – INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................1 1.1 PREAMBLE ..............................................................................................................................1 1.1 INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................1 1.3 BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT...................................................................................................3
1.3.2 Context..............................................................................................................................5 1.4 WHY ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE? AN INTRODUCTION TO THE MAIN TERMS .............................7
1.4.1 The Need to Examine Culture.........................................................................................12 1.5 PURPOSES.............................................................................................................................16
1.5.1 Aims of the Study ............................................................................................................16 1.5.2 Objectives of the Study....................................................................................................16
1.6 RESEARCH QUESTIONS ..........................................................................................................16 1.7 STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE ...............................................................................................17 1.8 OVERVIEW OF THE THESIS .....................................................................................................17 1.9 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................17
CHAPTER 2 - LITERATURE REVIEW...............................................................................................19 2.1 PREAMBLE ............................................................................................................................19 2.2 FUNCTIONS AND VALUES OF HIGHER EDUCATION ..................................................................19 2.3 CORPORATISATION AND HIGHER EDUCATION.........................................................................21
2.3.1 The Corporate University ...............................................................................................24 2.3.2 The Origins of the University as a Corporation .............................................................25
2.4 CULTURE IN ORGANISATIONS.................................................................................................27 2.4.1 The Culture of Higher Education ...................................................................................31
2.5 CULTURE MEASURING INSTRUMENTS .....................................................................................36 2.5.1 The Competing Values Framework ................................................................................37 2.5.2 The Competing Values Framework in Higher Education...............................................41
2.6 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................42 CHAPTER 3 – METHODOLOGY ........................................................................................................45
3.1 PREAMBLE ............................................................................................................................45 3.2 INTRODUCTION .....................................................................................................................45 3.3 DESIGN .................................................................................................................................47
3.3.1 Epistemology and Theoretical Perspective.....................................................................47 3.3.2 Approaches to a Case Study ...........................................................................................49 3.3.3 The Use of a Multi-Method Approach to Case Study .....................................................52
3.4 METHODS .............................................................................................................................53 3.4.1 Overview of the Study’s Phases ......................................................................................54 3.4.2 Context and Participants ................................................................................................54
3.5 DATA SOURCES .....................................................................................................................56 3.5.1 Phase 1: Review of Archival Material ............................................................................58 3.5.2 Phase 2: Interviews ........................................................................................................60 3.5.3 Phase 3: The Survey .......................................................................................................62
3.6 DATA ANALYSIS .....................................................................................................................65 3.7 RELIABILITY AND LIMITATIONS ...............................................................................................67
3.7.1 Triangulation..................................................................................................................69 3.7.2 Limitations and Delimitations ........................................................................................70
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3.8 LIMITATIONS .........................................................................................................................71 3.9 ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS ....................................................................................................72 3.10 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................74
CHAPTER 4 - RESULTS ......................................................................................................................75 4.1 PREAMBLE ............................................................................................................................75 4.2 INTRODUCTION .....................................................................................................................75 4.3 PHASE 1: ARCHIVAL MATERIAL..............................................................................................77
4.3.1 Annual Report: 1966 ......................................................................................................77 4.3.1.1 Summary of 1966 annual report. ...............................................................................81 4.3.2 Annual Report: 1976 ......................................................................................................82 4.3.2.1 Summary of 1976 annual report. ...............................................................................86 4.3.3 Annual Report: 1986 ......................................................................................................87 4.3.3.1 Summary of 1986 annual report. ...............................................................................94 4.3.4 Annual Report: 1996 ......................................................................................................95 4.3.4.1 Summary of 1996 annual report. ...............................................................................98 4.3.5 Annual Report: 2004 ......................................................................................................99 4.3.5.1 Summary of 2004 annual report. .............................................................................103 4.3.6 Archival Material: Comparison of Reports - 1966-2004..............................................104
4.4 PHASE 2: INTERVIEWS .........................................................................................................107 4.4.1 Interview Results: Academic Group .............................................................................108 4.4.2 Interview Results: Non-academic Group......................................................................112 4.4.3 Interview Results: Comparison of Groups....................................................................115 4.4.4 Interview Results: Combined Groups ...........................................................................119
4.5 PHASE 3: THE SURVEY (OCSI) ............................................................................................124 4.5.1 The Survey Results: Academic Group ..........................................................................125 4.5.2 The Survey Results: Administration Group ..................................................................125 4.5.3 The Survey Results: Not Defined Group.......................................................................126 4.5.4 The Survey Results: Combined Groups ........................................................................128
4.6 COMPARISON OF PHASES.....................................................................................................129 4.6.1 Comparison between Academic Groups (Phases 2 and 3) ...........................................130 4.6.2 Comparison between Non-academic Groups (Phases 2 and 3)....................................132 4.6.3 Comparison between Combined Groups: Academics and Non-academics (Phases 2 and 3) 134
4.7 CONCLUSION ......................................................................................................................136 CHAPTER 5 - DISCUSSION ..............................................................................................................138
5.1 PREAMBLE ..........................................................................................................................138 5.2 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................138 5.3 THE CHANGING CULTURAL VALUES AS EVIDENCED BY THE CVF OVER TIME ........................140 5.4 STAFF PERCEPTIONS OF UNIVERSITY CULTURE AS THEY RELATE TO THE COMPETING VALUES CRITERIA IDENTIFIED BY THE CVF.....................................................................................................155 5.5 CAN THE CVF BE USEFULLY APPLIED IN HIGHER EDUCATION CONTEXTS? ..........................156 5.6 FURTHER RESEARCH ...........................................................................................................166 REFERENCES.....................................................................................................................................168 APPENDICES .....................................................................................................................................187 APPENDIX A ORGANISATION CULTURE SURVEY INSTRUMENT .........................................................188 APPENDIX B SEMI-STRUCTURED INTERVIEW QUESTIONS ................................................................192 APPENDIX C ORGANISATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS BY CVF QUADRANT ........................................194 APPENDIX D MAPPING OF ARCHIVAL MATERIAL ONTO CVF-BASED MATRICES .............................197
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List of Figures
FIGURE 1. BASIC STRUCTURE OF THE COMPETING VALUES FRAMEWORK...............................................13 FIGURE 2. THE COMPETING VALUES FRAMEWORK (CITED IN, ZAMMUTO ET AL., 2000, P. 265)..............39 FIGURE 3. OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY EXTENSION (ADAPTED FROM BERRIO, 2003, P. 7). .........................42 FIGURE 4. THE STUDY’S DESIGN: AN ADAPTATION OF YIN’S (2003) “FIVE RESEARCH DESIGN
COMPONENTS” ..............................................................................................................................53 FIGURE 5. CONVERGENCE OF RESEARCH EVIDENCE (ADAPTED FROM YIN, 2003) ...................................58 FIGURE 6. CVF MAPPING OF 1966 ANNUAL REPORT TEXT......................................................................81 FIGURE 7. CVF MAPPING OF 1976 ANNUAL REPORT TEXT......................................................................86 FIGURE 8. CVF MAPPING OF 1986 ANNUAL REPORT TEXT......................................................................94 FIGURE 9. CVF MAPPING OF 1996 ANNUAL REPORT TEXT......................................................................98 FIGURE 10. CVF MAPPING OF 2004 ANNUAL REPORT TEXT..................................................................103 FIGURE 11. ORGANISATIONAL ATTRIBUTES BY CVF QUADRANT: ACADEMIC PERCEPTIONS.................111 FIGURE 12. ORGANISATIONAL ATTRIBUTES BY CVF QUADRANT: NON-ACADEMIC PERCEPTIONS.........115 FIGURE 13. ALL INTERVIEWEES MAPPED ONTO CVF MATRIX ACCORDING TO FREQUENCIES ................121 FIGURE 14. SURVEY: COMPARISON OF GROUPS.....................................................................................126 FIGURE 15. SURVEY: ALL RESPONDENTS COMBINED.............................................................................129 FIGURE 16. COMPARISON OF PHASES BY AXES: ACADEMIC GROUPS......................................................131 FIGURE 17. COMPARISON OF PHASES BY AXES: NON-ACADEMIC GROUPS .............................................133 FIGURE 18. COMPARISON OF PHASES 2 AND 3 BY AXES: ALL GROUPS...................................................135 FIGURE 19. COMBINED QUADRANT STRENGTHS ALONG AXES ...............................................................136 FIGURE 20. COMPARISON OF TWO UNIVERSITIES (ADAPTED FROM ZAMMUTO & KRAKOWER, 1991, P.
102) .............................................................................................................................................143 FIGURE 21. “AN AVERAGE CULTURE PLOT FOR MORE THAN 1000 ORGANIZATIONS” (CAMERON & QUINN,
1999, P. 66)..................................................................................................................................158 FIGURE 22. RETAIL AND WHOLESALE TRADE (N = 44 ORGANISATIONS) (CAMERON & QUINN, 1999, P. 69)
....................................................................................................................................................159
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List of Tables
TABLE 1. COMPARISON OF MODELS OF ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE ...........................................................30 TABLE 2. COMPARISON OF MODELS OF ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE - HIGHER EDUCATION..........................35 TABLE 3. PHASES AND STEPS OF STUDY ....................................................................................................54 TABLE 4. PHASE 2 PARTICIPANT CODES, ROLES AND STATUS.....................................................................55 TABLE 5. PHASE 1: ARCHIVAL MATERIAL - ACTIVITY, AIM, AND RATIONALE.................................................59 TABLE 6. PHASE 2: SEMI-STRUCTURED INTERVIEWS – ACTIVITY, AIMS AND RATIONALE ...............................62 TABLE 7. PHASE 3: SURVEY – ACTIVITY, AIM AND RATIONALE.....................................................................64 TABLE 8. STUDY ANALYSIS BY PHASES .......................................................................................................66 TABLE 9. ETHICAL MECHANISMS ..............................................................................................................73 TABLE 10. ETHICAL APPROACHES ............................................................................................................74 TABLE 11. LEGEND OF CVF ABBREVIATIONS AND TERMS ..........................................................................76 TABLE 12. QUADRANT BY ATTRIBUTE FREQUENCY: ACADEMIC GROUP....................................................108 TABLE 13. QUADRANT BY ATTRIBUTE FREQUENCY: NON-ACADEMIC GROUP ...........................................112 TABLE 14. QUADRANT BY ATTRIBUTE FREQUENCY: COMPARISON OF GROUPS ..........................................116 TABLE 15. QUADRANT BY ATTRIBUTE FREQUENCY (WITHOUT IR CATEGORY): ALL GROUPS ......................119 TABLE 16. QUADRANT STRENGTH BY ATTRIBUTE FREQUENCY: ALL GROUPS .............................................119 TABLE 17. SURVEY: COMPARISON OF GROUPS BY CVF QUADRANT..........................................................128 TABLE 18. SURVEY: COMPARISON OF GROUPS BY QUADRANT AND ALL GROUPS COMBINED ......................128 TABLE 19. COMPARISON BETWEEN ACADEMIC GROUPS (PHASES 2 AND 3) ...............................................130 TABLE 20. COMPARISON BETWEEN NON-ACADEMIC GROUPS (PHASES 2 AND 3) .......................................132 TABLE 21. COMBINED GROUPS BY EMPHASIS STRENGTH (ES) ..................................................................134 TABLE 22. COMPARING CVF FINDINGS TO HIGHER EDUCATIONALIST’S OBSERVATIONS - SHIFTS...............151 TABLE 23. COMPARING CVF FINDINGS TO HIGHER EDUCATIONALIST’S OBSERVATIONS - EFFECTS............152
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Glossary of Terms
Administration Includes the offices of the chancellors, (in higher education) vice-chancellors, president and vice president,
increasingly the CEO (Chief Executive Officer) and the people in personnel services, accounting, auditing, purchasing, security, planning and budget offices, mail distribution, community relations, legal counsel (adapted from (Gumport & Pusser, 1995, p. 1). “Administration is the implementation of authorised procedures and the application of systems to achieve agreed results”. (Gallagher, 2001, n. p.)
Bureaucracy A type of organisational structure where appointed officials undertake administrative duties
(Weber, 2003). Corporation From the Latin “corpus” meaning body. A corporation
is a business or an organisation formed by a group of people, it has rights and liabilities separate from those of the individuals involved who created the entity. It may be a nonprofit organisation engaged in activities for the public good; a municipal corporation, such as a city or town; or a private corporation, which has been organised to make a profit (Barnhart, 1982; Delbridge, 2001; Simpson & Weiner, 1989)
Corporatisation Is a process of making a state body into an independent
commercial enterprise (Bostock, 1999). Culture “The sum total of ways of living built up by a group of
human beings, which is transmitted from one generation to another” (Delbridge & Bernard, 1982, p. 455). Culture is everything that is socially learned and shared by the members of group, as a system of norms and values it may be material (any physical artefact changed and used by the group) and nonmaterial (language, ideas, customs, and beliefs).
Economic rationalism Principally, it revolves around the idea of free markets,
open competition, and reduction in government spending and revenue (Bessant & Watts, 1999, p. 232).
Higher education (In the Australian context). A generic term for post-
secondary studies where institutionalised pedagogy takes place. The main institutions are, universities, technical colleges, institutes, religious colleges or any “other academic agency functioning at the level of tertiary education…” and the term is “sometimes used
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interchangeably with ‘university education’” (Skilbeck, 2001, p. 20).
ICT Information and Communication Technologies. These
will be considered for the most part as the new digital technologies such as, but are not restricted to; computers (work stations, PCs), Local Area Network (LAN) a type of intranet which connects workstations and PC to each other and to a mainframe, Internet or WWW, CD ROM, (new) audio/visuals (for example, digital image projection), and flexible pedagogies (on-line teaching and learning).
LAN Local Access Network or Local Area Network.
Connects computers together within a building or a cluster of buildings within close proximity to each other. Usually accessed by password for a select group of individuals.
Management “Is achieving intended outcomes through the allocation (in higher education) of responsibilities and resources, and monitoring their
efficiency and effectiveness”.(Gallagher, 2001, n. p.) Managerialism Refers to the adoption “of private-sector management
tools within public-sector organizations. It involves the systematic use of strategic planning, program budgeting and risk management” (Weller & Lewis, 1989, p. 1).
Organisation A group (more than two persons), structurally
differentiated and organised on a formal basis. “A social system in which a significant proportion of the activities are co-ordinated in order to realize a goal or a set of goals which are explicitly specified” (Walters & Crook, 1993, p. 447).
Rationalism Part of a socio-political ideology of social and fiscal
management where there is a rationing of resources (human, material and fiscal). Sometimes characterised as a process whereby organisations and whole societies have to ‘do more with less’.
Rationality In Weberian terms means the probability that
individuals will choose to undertake actions which best succeed in realising specific and immediate objectives which are material and short-term in character and which have little relationship to traditional values. This is an action that is selected on the criteria of its efficiency and effectiveness where the rules that become accepted as legitimate, are those that are most
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successful in achieving short-term gains (Walters & Crook, 1993, pp. 213-214).
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Declaration
I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, it contains no material previously published or written by another person nor material which to a substantial extent has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma of the university of other institution of higher learning, except where due acknowledgment has been made in the text. Signature _______________________________________________________ Name _______________________________________________________ Date _______________________________________________________
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Acknowledgments
I would like to acknowledge the support of my family, my wife and friend Miriam, my two children Guy and Verity who have endured for so long. I would also like to thank my supervisory team for their patience and intellectual insights. Without the support of all of these people this work would not have reached fruition. Supervisor: Associate Professor James Watters
Associate Supervisors: Mr. Michael Ryan
Ms. Diane Nailon
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Chapter 1 – Introduction
1.1 Preamble
This chapter provides an overview of the study and outlines a context and
background to the research enquiry. The chapter also introduces the reader to the
main terms and concepts and provides a description of the purposes of the research
including the research questions, aims and objectives. An explanation of some of the
definitions of the main concepts and terms of the thesis are presented below. A
statement of significance and an overview of the thesis conclude the chapter.
1.1 Introduction
The study as reported here used a mixed-method case study approach,
mapping stakeholder perceptions and organisational documentation onto a theoretical
framework, the Competing Values Framework (CVF) (Quinn & McGrath, 1985;
Quinn & Rohrbaugh, 1981; Quinn & Spreitzer, 1991), to investigate the culture of a
university, and in particular the notion of competing values embedded in the
organisation of the case study’s university. The study built on a body of knowledge
that has theorised on the culture of higher education systems. In so doing it
investigated the notion of the ‘corporatisation’ of higher education systems.
Understanding the culture of an organisation is claimed to assist in creating a better
understanding of the organisation’s operational effectiveness (Schein, 1984).
There are a number of interpretations of what the term ‘culture’ represents.
These are generally confined within the discourses of anthropology (myths, symbols,
meanings), sociology (structure, social relationships), biology (physical responses)
and psychology (individual responses). Although organisational theory has borrowed
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heavily from psychology with its emphasis on quantitative research and individual
responses, it can be traced back to the sociological perspectives of Weber and Marx
with their emphases on social relationships. From the Weberian and Marxist
traditions, understanding organisations as part of the social context saw the
qualitatively based disciplines of sociology and anthropology become involved in the
1970s and 1980s. The epistemological and ontological interpretation of culture as
seen through these various lenses is therefore diverse, although the interpretation
taken by the organisational literature appears to be a response to the sociological,
psychological and anthropological perspectives. Such a perspective promotes a
definition of culture as, “the deep structure of organizations, which is rooted in the
values, beliefs, and assumptions held by organizational members” (Denison, 1996, p.
625) (the term ‘culture’ is explored further in Chapter 2). An organisation has been
defined as “a consciously coordinated social unit, composed of two or more people,
that function on a relatively continuous basis to achieve a common goal or set of
goals” (Robbins, Bergman, Stagg, & Coulter, 2003, p. 5). The context in which these
people achieve the organisational goals can be interpreted as the culture in which
they operate.
The other main terms used in the thesis are the terms ‘corporate’ and
‘traditional’ (and are dealt with in more detail in Chapter 2). These terms often sit as
a paradigmatic binary in the literature, that is because the sector is being corporatised
traditional practices are being compromised. They are representative terms of
indistinct phenomena or concepts, which are often presented in subjective,
contentious, and ambiguous manners. The socio-political reformation process of
higher education in Australia is generally characterised as a process of
‘corporatisation’ of the sector with much of the literature suggesting a concomitant
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loss of certain values and functions. Bostock (1999) defines the process of
corporatisation as one which makes a state body into an independent commercial
enterprise (Bostock, 1999). The values and functions that are jeopardised are often
portrayed as having historical lineage dating back to the genesis of higher education
as a social institution and are thought to encompass teaching and learning, (arguably)
community service and (arguably) research, under which lies sub-sets of values and
functions such as collegiality, scholarship of teaching and learning, community,
knowledge for knowledge sake, and pure research, and as such may be generally
thought to be ‘traditional’ aspects.
1.3 Background and Context
Throughout the researcher’s undergraduate degree (1998 – 2001) issues of
student and academic unrest with aspects of university life could not be satisfactorily
explained as idiosyncratic or isolated experiences. As a research assistant (2001 -
2002) on a university project, in part, concerned with academic engagement with
ICT (Information and Communication Technologies), exposure to the literature
initiated questions concerning the motivations and perceptions of stakeholders in
higher education’s use of ICT as teaching and learning tools, particularly where the
empirical evidence as to its effectiveness is conflicting. Further questions arose when
institutional material about the direction, goals, and mission of the institution
exposed incongruence between institutional rhetoric and pedagogical and collegial
practices. Furthermore, as a practicing teacher in a newly established public school
(in 2003), and as a parent of two school-aged children (1999 to the present), issues
relating to the new managerialism and marketisation in public education were
evident and have had personal significance. Generally these issues and concerns
revolved around the difference between the management’s rhetoric of quality
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pedagogical practices and the actual on-the-ground practices. In all of the mentioned
contexts, management was seen to increase staff workload, increase student numbers
(sometime beyond regulatory limits), while providing limited, and in some cases the
withdrawal of, resources (both human and material) which all appeared to have a
deleterious effect on pedagogical quality, and staff morale.
At an anecdotal level, staff and students in the university context would
comment that the culture was changing. Their comments on this change were made
in ways that suggested that a culture of an organisation was at least perceptible if not
a tangible thing. The suggestion of perceptibility or concreteness was incongruent to
what the literature would offer. As will be highlighted in the literature review
(Chapter 2), what exactly the ‘culture’ of an organisation is, particularly in higher
education, has proven to be a moot point (Silver, 2000), although it has been likened
to the ‘personality’ of the organisation (van Oudtshoorn & Thomas, 1995).
Nonetheless there have been organisational scientists investigating the notion of the
culture of organisations. The culture-quality movement of the 1970s pushed for the
idea that the culture of an organisation could indeed be studied (Deal & Kennedy,
1982; Peters & Waterman, 1982). Proponents of the movement believe they could
identify specific qualities, attributes, or values that are inherent in an organisation.
This section has flagged the idea that people in various organisations, within
and without of higher education have perceived that their organisation was changing
and that they often viewed the changes in terms of the culture of the organisation.
The next section widens the research in order to highlight where the problem can be
found in a broader context.
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1.3.2 Context
This section contextualises the observations (and questions) gained as at the
university (undergraduate and researcher) level, at the primary education (teacher)
level, and as a participant in an education system (parent). In so doing, it looks at
some historical precedence in terms of change and crises in higher education with a
view to highlighting that higher education is an enduring institution and as such the
idea that higher education systems are in crisis needs to be questioned. Therefore
there are two ideas emanating from this section. The first is that critical
commentaries are, for the most part from a limited, invested source (academics)
forming an historical lineage that has persistent themes of crises and ‘doom’ and
secondly, higher education continues as a social institution. It was this dichotomy
that first stirred the interest for the research.
In the 1930s Flexner asked, “whether the ‘university’ can be saved or is even
worth saving”(cited in, Coaldrake & Stedman, 1998, p. 69). At the end of the 1940s
Moberley (1949) proposed that the university was “in crisis”. These were no isolated
claims and the theme of impeding doom would be one that returned with each
passing decade of the 20th century. For example, in the 1950s it was identified that,
“[w]e university teachers have let our values slip and that is why the university is
disintegrating around us” (Hancock, 1954, p. 136). By the following decade the
focus of the “crises” had shifted to a social radicalism (Wallerstein & Starr, 1971;
Weber, 2003) only to return to the more sedate state of pedagogical impoverishments
in the 1970s when Baldridge (1971) gave his thoughts on why, “the modern
university is in turmoil”. In the 1980s Reeves (1988) and Scott (1984) were
prompted to write of the deteriorating student learning experience and intellectual
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purpose of universities. Then in the 1990s the futurist Peter Drucker in a
conversation with Forbes magazine, proclaimed that:
Thirty years from now the big university campuses will be relics. Universities won't survive. It's as large a change as when we first got the printed book. Do you realize that the cost of higher education has risen as fast as the cost of health care? And for the middle-class family, college education for their children is as much of a necessity as is medical care - without it the kids have no future. Such totally uncontrollable expenditures, without any visible improvement in either the content or the quality of education, means that the system is rapidly becoming untenable. Higher education is in deep crisis. (Lenzner & Johnson, 1997, p. 127)
Senate inquiries, books, articles, and media reports such as “The End is Nigh”
(Barnett, 1999), “The University in Ruins” (Readings, 1996), “Universities in Crisis:
Report on Higher Education” (Senate Employment Workplace Relations Small
Business and Education Committee, 2001), “Why Our Universities are Failing:
Crisis in the Clever Country”, (Maslen & Slattery, 1994), “The University is it
Finished?” (Gaita, 2002) and the emphatic, “The Traditional University is Dead”
(Wheeler, 2000) are a few titles promoting the idea that higher education systems are
in some sort of predicament. The observation of crises that echoed throughout each
decade of the 20th century now pervades the first decade of the 21st century.
Although it should be said that much of the prophecy of ruination make the
distinction that the university as ‘we know it’ is in a state of collapse or
metamorphous, hence “the university is dead; long live the university” (Barnett,
1999, p. 22). Are these commentaries the early warning signs of organisational
implosion, organisational evolution, or merely academic sensationalism from self-
serving individuals reminiscing on their own ‘golden age’ of university life? One
theme that can be highlighted from the rhetoric embedded in the literature noted
above is that it appears there are persistent concerns about ‘traditional’ ideals or
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values, and how changes that occur, and are occurring, in higher education, are
compromising the ideals or values. These ideals and values once revolved around
issues such as liberalism and instrumentalism (Newman, 1965, 1976) moral and
social education (Newman, 1965, 1976), pedagogical and intellectual quality
(Hancock, 1954), and more recently academic freedom (Altbach, 2001), collegiality
(Bennett, 2000), and pure and applied research (Clark, 1995) to name but a few.
Many of the more recent concerns have indicated that the process of corporatisation
has in some way diminished or compromised traditional ideals and values. Much of
the criticism of the corporate process evinced in the literature, is empirically
unfounded and is based on the sociological standard of analysis through
philosophical critique. It is, therefore, important to investigate the sociological
critique when it is so persistent. To do this the study’s attention was focused on the
culture of higher education at an organisational level.
1.4 Why Organisational Culture? An Introduction to the Main Terms
This section is concerned with why the study has looked at organisational
culture as a way of interpreting the changing nature of higher education ideals or
values. It puts forward two initial terms, ‘corporate’ and ‘traditional’ as umbrella
terms. It also introduces the reader to the notion of culture in organisations and the
Competing Values Framework as a device for interpreting or highlighting the culture
of an organisation.
There are a number of competing discourses in higher education that could be
explored in a study on higher education. Each would have its own values. For
example, the liberal/instrumental debate (Corson, 1960; Symes & Preston, 1997), or
the pure research/applied research debate (Clark, 1995; Gumport, 1991; Jarvis, 2001;
Mace, 1996; Rhoades & Slaughter, 1991; Washburn, 2005). Both offer paradigmatic
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tensions that could be explored further. However, the tension that this study sought to
explore concerns the debate surrounding the idea of ‘corporatisation’ and
‘traditional’ practices and while there are links between the process of
corporatisation and the aforementioned tensions, it is the debate surrounding the
tension between these particular terms which appears to provoke an intensity of
interest within the sector.
There are observers of higher education who are arguing that the recent
changes in the sector are the product of the ‘corporatisation’ of higher education and
that this process of ‘corporatisation’ is eroding traditional values and practices, in
areas such as teaching and learning, research, community service, collegiality,
scholarship and academic freedom. Those who argue that these changes are having a
deleterious effect on the institution, such as Barnett (1990; 1999), Bessant (2002),
Gaita (2002), Reid (1996), Ritzner (1998; 2002), and Washburn (2005), often
describe the phenomenon in such a way as to suggest a polemic of competing ideals
or values, as though there exists just the two distinct paradigms. For example this can
be seen in Marginson’s comments when he says that, “the relationship between
corporate practice and academic practice becomes a zero-sum relationship. If you
have more of one you must have less of the other” (Marginson, cited in Leys, 2000).
This work explores the idea of competing paradigms in terms of a corporate culture
and a traditional culture. It offers the idea that, rather than the cultures being in
competition as a polemic, that they are dualistic or symbiotic in their relationship
within the organisation of higher education institutions. They have always been part
of the organisation of higher education institutions, however it is the relationship
between the value emphases and cultural strengths that determines organisational
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effectiveness (Frew, 1996; Kalliath, Bluedorn, & Gillespie, 1999; Ostroff & Schmitt,
1993).
The terms, ‘corporate’ and ‘traditional’ are contentious with contestable
definitions. They have been used vaguely, and at times erroneously, in the literature
and could be challenged on a number of definitional and semantic levels. However,
nomenclatures are useful in two ways; they provide a focus or starting point for
research in the first place, and secondly, they allow for the development of ideas and
debate by the very nature of their contentiousness.
In the literature on the corporatisation of higher education it seems to have
been overlooked that from the time higher education was institutionalised in the
Middle Ages it has always been a corporation (Barzan, 1998; Duryea, 1973). The
term itself is a derivation from the Latin “corpus” meaning body. Unfortunately, the
term ‘corporate’ has, in some circles, come to be associated with nefarious and
unscrupulous business practices to the point where the corporation has been
characterised as an entity with similar traits to a “pathological killer” (Bakan, 2004).
In this way it has been useful for some commentators to associate the word
‘corporation’ and its ‘sinister’ inferences with the recent changes in higher education
as a sort of moral panic. The idea of an higher education institution as always having
been a corporation has been lost in the efforts to propose that the institution is in
danger of being ‘corporatised’. The confusion seems to arise when the American idea
of a corporate entity is mixed with American corporations who have set up their own
(training) “universities”, and further mixed with the socio-politically motivated
reforms of many western countries.
Proponents of some recent changes who argue for better value for public
funds, closer community and business links, and a shift away from the ‘torpor’ that
10
characterises the traditional model are often associated with the notion of
corporatisation. In such discourses the general contention is that higher education has
been in a soporific state that has a poor value for money ratios in terms of the public
funding and the public good (Coaldrake & Stedman, 1998; Department of Education
Science and Training, 2002). A ‘corporationist’, it is argued, would see the need for
higher education to be more accountable, effective, efficient, and connected to the
changing world around it (Aronowitz, 1998, 2000; Bessant, 1995; Biggs, 2002; Bok,
2003; Flanagan, 2002; Gallagher, 2000; Giroux, 2005).
In terms of movement within a culture, Jones, DeBaca and Yarbrough (1997)
state that, “[d]riving forces for change are invariably counterbalanced by the
restraining forces inherent in an existing culture” (p. 74). Hence juxtaposed to the
pro-change discourses are existing discourses, often resistant (Birnbaum, 2000), and
sometimes recalcitrance (Rogers, 1995). Proponents of an existing (or recent) model
of higher education, rooted in traditional practices and values maintain fundamental
characteristics are being, or will be, eroded, putting the institution at risk of social
devaluation and potential failure (Barnett & Griffin, 1997; Bessant, 2002; Biggs,
2002; Duke, 2004; Gaita, 2002; Maslen & Slattery, 1994; Reeves, 1988; Washburn,
2005). They argue the value of institutional autonomy (Anderson & Johnson, 1998;
Parker & Jary, 1995), academic ‘freedom’ (Altbach, 2001; Miller, 2000; Patience,
1999/2000), and research autonomy (Clark, 1995; Miller, 1998; Neumann, 1993;
Washburn, 2005) should be maintained as these values and practices in various ways
enhance the institution’s contribution towards the social good (Aronowitz, 2005).
While these writers argue that the traditional values and practices are being
eroded, or will be eroded, irrevocably to the detriment of the institution in terms of
its social good and its longevity, others claim that one set of values is being
11
subsumed by the interpolation of another set of values, a set that is often externally
driven (Axelrod, 2002; Reid, 1996, 1998). Still others suggest it is the management
or administration of the organisation which is precipitating or benefiting from the
changing values of the organisation (Chandler, Barry, & Clark, 2002; Randle &
Brady, 1997; Reed, 2002). This can create what some see as a ‘them and us’ division
between the bureaucratic/management arm and the practitioner arm of an educational
organisation (Bergman, 1991; Blau, 1973; Dobson, 2000; Gander, 1999; Kempner,
1991; Mortimer & McConnell, 1978; Rhoades & Slaughter, 1991; Willmott, 1995).
As Rhoades and Slaughter (1991, p. 188) point out, “[w]hen the literature on higher
education draws on such work, it generally contrasts administrators’ and
professionals’ different bases of authority (position versus expertise) and aims of
control (accountability versus autonomy)” and the danger is that administrators can
be cast as “villains” (Rhoades & Slaughter, 1991, p. 189).
The idea of higher education operating within dualistic organisational
discourses is not new. One of the first to suggest such a phenomenon was Corson
(1960) who proposed that the organisational structure of a university, in terms of its
administration or governance, possessed two competing paradigms. One structure
was the faculty and the other structure was the management. Corson believed that
these two systems had governance or administrative power over areas of immediate
influence which was not reciprocal (Birnbaum, 1988; Corson, 1960). In short these
systems must operate within a different cultural paradigm, with different cultural
values, norms, and artefacts. There are those that have argued their point as though
there was a ‘them and us’(Bergman, 1991; Blau, 1973; Dobson, 2000; Kempner,
1991; Reid, 1996) tension occurring, a clear unequivocal divide between academe
and non-academe in the higher education organisation. However, that polemic is too
12
simplistic. It is more likely that organisational participants operate in dual or multiple
capacities, across structures or paradigms (Ramsden, 1998). Hence it is possible that
an academic could have ‘corporate’ tendencies, while a non-academic could be a
pro-traditionalist. It is more likely to be that an individual holds multiple values
across the spectrum from corporate to traditional in varying degrees of strength,
which are context-driven. The organisational culture proponents suggest that
understanding organisational culture is one way of understanding these multiplicities.
1.4.1 The Need to Examine Culture
Out of the culture-quality movement of the 1970s emerged the Competing
Values Framework (CVF) (Cameron & Quinn, 1999; Quinn & McGrath, 1985;
Quinn & Rohrbaugh, 1981, 1983; Quinn & Spreitzer, 1991). Quinn and his
colleagues propose that an organisation is made up of a number of competing values
and that these values exist within the organisation as the culture of the organisation.
The authors have attempted to drawn on and combine foundational organisational
theories into one framework. According to Bess (1988, p. 2) there are “three long-
standing and competing theories…These are: bureaucracy, human relations, and
conflict”. All three can be found embedded in the CVF, and throughout the
development of the CVF. The authors have grouped certain attributes or qualities
into four organisational types. The four organisational types have come to be termed
by Quinn and his colleagues as the “Human Relations Model” (HRM), the “Open
Systems Model” (OSM), the “Internal Process Model” (IPM), and the “Rational Goal
Model” (RGM) (Quinn, cited in Zammuto, Gifford, & Goodman, 2000, p. 269) and
that these organisational types sit on axes of internal/external foci, and
control/flexible foci (see Figure 1 below).
13
Human Relations Model (HRM) Open Systems Model (OSM)
F
lexi
bilit
y
Internal Focus External Focus
Internal Process Model (IPM) Rational Goal Model (RGM)
Con
trol
Figure 1. Basic structure of the Competing Values Framework
According to Quinn and colleagues, large organisations would not operate
wholly in any one organisational type, but rather would operate across types.
Therefore it is possible that an organisation could contain both complementary and
contrasting values as competing values in a symbiotic relationship within the
organisation. By mapping the values of an organisation onto the CVF an
organisation’s culture could then be identified.
Studies have either used Quinn’s own instruments based on the CVF, or have
designed instruments based on the CVF or its predecessors such as the Competing
Values Model (CVM) to do this. For example, Ostroff and Schmitt’s (1993) study of
172 secondary schools using the CVF concluded that, “a balance of characteristics
across the four models in the competing values framework is needed to achieve both
effectiveness and efficiency” (p. 1340). Others have also suggested that although one
cultural type may be dominant at a given time and place other cultural types are also
present to a lesser degree (Bergquist, 1992; Cohen & March, 1974; Toma, Dubrow,
& Hartley, 2005). There is an inference here then that certain organisational values
14
always exist within an organisation but are either latent or active depending on a raft
of internal and external conditions.
The CVF has been used in a range of other organisational contexts such as in
a variety of medical contexts (Baker, Reising, Johnson, Stewart, & Baker, 1997;
Gifford, Zammuto, Goodman, & Hill, 2002; Jones et al., 1997; Zammuto et al.,
2000), nursing homes (Ostroff & Schmitt, 1993), the armed forces (Gabbert, 2005),
church groups (Smith, 2004), Australian managers (Lamond, 2003) and non-higher
education contexts (Franceschini, 2004; Maslowski, 2001). It has also been
incorporated in international research (for example, Al-Khalifa & Aspinwall, 2000,
2001; Sheen, 2005). The CVF is increasingly being used in a variety of higher
education contexts (for example, Adkinson, 2005; Berrio, 2003; Paparone, 2003;
Pounder, 2000; Varner, 1996). It has been used with some specificity, for example,
an investigation using the cultural perspective has also looked at job satisfaction in
relation to university culture (Finkelstein, cited in Lacy & Sheehan, 1997) and found
that there was a relationship between staff satisfaction with their jobs and the culture
they worked in. Given the wide acceptance of the CVF in organisations its
application in a university setting may provide insights into the dynamics and
relationships between cultural values.
Compellingly, aspects of the terminology used to describe attributes and
dimensions of the CVF are complementary to those used in the literature. For
instance, terms used to characterise the organisational models of the CVF (Zammuto
et al., 2000, pp. 268-269) are words such as “collegial” to describe the Human
Relations Model (HRM), and “entrepreneurial” (sometimes linked with the
corporatisation process, for example Giroux, 2005, and Slaughter & Leslie, 1997)
used to describe the Open Systems Model (OSM) as another example. ‘Collegial’ is
15
widely attributed as a description of traditional higher education practices and/or
values (Bergquist, 1992; Brett, 2000; Buchbinder, 1993; McNay, 1995).
Another term that is used to characterise an organisational type in the CFV is
“anarchy”; used in the Open Systems Model (OSM) and this term has been aligned
with aspects of the culture of higher education systems, most famously by Cohen and
March (1974) who called the university an “organized anarchy”. The idea of the
anarchical institution would be investigated further by scholars researching the
culture of higher education systems (Bess, 1988; Birnbaum, 1988). Such an
observation may be an early interpretation of competing, contrasting and
complementary values contained within higher education organisations. So while the
CVF has been formed in organisational contexts outside of education, and largely
used in contexts outside of education, there are interesting descriptive parallels
between the framework and the higher education literature which warrant further
investigation.
In this section the reader’s attention was drawn to the idea that due to the
wide application of the CVF in other contexts, as well as a complementary, though
small, number of studies conducted in the education, and higher education fields, that
the CVF could be used to investigate cultural shifts in an higher education
organisation. Additionally, a number of terms appear to be common in both the CVF
and higher education fields. Furthermore, just as other organisations are able to have
their cultural emphases interpreted through the application of the CVF, higher
education organisations, having a number of contrasting, contradictory and
competing cultural values, may also have their cultural emphases interpreted by the
application of the CVF. It may also assist in understanding where the traditional and
16
the corporate values are presently placed in the case study site. To this end the
application of the CVF in this context was considered worthy of exploration.
1.5 Purposes
1.5.1 Aims of the Study
The aim of the study is to use the CVF to explore the culture of a university
in order to seek patterns over time between any competing cultures.
1.5.2 Objectives of the Study
The objectives of the study are as follow:
1) To apply the CVF to examine the cultural shift over time.
2) To apply the CVF to examine the perceptions of current staff.
3) To explore the value of using the CVF in an higher education
organisation as an instrument that interprets cultural emphases.
1.6 Research Questions
The research questions are as follows:
1 What are the changing cultural values of the organisation as evidenced by the
CVF over time?
2 How do staff perceptions of university culture relate to the competing criteria
identified by the CVF? And;
3 Can the CVF be usefully applied to higher education contexts?
17
1.7 Statement of Significance
This study supplements a body of knowledge that has investigated the
changes in higher education through an understanding of its culture. It may add to
our knowledge of university culture from an organisational perspective (through the
lens of the CVF). This study has the potential to provide insights into the notions of
balance within higher education (and other education) systems between embedded
systemic competing values. It may be useful for setting policy if management were
able to reliably track changes in the tensions between competing values. To this end
the development of CVF-based instruments may be of some assistance in the higher
education sector.
1.8 Overview of the Thesis
Following the Introduction (Chapter 1) is the Literature Review (Chapter 2).
Next, the methodology chapter (Chapter 3) provides details of, and explains why,
Yin’s (2003) case study approach was selected as the research methodology. The
analysis of the data gathered from the three phases of data gathering is set out in the
fourth chapter (Results). The presented dissertation concludes with a discussion of
the research in Chapter 5 (Discussion), which includes sections on implications and
further study before ending with a concluding chapter.
1.9 Conclusion
This chapter has described some of the broader cultural forces currently
influencing higher education at a national level. It has drawn the reader’s attention to
the idea that recent changes in higher education in Australia are part of a global
phenomenon and that these changes have caused controversies and drawn critical
comment from stakeholders. It has also heralded the notion that there exists a need
18
for instruments to assess cultural dysfunction and that cultural awareness can provide
information useful to the effective operation of organisational systems. The chapter
also outlined the context of the research as well as indicating the methodological
approach taken by the study. In the final sections it detailed the significance as
informing governmental and institutional governance with a view to the long-term
organisational good.
19
Chapter 2 - Literature Review
2.1 Preamble
The previous chapter introduced the reader to why the research was
undertaken. The purpose of this chapter is to review literature pertinent to the study.
Opening the chapter is a contextualising introduction to the background and role of
universities in higher education (Section 2.2) including functions and values of
higher education. Next, Section 2.3 investigates the terms ‘corporatisation’ and the
‘corporate university’, as well as the origins of the idea of a corporate university. A
section follows this on culture (Section 2.4), which reviews the literature on the
culture of organisations and the culture of higher education. The chapter then moves
on to sections concerned with culture measuring instruments, the use of the
Competing Values Framework in research into the culture of organisations, and then
the use of the Competing Values Framework in exploring the culture of higher
education organisations (Section 2.5). The chapter closes with a concluding section
(Section 2.6).
2.2 Functions and Values of Higher Education
Despite the knowledge that “it makes little sense to talk about the academic
profession as having a collective identity” (McInnis, 1999) there are a number of
common elements, values or functions that are often referred to in the literature,
which are argued to constitute what it is to be a university. This is a dialectic that has
historical roots in social morality, religious ethics, vocationalism and liberalism as
exampled by the lectures of Cardinal John Newman and the “idea of university”
(Newman, 1965, 1976) a theme that has evolved to the more recent notions of the
idea of university (Barnett, 1990; Gilbert, 2001). These have been variously argued
20
to constitute, pedagogy (teaching and learning) (Barnett, 1999), research (Neumann,
1993; Washburn, 2005), and community service (Anderson, Johnson, & Saha, 2002),
academic freedom (Altbach, 2001), scholarship (Boyer, 1990), and collegiality
(Bergquist, 1992; McNay, 1995). It is the overlapping concepts found under both
traditional and corporate terms as they relate with the attributes and dimensions of
the CVF, which is of interest here. As already mentioned, ‘collegiality’ is one term
that has strong connections in both fields.
The concept of collegiality is distilled by McNay (1995, p. 106) simply as,
“freedom”. Freedom in the higher education context is couched in terms such as
academic freedom and institutional autonomy. In law Australian universities
effectively own themselves and are essentially autonomous and according to
Gallagher (2001, ¶ 18), “The autonomies of Australian universities underpin
academic freedom and international competitiveness”. However, institutional
autonomy is claimed to be diminished by a number of recent imperatives, for
instance the surveillance of government evaluative and accountability processes
(Parker & Jary, 1995).
Bergquist (1992, p. 41) also offers an explanation of what is meant by
‘collegiality’ in universities. The collegial culture he says “has traditionally placed
great value on faculty work that is directed toward disciplinary scholarship and
research”, and that, “academic freedom is one of the dominant norms of the collegial
culture” (p. 42). Middlehurst (1993, p. 73) writes that, “academic freedom implies
individual discretion to pursue …the quest for knowledge and truth” in a community
of scholars. Middlehurst goes on to explain that “at the centre of the traditional
academic value system lie the ideals of academic freedom, critical reflection,
rationality, democratic participation and autonomy” (p. 73). Bennett (2000, p. 85)
21
says it is the “cardinal academic virtue”. Here can be seen how these writers see
collegiality as the foundation upon which other academic values and functions are
expressed and the way they attach the concept to the traditions of the institution. In
this way it can also be seen how higher education values relate directly to collegiality
adding evidentiary weight to the notion of the collegial value being a significant
component in higher education. Collegiality is therefore valued as an organisational
characteristic and has a pedigree that spans centuries. It follows that such a trait
could be termed a traditional characteristic of higher education.
Other areas that have longevity surround the practices and values of teaching
and learning (pedagogy), research and community service. However, it is this term,
‘collegiality’, common to both fields, that is, in organisational theory (and therefore
as a characteristic in the CVF), and as a traditional value of higher education, that is
of interest in this research. This section has concentrated on the idea of collegiality as
a core function or value of higher education, and it has suggested to the reader that
this core trait has historical pedigree. The study now turns to the literature on
corporatisation and the corporatisation of higher education systems.
2.3 Corporatisation and Higher Education
Corporatisation is a process of making a state body into an independent
commercial enterprise (Bostock, 1999). A corporation is a business or an
organisation formed by a group of people, it has rights and liabilities separate from
those of the individuals involved who created the entity. It may be a nonprofit
organisation engaged in activities for the public good; a municipal corporation, such
as a city or town; or a private corporation, which has been organised to make a profit
(Barnhart, 1982; Delbridge, 2001; Simpson & Weiner, 1989). The problem, in any
non-American context is that the term ‘corporation’ has increasingly been thought to
22
mean the same as it does in the American context. The American idea of a
‘corporation’ is determined by government statutes and regulations which gives the
entity the same legal rights as a person (Besse, 1973). This has created the more
commonly held view that any corporation can become a ‘pathological’ entity intent
on pursuing its own, usually fiscal, interests over those of a common or humanistic
good (Bakan, 2004).
Recent concerns about changes in higher education have been described in
terms usually associated with the corporatisation of organisations. For example,
observers suggest the changes are due to phenomena such as, “managerialism”
(Bradley, 1995; Hartley, 1997), “commodification” (de Groot, 1997; Willmott,
1995), “entrepreneurialism” (Clark, 2000; Marginson & Considine, 2000; Sharrock,
2002), “marketisation” (Marginson, 1997), “commercialization” (Axelrod, 2002;
Bok, 2003), “Americanisation”, (Readings, 1996), and even the “McDonaldization”
of higher education (Hayes & Wynyard, 2002; Parker & Jary, 1995; Ritzner, 1998,
2002).While these descriptors suggest that there has been a shift in the focus of the
sector, the corporatisation of universities is not a new phenomenon.
Proponents of change often attack the existing rationales, or ‘old ways’
(Birnbaum, 2000). Birnbaum (2000) explains that this type of commentary is part of
the innovation invective or “narrative” that criticises existing structures in order to
boost the appeal of the incoming innovation as a salvation to the perceived problems
caused by existing (recalcitrant) traits. For example, Gallagher lists a few of the
recalcitrant traits in the following statement:
University autonomy seems presently to be under attack from various quarters whether for being insular and self-indulgent, or insufficiently contributing to community debate on and resolution of social issues, or inappropriately risking public assets, or inadequately responding to industry needs or economic development opportunities. (2001, ¶ 19)
23
He goes on to say that a new style of management of universities is necessary to
overcome existing problems:
… most have yet to develop customer management systems. Market analysis is undertaken well in several institutions but not at all in others. There is variability in the efficiency of financial, asset and human resources management. Universities are on the whole lagging well behind other institutions in identifying and collaborating on ways to reduce back office inefficiencies, such as for transaction processing, fleet and property management. (2001, ¶ 31)
Then Gallagher, points the finger at unionism as another recalcitrant trait before
proffering what can be lost if no action is taken:
Universities risk losing market share if they are unable to match competitors who can offer convenient programs (7days/24 hours is now international practice) customised to suit individual needs (including options to pay for additions to their core requirements) at reasonable prices and comparable quality. (2001, ¶ 32)
The quid pro quo for allowing universities a high degree of autonomy is that they themselves have the necessary capabilities for professional governance and competent management. If universities cannot themselves initiate and carry through the necessary reforms to their organisation and operations either they will not survive in their current forms or outsiders may make decisions for them through very restrictive service purchase arrangements or administrative prescriptions. (2001, ¶ 11)
There are two reasons for highlighting so extensively these remarks, in the first place
they show succinctly the type of narrative that is being used by advocates of change,
and at what that change is targeted. Secondly, the language used is indicative of the
values of the innovation. There are terms such as efficiency, accountability,
competition, market share, management systems, and economic development, which
are associated with the idea of corporatisation. As will be seen in the competing
values of the CVF, these terms are common in certain organisational cultures.
24
2.3.1 The Corporate University
Today, the corporate university is increasingly being associated with an
American model that is largely a training facility set up by a commercial or
mercantile entity (Aronowitz, 1998; Jarvis, 2001). The first corporate university,
“appeared in the United States in 1955, when the giant American corporation,
General Electric set up its own ‘Corporate University’” (Gilbert, 2001, n. p.). By the
early 1980s, there were 400 corporate universities in the U.S. and by the end of the
1990s that number had increased to 1,600, including 40 percent of Fortune 500
companies (Gilbert, 2001; Greenberg, 1998; Jarvis, 2001; Newsline, 1999). This
proliferation allows change proponents such as Gallagher to make dire warnings that
universities are in some way being left behind (see the second extract above).
At the hub of the matter is the instrumental versus liberal education dialectic
as it relates to the ‘idea’ of higher education and its relevancy to the public good
(Tierney, 2004). It seems that this particular corporate model is causing the most
angst for academe, not least because the proliferation of the model suggests that the
traditional model might in some way be lacking social relevance (Meister, 1998). To
this end Gallagher (2001, ¶ 13) can offer that, “in effect, public universities can and
do operate commercially; however, the proceeds of their activities must be directed
to the public purposes of their establishment”. This is an echo of the socio-political
rhetoric of the New Right, which asks that public-funded organisations should
demonstrate social value for public funds. However, Birnbaum (1988) argues that it
is possible that it has been higher education’s unique, non-business-corporate style
that has created its longevity and institutional strength. Although the argument as to
what exactly is higher education’s value to the social good has not been satisfactorily
explained in the literature.
25
2.3.2 The Origins of the University as a Corporation
It is also argued that the university has always been a corporation (Barzan,
1998; Duryea, 1973). In its earliest incarnation the (western) university as an
organisation was a body or corpus of scholars (students, teachers, and administrators)
in cloistered isolation from the surrounding township (Brockliss, 2000). It was most
likely an extension of the monastery of clerics, and monastic schools, which had
been the focal point of learning and scholarly endeavour for most of the period
generally understood as the Dark Ages (Johnson, 1980; Patterson, 1997).
“Universities were legal corporations, associations of students and teachers with
collective rights usually guaranteed by charters” writes Colish (1997, p. 267).The
‘corporation’ known as a “collegium”, or “studium generale” had a legal agreement
from the municipal or religious authorities and was in theory, to pedagogically and
organisationally operate in an autonomous state (Barzan, 1998; Colish, 1997;
Johnson, 1980; Patterson, 1997; Ross, 1976). Just as an external authority holds
power over higher education today in the form of government legislation,
regulations, rules, procedures, by-laws, ordinances and protocols through agencies
and statutory bodies, the medieval university was prone to interference from a
myriad of outside authorities for example, papal, noblesse and municipal authorities
(Brockliss, 2000; Welch, 1997).
One aspect of the function of the university historically, has been concerned
with keeping the organisation operational (Perkins, 1973). In order to do this the
organisation needed to secure funding. As students were the main source of income
for the medieval masters and the institution itself, it was important to maintain a flow
of paying scholars (Perkins, 1973). Good teachers could attract plenty of students
and there was a flow-on effect for towns as the scholars and support staff would
26
purchase their everyday needs from the local merchants and service providers
(Brockliss, 2000; Flexner, 1968; Ross, 1976). Other benefactors and patrons
provided funds as well; these were usually from the noblese, the clergy, the various
monarchies or the Papacy.
Barzan (1998) believes the external influences in bestowing certain powers
within the “corporation” created a “profound collegial sense” within the development
of the institution. He goes on to say that, “Masters, students, alumni, and
administrators constituted the same community” and that this collegiality was the
essence of the medieval university where, “even the parallel professions enjoyed the
sense of belonging and were protected and supervised by the corporation” (p. 15).
The “parallel professions” Barzan is alluding to are the various support networks
such as librarians, scribes and administrative staff. Barzan (1998) and others
(Duryea, 1973) see the early university clearly as a corporation in which flourished a
community of scholars and which provided direct and indirect benefits to the wider
social good. External influences such as the Papacy, town burgers, rival teachers and
students all had an impact on internal policy and institutional evolution (Duryea,
1973).
Davies (1987, p. 15) believes that the “European university has traditionally
been characterised by two key roles: teaching and research”, and the United States
university “encouraged a third role: that of public service”. When Davies suggests
that research is an European tradition, he is taking the view that the German or
Humboltian idea of higher education as having a research bent which is embedded in
the European higher education psyche and practices to such as extent as to be
considered a traditional aspect of European higher education (Clark, 1995). But these
are relatively recent traditions emerging out of the last two centuries as universities
27
drifted further into what has now been viewed as a traditional paradigm (Clark,
1995). In arguing for an “entreprenurial and adaptive” university Davies (1987, p.
15) believes that two traditions need to be brought together. Davies considers that
for:
“…a coming together of two traditions: the Providing tradition (of which the dominating operating metaphors are Collegiality, Bureaucracy, and Organized Anarchy) and the Client/Consumer tradition (of which the dominant operating metaphors are Consumerism, Business and Public Accountability). This coming together is usually a situation of conflict…” (1987, p. 15)
Here can be seen how higher education researchers have made connections
between existing, or ‘traditional’ elements and the incoming innovation as having
competing values. Organisational researchers and scientists have looked to the idea
of culture in organisational behaviour as a way of interpreting conflicts and changes.
2.4 Culture in Organisations
The working definition for the study relies on the definition provided by the
organisational theory literature and has its origins in sociological, psychological and
anthropological traditions. Denison (1996) provides a typical definition when he
states that organisational culture is, “the deep structure of organizations, which is
rooted in the values, beliefs, and assumptions held by organizational members” (p.
625). A description reflected in Toma, Dubrow and Hartley’s (2005, p. 56) definition
organisational culture as comprising the “shared beliefs, values, assumptions, and
ideologies that bind a group together”. Compared with Giddens’ (1989, p. 31)
sociological definition of ‘culture’ which states it as consisting of, “the values the
members of a given group hold, the norms they follow, and the material goods they
create”. Giddens goes on to explain that values are “abstract” concepts; while norms
are “definite principles” being the rules and laws people abide by (p. 31). Generally,
28
definitions of culture, organisational or societal, appear to revolve around similar
themes and concepts in the literature. This section looks at some of those shared
themes and concepts with a view to highlighting how organisational members’
perceptions can be used to evoke the cultural paradigm of the organisation.
The scientific enquiry into the culture of an organisation has a pedigree which
can be traced to Classical Organisational theories (Robbins, Bergman, Stagg, &
Coulter, 2003). Culture is considered an important construct of an organisation
(Schein, 1996) and reflects an abstraction of the “values and credo” of an
organisation (Schein, 1992, p. 3). “Organizational culture serves two primary
functions: it fosters survival by facilitating adaptation to a changing environment,
and it creates meaning by integrating internal togetherness” (Schein cited in, Baker et
al., 1997, pp. 248-9). It is said to influence an organisation’s financial performance,
internal development, and strategic success (Howard, 1998). Yet, it is also
considered an indefinable, abstract, and indeterminate quality (Smircich, 1985).
Howard (1998) suggests this is due to the idea of culture being viewed though a
number of competing or diverse paradigms, and that business scholars had initially
borrowed the conceptual term from anthropology where “anthropologists have
proposed at least 164 different definitions of culture” (p. 231). Tyrrell (2000) is of
the consideration that anthropologists use the term ‘culture’ “with two completely
different connotations”. He maintains that the first concerns the way humans
construct symbolic and material projections such as “artefacts, organizations, belief
systems, and the like” while the second meaning of culture “refers to the ‘specific’,
historically situated interface structures of a particular group” (p. 86).
Schein (1992) believes that we need to understand culture for several reasons
two of which are relevant here:
29
1) Cultural analysis illuminates sub-cultural dynamics within
organizations.
2) Organizational learning, development, and planned change cannot
be understood without considering culture as a primary source of
resistance to change.
Rowlinson and Proctor (1999), based on the work of Alvesson and Berg
(1992), put forward the idea that there are three overlapping levels of research
literature relating to the identification of what is organisational culture. These are;
1) organisational culture research as “metaphor”, which “captures the
organization as a whole – a collective”,
2) the organisational symbolism as “perspective” which allows for an
interpretation of the symbolic importance of previously inexplicable
or unperceived phenomena, and,
3) the postmodern “discourse” of organisations which is concerned with
“how we go about doing research” in the postmodern era.
Rowlinson and Proctor (1999, p. 2) state that, “these three levels correspond with a
generally accepted differentiation between corporate culturalism, organizational
symbolism, and post-modernism”. The ‘metaphor’ approach to research has
weakened in prominence over the last two decades while the second and third
research orientations have gained ground.
Hence a number of typologies have emerged (see Table 1, below) in which
can be seen various theoretical and conceptual attempts at identifying the cultural
components of an organisation.
30
Table 1. Comparison of models of organisational culture
Human relations theory (humanistic)
Classical management theory (mechanistic)
Author/s Focus is: Internal, with
flexibility
Focus is: External, with
flexibility
Focus is: Internal, with
control
Focus is: External, with
control CVF: Quinn & Rohrbaugh (1981, 1983)
Human Relations Model
Open Systems Model
Internal Process Model
Rational Goal Model
Harrison (1972) (Handy, 1976)
Person Task Role Power
Quinn and Kimberley (1984)
Group Developmental Hierarchical Rational
Ouchi (1980) Clan Bureaucracy Market Quinn (1988) “Irresponsible
country club” “Tumultuous anarchy”
“Frozen bureaucracy”
“Oppressive sweat shop”
Bolman and Deal (1991)
Human Resource Frame
Symbolic Frame
Structural Frame
Political Frame
Burrell and Morgan (1979)
Interpretivism
Radical humanism
Structural functionalism
Radical structuralism
Cameron & Quinn (1999)
Clan Adhocracy Hierarchy
Market
Delobbe, Haccoun & Vandenberghe (1999)
People orientation
Control
The matrix of typologies (above) shows many of the differentiations in the literature
can be clustered under similar titles and have their origins, implicitly or explicitly,
linked to the major organisational theories of Human Relations or Classical
Management. It shows that researchers could find similar traits and values while
investigating from different perspectives and epistemologies.
As universities became larger more organisationally complex entities
researchers wanted to understand more about how higher education systems worked.
In order to do this some researchers drew on the science of organisational behaviour
and examined how the rules of organisational behaviour as evinced from external
31
environments such as business enterprises and various bureaucracies could be
applied in an educational setting. This in turn has led to the investigation of higher
education systems from a cultural organisation perspective.
Furthermore, if as suggested, that the culture of an organisation is amorphous
not unlike an individual’s personality (Howard, 1998; van Oudtshoorn & Thomas,
1995; Yeung, Brockbank, & Ulrich, 1991), making empirical difficulties when trying
to articulate what it is exactly. At this point an interesting connection between the
idea of a pathological organisation and personality can be made. Both pathology and
personality have more association with individual human character than with an
organised collection of humans. There has been some work in this area; for instance,
the psychological perspective has been investigated through the epistemological lens
of metaphor in higher education (Masland, 1985).
Nonetheless, the idea of organisational culture persists, with some making the
claim that not only does it exist but that it can be measured (Ashkanasy, Wilderom,
& Peterson, 2000; Quinn & Rohrbaugh, 1983).
2.4.1 The Culture of Higher Education
Bess (1988, p. 2) has flagged the idea that higher education was one of the
“least understood forms of organization in the modern world” and there is “confusion
in the literature” about the determining forces that organise and administer higher
education institutions. Higher education is claimed to be quite different, with
different values and goals to a bureaucracy or mercantile enterprise for example
(Birnbaum, 2000). Silver (2003, p. 176) concludes that, “universities do not now
have an organisational culture”. Notwithstanding the contested notion of culture in
higher education, the idea has been investigated by a number of people over the last
four decades (Baldridge, 1971; Bergquist, 1992; Birnbaum, 1988; Clark, 1980, 1987;
32
Cohen & March, 1974; Kerr, 1964; Masland, 1985; Toma et al., 2005). Coming from
differing perspectives on the subject, these investigations have drawn mixed
conclusions as to what constitutes a culture of higher education or an organisational
culture in higher education, although, as shown in Table 2 (below) there is alignment
in the diversity.
For example, Kerr (1964) believed that universities were made up of sub-
cultural elements that collectively could be termed a “multiversity” (as distinct from
a uni-versity). Investigators married this idea with Weick’s (1976) “loosely coupled
systems” in educational organisations and considered the idea of “anarchical
institutions” (Birnbaum, 1988). Although, Birnbaum could not reconcile the idea of
anarchy to a system that had longevity, bureaucratic and hierarchical structure and so
he qualified his anarchical institution as being an “organized anarchy” (p. 154), thus
following Cohen and March’s (1974) ideas.
Then in 1985 Masland suggested four ‘windows’ into understanding a
university’s’ organisational culture, “saga, heroes, symbols, and rituals” (p. 160).
Here can be seen the application of ‘metaphor’, as highlighted by Rowlinson and
Procter (1999) being applied to the field. Masland (1985) makes the distinction
between organisational culture and organisational climate. He suggests that climate
has been associated with the ambience of campus life and is psychologically
anchored, and that organisational culture is more affective and focuses on shared
values, beliefs, and ideologies and affects student life, curriculum and administration.
Masland goes on to say that culture evolves over time and through the leadership of
an organisation. Additionally, he maintains internal and external controls are
contributory factors when considering organisational culture, thus aligning with the
work of Quinn and associates.
33
By the 1990s Bergquist (1992) had identified four cultures of “the academy”
as; the collegial culture, the managerial culture, the development culture and the
negotiating culture. According to Bergquist (1992) the collegial culture has a sense
of tradition that “provides it with its unique and often quaint atmosphere, as well as
its stability and ubiquitous resistance to abrupt change” (p. 26). He goes on to say
that traditionally the collegial culture has placed “great value on faculty work that is
directed towards disciplinary scholarship and research” (p. 41) to which academic
freedom is “one of the dominant norms” (p. 42) where an “emphasis is placed on
independent work (p. 43). The managerial culture, he maintains, emphasises clearly
specified educational outcomes, criteria for judging performance, and has leadership
that is fiscally driven. Additionally, he believes that academics in a managerial
culture “often assume that the best way to influence their institutions is through
movement into an administrative position” (p. 58).
McNay (1995) also contends there are four models of the university culture
and organisation; the collegium, the bureaucracy, the enterprise, and the corporation.
Ramsden (1998) suggests that universities are in effect a mixture of all four of
McNay’s models. Both Ramsden (1998) and J. Davies (1997) promote McNay’s
four-quadrant model of higher education organisations. For example J. Davies (1997,
p. 137) dissects the “culture and organization” of the university into McNay’s four
parts and as a self-confessed “senior university manager and researcher/consultant”,
he predicts that the future cultural shift of the university will be away from the
“collegium” and “bureaucracy” toward the culture of “enterprise” and “corporation”.
Sporn (1996) also proposes a four attribute model divided by two spectrums
from weak to strong and from internally focussed and externally focussed. This idea
of an internal and external focus aligns with Quinn and Rohrbaugh (1983), and
34
Cameron and Quinn (1999). Sporn also found that the overall culture had a sub-
cultural basis, supporting Becher and Trowler’s (2001) assertions that a university is
made up of “tribes”.
The idea of sub-cultures or tribes has its roots in the 1970s and 1980s when
universities were considered ‘loosely coupled’ organisations (Bess, 1988; Birnbaum,
1988; Weick, 1976) and as highlighted earlier, this idea is coupled to the notion of
organised anarchy (Birnbaum, 1988; Cohen & March, 1974). The prevailing thought
from those who suggest there is no single culture is that an institution such as a
university is a complex and organic place (Becher & Trowler, 2001; Kerr, 1964;
Silver, 2003) made up of sub-cultures. Academics are thought to confine themselves
largely to isolated, solitary work (Taylor, 1998) with separate values and goals from
their fellow academics (Becher & Trowler, 2001) and non-academic colleagues
(Reeves, 1988; Schein, 1992). However, this may be a too magnified view of an
organisation, for example, talking in terms at the broader societal level, Maanen and
Barley (1985) put forward the idea of a unified culture which is thought to be
composed of sub-cultures, a view supported by Giddens (1989), particularly when an
entity becomes large and complex.
Of interest to this work, is that these ideas and concepts can also be mapped
onto a matrix, similar to Table 1 above. The descriptions given by their authors show
similarities to such an extent that they may be placed under certain headings, in many
cases similar or identical words and descriptors have been used. For instance,
collegial, anarchy, bureaucracy and political, or close variations, are used as labels to
highlight differentiations between organisational attributes. The following table
(Table 2, below) shows how closely aligned a number of the traits are. Suggesting
35
that, while investigator have viewed the culture of higher education systems from
different perspectives they have found similarities.
Table 2. Comparison of models of organisational culture - higher education
Human relations theory (humanistic)
Classical management theory (mechanistic)
Author/s Focus is:
Internal, with flexibility
Focus is: External, with
flexibility
Focus is: Internal, with
control
Focus is: External, with
control Baldridge (1971) and Cohen & March (1974)
Collegial Organised anarchy
Bureaucratic Political
Birnbaum (1988)
Collegial institution
Anarchical institution
Bureaucratic institution
Political institution
Bergquist (1992)
Collegial Developmental Negotiating
Negotiating Managerial
McNay (1995) Collegium Enterprise Bureaucracy Corporation Sporn (1996) Weak,
internally focussed
Weak, external orientation
Strong, internally focussed
Strong, external orientation
While it is contentious to suggest universities have an overarching or single
culture the literature does offer up the idea that within universities there are
competing values and that these values can be seen as the formation of a culture or
cultures. Different studies have examined the perceptions of groups and sub-groups
working within higher education organisations in order to determine the culture or
cultures of an organisation. As will be seen in the following section, many of the
studies have been exploratory, conceptual, theoretical, and qualitative in nature. The
work of several of these researchers has seen the emergence and development of
instruments that attempt to measure the culture of organisations. To do this, research
has been conducted, using at times, either (or both) qualitative and quantitative
methodologies. The next section looks at the literature surrounding the use of culture
measuring instruments.
36
2.5 Culture Measuring Instruments
The development of instruments to measure culture has been generally along
two lines. There are those that have been rationally developed through the evolution
of a conceptual framework such as the Organizational Culture Inventory (Cooke &
Lafferty, 1983), the Organizational Culture Profile (OCP) (O'Reilly, Chatman, &
Caldwell, 1991) and the Competing Values Model (CVM) (Quinn & Rohrbaugh,
1983). There are also those that have been developed empirically through qualitative
methodologies such as the Practices Questionnaire (Hofstede, 2001; Hofstede,
Neuijen, Ohayv, & Sanders, 1990) and the Comparative Emphasis Scale (Meglino,
Ravlin, & Adkins, 1989). A few combine deductive and inductive approaches, for
example Calori and Sarnin’s (1991) questionnaire. Some instruments are supported
by empirical data such as the OCP, the CVM, as well as Calori and Sarnin’s, and
Hofstede’s questionnaires. A common element of these instruments or frameworks is
that they are divided along certain axes, dimensions, assumptions or attributes. For
example, Delobbe, Haccoun and Vandenberghe (1999) reviewed twenty
organisational culture questionnaires and identified four core dimensions of
organisational culture as being a “people orientation”, “innovation”, “control”, and a
“results/outcome orientation”. An observation that can be made regarding these
instruments is that one part is not divisible into another part and each dimension or
part reflects the values, practices or characteristics of an organisation. That is, an
organisation as a collection of individuals forms a modus operandi that exhibits
certain qualities, which as constants, can then be identified, if not quantified. The
CVM out of which developed the Competing Values Framework (CVF) is just such a
model. The next section reviews descriptively, rather than critically, various
applications of the CVF.
37
2.5.1 The Competing Values Framework
The Competing Values Framework (CVF) was developed in the late 1980s
from earlier work, notably by Quinn and Rohrbaugh (1983), and Quinn and McGrath
(1985) who wrote a “series of conceptual papers and empirical studies” on the
subject (Zammuto et al., 2000, p. 264). Zammuto et al. (2000, p. 269) state that “the
difference between the CVF and earlier work is that the CVF concisely captures the
tensions among the different models, highlighting the paradoxes managers face”.
Quinn and colleagues were originally looking for a criteria to evaluate organisational
effectiveness (Kalliath, Bluedorn, & Gillespie, 1999). In one of these earlier
incarnations of the CVF Quinn and Rohrbaugh (1983) interpreted organisational
change as a developmental process moving from an “entrepreneurial” stage through a
“collectivity” stage, then on to a “formalization and control” stage and then finally
into an “elaboration of structure”. Quinn and Rohrbaugh (1983) then promoted the
notion of two dimensions of effectiveness (see Figure 2, below).
The first dimension is related to organisational focus, from an internal
emphasis on people in the organisation to an external focus of the organisation itself.
The second dimension represents the contrast between stability and control and
flexibility and change. The dimensions, attributes, and categories are detailed in
depth in Appendix A (see, Table A1). The CVF as its name implies is a framework
of conflicting attributes of cultural values between adaptability and flexibility on the
one side and stability and control as a counterbalance.
The CVF describes four quadrants of “different valued outcomes that define
effective organizational performance and [the] means through which they are likely
to be attained” (Zammuto et al., 2000, p. 264). The four quadrants (see Figure 2,
below) have core assumptions and statements, these according to Quinn and his co-
38
authors (Quinn & McGrath, 1985; Quinn & Rohrbaugh, 1981, 1983; Quinn &
Spreitzer, 1991), are the:
1) Internal Process Model (IPM): based on hierarchy, emphasis on
measurement, documentation and information management. These processes
bring stability and control. Hierarchies seem to function best when the task to
be done is well understood and when time is not an important factor.
2) Open Systems Model (OSM): based on an organic system, emphasis on
adaptability, readiness, growth, resource acquisition and external support.
These processes bring innovation and creativity. People are not controlled but
inspired.
3) Rational Goal Model (RGM): based on profit, emphasis on rational action. It
assumes that planning and goal setting results into productivity and
efficiency. Tasks are clarified; objectives are set and action is taken.
4) Human Relations Model (HRM): based on cohesion and morale with
emphasis on human resource and training. People are seen not as isolated
individuals, but as cooperating members of a common social system with a
common stake in what happens.
39
Human Relations Model Ends: Cohesion Morale Means: Training Dev. of human resources Internal Focus
F l e x i b i l i t y
Open Systems Model Ends: Growth, resources acquisition, External support Means: Adaptability Readiness
Ends: Stability Control Means: Information management Communication Internal Process Model
C o n t r o l
External Focus Ends: Productivity Efficiency Means: Planning Goal-setting Rational Goal Model
Figure 2. The Competing Values Framework (cited in, Zammuto et al., 2000, p.
265).
The four quadrants in the framework represent the abstract values under
which people, procedures, policies, and organisations function. Quinn (cited in,
Zammuto et al., 2000) characterise the model in the following terms:
“… an emphasis on any one of the quadrants can result in a dysfunctional organization. Overemphasis on the human relations model, for example, can lead to an ‘irresponsible country club’; on the internal process model, a “frozen bureaucracy”; on the rational goal model, an “oppressive sweat shop”; and on the open system model, a “tumultuous anarchy”. (p. 269)
Throughout the development of the CVF, instruments based on its conceptual
framework, as well as the conceptual framework itself, have been used in a variety of
organisations. DiPadova and Faerman (1993) used the CVF to facilitate managerial
effectiveness and concluded that, “The common language offered by the CVF
ameliorates the separateness [of organisational members] because it is essentially an
40
organizational language that identifies performance criteria which are common
across the hierarchy” (p.168).
Giek and Lees (1993) used it in a United States state government human
resources department. Also in 1993 Hooijberg and Petrock used the framework in
terms of transformational leadership to offer an insight into the idea of cultural
change. McGraw (1993) used the CVF to bring union and management factions
closer together and Rogers and Hildebrandt (1993) have used it for the analysis of
management communication. Sendelbach (1993) used the CFV in managerial
development and Stevens (1996) used it as a way of assessing ethical codes in
corporate bodies. Dunk and Lysons (1997) use it to analyse departmental
effectiveness, budget controls, and “environmental dimensionality” in a study of the
public sector.
Baker et al. (1997) addressed the question of organisational effectiveness in a
US school of nursing in terms of assessing the quality of academic institutions as it
‘matures’. Zammuto et al., (2000) investigated the relationship between nurse
retention rates and hospital cultures in the United States. Particularly the relationship
between culture and quality of work life (QWL) and found that the development of
the human relations aspect of organisational culture “may be the best approach for
enhancing nurse’s QWL” (p. 21). Mallak et al., (2003) measured relationships
between culture, the built environment, and outcome variables in a healthcare
provider organisation and, among other findings, reported that, “Job satisfaction and
patient satisfaction were found to be significantly and positively correlated with
culture strength…” (p. 27). The instrument has been used and modified over the last
three decades in a variety of contexts, although it was only in the last two decades
that it has been used in an educational context.
41
2.5.2 The Competing Values Framework in Higher Education
Only a few studies have tried to highlight the culture (or cultures) in higher
education. Some of these studies used an earlier incarnation of the CVF. Two of the
earliest were Cameron (1978), and Zammuto and Krakower (1991). Zammuto and
Krakower studied the “organizational culture in 323 colleges and universities” using
an instrument based on the CVF. They then isolated two contrasting institutions,
presumably to highlight the effectiveness of the model. They found that the small
religious institution was operating predominantly out of the Human Relations Model
while the technical institution was operating mainly out of the Rational Goal Model.
Pounder (2000) in looking at what the relevance of “quality” was to
institutional performance assessment in higher education, concluded that quality was
an indistinct notion. Pounder utilised the Competing Values Model of Organizational
Effectiveness (Quinn & Rohrbaugh, 1981, 1983) to investigate the effectiveness of
the “quality” dimension to institutional performance assessment in a number of
higher education institutions in Hong Kong. This connection between culture and
quality reflects that lineage developed from the quality-culture movement of the
1960s and 1970s. Pounder cites an earlier variation of the model than the one used in
this study. Pounder also claims that in the 1981 and 1983 models the dimension of
“quality” is not a valid and reliable self-rating concept, then he goes on to conclude
that this dimension needs to be investigated further.
Berrio (2003) also used an earlier incarnation of the CVF to describe the
dominant cultural type of the Ohio State University Extension (OSUE) from four
profile types, clan (Human Relations), hierarchy, adhocracy, and market. In this
study Berrio analysed the dominant culture of the OSUE an education organisation
which spans five districts and 88 counties in the United States. Berrio (2003)
42
attracted a participation rate of 434 personnel from these scattered campuses. The
results of this study reflected earlier studies (Smart & Hamm, 1993; Smart & St.
John, 1996) that showed almost two thirds of the colleges and universities across the
US were operating predominantly in the Human Relations Model. The results are
graphically illustrated below (see Figure 3, below).
Figure 3. Ohio State University Extension (adapted from Berrio, 2003, p. 7).
These studies provide early evidence that the CVF is an instrument that has
the potential to be applied to higher education organisations. The CVF may also have
the potential to highlight competing values in universities where traditional and
corporate approaches are constantly shifting.
2.6 Conclusion
The review of the literature has highlighted the idea that the culture of an
organisation is not unlike the ‘personality’ of the organisation. Culture is visible in
the values, artefacts and norms of a particular group, and that an organisation as a
Org. A Org. B
Org. C Org. D
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
Human Relations Model (HRM)
Internal Process Model (IPM)
Rational Goal Model (RGM)
43
group of people may have both complementary and competing cultural values.
Higher education institutions such as universities have been thought of as
organisations of loosely coupled groups or tribes that constitute an organised
anarchy, giving the impression that they do not have a single or unified culture. Yet
there are core functions associated with universities, such as teaching, learning,
research, and community services that have historical lineage. These core functions
are often associated with so-called traditional values of higher education such as
collegiality, and academic freedom.
The literature also revealed that universities have always been corporations
and that the term corporation has sometimes been associated with nefarious
mercantilean practices largely in the American context where a corporation has many
of the legal rights of an individual citizen. A number of writers and observers of
higher education practices and trends comment that the so-called ‘corporatisation’ of
higher education is eroding or compromising the integrity of the traditional aspects
of the sector. The literature also revealed the difficulty of delineating or defining
many of the main terms and themes associated with the focus of this work. The idea
of higher education having a single, or defining, culture is in dispute, though the idea
of sub-cultures or “tribes”, existing as a kind of “multi-versity” is more widely
accepted. Although it did show there have been persistent ideas that organisational
culture could be articulated or highlighted using compartmentalising matrices or
frameworks.
Reviewing the literature on organisational culture indicated that while there
were a number of diverse perspectives on what constituted the culture of an
organisation, that there was sometimes, congruence within that diversity. For
example, in terms of higher education as an organisation, many researchers identified
44
between two and four separate cultural types, with many of these cultural types
overlapping in their attributes or descriptions of the values of the organisation.
The literature revealed that over the last 30 years organisational scientists
have developed instruments to test and measure organisational culture in
organisational largely outside of the education context. In recent years there have
been a few studies that have attempted to address this lacuna in the higher education
context. The OCSI developed from the CVF and has been measuring organisational
culture in non-higher education context with some success. Its usefulness in the
higher education field is yet to be fully tested.
45
Chapter 3 – Methodology
3.1 Preamble
The first and second chapters have orientated the reader to the context of the
study as well as introducing the main terms, and the CVF. This chapter describes the
methodology and provides a rationale for its use. The chapter is organised to show
the study’s design (Section 3.3) which includes the epistemological and theoretical
discourse underpinning the methodology. This is followed by an exposition of the
study’s methods in Section 3.4 containing an overview of the phases and steps
involved in a case study approach, as well as a description of the context and
participants. In Section 3.5 (Data Sources) there is an articulation of the data
gathering strategies used. In Data Analysis (Section 3.6) is a discussion on some of
the qualitative approaches employed for case study data analysis. Following this is
the verifications section, which reports on reliability and limitations (Section 3.7) in
terms of the researcher’s engagement with the data, triangulation, evidence criteria,
role of researcher and member checks, transferability, and limitations. The chapter
closes with the study’s ethical considerations (Section 3.8), and, finally the chapter’s
concluding remarks (Section 3.9).
3.2 Introduction
Under the umbrella of ethnographic research, case study forms a part of an
anthropological pedigree that describes, analyses, and interprets “culture-sharing
groups’ shared patterns of behaviour, beliefs, and language that develop over time”
(Creswell, 2005, p. 436). There are many forms that a case study can take depending
on the context and needs of the research. The form of the case study used here is a
46
mixed-method approach. This approach was chosen as the study needed to highlight
cultural shifts in a complex and dynamic organisation by drawing on staff
perceptions, looking at archival material and administering a survey instrument to the
staff. Further, the types of questions asked by this work focussed on such intangible
structures as values. The questions are:
1. What are the changing cultural values of the faculty as evidenced by the CVF
over time?
2. How do staff perceptions of university culture relate to the competing criteria
identified by the CVF? And,
3. Can the CVF be usefully applied to higher education contexts?
All three questions relate to the culture of the organisation. Therefore it was
necessary to employ a methodology that could assist in articulating cultural
attributes. To attend to the first question it was necessary to provide evidence from
archival sources. To attend to the second question it was necessary to provide
evidence from qualitative sources such as perceptions (from the literature and on ‘the
ground’). Thirdly, a survey was conducted which was based on the CVF that assisted
in two ways. In the first place it assisted in the strengthening of findings in terms of
the first two questions and secondly, it attended to the third question. The three
design elements were then compared against each other for consonance (or
dissonance). They were then compared against the data gathered from the survey to
see if the quantitative evidence aligned with the qualitative evidence. This three-way
comparing was considered necessary to strengthen the findings in terms of
triangulation.
47
3.3 Design
Since a major task of this study is about drawing on the perceptions of people
in an organic and complex organisational structure in order to identify tensions in
such cultural dimensions as values, the use of an appropriate methodology was
essential. This section deals with why this particular design was constructed.
Research such as this is intended to understand human beliefs and activities as they
interrelate between the internal and external contexts or environments. A
methodology suited to this line of enquiry needs to be predominately qualitative.
Case study has evolved from the interpretivist movement whose proponents argue
that the “human sciences aim to understand human action” (Schwandt, 2000) and
which makes claims of authentic and objective analysis of phenomena (Merriam,
1998; Stake, 1995; Yin, 2003). The study used aspects of Yin’s (2003) case study
methodology in terms of data gathering sources and reliability, with some analytical
variations.
3.3.1 Epistemology and Theoretical Perspective
Epistemology is the theory of knowledge (DeRose, 2004). It is the branch of
philosophy concerned with the theory, or theories of knowledge, which helps to
inform us how we can know the world. It is widely considered that the central
question concerning the theory of knowledge is, “under what conditions does a
subject know something to be the case?” (Lincoln & Guba, 2000, p. 208). For
centuries this was considered to be a pursuit for truth. The post-modern perspective
of (social) reality is that there are philosophical questions about how much we can
really ever know about the world around us, “whether or not the world has a ‘real’
existence outside of human experience” (Lincoln & Guba, 2000, p. 176). Case
study’s epistemological stance is anchored in modern positivism, and yet has moved
48
with the social sciences towards the critical, postmodern, and interpretive
epistemologies. Of which the pivotal divisive questions concern the impact
objectivity and subjectivity have on our “ways of knowing the world” in the
postmodern position and the notion of ‘truth’ in the positivist position. According to
Jary and Jary (1991, pp. 526-527) the philosophy of relativism ranges from weak
“common sense” forms to “controversial” strong forms and “covers a variety of
sociological and philosophical positions”. Case study appears to be operating at a
weak sociological end where it can be argued that the ‘case’, as a “particular
community, at a particular time” can create its own truth, or in Yin’s case, “fact”.
This fact may or may not be then generalisable to a wider community or population.
Case study research can be critical, positivist, or interpretive (Guba &
Lincoln, 1994; Orlikowski & Baroudi, 1991) in nature depending on the philosophic
assumptions on what constitutes valid research. As this study is, for the most part,
investigating emic meanings or perceptions it is considered an interpretive case
study. In case study within an interpretivist paradigm data are gathered, analysed and
discussed. Such an interpretivist approach, with its goal of revealing the participant’s
views of reality (Lather, 1992; Robottom & Hart, 1993), allow the understandings
and reasons for actions of the participants to be elicited (Borg, Gall, & Gall, 1993;
LeCompte & Goetz, 1982). So while the research has been taken from an interpretive
perspective in general it is viewed through a symbolic interactionist lens in
particular.
Case study is essentially bound in the constructivist paradigm where “there
are multiple realities”, where the “knower and the respondent cocreate
understandings” and is “a naturalistic (in the natural world) set of methodological
procedures” (Denzin & Lincoln, 2000, p. 21). A constructivist methodologist may
49
“build the theoretical scaffold at the same time that he [sic] constructs his analysis”
(Geertz, 1973a, p. 312). Piantanida, Tananis, and Grubs (2002) consider the ‘ground’
of education research for the practitioner/investigator as, “swampy lowlands of
messy ambiguity” which the practitioner/investigator has to formulate “courses of
action as they engage in on-the-spot reflection” (p. 2). This reflects the constructivist
or “antifoundational” paradigms (Lincoln, cited in Lincoln & Guba, 2000, p. 177)
where agreements about truth for stakeholders (in an organisation such as a
university) “may be the subject of community negotiations regarding what will be
accepted as truth”. It is these ‘community negotiations’ that contain the paradigmatic
tensions this study is looking into.
As the problem in the study is concerned with people and their interactions
with their environment the research will be formed from within the interpretivist
theoretical perspective. Annells (1996) contends that qualitative approaches to
research can be traced from a modern “symbolic interactionist” tradition of social
psychology and sociology to the “constructivist-interpretive” paradigm. She writes
that, “symbolic interactionism is … an approach to inquiring about human conduct
and group behavior” (p. 380). To this end, the interpretive nature of case study is
appropriate for understanding human perception and interaction and as such is an
appropriate choice as the methodology for this investigation.
3.3.2 Approaches to a Case Study
There are now numerous methodologies a researcher in education may call
upon that span the qualitative-quantitative spectrum (Creswell, 2005; Denzin &
Lincoln, 2000). In the post-modern era educational research has, for the most part
fallen into the qualitative end of the spectrum, although, increasingly mixed or multi-
method approaches are being engaged for the purpose of research in education.
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Although there is some conjecture as to what should constitute a mixed-method or
multi-method approach there is little doubt now about its authenticity in educational
research (Gorard & Taylor, 2004). Mixed or multi-method approaches are generally
understood as comprising both qualitative and quantitative approaches within the one
methodology. Gorard and Taylor (2004, p. 13) take a “simple” definitive view of
these two approaches by stating that ‘quantitative’ “refers to counts and measures of
things” and ‘qualitative’ “predominantly uses words”. In this way the archival
material can be viewed as qualitative while, the survey is quantitative. The interview
material was both qualitative and quantitative.
Of the contemporary qualitative methodologies case study is an established,
recognised, and widely accepted, research methodology (Merriam, 1998; Stake,
1995). Stake (2000) claims that case study has become one of the most common
approaches to qualitative research. A number of case study methodologies are
available to the researcher for use in the field of education (Creswell, 1998b; Denzin
& Lincoln, 2000). For example, Merriam (1998), Stake (1995) and Yin (2003) all
offer different paths to similar outcomes. This research uses an adaptation of Yin’s
framework, as Yin’s model offers an investigative framework capable of examining
the type of questions and conceptual considerations being explored here. Also, it has
been suggested that case study is useful as an exploratory methodology to precede
more rigorous methods of investigation, a claim Yin does not resile from. In Yin’s
view, case studies are like experiments in that they are generalisable to “theoretical
propositions and not populations or universes” (2003, p. 10). This study is an
exploratory study in so much as it is looking at the use of a conceptual framework
CVF), which has been largely untried in the sector. The exploratory nature of the
study, its size and scope therefore suggests case study is an appropriate methodology.
51
A major characteristic of the case study is its endeavour towards a holistic
understanding of cultural systems of action. Cultural systems of action refer to sets of
interrelated activities engaged in by the actors in a social situation (Feagin, Orum, &
Sjoberg, 1991). With its lineage in ethnographic research, case study is often used
when the study of a group is needed to provide understanding of a larger issue
(Creswell, 2005). Case study proponents suggest that case study is a bounded
investigation, that is, it is bound by temporal and situational circumstances (Stake,
2000; Yin, 2003). In addition to the other elements of case study highlight in this
section, is this ability to fit into the cultural aspect of situations bound in time and
space that strengthens the methodology’s appropriateness.
To draw out, describe, explain and contextualise cultural conditions within a
system as complex as a university, case study offers a systematic and logical
structure to use. The generative and developmental qualities of the methodology as
an interpretive process allow an effective conduit for analysis (Yin, 2003). The
advantages for the researcher of using case study are many. It promotes the
development of theoretical accounts and explanations that conform closely to the
situations observed and is a methodological approach that covers the total research
process – design, data collection and analysis, use of literature, and writing. It is a
method of discovery that can be used to generate theory or undertake descriptive
analysis. The method consists of flexible and adaptable strategies for collecting and
analysing data that are not prescriptive. It is concerned with discovering elements,
categories, making constant comparison and making connections. However, Yin
(2003, p. 109) states that “the analysis of case study evidence is one of the least
developed … aspects of doing case studies”. To this end, using a recognised
framework, such as the CVF (albeit one that is largely untested in this environment),
52
provides a sound basis for analysis for both a novice researcher and an exploratory
study.
Burns (2000, pp. 460-461) suggests that there are six purposes of the case
study. They are:
1. Valuable as preliminaries for major studies;
2. Can provide insights into the class of events from which the case has
been drawn;
3. May provide anecdotal evidence that illustrates more general findings;
4. May refute a universal generalisation;
5. Preferred when the relevant behaviours cannot be manipulated; and,
6. May be valuable in its own right as a unique case.
Of these six purposes for choosing a case study methodology this study fits purposes
one, three, and five.
3.3.3 The Use of a Multi-Method Approach to Case Study
Multi-methodologists claim that mixed-method or ‘multi-method’
approaches, as they are sometimes referred to, constitute a third paradigm in social
science research (Creswell, 1998a; Gorard & Taylor, 2004). There are three
dominant data-gathering techniques in qualitative research, “participant observation,
interviewing, and document collection” (Glesne, 1999) and from these three kinds of
data are produced, quotations, descriptions, and excerpts of documents (Ratcliff,
2004). The study used interviewing and document collection in the first instance that
produced quotations, some descriptions, and excerpts from documents in the second
instance.
53
Yin (2003, p. 21) proposes five components of the research design. These are
as follows:
1. The study’s question;
2. Its propositions;
3. Its units of analysis;
4. The logic linking the data to the propositions; and,
5. The criteria for interpreting the findings.
Below (Figure 4) is an integration of the study’s research pathway with Yin’s
framework for a case study.
Yin’s design components
The study
1) The study’s questions
a) What are the changing cultural values of the faculty as evidenced by the CVF over time?
b) How do staff perceptions of university culture relate to the competing criteria identified by the CVF?
c) Can the CVF be usefully applied to higher education contexts? 2) Propositions a) Higher education operates within competing cultural paradigms
b) These competing cultural paradigms shift over time c) These cultural paradigms can be articulated
3) Units of analysis
a) Single faculty (in a single university) b) Operational spheres (non-academic and academic staff) c) Time boundaries (historical and present)
4) The logic linking the data to the propositions
a) Case study interviews provided confirmatory evidence that supported assertions promoted from the Pilot Study (or vice versa).
b) Archival material supported CVF findings. These also supported (triangulated) the findings of both the case study interviews and Pilot Study.
5) The criteria for interpreting the findings
a) Systematically test emerging propositions with evidence
Figure 4. The study’s design: An adaptation of Yin’s (2003) “Five Research Design
Components”
3.4 Methods
The study used an adaptation of Yin’s case study methodology. Of Yin’s six
phases in his framework for the convergence of data (see Figure 5, below), three
54
were used for this work (see Table 3 and Figure 6, below). This section explains how
the phases were used.
3.4.1 Overview of the Study’s Phases
The three phases of the study consisted of a number of steps (see Table 3,
below). The questions of the study were addressed through the combination of the
phases.
Table 3. Phases and steps of study
Phase 1 2 3
Step 1 Archival material Interviews Survey
Step 2 Analysis Analysis Analysis
Step 3 Literature research Literature research
3.4.2 Context and Participants
Description of the context and participants needs to be given with the ethical
considerations in mind. Australia has a relatively small number of public universities,
most of which could be identified through a limited description. With this in mind, a
description of the context and participants follows.
The study was conducted in a large Australian university over the period
between 2004 through to 2005. The university has over 35,000 students and an
academic staff of over 1200 persons, along with a non-academic or general staff
(now known at the study site as ‘professional’ staff) in excess of 1800 persons. The
targeted faculty had the equivalent full-time (EFT) numbers of faculty staff members
in 2004 of 221.37, with the number of FTE academic staff of 111.48. These numbers
offer little assistance in determining academic and non-academic numbers as a large
number of staff and students now sustain a number of cross-over roles.
55
The term ‘non-academic’ staff will be used as it covers a broader range of
staff and students and as such is a better descriptor than general or ‘professional’. In
the interest of ethical considerations for anonymity the faculty will be identified only
as ‘the faculty’. The university exists as a result of an Australian federal
government’s higher education policy in the 1980s whereby tertiary colleges and
institutes amalgamated to form universities. This is an important contextual point
because this means that the university is not one of the so-called ‘sandstone’ or
traditional universities as there is evidence that so-called vocational or technically
based universities may operate in different ways culturally (Zammuto & Krakower,
1991).
Table 4. Phase 2 Participant codes, roles and status
Code Primary role Secondary role
Sex Length of service Status
Ac1 Academic F Long-serving +20 years
Full-time
Ac2 Academic M Long-serving +20 years
Full-time
Ac3 Academic F Long-serving +20 years
Full-time
Ac4 Academic F Short-serving + 5 years
Full-time
Ac5 Academic M Long-serving +20 years
Full-time
Ac6 Academic M Short-serving + 5 years
Full-time
Ac7 Academic M Medium-serving + 10 years
Full-time
N-Ac1 Manager Academic (research)
F Medium-serving + 10 years
Full-time
N-Ac2 Administrator Student (part-time)
M Short-serving + 5 years
Full-time
N-Ac3 Manager M Long-serving + 20 years
Full-time
N-Ac4 Manager Academic (research)
F Medium-serving + 10 years
Full-time
N-Ac5 Administrator F Medium-serving + 10 years
Full-time
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Participation for the Phase 2 interviews saw 12 respondents from across the
faculty consent to the interview process. All potential participants were approached
individually via email correspondence with all those approached consenting to an
interview. Further, the Phase 2 participants’ status in the university provided an
insight into the changing nature of the institution and of higher education in general.
The length of service of many of the participants meant participants offered some
insights into recent changes based on temporal comparisons between their early days
with the institution and more recent times. The participants comprised of both long-
serving academics, and general staff members.
As shown in Table 4 (above), the participants were made up of six males and
six females. All the participants in this phase were in full-time university
employment, and as can be seen above, were not drawn equally from academic and
non-academic positions. Three of the participants fulfilled secondary or crossover
roles. This added variable was considered to be a positive addition as it provided the
opportunity of richer perceptions. Analysis was then conducted in a line-by-line
mode to map attributes from the adapted CVF matrix. Participation in the CVF-based
survey was open to the entire faculty staff. The survey produced 45 responses of
which 43 could be used.
3.5 Data Sources
Data addressing the question of what the perceptions of university staff reveal
about what was happening in the university, needed to be gathered in a way that staff
could express their thoughts and ideas on the topic directly and freely. The interview
is an important tool in the case study approach. Yin (2003) proposes six phases for
the convergence of evidence in order to create a “fact”.
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Yin’s (2003, p. 100) framework of “convergence of evidence” consists of the
following six data sources:
1. Observation
2. Open-ended interviews
3. Focus questions
4. Survey
5. Archival records
6. Structured interview
The investigation adapted Yin’s framework for the convergence of evidence by
looking at “archival records”, “structured interviews” and “survey” which remained
closely within Yin’s methodological parameters.
The adapted “convergence of evidence” framework for this study (see also
Figure 6, below) therefore consisted of the following three phases:
1. Archival records (Annual Reports, 1966 to 2004)
2. Structured interviews (semi- structured with focus questions)
3. Survey (OCSI based on the Competing Values Framework)
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Figure 5. Convergence of research evidence (adapted from Yin, 2003)
3.5.1 Phase 1: Review of Archival Material
Masland (1985) maintains that both observation and document analysis are
appropriate sources for the understanding of organisational culture. Hodder (2000)
claims, “An adequate study of social interaction thus depends on the incorporation of
mute material evidence”. Here “mute material” means written texts such as
documents, records, and artefacts associated with the institution. As with the other
gathering processes, this type of data collecting and interpretation has some
shortfalls. Not least being that, “meaning does not reside in the text but in the writing
and reading of it…Thus there is no ‘original’ or ‘true’ meaning of a text outside
Phase 2: Semi-
structured interviews
Phase 3: Survey
Phase 1: Archival material
Fact
59
specific historical concepts” (Hodder, 2000, p. 704). For a study of this depth this is
problematic and strengthens the case for a multi-method approach. The review of the
archival material was conducted to determine where in the corporate/traditional
balance the university now rests. It provides a strengthening of the perceptive
evidence of the interview participants, as well as offering a temporal comparison that
the CVF does not show.
Table 5. Phase 1: Archival material - activity, aim, and rationale
Step Activity Aim Rationale
1. Archival material
Collected and analysed institutional material (Annual Reports, 1966 to 2004)
Provided temporal comparison
Indicated change had taken place, strengthened reliability in triangulation of data
2. Analysis
Coding (use categories from matrix based on CVF)
Provided basis for questions, propositions and units of analysis in interviews
Developed analysis to create depth and strength (validity and reliability)
3. Literature review
Literature searches and research
Matched archival data with literature. Confirmed links with ideas
To contextualise the breadth and scope of cultural shifts. Anchor the study into a real world context. Provided triangulation of data
The temporal comparison was essential in determining cultural shift. The use
of the CVF dimensions was instrumental in this process. The above table (Table 5)
details the relationship between the data gathering process and the conceptualisation
process. Once again the iterative nature of the process is evident. As Masland (1985)
observed, culture evolves over time and through the leadership of an organisation so
60
it was essential to attempt to understand the culture of the organisation from this
perspective.
To this end, textual information from the head of the organisation was used.
In terms of the temporal comparison the Annual Reports spanning five decades were
looked at. These were 2004, 1996, 1986, 1976 and 1966. There are some
comparative inconsistencies with using these five reports. In the first place the
institution has morphed from a technical institution and a teaching institution as
separate institutions, into a university. Additionally, the reports themselves have
changed so that it was difficult to line up similar aspects such as a report from the
institutional leader, and to a lesser extent, the institutional leader’s title has also
changed. The 1966 report’s introductory text is unattributed and the 1986 text used
was the “Council Report” as there was no head of the organisation text in that year’s
report. Also there is a ten-year gap between four of the five reports and only an eight-
year gap between the 1996 and 2004 documents. However, the use of the 2004 report
affords some direct comparison between the interview material, the survey material
and the report.
3.5.2 Phase 2: Interviews
The interview, is a commonly used data gathering method in qualitative
research (Burns, 2000; Fontana & Frey, 2000). “Interviewing is a human interaction
with all its attendant uncertainties” (Glesne, 1999). Masland (1985, p. 165) writes,
“The use of interviews, observation, and document analysis encourages
triangulation”. Additionally, Fontana and Frey (2000, p. 652) inform us that,
“Unstructured interviewing can provide a greater breadth of data than the other
types”. Of the five “Group Interviews and Dimensions” charted by Frey and Fontana
(2000), the “field, formal” type in a “preset, but in field” setting, where the role of
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the interviewer is “somewhat directive” using a “semistructured” question format,
suited the study’s purposes. The data obtained were then mapped onto the categories,
dimensions and quadrants provided in the CFV matrix constructed and adapted from
Quinn and associates’ work (see Appendix A, Table A1).
Participants in this phase of the study are drawn solely from the faculty and
are representative of two organisational spheres, academic and non-academic. Non-
academic staff have been drawn from across organisational levels. Though, the
participants cannot be construed as being representative of the entire population of
the faculty, the university, or of the wider higher education community, which aligns
with Burns (2000) views on the extrapolation of data to wider populations using case
study methodology. Case studies are not to be considered as generalisable to
populations according to Yin (2003). Additionally, while full-time academic staff
with their considerable length of service were considered, as it was thought that they
would offer experiences full of temporal comparison (this proved to be the case). In
terms of their organisational relationship, one drawback to including this
(organisational) demographic is that long-serving staff may also posses more
grievances, disillusionment or even contempt for their workplace. This assertion is
confirmed by McInnis’ (1999, p. 16) study on the work roles of Australian
academics, where there is “a clear trend towards dissatisfaction for most academics”
as they move through their careers. They may also have a yearning for their own
“Golden Age” (Roden, 2001; Roe, 2001) which may call into question their
objectivity or motivations for certain perceptions.
All Phase 2 interviews were conducted in a private space, (the interviewee’s
office or work space) and were between 35 and 45 minutes in duration. They were
recorded on tape, and later transcribed. The interviewee’s were made aware of the
62
university’s ethical protocols under which the study was prescribed. Twelve semi-
structured interviews were conducted across a range of staff; seven academics (given
identity codes of ‘Ac1’, ‘Ac2’, ‘Ac3’, ‘Ac4’, ‘Ac 5’, ‘Ac6’, and ‘Ac7’), and five
non-academic staff (identity coded as ‘N-Ac1’ ‘N-Ac2’ ‘N-Ac3’ ‘N-Ac4’, and ‘N-
Ac5’). The data was analysed after it was entered into a qualitative data software
NUD*IST Vivo (NVivo) (Richards, 1999).
Table 6. Phase 2: Semi-structured interviews – activity, aims and rationale
Step Activity Aim Rationale
1. Interviews Semi-structured interviews conducted in a semi-structured conversational style with focus points
Draw out perceptions on particular and topical, issues, and trends.
Provide perceptual feedback on propositions and categories enunciated from previous analysis
2. Analysis
Coding (use the categories, and dimensions from the adapted CVF matrix)
Provide basis for questions, propositions and units of analysis in main study
Development of analysis to create depth and strength (validity and reliability)
These tables highlight the iterative nature of the process in both the coding
and the return to the literature.
3.5.3 Phase 3: The Survey
As an investigative quantitative tool, the survey is considered complementary
to the qualitative approach as well as an avenue of triangulation (Fontana & Frey,
2000). The survey is an accepted and “most commonly used” instrument for the
generation of data (Burns, 2000). Burns states that there are only two types of survey,
“descriptive” and “explanatory”. The descriptive survey’s sample, according to
Burns (2000, p. 566), should be representative of the population, “since without
representation estimates of population, statistics will be inaccurate”. To this end the
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survey needed to have been used in complex organisational systems, if not in higher
education systems themselves. One such instrument was the CVF-based
Organizational Culture Survey Instrument (OCSI) developed by Quinn and
associates.
Underpinning the OCSI has been the development of the CVF by Quinn and
associates over the last three decades. Delobbe, Haccoun and Vandenberghe (1999)
maintain that the Competing Values Model’s “validity of climate and organizational
culture questionnaires can only be established on samples of diversified
organizations from various industries”. Howard (1998, p. 231) believes that the CVF
has potential in describing “a variety of organizational phenomena” and has
implications for leadership, decision-making, and strategic management, and “offers
promise for providing a common metric for multi-level, trans-organizational, and
cross-cultural analyses”. Howard (1998) maintains that the CVF is a valid framework
for examining organisational culture and that the CVF addresses three critical issues;
1) It specifies a descriptive content of organizational culture
2) It identifies dimensions whereby similarities and differences across cultures
might be evaluated, and
3) It suggests tools and techniques for organizational analysis that enable
measurement and representation of culture
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Table 7. Phase 3: Survey – activity, aim and rationale
Step Activity Aim Rationale
1. Survey Conducted faculty-wide via institution’s intranet
To identify staff perceptions in higher education environment
The CVF-based instrument, the OCSI has the potential to provide representation of cultural shifts
2. Analysis
Applied instrument formulae
Created quantitative data
Strengthened reliability of study’s findings
The above table (Table 7) shows the relationship between the various
processes of the phase and the rationale for using those activities. The data were
gathered from the participant by having the participant place a score out of 100
across the organisational descriptions represented in the OCSI questions (see
Appendix B). The procedure to interpret the data relies on the tallying of scores and
then marking the score on a grid, depicted graphically as the ‘kites’ (for example see
Figures 14 and 15).
Furthermore, there have been issues with the validation of elements of the
CVF’s predecessors, notably the Competing Values Model (CVM). Yeung,
Brockbank and Ulrich. (1991, p. 79) suggest that using such a model to infer the
culture of an organisation is like “examining body form to assess fundamental
personality” and that it may not “reflect more fundamental implicit values, automatic
thoughts, or shared meanings”. Howard also has concerns about how well the CVM
reflects the core values of organisational culture.
Attempts have been made to validate successive models throughout the
development of the CVF. Quinn and Spreitzer (1991) examined the psychometric
properties of an instrument, similar to the one used in this work, based on earlier
incarnations of the CVF, developed by Cameron (1978) and later by Quinn and
65
associates. On this instrument a score of 100 points is spread across four
organisational types creating a dependency between scores. This, Quinn and
Spreitzer (1991) claim, means that as ipsative data the scores can be correlated with
one another and this has a number of advantages. The ipsative measures maintain the
quadrant’s independence, they also create a visual depiction of the cultural strengths
and weaknesses (Quinn & Spreitzer, 1991).
Kalliath, Bluedorn, and Gillespie (1999) used structural equation modelling
to test the CVF in its structural relationships between the four quadrants. They
concluded that their results supported the use of the CVF to evaluate organizational
effectiveness and that the scores on the scale yielded “excellent validity and
reliability measures” (p. 143).
3.6 Data Analysis
Qualitative analysis is based on reducing and interpreting data. According to
Yin (2003, p. 109) data analysis consists of “examining, categorizing, tabulating,
testing” and combining both qualitative and quantitative evidence in order to address
a study’s propositions. Yin goes on to say that there are five techniques for analysing
data, “pattern matching, explanation building, time-series analysis, logic models and
cross-case synthesis” (p. 109). This work used elements of “explanation building”.
However, the study departs from Yin’s methodological basis at this point and uses
the CVF as a map to plot the analysis of perceptions and organisational text. The
basic operations used by the study are “data collection”, “coding”, “memoing”, and
“sorting” (see Table 8, below).
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Table 8. Study analysis by phases Phase Collection Coding Memoing Sorting
Phase 1 Review of archival material
Open coding
Code notes Comparison using CVF
Phase 2 Interviews; semi-structured with faculty staff only
Axial and selective coding using NVivo
Code notes Comparison using CVF
Phase 3 CVF survey Application of instrument formulae
With the matrix based on the CVF as detailed in Appendix A (see Table A1) staff
perceptions and the archival material were aligned against these attributes, categories
and dimensions in order to build a new matrix, one constructed from the analysis. As
attributes, categories and dimensions had already been framed analysis was
conducted using those terms, notions, concepts or descriptions offered by the
perceptions of the staff or in the text of the archival material that best fitted the CVF.
This early analysis was descriptive in nature.
After mapping the analysed data onto the CFV-based matrix, in the case of
the archival material and the interview material, and the application of the instrument
formulae in the case of the survey, there was an internal and external comparison
conducted in a phase-by-phase manner. That is, the Phase I data (archival material)
were compared in a year by year manner, the Phase 2 data were compared between
groups (internally), as was the survey data. Then there were inter-phase comparisons.
This meant that aspects of the archival material could be compared against the
aspects of the interview material. The matrices of the archival and interview analysis
could be compared against each other while the matrices of the interview and the
survey material could also be compared against each other. However, direct
67
quantitative comparisons could not be conducted; so comparisons could only be
inferred.
To overcome this, the analysis was considered in terms of emphasis or focus
across a four-point spectrum from strongest to weakest (strongest, strong, weak,
weakest) across the three phases. This allowed the three phases to be compared one
against the other. There is precedence for viewing analysis in such a manner. Smart
and St. John (1996) in their study of organisational culture and organisational
effectiveness found that when they looked at dominant cultural type and cultural
strength they found that their findings supported both lines of inquiry. They
concluded that while “culture type has a decidedly stronger independent effect on
institutional performance than culture strength the differences are clearly more
pronounced on campuses with ‘strong’ rather than ‘weak’ cultures” (p. 219).
3.7 Reliability and Limitations
Cogent to the qualitative constructivist methodology are the terms
“credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability” (Denzin & Lincoln,
2000). These terms are replacing the quantitative terms of reliability, validity and
generalisability (Burns, 2000; Janesick, 2000). However, many terms these days are
being exchanged and interchanged as the need of a research process dictates
(Janesick, 2000). Additionally, there is a heavy reliance upon multiple methods of
data gathering and by extension multiple methods of interpreting the data. “An
increasing number of researchers are using multimethod approaches to achieve
broader and often better results,” claims Fontana and Frey (2000, p. 668).
The use of a multi-method approach to strengthen internal validity is
precautionary in this study, as it was considered that any one of the data gathering
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strategies may not be reliable enough, by itself, to have enough transferability,
dependability and confirmability (or internal or external validity). For example
Silverman (1993) believes we are now in an “interview society” so there may be
some habituation and corresponding participation reluctance to interviews or
surveys. Couple the evidence in the literature of “increased workloads” for
academics (McInnis, 1999) with the response rates to site-based research gathering
techniques then the unpredictability of an adequate response rate increases.
Creswell (1998b) puts forward eight verification procedures for strengthening
reliability. From Creswell’s framework the following points have been drawn out as
pertinent to the study. They are:
1 Triangulation: use of multiple and different sources, methods, investigators to
corroborate evidence;
2 Evidence criteria: working hypothesis/es or “propositions” systematically
tested against evidence;
3 External audit allows an external consultant to examine both the process and
product of account; examines whether findings, interpretations and
conclusions are supported by data.
Triangulation is covered in the next section. The aims and the objectives of the study
were constantly and systematically tested against the evidence from the three
sources.
Case study designs according to Yin (2003) need to consider four conditions,
construct validity, internal validity, external validity and reliability. For an
exploratory study (such as the presented one) Yin maintains that the strength of
internal validity will be connected to design quality. Multi-method approaches are
gaining acceptance as they are thought to offer strong triangulation, better results,
69
more analytical depth, which lead to a strengthening of validity and reliability
(Burns, 2000; Fontana & Frey, 2000; Yin, 2003). Furthermore, the use of a number
of data gathering avenues may overcome some problems inherent in limited or small
sampling, or instrument limitations.
3.7.1 Triangulation
Triangulation is the use of multiple and different data generating sources, and
methods, where investigators need to corroborate the evidence to improve internal
validity (Burns, 2000). This study employed a multi-method approach as the use of
“multiple data-collection methods contribute to the trustworthiness of the data”
(Glesne, 1999). Denzin (cited in Janesick 2000, p. 391) has identified four basic
types of triangulation:
1) Data triangulation: the use of a variety of data sources in a study;
2) Investigator triangulation: the use of several different researchers or
evaluators;
3) Theory triangulation: the use of multiple perspectives to interpret a single set
of data;
4) Methodological triangulation: the use of multiple methods to study a single
problem.
The study incorporated types 1 and 4. Aspects of the analysis of the data from each
of the three phases were held against the others for comparison. There are two sub-
tiers of triangulation in this study. The first is the relationship between the
quantitative material in the interview data and the survey data and the second is in
the qualitative data in the archival material and interview data. There is also the
relationship internally of each phase as well as the (external) relationship between
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the phases. How this was achieved is discussed in the preceding section (see above
Section 3.6).
3.7.2 Limitations and Delimitations
It is one of the limitations and a delimitation of the study that there cannot be
comparison across sector components such as from faculty to faculty, faculty to
university, university to university at either the domestic and global levels. Confining
the study to a single faculty in a single university may also provide problems of
generalisability and verifiability.
Case Studies are not to be considered as generalisable to populations
according to Yin (2003). Particularly as the site university has the history of being
formed from instrumental institutions and may not be representative of other
institutions in the sector. Rich, thick description (Geertz, 1973b) allows readers to
make decisions about transferability to another context. Replicability, trustworthiness
and transferability will be dependent upon the interplay between the depth (richness
and thickness) of the data, the comparability with other studies, and the interpretative
quality of the methodology.
Of particular concern is the size of the interview and survey samples.
Silverman (2000) maintains that, the problem of ‘representiveness’ is a perennial
worry of many qualitative or case study researchers. However, the “generalizability”
of a small sample may be mitigated through validation techniques such as multiple
data gathering methods or triangulation (Burns, 2000; Glesne, 1999; Stake, 1995;
Yin, 2003). In this study triangulation has been an underpinning quality.
Exposition of researcher bias is a “critical component” of contextualising the
data interpretation (Janesick, 2000). Researcher bias is of paramount concern in any
scientific enquiry but ultimately can only be considered as an acceptable and
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unavoidable variable (Burns, 2000). Lincoln and Guba (2000, p. 176) state that, “if
knowledge of the social … world resides in meaning-making mechanisms of the
social, mental, and linguistic worlds that individuals inhabit, then knowledge cannot
be separate from the knower”. Although the postmodern perspective is that no reality
can ever really be known or understood completely outside of the researcher’s own
reality (Janesick, 2000; Lincoln & Guba, 2002; Vidich & Lyman, 2000), qualitative
research is a credible mode of enquiry in educational settings. If the application of
the methodology is rigorous enough then researcher bias should be limited.
3.8 Limitations
Perhaps the most significant limitation was that the findings were
compromised because there was no direct comparison able to be made between each
phase. It was therefore important to triangulate data and findings between multiple
sources. Additionally, it may have been useful to provide a numerical value to the
frequency of attributes and categories in the archival material in order to make a
closer comparison between other phase data, although this was discounted due to the
small amount of text used in each year. Therefore, it may then have been useful to
use the entire annual report, and/or other archival material. Also, as the analysis of
the phases proceeded it became clear that the questions for the interviews were
limited and may have been better served if based more closely on the CVF attributes
or the questions posed in the OCSI instead of on the culture of the organisation.
Again triangulation assisted in creating a sounder evidentiary foundation where
limitations such as this occurred.
It is also one of the limitations of the study that there was no comparison
across disciplines within the organisation, and/or between other high education
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organisations. Confining the study to a single faculty in a single university may also
provide problems of generalisability and verifiability in terms of the extrapolation to
the whole organisation. The limiting of the study to a single faculty in a single
university is considered defensible in relation to the size of the study, the question/s
of the study, and the time and financial limits of the research. The survey instrument,
which to date has had limited application in the sector and may not be an appropriate
tool for this type of organisation. It is also expected, and proved to be the case, that
there would be respondent resistance to surveying.
Other concerns relate to problems of researcher bias and objectivity, which
are constant in any study. Additionally, the size of the sample, notably in the Non-
Academic groups in the interview and survey phases may have been the cause of
vagaries in the results. This area may warrant further investigation.
3.9 Ethical Considerations
Qualitative methods of data collection involve asking for opinions and
perceptions of people. “Social scientists…have an ethical obligation to their
colleagues, their study population, and the larger society…researchers must ensure
the rights, privacy, and welfare of the people and communities that form the focus of
their studies” warns Berg (2001). Fontana and Frey (2000) condense the ethical
considerations as “informed consent”, “right to privacy” and “protection from harm”.
The latter is of a lesser concern in this type of research. In order to comply with the
major ethical considerations informed consent using email correspondence and
dialogue at the interview itself, was sought. The interviewees were made aware that
no material would be placed in the public domain without their prior consent to do
so. All participants in the interview process will be offered the right of veto and
censure for any material they are associated with.
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An additional safeguard was that no material in any way could be attributed
to the individual participant. From the outset the participants will be identified in
generic categories such as “academic” or “administration” only. However some
demographic and organisational status information, relevant to the study and known
to the researcher, which may have identified the individual, was not made public
knowledge.
All the interviews were conducted in a private and (quiet) space where
possible the interviewee’s office, and were between 25 and 45 minutes in duration.
They were recorded on a micro-cassette audiotape, and later transcribed, with the
transcripts returned to the interviewees for censure and right of veto.
Ethical consideration for conducting a study within the case study institution
pertained to:
1 Clarification regarding which staff members would be approached to
participate in the project and how this would occur;
2 Provision of an information sheet and consent form for all data collection
instruments together with a survey coversheet in accordance with the
protocols of the university (Booklet 11 of the University Human Research
Ethics Manual);
3 Clarification regarding how confidentiality/anonymity would be protected
during the electronic forum discussion; and,
4 Provision of a copy of the interview questions.
Table 9. Ethical mechanisms
Mechanism When How Completion of survey
Surveys A return of a completed survey
Verbal consent Research which qualified for Level 1 ethical clearance, or
The researcher makes a file note in relation to each
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qualifies for Level 2 expedited ethical review
potential participant’s decision in relation to their participation in the project
Table 10. Ethical approaches
Approach Consent mechanism Information provided by Survey coversheet
Completion of electronic survey
An information sheet is attached to the front of the survey electronically
Informed consent script
Verbal or email consent The researcher provides a consent script in the form of an Information Sheet, via email to the potential participant and makes a file note to record that this was done.
The institution has a set of ethical standards for all research conducted within
the organisation that needed to be detailed to an ethics committee prior any work
being conducted. The ethics committee considered that the type of research about to
be undertaken was constituted a low level of ethical clearance. The committee gave
clearance for the study to be conducted after all the necessary paperwork was
submitted.
3.10 Conclusion
This chapter detailed the research design and methods that have been used in
order to address the study’s research questions. There was an exposition of the
underpinning theoretical and epistemological conditions of the methodology and a
justification for choosing Yin’s case study method. Followed by an articulation of the
data gathering procedures involved, and the type of analytical tools incorporated. The
chapter closed with the reliability measures undertaken, highlighting some of the
limitation and delimitations of the study, ethical considerations and an outline of the
study’s protocols.
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Chapter 4 - Results
4.1 Preamble
Previous chapters have offered context for the study, and the method by
which the study was undertaken. This chapter reports the results of the data gathered
through the three phases of the study. The results are reported largely in a descriptive
and comparative manner. This is done both internally for each phase and then
between phases. Which means, that each phase consists of a number of internal parts
such as each the Annual Reports in Phase 1, and each of the groups in Phases 2 and
3, that are described individually before being compared internally with the other
parts. Each section (Section 4.3, 4.4, and 4.5) will conclude with a descriptive
comparison of the parts. The chapter concludes with a further descriptive comparison
that deals with the three phases together.
4.2 Introduction
The investigation adapted three of Yin’s (2003) six phases for case study;
“archival records”, “structured interviews” (in the study as semi-structured
interviews), and “survey”. As mentioned in the third chapter the archival and
interview data have been analysed through the lens of the CVF. This was done by
matching CVF attributes and categories with descriptions provided in the data
sources. The attributes (n = 155) pertain to certain categories (n = 12), which in turn
pertain to certain cultural models (n = 4). The four cultural models make up the four
quadrants of the CVF matrix.
Examples of the archival material analyses are provide in the following
section. Below is a legend of the main categories and terms used throughout the
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analysis. Each of the categories has a number of attributes; these are detailed in the
Appendix (Appendix A, Table A1).
Table 11. Legend of CVF abbreviations and terms Cultural model Category
1 Human Relations Model (HRM) Ideological Emphasis (IE)
2 Open Systems Model (OSM) Leadership Roles (LR)
3 Internal Process Model (IPM) Structure (S)
4 Rational Goal Model (RGM) Interpersonal Relations (IR)
5 Strategic Orientation (SO)
6 Managerial Communications (MC)
7 Management Information Systems (MIS)
8 Management Information Systems Characteristics (MIS-SC)
9 Group Decision Processes (GDP)
10 ‘Ends’,
11 ‘Means’
12 ‘Common terms’
A further explanation is warranted for the directional terms that are used in
the following chapters. The framework has been divided along compass points, to
assist reader orientation. So that the ‘northern’ quadrants are equated to the Human
Relations (HRM) and Open System (OSM) models and the ‘southern’ quadrants are
equated to the Internal Process (IPM) and Rational Goal (RGM) models. In this way,
the western quadrants are the OSM and the IPM and the eastern quadrants are the
OSM and the RGM.
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4.3 Phase 1: Archival Material
Research of the institution’s archival material presented an incomplete
collection of annual reports dating from 1966 to 2004. From those that were
available, the years 1966, 1976, 1986, 1996 and 2004 were selected for analysis. The
institutions compiled all annual reports in order to satisfy government legislative
regulations. From 1966 there were originally two institutions, a technical institute
and a teacher-training college, with multiple campuses. Both the institutions had a
name change before they were eventually amalgamated to create a university in
1989. The earliest annual report (1966) was an organisational description of the
technical institute. The earliest annual report located in the archives for the teacher-
training college was for the year 1976.
A relatively consistent aspect of the annual reports was the introductory
section that mostly contained the head of the organisation’s report. While the head of
the organisation may have had a number of titles such as Chairman of Council,
Principal, Director, Vice-Chancellor, their function has remained relatively stable.
These statements were considered here to be what the organisation wanted the
public’s and the government’s attention to be drawn to. So it was this part of the
annual report that was used for the study. The following section descriptively reports
on the results of the archival material.
4.3.1 Annual Report: 1966
In its second year of operation the technical institute’s 1966 Annual Report
consisted of nine A3 typewriter written pages. There are no Contents page and no
attributed head of the organisation report. The six Departments each provide a report
(also unattributed). The first page is entitled with the name of the institution and then
“Annual Report 1966” followed immediately with the opening statement,
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unattributed, which consists of 11 paragraphs, with a total of 521 words. It mentions
the number of student enrolments and attendees at the institute, the number of
courses available, an initiation of the introduction of an academic calendar, the
drafting of “Rules”, the first handbook, as well as a union being formed. It mentions
an awards night, renovation to a building and a canteen. The remaining reports were
along the same lines. The longest report from the Department of Chemistry was
seven paragraphs in length, while the shortest, just 13 lines, was from the
Department of Building. None of the reports mentioned money and there is official
no financial statement.
The ‘Ideological Emphasis’ (IE) of the organisation as indicated by the text is
on ‘Change’ (OSM) as evidenced in the following extracts:
The Department of Management Studies was re-designated the Department of Business Studies.” Paragraph 10: “Since 1st January, 1967, the following new courses have been introduced… (Paragraph 1)
The ‘Ends’ to which organisational objectives were directed were via ‘Growth’ and
‘Resources acquisition’ (OSM):
An academic calendar was drawn up after a detailed analysis of enrolment and examination commitments, and the enrolment and fee payment procedure streamlined. The [Institute] Rules of 1966 were drafted, submitted to the Minister and Director-general of Education and gazetted in September, 1966. The first handbook of the Institute was compiled, published and widely distributed… (Paragraph 4)
The ‘Means’ through which the ends of the organisation were to be achieved are
considered in terms of ‘Adaptability’ (OSM):
Each departmental advisory committee met regularly and worked in close liaison with the Principal and members of the academic staff to review and revise approximately forty (40) courses and the detailed syllabuses of the subjects involved. (Paragraph 2)
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There was evidence of multiple ‘Leadership Roles’ (LR) with elements of
‘Facilitator – facilitates interaction; process orientated’ (HRM)…:
Each departmental advisory committee met regularly and worked in close liaison with the Principal and members of the academic staff to review and revise approximately forty (40) courses and the detailed syllabuses of the subjects involved. (Paragraph 2)
…’Broker – resource orientated, acquires resources’ (OSM)…:
Renovation of a section of the first floor of U Block was carried out by the Works Department to accommodate the central administrative section of the Institute. (Paragraph 7) Work on the Institute temporary canteen reached a stage at which tenders for its conduct were called and students have enjoyed this amenity in the first term of 1967. (Paragraph 8)
… and ‘Coordinator – maintains structure’ (IPM):
Institute entered upon its second year with the six Departments established in 1965. The Department of Management Studies was re-designated the Department of Business Studies. (Paragraph 1)
The Structure (S) as suggested by the text is ‘Non-routine’ with independent
work flow, less use of rules, policies and procedures, less use of formal planning’.
There is no indication in the text (or the rest of the document) of any policies and
procedures, or use of formal planning, suggesting the organisation is operating in the
Open Systems Model (OSM) in this category. The text states that the institution had
drafted a set of rules that were then gazetted in September 1966. There is no
indication of any of the attributes pertaining to the category Interpersonal Relations
(IR). The Strategic Orientation (SO) appears to be neither reactive nor proactive
(RGM). This document as a whole constitutes part of the Managerial
Communications (MC) and is overall ‘Informational’ in that it provides facts, is
focused, clear, logical, and organised (IPM).
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The Management Information Systems (MIS) appears to be ‘Interpersonal
communicating and conferencing’ with some ‘group decision support’ (HRM)…:
Each departmental advisory committee met regularly and worked in close liaison with the Principal and members of the academic staff to review and revise approximately forty (40) courses and the detailed syllabuses of the subjects involved. (Paragraph 2)
… as well as elements of ‘inter-organisational linking’ (OSM):
In addition to all Institute courses, eleven (11) Department of Education courses previously conducted by the Central Technical College were carried on to allow students to acquire qualifications. (Paragraph 3) The Certificate in Sugar Chemistry and the Cane Tester’s Certificate courses have been transferred to the Mackay Technical College. In addition a number of Certificate courses have been transferred from the Department of Business Studies to Technical Education. (Paragraph 11)
The System Characteristics of the MIS (MIS-SC) suggested by the text is ‘Ad hoc
usage’ – with a provision of multiple cues and wide access (OSM)…:
The first handbook of the Institute was compiled, published and widely distributed and has attracted favourable comment from many quarters. (Paragraph 4)
… with elements of ‘standardised, reliable, stable information’ (IPM) being
instigated:
An academic calendar was drawn up after a detailed analysis of enrolment and examination commitments, and the enrolment and fee payment procedure streamlined. The Queensland Institute of Technology Rules of 1966 were drafted, submitted to the Minister and Director-general of Education and gazetted in September, 1966. The first handbook of the Institute was compiled… (Paragraph 4)
The Group Decision Processes (GDP) appears to be ‘Participatory’ with some
supportability of decision (HRM):
Each departmental advisory committee met regularly and worked in close liaison with the Principal and members of the academic staff to review and
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revise approximately forty (40) courses and the detailed syllabuses of the subjects involved. (Paragraph 2)
In this way the following CVF-based matrix (Figure 6) can be constructed.
Human Relations Model LR: Facilitator MIS: Interpersonal communicating and conferencing, group-decision GDP: participatory process, supportability of decision Internal Focus
F l e x i b i l i t y
Open Systems ModelIE: Change Means: Adaptability Ends: Growth, resource acquisition LR: Broker S: Non-routine task MIS: Inter-organisational linking MIS-SC: Ad hoc usage
LR: Coordinator – maintains structure MC: Informational – provides facts, focussed, clear, logical, organised MIS-SC: Standardised, reliable, stable Internal Process Model
C o n t r o l
External Focus SO: Neither reactive nor proactive Rational Goal Model
Figure 6. CVF mapping of 1966 Annual Report text
4.3.1.1 Summary of 1966 annual report.
The text of the opening statement indicates that the organisation is developing
structure, although there is no indication of an hierarchal structure. This of course,
does not mean that there is not one, just that it is not mentioned here in the opening
text. The tenor of the opening statement is on student numbers and infrastructure
adjustments. When placed against the CVF dimensions and attributes this
organisation has a strong internal focus (HRM and IPM). It is looking at resources
acquisition, and growth (OSM). The organisation is in its second year of operation as
a technical institute, which may account for why it had yet to draft a set of rules.
There was no implicit indication of a Strategic Orientation (neither reactive not
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active) suggesting that the organisation was neutral or static in terms of what it
wanted to do even though its Ideological Emphasis could be interpreted as having a
‘Change’ focus. Its change and adaptability functionality was in terms of its growth
and resource acquisition rather than any proactive approach to environmental issues
or trends. Absent across the four quadrants is data concerning the Interpersonal
Relations characteristics of the organisation.
Overall, from the tone of this introductory text this organisation appears to be
operating strongest in the Open Systems Model (flexibility with external focus) with
elements of the Human Relations Model (flexibility with internal focus) the next
strongest quadrant followed by the weaker Internal Process Model (control with
internal focus) and almost absent Rational Goal Model (control with external focus).
Significant in this text is the absence of cultural attributes associated with the RGM.
The analysis may then be represented graphically as; 1) a figure (see Figure 6, above)
and 2) a table (see Appendix D, Table D1).
4.3.2 Annual Report: 1976
The 1976 Annual Report for the teacher-training college consists of 28 A4
pages. The Table of Contents offers ten items; “Council” (1 page), “Introduction” (1
page), “Director’s Report” (1 page), “Year in Review” (2 pages text, 3 pages tables),
“Administration” (2 pages), “Building Projects” (2 pages), “Educational Resources
Centre (2 pages), “Staff Developments (3 pages), “Staff Numbers” (2 pages), and
“Finance” (7 pages). The Director’s Report is four paragraphs long consisting of 379
words. There is no mention of money in the Director’s Report.
The ‘IE’ as evidenced by the text is predominantly on ‘People’ (HRM). For
example in the following extract the Director uses the collective pronoun “we” on a
three (3) occasions…:
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But, in that progress implies a constant evaluation in order to find better ways, it augurs well for the college, and we face the future strong in the knowledge that what we are doing and where we are going. (Paragraph 3)
… there are also ‘IE’ elements of ‘Change’ (OSM) …:
Most of all it has been satisfying because of the spirit of pride that has been in evidence – not the pride of complacency or of bland conformity – but the pride that comes from knowing that the work being done is clearly contributing to the growth and development… (Paragraph 2)
… and ‘IE’ elements of ‘Stability’ (IPM):
For those familiar with College routines, this simple act of explaining to new team members is stimulating and valuable…” Paragraph 3: “…it forces the re-examination of policies and issues which otherwise merely continue. (Paragraph 3)
The ‘Ends’ through which organisational objectives were to be met were through a
mixture of ‘Cohesion’ and ‘Morale’ (HRM)…:
…this simple act of explaining to new team members is stimulating and valuable because it forces the re-examination of policies and issues which otherwise merely continue. Added to the very considerable strength of the staff therefore, this injection of critical appraisal means that a spirit of open enquiry into the “best ways” of accomplishing our several purposes is engineered. (Paragraph 3) Also, morale has been high because in building closer relations with community outside the college… (Paragraph 2)
… with ‘Growth’, ‘Resources acquisition’ and ‘External support’ (OSM)…:
The College programs have also been improved and sharpened because of the imports of new staff… (Paragraph 3) Our efforts to improve liaison with our colleagues in the schools have been rewarded… (Paragraph 2)
… and ‘Efficiency’ (RGM):
But, in that progress implies a constant evaluation in order to find better ways, it augurs well for the college… (Paragraph 3)
In terms of the ‘Means’ through which organisational objectives were to be met, the
text indicates elements of ‘Development of human resources’ (HRM)…:
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Added to the very considerable strength of the staff therefore, this injection of critical appraisal means that a spirit of open enquiry into the “best ways” of accomplishing our several purposes is engineered. (Paragraph 3)
… with elements of ‘Adaptability’ and ‘Readiness’ (OSM)…:
Their ideas and their perceptions of the needs of young teachers have enabled us to improve our work… (Paragraph 2) But, in that progress implies a constant evaluation in order to find better ways, it augurs well for the college, and we face the future strong in the knowledge that what we are doing and where we are going. (Paragraph 3)
… as well as elements of ‘Goal-setting’ (RGM):
… accomplishing our several purposes… (Paragraph 3)
In terms of the ‘LR’ this section of the report suggests strongly that there is
the ‘Mentor’- caring, shows consideration, and ‘Facilitator’- facilitates interaction,
roles (HRM)…:
…and we are most grateful to them for their co-operation and constructive criticisms. (Paragraph 2) Our efforts to improve liaison with our colleagues in the schools have been rewarded… (Paragraph 2)
… as well as elements of ‘Broker – resource orientated, acquires resources’
(OSM)…:
The College programs have also been improved and sharpened because of the imports of new staff… (Paragraph 3)
… with limited evidence of a ‘Coordinator’ role which maintains structure (IPM)
being implied:
…College routines… (Paragraph 3)
The Structure (S) appears to be a combination of ‘Vertical coordination’ (IPM), with
routine task technology, formal rules, policies, and procedures, and ‘Non-routine’
(OSM) with independent work flow, and less use of formal planning. The writer also
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mentions ‘IR’ in terms of morale, which he considers to be “high” thus covering both
HRM and OSM quadrants. In terms of ‘SO’ there is evidence to suggest the
organisation is ‘Proactive’ (OSM):
Our efforts to improve liaison with our colleagues… (Paragraph 2)
This document as a whole constitutes part of the ‘Managerial
Communications’ (MC) and is overall ‘Informational’ in that it provides facts, is
focused, clear, logical, and organised (IPM). The Director’s report, in terms of ‘MC’
the text indicates that the organisation is ‘Relational– is attempting to build trust, be
expressive, open, and candid’ (HRM). The use of humanistic and emotive words
such as “satisfying”, “spirit”, “morale”, “grateful” and the collective pronoun “we”
indicate a relational quality. The ‘MIS’ covered three quadrants with elements of
‘Interpersonal communicating and conferencing’ and ‘Group decision supporting’
(HRM) and aspects of ‘Environmental scanning and filtering’ and ‘Inter-
organisational linking’ (OSM) providing the main focus. Evidence of ‘Internal
monitoring’ (IPM) could also be found:
…it forces the re-examination of policies and issues which otherwise merely continue. (Paragraph 3)
In terms of the ‘MIS-SC’ there was limited evidence of the organisation’s ability to
allow ‘User feedback’ (HRM). There was stronger evidence of ‘GDP’ where
‘Participatory process’ was employed and where there was ‘Supportability of
decision’ (HRM)…:
Our efforts to improve liaison with our colleagues in the schools have been rewarded by their frank and candid expression of views. Their ideas and their perceptions of the needs of young teachers have enabled us to improve our work and we are most grateful to them for their co-operation and constructive criticisms. (Paragraph 2)
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Added to the very considerable strength of the staff therefore, this injection of critical appraisal means that a spirit of open enquiry into the ‘best ways’ of accomplishing our several purposes is engineered. (Paragraph 3)
…combined with ‘Adaptable process’ and ‘Legitimacy of decision’ (OSM):
But, in that progress implies a constant evaluation in order to find better ways, it augurs well for the college, and we face the future strong in the knowledge that what we are doing and where we are going. (Paragraph 3)
In this way the following matrix (Figure 7) can be constructed.
Human Relations Model IE: People Ends: Cohesion, Morale Means: Development of human resources LR: Facilitator; Mentor IR: Higher morale MC: Relational MIS: Interpersonal; Group-decision support GDP: Participatory process; Supportability of decision Internal Focus
F l e x i b i l i t y
Open Systems ModelIE: Change Ends: Growth; Resource acquisition; External support Means: Adaptability; Readiness LR: Broker IR: Higher morale SO: Proactive MIS: Environmental, Inter-organisational linking GDP: Adaptable, legitimacy of decision
IE: Stability LR: Coordinator – maintains structure S: Internal monitoring MC: Informational – provides facts Internal Process Model
C o n t r o l
External Focus Means: Goal-setting Ends: Efficiency Rational Goal Model
Figure 7. CVF mapping of 1976 Annual Report text
4.3.2.1 Summary of 1976 annual report.
The text of the Director’s report for 1976 indicates that the organisation is
operating mainly across the Human Relations (flexibility with internal focus) and
Open Systems (flexibility with external focus) models. The text uses emotive,
psychological and humanistic dialogue and is focused for the most part on people as
well as internal matters. Any external orientation is directed at its service
commitments. There is no mention of the acquisition of infrastructure or material
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resources, resources are seen in human terms only, this is consistent with
organisation operating out of the HRM. Significant in this text is the absence of
attributes associated with the RGM. The organisation’s cultural characteristics may
then be represented graphically as; 1) a figure (see Figure 7, above) and 2) a table
(see Appendix D, Table, D2).
4.3.3 Annual Report: 1986
The teacher-education institution by 1986 had lost the Director’s Report and
replaced it with a “Highlights” opening section. The document is a glossy production
(the first presentation of this type appeared in 1983) of 28 A4 pages in length with a
further 20 pages as “Appendix”. The appendix contains nine pages of “Detailed
financial reports” as support material for a two-page summary of finances in the
main document. The Appendices contain sections for the Institute and the Bookshop
consisting of six pages. Four of the 12 bullet points in the “Highlights” referred
directly to funding matters. Additionally, there is the first mention of attracting
international full-fee paying students, 30 to commence studies in 1988, as well a
mention of strategic planning, a “statement of purpose and guiding principles” and
achievement of objectives. There is no report from the head of the organisation
(Director) for the 1986 Annual Report. There was a few words from the Council (1
page), a “Highlights” (1 page), “Objectives” (2 pages), “Courses and enrolment
summary” (1 page) and a “Council report” (5 pages). The “Council report” is
attributed to the Chairman with his name, a signature, and date provided at the
conclusion of the text. This is a lengthy text, at 3,489 words (in comparison to the
other four used here), containing 11 sub-headings and two graphics (tables). The sub-
headings are:
1. Operating environment
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2. Enrolments 3. Graduating students 4. Academic developments 5. Continuing education 6. Research and consulting 7. Staff 8. Fabric and finance 9. Foundation 10. Image 11. Acknowledgements
Mapping the text provided by the Chairman onto the CVF matrix sees the
‘IE’ focus spread across the quadrants with a strong emphasis on ‘Innovation’ and
‘Change’ (OSM), some aspects of ‘People’ (HRM), a developing infrastructure
concerning ‘Stability’ and ‘Control’ (IPM) as well as ‘Task accomplishment’
(RGM). However, this text indicated that the organisation was operating largely out
of the OSM.
In terms of the ‘Ends’ through which the organisation was looking to achieve
its mission, the text indicated that it was predominantly operating out of the Open
System Model were its focus was on ‘Growth’, ‘Resources acquisition’ and ‘External
support’
The year saw significant growth in student numbers, introduction of several important new courses, strong increases in industrial research and professional development activity, and acquisition of land for planned [Institute] building expansion. (Paragraph 1) [Institute] growth is consistent with Commonwealth policy that limited funding for additional student places is concentrated in technology based courses to support economic development. Growth among commencing students was most pronounced in the Faculties of Business, Engineering and Information Technology. (Paragraph 9) [Institute] growth is on target for a planned 11 000 students by 1990. (Paragraph 16) Overall, government grants represented 82 percent of total [Institute] receipts. (Paragraph 62)
There were traces of ‘Cohesion’ and ‘Morale’ (HRM):
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A number of social functions were held during the year for staff and supporters. (Paragraph 69) Council extends its thanks to all staff for their efforts throughout the year, and to employers, members of professional bodies, students and others whose contribution through various academic and policy making bodies keeps [the Institute] at the forefront of professional education… (Paragraph 76)
There were also elements of ‘Efficiency’ (RGM):
The [Institute] budget for the year gave priority to funding new academic developments. Some funds were released for these priority areas by achieving economies in other areas with relatively higher staffing levels. (Paragraph 57)
The ‘Means’ through which the organisation’s looked to achieve its mission were
spread across the four quadrants. There were traces of ‘Training’ and ‘Development
of human resources’ (HRM)…:
Forty members of the academic staff commenced professional experience programs in 1986 ranging from three weeks to 12 months in duration. Most programs were directed towards enhancing experience in the work place. The professional experience program continues to be of major importance for academic staff development… (Paragraph 49)
… elements of ‘Adaptability’ and ‘Readiness’(OSM)…
Proposed changes to the State Education Act to take effect in 1987 promise CAE councils greater autonomy in planning and administration. [Institute] Council has considerable expertise among its membership and welcomes this greater responsibility. (Paragraph 7)
… increases in the infrastructure for ‘Information management’ and
‘Communication’ (IPM)…:
Commonwealth funding received for equipment rose from $1.4 million in 1985 to $1.8 million in 1986. The major expenditure against the grant was settlement of a new IBM 4381 computer system to be used mainly for administrative purposes. (Paragraph 62)
… and greater attention to ‘Planning’ and ‘Goal-setting’ (RGM):
Proposed changes to the State Education Act to take effect in 1987 promise CAE councils greater autonomy in planning and administration. [Institute] Council has considerable expertise among its membership and welcomes this greater responsibility… (Paragraph 7)
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The review report presented a cohesive, cost effective and needs based blueprint for a personnel organisation and practices which will assist the executive and staff in achieving long term objectives. (Paragraph 47)
In terms of ‘LR’ the text indicated qualities strongest in ‘Innovator –
envisions change’, and ‘Broker – resource orientated, acquires resources’ (OSM)…:
[The Institute] supports the need for more graduates in business and technology, and for practical applied research to improve the State s economic performance. (Paragraph 5) …it was possible in 1986 to set aside a proportion of earnings for important capital development projects to be undertaken in future years… These monies supplemented funds made available by the Commonwealth for specific capital works projects totalling $656 000 in 1986. (Paragraph 60-1)
… as well as elements of a ‘Facilitator’ in terms of facilitating interaction (HRM):
Forty members of the academic staff commenced professional experience programs in 1986 ranging from three weeks to 12 months in duration. Most programs were directed towards enhancing experience in the work place. The professional experience program continues to be of major importance for academic staff development at [the Institute]. For senior staff, a number of seminars and management workshops during the year led up to a two day conference in November, examining Institute goals and departmental plans. (Paragraph 49)
Also found in the text were elements of ‘Mentor – shows consideration’ (HRM)…:
Council extends its thanks to all staff for their efforts throughout the year, and to employers, members of professional bodies, students and others whose contribution through various academic and policy making bodies keeps [the Institute] at the forefront of professional education in Queensland… I personally thank members of Council for their time and the benefit of their experience in guiding [the Institute] into a new, more demanding era. (Paragraph 76-7)
… and strong elements of the ‘Monitor – collects information’ (IPM) scattered
throughout the entire text:
For Structure (S) the text shows ‘Non-routine task technology – independent
work flow’ (OSM)…:
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A system of faculty based funding, giving more autonomy to faculties in allocation of funds within approved action plans was developed for implementation in 1987. (Paragraph 59)
… and as this quote indicates there is “autonomy” within prescribed
conditions of “plans” which are subject to approval, indicating ‘Vertical coordination
– routine task technology, formal rules, and formal planning’ (IPM). There is no
indication of ‘IR’ in terms of trust, morale, leader credibility, conflict levels or
resistance to change levels. In terms of ‘SO’ the text indicates that the organisation is
both ‘Reactive’ (HRM/IPM) and ‘Proactive’ (OSM). This document as a whole
constitutes part of the ‘Managerial Communications’ (MC) and is overall
‘Informational’ in that it provides facts, is focused, clear, logical, and organised
(IPM). The targeted text from an ‘MC’ perspective suggests it is not working out of
the HRM or the RGM but is both ‘Transformational – stimulates change’ (OSM) and
‘Informational- provides facts’ (IPM) with a stronger residue in the IPM quadrant.
For example, of the 77 paragraphs three do not contain any facts or figures
(Informational).
Mapping the text across the ‘MIS’ category finds aspects of HRM and OSM
strongest, with indications that aspects of the ‘MIS’ in the IPM are developing. The
least indicated quadrant is in the RGM. Following are examples of the ‘MIS-
computer-aided instruction, and interpersonal communicating and conferencing’
category for the HRM:
A central Computer Based Education (CBE) facility was launched early in 1986. Using a network of microcomputers and specially commissioned software, the CBE provides students with self-paced tutorial instruction with immediate feedback to supplement classroom teaching. (Paragraph 28) The professional experience program continues to be of major importance for academic staff development at [the Institute]. For senior staff, a number of seminars and management workshops during the year led up to a two day conference in November, examining Institute goals and departmental plans. (Paragraph 49)
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In the following extract is an example of the developing nature of the IPM attributes
in the MIS category of; ‘MIS - Internal monitoring’, ‘MIS - Internal controlling’ and
‘MIS - Record keeping’:
A comprehensive, independent review of personnel management at QIT was carried out during the year. The review report presented a cohesive, cost effective and needs based blueprint for a personnel organisation and practices which will assist the executive and staff in achieving long term objectives. (Paragraph 47)
In the following extracts are examples of ‘MIS - Environmental scanning’ (OSM)…:
This unmet demand together with growing interest among South East Asian students in self funded tertiary study in Australia and the belief that a privately run university would have a close and profitable research relationship with industry, encouraged planning of the Bond University of Technology on Queensland's Gold Coast. (Paragraph 5)
… and ‘MIS - Inter-organisational linking’ (OSM):
A [Institute]/CSIRO collaborative research scheme was established early in the year to encourage greater collaboration between the two institutions, with each contributing $30 000 annually. (Paragraph 38)
The ‘MIS-SC’ of the organisation as indicated by and through this text
concerns the quadrants IPM and RGM with varying degrees of emphasis. There was
no evidence of ‘Management Information System characteristics’ in the HRM or the
OSM. For example the text indicates system characteristics of ‘Standardised, precise,
and detailed information’ (IPM) in the amount of facts and figures scattered
throughout the text. Of the RGM characteristics there is evidence of ‘MIS-SC:
Qualitative, time, and accurate information’.
The GDP attributes contained within the text suggests elements of an
‘Adaptable process’ – legitimacy of decision (OSM)…:
Proposed changes to the State Education Act to take effect in 1987 promise CAE councils greater autonomy in planning and administration. [the Institute] Council has considerable expertise among its membership and welcomes this greater responsibility. (Paragraph 7)
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However, unlike universities, [the Institute] still receives no government recurrent funding to support its valuable economic contribution through applied research. (Paragraph 43)
… elements of ‘Data-based process’ – accountability of decision (IPM)…:
A comprehensive, independent review of personnel management at [the Institute] was carried out during the year. The review report presented a cohesive, cost effective and needs based blueprint for a personnel organisation and practices which will assist the executive and staff in achieving long term objectives. (Paragraph 47)
… and elements of ‘Goal-centred process’ – efficiency of decision (RGM), in
Paragraph 47 (above), and in the following extract:
The QIT budget for the year gave priority to funding new academic developments. Some funds were released for these priority areas by achieving economies in other areas with relatively higher staffing levels. (Paragraph 57)
In this way the following matrix (Figure 8) can be constructed.
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Human Relations Model IE: People Ends: Cohesion; Morale Means: Training & Development of human resources LR: Facilitator; Mentor SO: Reactive MC: Relational MIS: Computer-aided instructing; Interpersonal communicating and conferencing; Group decision supporting GDP: Participatory process; Supportability of decision Internal Focus
F l e x i b i l i t y
Open Systems Model IE: Change Means: Adaptability; Readiness Ends: Growth; Resource acquisition; External support LR: Innovator; Broker S: Non-routine task technology SO: Proactive MC: Transformational MIS: Environmental; Inter-organisational linking GDP: Adaptable - legitimacy of decision
IE: Stability Means: Information management; Communication LR: Monitor –collects information S: Vertical SO: Reactive MC: Informational – provides facts MIS: Internal monitoring; Internal controlling; Record keeping MIS-SC: Standardised - precise and detailed information GDP: Data-based process - accountability of decision Internal Process Model
C o n t r o l
External Focus IE: Task accomplishment Means: Planning; Goal-setting Ends: Efficiency LR: Producer – task orientated, work focused MIS-SC: Quantitative, time and accurate information GDP: Goal-centred process- efficiency of decision Rational Goal Model
Figure 8. CVF mapping of 1986 Annual Report text
4.3.3.1 Summary of 1986 annual report.
The text of the Chief Executive’s forward indicates that the organisation’s
cultural characteristics are spread relatively evenly across the four quadrants. The
strongest quadrants are the IPM (Internal focus with control) and HRM (internal
focus with flexibility) followed closely by the OSM (external focus with flexibility)
with the weakest being the RGM (external focus with control). For example, the text
does not indicate that the organisation is focusing on attributes associated with a
RGM in terms of ‘Structure’, ‘Strategic Orientation’, ‘Managerial Communications’
and ‘Management Information Systems’ or attributes associated with the HRM in
terms of ‘Group Decision Processes’, ‘Management Information System
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characteristics’ (MIS-SC), ‘Managerial Communications’, and ‘Structure’. The text
does not indicate any of the attributes associated with the IPM quadrant in terms of
‘Ends’. Additionally, the text does not indicate any of the attributes associated with
the quadrant OSM in terms of ‘MIS-SC’. Absent across the four quadrants is data
concerning the ‘IR’ characteristics of the organisation. Significant in this text is the
even spread of cultural attributes. The analysis may then be represented graphically
as; 1) a figure (see Figure 8, above) and 2) a table (see Appendix D, Table D3).
4.3.4 Annual Report: 1996
The two institutions, that is, the technical institute and the teaching college,
were combined after 1989 to become a large multi-campus university. The Annual
Report for 1996 consists of two volumes. The first part, Volume 1 (49 pages) is made
up of four sections; “The world in which we operate”, “[the University] Council”,
“Highlights of faculties, divisions and [the University] Foundation”, and “Financial
summary for the year ended 31 December 1996”. Volume 2 (60 pages) contains
seven sections; “Functions and powers of the University, Annual financial
statements”, “Continuing education courses”, “Professional development program –
academic staff”, “Final higher degree study leave”, “Professional development
program – general staff”, and “Staff overseas travel”. The majority of the second
volume (33 pages) is made up of the financial statements section. The head of the
organisation, the “Chief Executive”, provides a “foreword” to the document. The
forward contains 324 words in six paragraphs with a photograph of the writer to the
right of the text and signature at the end of the text
Mapping the text onto the CVF matrix sees the ‘IE’ focus fall mainly into the
OSM and RGM quadrants with a strong emphasis on ‘Innovation and change’,
‘Change’(OSM), and ‘Task accomplishment’ (RGM).
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As the following extracts indicate, the ‘Ends’ to which the ‘Means’ are being
directed indicate ‘Growth’, ‘Resources’, and ‘External Support’ (OSM)…:
The University has also continued to develop its research, postgraduate and international activities… (Paragraph 5) [The University] will need to place more emphasis on resource management… (Paragraph 3) The new government's agenda will accelerate the increased reliance on non-government funding being experienced by universities throughout the western world. (Paragraph 2)
… and ‘Efficiency’ and ‘Productivity’ (RGM):
Greater internal efficiency and increased external income, combined with a stronger customer focus, will be critical to our continued success and progress. (Paragraph 3) [The University’s] historical strength has been its relevant undergraduate courses which produce employable graduates. In 1996 we were again the largest provider among the Australian universities of bachelor degree graduates into the workforce. (Paragraph 4)
The ‘Means’ through which the ‘IE’ is addressed as indicated by the statements in
this text are in terms of ‘Adaptability’ and ‘Readiness’ (OSM) and ‘Goal-setting’
(RGM) as indicated by these extracts:
The 1996 year was one of change in the higher education sector. (Paragraph1) In this new environment, [the University] will need to place more emphasis on resource management than ever before. Greater internal efficiency and increased external income, combined with a stronger customer focus, will be critical to our continued success and progress. (Paragraph 3)
In terms of ‘LR’ there are elements of characteristics from the OSM such as
the ‘Innovator – envisions change’ and the ‘Broker – resource orientated’…:
In this new environment, [the University] will need to place more emphasis on resource management than ever before. Greater internal efficiency and increased external income, combined with a stronger customer focus, will be critical to our continued success and progress. (Paragraph 3)
… ‘Producer – task orientated, work focused’ (RGM)…:
The University has also continued to develop its research, postgraduate and international activities in ways which are relevant to our local and
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international communities. Through projects ranging from developing manufacturing software in collaboration with a Chinese university to health and educational consultancies in the Asia-Pacific region, [the University] is indeed “making a world of difference”. (Paragraph 5)
… and elements of ‘Mentor – shows consideration’ (HRM):
It is also my pleasure to make it available to [the University’s] internal and external stakeholders - our students, staff and alumni, leaders in education, business and government, major donors, overseas agents and the wider community - to inform them of the achievements and development of this institution in which they have invested time, resources and interest. (Paragraph 6)
Structurally (S) and in terms of the ‘IR’ the text does not provide enough
information to make an assessment for any quadrant. The ‘SO’ appears to be both
‘Reactive’ and ‘Proactive’. That is, in terms of how the organisation reacts to the
external stimuli of the government rhetoric it reacts to that stimuli rather than any
indication of being proactive towards it. Internally, there is evidence to suggest the
organisation reacts proactively. This document as a whole constitutes part of the
‘Managerial Communications’ (MC) and is overall ‘Informational’ in that it provides
facts, is focused, clear, logical, and organised (IPM). The ‘MC’ characteristics of this
text indicate elements of the organisation being ‘Transformational – stimulates
change’ (OSM) and ‘Instructional – action orientated’ (RGM):
Paragraph 3: “In this new environment, [the University] will need to …”
In terms of the ‘MIS’, the text indicates elements of OSM with
‘Environmental scanning and filtering’…:
The measures announced by Minister Vanstone, as well as reducing the total level of government investment in higher education over the next three years, will create a new regulatory environment for universities which might overall be characterised as a move to a quasi-market model. The new government's agenda will accelerate the increased reliance on non-government funding being experienced by universities throughout the western world. (Paragraph 2)
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… and ‘Inter-organisational linking’…:
Through projects ranging from developing manufacturing software in collaboration with a Chinese university to health and educational consultancies in the Asia-Pacific region… (Paragraph 5)
The text is lacking in offering insights into any of the four quadrant’s ‘MIS-
SC’. The tone of the text indicates that the GDP may be ‘Goal-centred’. In this way
the following matrix (Figure 9) can be constructed.
Human Relations Model LR: Mentor – shows consideration SO: Reactive Internal Focus
F l e x i b i l i t y
Open Systems Model IE: Innovation and Change; Change Ends: Growth, Resource acquisition; External support Means: Adaptability; Readiness LR: Innovator; Broker SO: Proactive MC: Transformational – stimulates change MIS: Environmental scanning; Inter-organisational linking
SO: Reactive MC: Informational – provides facts Internal Process Model
C o n t r o l
External Focus IE: Task accomplishment Means: Planning; Goal-setting Ends: Productivity; Efficiency LR: Producer – task orientated, work focused MC: Instructional – action orientated GDP: Goal-centred process, Rational Goal Model
Figure 9. CVF mapping of 1996 Annual Report text
4.3.4.1 Summary of 1996 annual report.
The text of the Chief Executive’s forward indicates that the organisation is
operating largely in the OSM (external focus with flexibility) with strong elements of
the RGM (external focus with control). The least focused model is the HRM (internal
focus with flexibility) followed by the IPM (internal focus with control). The focus is
mainly external with both flexibility and control. ‘Structure’ (S), ‘Interpersonal
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Relations’ (IR) and ‘Managerial Information Systems characteristics’ (MIS-SC) were
not indicated by the text. Significant in this text is the absence of HRM and IPM
attributes. The analysis may then be represented graphically as; 1) a figure (see
Figure 9, above) and 2) a table (see Appendix D, Table D4).
4.3.5 Annual Report: 2004
The institution’s Annual Report can now be found on-line. The 2004 report is
two volumes of a combined total of 119 pages with 30 pages given over to tracking
academic travel (destinations and costs). Forty-two pages in Volume 2 and five pages
in Volume 1 were assigned to the financial matters. The second page to Volume 1
includes four paragraphs under the headings, “teaching”, “research”, “community
service” and “resources” containing 18 bullet points of which six points provided
financial statements. The rest of the page is taken up with two graphs indicating
revenue and income. There is also a report from the Council written by the
Chancellor consisting of seven paragraphs of which the majority of the writing is
related to those closest to the position of Chancellor, that is, the State Education
Minister, the Council, and the Vice-Chancellor. In this instant the Chancellor’s
predecessor is also mentioned. Between this page and the Vice-Chancellor’s
introduction to the document are two pages, one already reviewed above, and the
other concerning the external focus on the past, present, and future for the institution.
Mapping the text onto the CVF matrix sees the ‘IE’ focus fall strongly into
the RGM through the focus on ‘Task accomplishment’. There are also elements of
‘Change’ (OSM), ‘Stability’ and ‘Control’ (IPM), and ‘People’ (HRM) as indicators
of the organisation’s ‘IE’ in the text. The ‘Ends’ to which the organisational means
are directed involve ‘Resources acquisition’ (OSM)…:
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“… we reformulated our budget mechanisms and took some early steps toward the better integration of our future needs for physical and virtual infrastructure.” (Paragraph 9)
… ‘External support’ (IPM)…:
… the preparation for the implementation of major Commonwealth Government reforms to the university sector in general, and the funding of undergraduate education in particular... (Paragraph 3)
… and strongly directed at ‘Control’ (IPM) in terms of ‘Productivity’ and
‘Efficiency’ (RGM) as evidenced in this statement:
We also moved to a much clearer set of key performance measures for the University. (Paragraph 10)
There are also elements of ‘Stability’ (IPM):
The direction of change in the higher education sector, including but not restricted to the reforms initiated by the Commonwealth Government, underlines the importance of the trajectory upon which [the University] has been developing for some years. (Paragraph 4)
The ‘Means’ through which the various ‘IE’ was to be achieved is predominantly
‘Planning’ and ‘Goal-setting’. Of the 21 paragraphs eight were given over to
highlighting these organisational mechanisms. For example:
Our task in 2004 was to translate this vision into detailed plans and actions. (Paragraph 7)
In comparison, to a lesser extent there were elements of ‘Adaptability’ and
‘Readiness’ (OSM) in the text…:
The direction of change in the higher education sector, including but not restricted to the reforms initiated by the Commonwealth Government, underlines the importance of the trajectory upon which [the University] has been developing for some years. (Paragraph 4)
In terms of ‘LR’ there were elements of ‘Mentor –showing consideration’ (HRM)…:
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It is a great privilege to work alongside such a committed and able group of people and I extend my thanks to all for their efforts and achievements in 2004. (Paragraph 21)
… ‘Innovator – envisions change’ (OSM) and ‘Coordinator- maintains structure’
(IPM)…:
The direction of change in the higher education sector, including but not restricted to the reforms initiated by the Commonwealth Government, underlines the importance of the trajectory upon which [the University] has been developing for some years. (Paragraph 4)
… ‘Monitor – collects information’ (IPM)…:
We also moved to a much clearer set of key performance measures for the University. (Paragraph 10)
… ‘Director – provides structure’ (RGM)…:
Our task in 2004 was to translate this vision into detailed plans and actions. (Paragraph 7)
… and ‘Broker – resources orientated’ (OSM)…:
… we reformulated our budget mechanisms and took some early steps toward the better integration of our future needs for physical and virtual infrastructure. (Paragraph 9)
… both human and material resources (OSM):
… and development of a major program to build research capacity through new appointments both at the professorial and lecturer levels.” Paragraph 16: “Construction of the $50 million … facility also began in 2004. (Paragraph 17)
In terms of ‘Structure’ (S) the text indicates the development of ‘Vertical
coordination’ notably in the organisational attribute of formal planning as exampled
in the following extract:
Our task in 2004 was to translate this vision into detailed plans and actions. (Paragraph 7)
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There is no indication in the text of any of the elements of ‘IR’ for any quadrant. The
‘SO’ is reactive to external stimuli such as government reforms and proactive in its
internal processes. The text indicates that the ‘MC’ is operating across the
‘Transformational – stimulate change’ (OSM) and ‘Informational – provides facts’
(IPM) categories with elements of the ‘Instructional – directs action’ (RGM)
category. The ‘MIS’ transgress the quadrants of the OSM (‘Environmental
scanning’, ‘Inter-organisational linking’), IPM (‘Internal monitoring’, ‘Internal
controlling’, ‘Record keeping’), and RGM (‘Forecasting’). In terms of the ‘MIS-SC’
there are elements of ‘Standardised’ information (IPM), ‘Integrated systems’ for
quantitative, time and accurate information (RGM):
Paragraph 6: “This was set out in the [the University blueprint], approved by Council in late 2003.” Paragraph 7: “Our task in 2004 was to translate this vision into detailed plans and actions.” Paragraph 9: “In the process, we reformulated our budget mechanisms…” Paragraph 10: “We also moved to a much clearer set of key performance measures for the University.”
The ‘GDP’ of the organisation as indicated by this text suggest a focus primarily on a
‘Data-based process’ of accountability of decisions (IPM), with elements of
‘Adaptable process’ (OSM), and ‘Goal-centred process’ (RGM). In this way the
following matrix (Figure 10) can be constructed.
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Human Relations Model IE: People LR: Mentor – shows consideration Internal Focus
F l e x i b i l i t y
Open Systems Model IE: Change Ends: Resource acquisition; External support Means: Adaptability; Readiness LR: Innovator; Broker SO: Proactive MC: Transformational – stimulates change MIS: Environmental scanning; Inter-organisational linking GDP: Adaptable process
IE: Stability; Control Ends: Stability; Control LR: Monitor, Coordinator S: Vertical – formal planning SO: Reactive MC: Informational – provides facts MIS: Internal monitoring; Internal controlling; Record keeping MIS-SC: Standardised GDP: Data-based process Internal Process Model
C o n t r o l
External Focus IE: Task accomplishment Ends: Productivity; Efficiency Means: Planning; Goal-setting LR: Director – provides structure MC: Instructional – directs action GDP: Goal-centred process, MIS: Forecasting MIS-SC: Integrated systems, quantitative, time and accurate information GDP: Goal-centred Rational Goal Model
Figure 10. CVF mapping of 2004 Annual Report text
4.3.5.1 Summary of 2004 annual report.
The Vice-Chancellor’s introduction to the Annual Report for 2004 are a blend
of internal and external foci with an overarching concern to have goals and plans in
place to deal with the external influences. The HRM (internal focus with flexibility)
is weakest, with the OSM (external focus with flexibility) slightly stronger emphasis,
while the remaining two quadrants are more strongly represented in the text. Both the
IPM (internal focus with control) and the RGM (external focus with control) are
evenly distributed across the matrix. As with most of the other reports there is an
absence of the ‘IR’ data in the text. Significant in this text is the absence of cultural
focus in the HRM. The analysis of the text may then be represented graphically as; 1)
a figure (see Figure 10, above) and 2) a table (see Appendix D, Table D5).
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4.3.6 Archival Material: Comparison of Reports - 1966-2004
The five graphic representations (Figures 6 to 10, above) can be compared
with each other in order to assist in looking at the organisational foci as determined
by the CVF matrix, which will highlight historical shifts in the culture of the
organisation. The process mapped attributes identified in the text into their categories
which in turn were placed into the appropriate quadrant. Quadrants were graded on a
spectrum strongest to weakest in terms of cultural emphasis for each year. Quadrants
(and their categories) were also compared from year to year to determine cultural
shifts. The following section looks at the shifts associated with each quadrant.
Of the four quadrants, the OSM was the most consistent throughout the five
decades. The categories that created that consistency for the OSM were ‘Change’ x 5
[years] (IE), ‘Adaptability’ x 5 (Means), ‘Growth’ x 4 (Ends), ‘Broker’ x 5 and
‘Innovator’ x 3 (LR), ‘Proactive’ x 4 (SO), ‘Inter-organisational linking’ x 5 and
‘Environmental scanning’ x 4, and ‘Adaptable process’ x 3 (GDP). According to
Quinn and Spreitzer (1991), this would mean that the organisation had a
developmental culture and was operating to maintain flexibility with an external
focus. It would be a dynamic and entrepreneurial place, where the head of the
organisation (or management) is an innovator or risk taker, and where the “glue” is a
commitment to innovation and development with an emphasis on growth and
acquiring new resources. There would be flexibility, decentralisation, expansion,
growth, and development, innovation and change with creative problem solving
processes. An organisation operating solely in this quadrant would also be a
“tumultuous anarchy” (Quinn, 1988).
The remaining three quadrants contain more movement than the OSM
quadrant, which has remained relatively stable across the five decades represented.
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Looking at the HRM the five graphics indicate that the organisations were operating
strongest in this quadrant in 1976 and 1986 and to a lesser extent in 1966. The HRM
is represented weakest in the texts in 1996 and 2004. An organisation operating
within the parameters of the HRM, according to Quinn and Spreitzer (1991, p. 118)
would have a group culture and would be a “very personal place, like an extended
family”. There would be an emphasis on human resources. The head (or
management) of the organisation would be mentor- or sage-like and the “glue”
would be loyalty and tradition. Participation, open discussion, empowerment of
employees to act, assessment of employees concerns and ideas would be
characteristics of this organisation in order to create human relations, teamwork and
cohesion. However, an organisation operating solely in this quadrant has been
characterised as operating like an “irresponsible country club” (Quinn, 1988).
The 2004 and 1986 organisations were operating with the most attributes of
the IPM, which had many similarities, namely ‘IE: Stability’, ‘LR: Monitor’, ‘S:
Vertical’, ‘SO: Reactive’, ‘MC: Informational’, ‘MIS: Internal monitoring’, ‘MIS:
Internal controlling’, ‘MIS: Record keeping’, ‘MIS-SC: Standardised’, and ‘GDP:
Data-based process’. The 1966 and 1976 organisations were operating with two
categories of the IPM, that is, elements of the ‘LR’ and ‘MC’. The ‘MC:
Informational – provides facts’ remained consistent across the five texts and the ‘LR’
qualities of ‘Coordinator’ was present in three of the five texts. This means that the
years that were strongest in the IPM quadrant were 1986 and 2004, followed in
strength by the similarly placed 1966 and 1976 texts with 1996 the weakest.
Quinn and Spreitzer (1991) offer that an organisation operating in the IPM
model would have an hierarchical culture which was a “very formalized and
structured place” (p. 118). The head or management of the organisation would
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operate as a coordinator or an organiser and the “glue” is the formal rules and
policies. This organisation would have an emphasis on permanence and stability. It
would be an organisation with a focus on control, centralisation, routinisation,
formalisation and structure, and predictable performance outcomes (Quinn &
Spreitzer, 1991). Such an organisation operating solely in this quadrant would be a
“frozen bureaucracy” (Quinn, 1988).
The five texts indicated the shifting nature of the organisations in terms of the
RGM. Neither 1966 nor 1976 offered much in the way of attributes pertaining to the
RGM. The 1966 organisation, according to the archival text, was almost void of any
RGM cultural tendencies, showing only the ‘SO: neither reactive nor proactive’. The
1986, 1996 and 2004 texts indicate a strengthening in this quadrant with a number of
same attributes. For example, the ‘IE: Task accomplishment’, ‘Means: Planning’,
‘Means: Goal-setting’, and ‘GDP: Goal-centred process’ were consistent in the three
texts.
An organisation with a cultural emphasis of the RGM quadrant according to
Quinn and Spreitzer (1991) would have a rational culture and would be a “very
production orientated place” (p. 118). Such an organisation would display cultural
practices such as being task focused; it would see accomplishment and goal
achievement, direction, objective setting and goal clarity as valued enterprises.
Efficiency, productivity, profitability, outcome excellence and quality are also values
it would seek to attain. The head (or management) of the organisation would be seen
as a producer or technician and the “glue” that binds the functionality has a task and
goal focus with an emphasis on competition and achievement in the market place.
Such an organisation operating solely in this quadrant has been characterised as an
“oppressive sweat shop” (Quinn, 1988).
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To understand shifting cultural values it may be necessary to look at what is
there and what is absent in the matrices. For instance in 2004 can be seen the
emergence of evidence that the organisation is valuing ‘MIS: Forecasting’ an
attribute not seen at any other time. Also between 1976 and 1986 the lower or
‘southerly’ half of the matrix has filled substantially. Between 1986 and 1996 there is
an absence of a number of attributes associated with the HRM. For example there is
no longer evidence of the ‘Means: Development of human resources’, ‘Ends:
Cohesion; Morale’, ‘LR: Facilitator’, ‘MC: Relational’, ‘MIS: Computer-aided
instructing; Interpersonal communicating and conferencing; Group decision
supporting’, or ‘GDP: Participatory process; Supportability of decision’.
Overall the shift from 1966 to 1976 can be seen in the strengthening of the
HRM values and an emergence of RGM values. Between 1976 and 1986 the
difference between these years can be seen in the overall organisational emphasis in
values associated with all quadrants. Between 1986 and 1996 the shift can be seen in
the loss of values associated with the HRM and the IPM and between 1996 and 2004
there is a strengthening of the IPM leaving the HRM as the only undervalued cultural
model.
4.4 Phase 2: Interviews
All participants (n = 12) in this phase of the study were drawn solely from
one faculty and are representative of two organisational spheres, academic (‘Ac’, n =
7) and non-academic (‘N-Ac’, n = 5), with an even distribution across genders.
Interviewee comments were mapped onto the CVF matrix. A line-by-line analysis of
each transcript targeted comments that aligned with the attributes within the matrix.
In this way a numerical quality could be given to each attribute, which in turn built
categorical depth towards determining quadrant strength. Quadrant strength was then
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placed on a spectrum from strongest to weakest. Interview data examples are
provided sporadically here (see below) to indicate how the matrices were mapped.
4.4.1 Interview Results: Academic Group
Comparing the Academic group (n = 7) by quadrants over a spectrum from
strongest to weakest, sees the IPM (frequency = 58.5) the strongest followed by the
RGM (frequency = 42.5), the OSM (frequency = 35.5) and finally to the weakest the
HRM (frequency = 17.5). The following section looks at comparing the quadrants in
terms of the frequency of attribute in each category.
Table 12. Quadrant by attribute frequency: Academic Group
Group
HRM quadrant by
attribute frequency
OSM quadrant by
attribute frequency
IPM quadrant by
attribute frequency
RGM quadrant by
attribute frequency
Ac (n = 7) 17.5 35.5 58.5 42.5
The perceptions of the academic group (n = 7) provided descriptions of
attributes (n = 154) across ten of the twelve categories. The most strongly
represented quadrant is the IPM quadrant. Of these 154 attributes the most were
placed into the category IR (n = 27.5). This category is spread across two quadrants,
the IPM and RGM. Of the 27.5 IR attributes, the highest number (14) is for ‘higher
levels of conflict’ followed by 10.5 for ‘lower levels of morale’. As exampled here:
Yep some have just completely left and said that, ‘Universities are fucked’. Not the places they want to be in any more. And others have gone to institutions where they think they'll get a better deal. (Ac4, Response 43)
When academics offered any perceptions on the ‘Structure’ of the
organisation they described a ‘Vertical coordination’ (4) orientation. They thought
that the leadership (or management) was operating in a ‘Monitor’ mode where the
organisation was interested in collecting information. This aligned with their views
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about the ‘Means’ through which the organisation achieved its ends which was
through ‘Information management’ (4). It follows that the academics saw the
organisation’s MIS as focussing on ‘Internal monitoring’ (7), ‘Internal controlling’
(1) and ‘Record keeping’ (6) with the MIS –SC as being ‘Standardised’ (1) and the
GDP as being ‘Data-based’ (2). The academics viewed this organisation using terms
such as ‘Bureaucratic’ (3) and ‘Top-down’ (1). There is an absence of perceptions of
the organisation’s ‘Strategic orientation’, ‘Managerial communications’ ‘Ends’ and
‘Ideological emphasis’.
The next most attributed quadrant is the RGM (n = 42.5). Academic
perceptions described attributes that were strongest in the IR category (as already
described above). Their perceptions suggested that the organisation’s ‘Ends’ were
operating with an emphasis on ‘Productivity’ (4) and ‘Efficiency’ (4). For example:
So the teaching has tended to be, it's about doing more with less. (Ac7, Response 9)
The LR qualities they described were ‘Producer’ (2) and ‘Director’ (1) with a
‘Goal-centred process’ (1). They described the organisation using terms such as
‘Driven’ (1) and ‘Quality’ (2). There is an absence of perceptions describing the
organisation’s ‘Strategic orientation’ and ‘Managerial communications’, ‘Structure’,
‘Ends’ or ‘Ideological emphasis’.
The OSM with 36 attributes described is the next strongest quadrant. The
academics’ perceptions were strongest in the ‘Ideological emphasis’ (15) which they
described as focusing on ‘Innovation and change’ (6) and Change’ (9). For instance:
Um for me having been here a short period of time, compared to a lot of my colleagues, um I've and I'll say this, I've seen massive changes, I think in the way the place operates. (Ac6, Response 54)
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They saw the ‘Ends as being resources acquiring (2) and relying on ‘External
support’ with the ‘Means’ (2) being attained through ‘Adaptability’ and ‘Readiness’.
The LR for these organisational foci was ‘Innovator’ (1) and ‘Broker’ (7). It was
thought in terms of the IR (2) there was ‘Higher morale’, and ‘Higher levels of leader
credibility’. Some saw the MIS (2) as having an emphasis on ‘Inter-organisational
linking’, although the MIS could lead to ‘Doubt and argument promoting’ (1)
behaviours. The MIS-SC was ‘Ad hoc’ (2) and the term used to describe the
organisation was ‘Entrepreneurial’ (1) although ‘corporate’ (12) was most used.
There is an absence of perceptions describing the organisation’s ‘Strategic
orientation’, ‘Managerial communications’, ‘Structure’, or ‘Group decision
processes’.
The weakest cultural tendencies were in the HRM quadrant with 17 attributes
described and perceived by the academics. The strongest category was in the ‘MIS-
SC’ (7) where the academic staff described the characteristics of the systems as
having ‘User controllability’ (4), was ‘Personalised’ (1), and had elements of
‘Convenience’ (2). For example in the description provided by this academic:
And if you've got a social context that's really entrepreneurial and market driven then ICTs are taken up in some ways. But in terms of my work as an academic the computer's totally changed my way of work. I think for better and for worse. I don't think it's just all bad and I don't think it's all good. Some people lament the fact that we all communicate with one another, you know someone in the office 2 doors down via email. But sometimes that can be, that's quick and efficient rather than getting caught up in conversations and lengthy conversations. You can say, "Okay I need to send out an email to that person. Sure I could go knock on their door and tell them" But when I do know on their door I rather then talk to them and I'm, now might not be appropriate. You know even a telephone conversation, so and of course communicate with colleagues overseas and interstate. And um to say nothing of the teaching, with PowerPoint and access to research. So I think I actually quite like having the um the facilities that a computer brings. It enables me work much more from home much more easily. Hmm so I think ICTs offer a great deal to me as an academic. (Ac7, Response 45)
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The MIS (5) was described as being, ‘Computer-aided instructing’ (2) with
aspects of ‘Interpersonal communicating and conferencing’ (3). There were also
descriptions of the LR as being that of a ‘Mentor’ (2) who is ‘Caring’ (1) and ‘Shows
consideration (1). The ‘Means’ through which the organisation achieved its ends was
described as being through ‘Training’ (1) with aspects of the ‘Development of
human resources’ (1). There is an absence of perceptions describing the
organisation’s ‘Strategic orientation’, ‘Managerial communications’, ‘Structure’,
‘Ends’, ‘Ideological emphasis’, Group decision processes’ and ‘Common terms’.
This analysis may then be represented graphically as; 1) a figure (see Figure
11, below) and 2) a table (see Appendix D, Table D6).
Human Relations Model Means: Training & development of human resources LR: Mentor – Caring (1); Shows consideration (1) IR: Higher morale (1); Higher levels of leader credibility (1) MIS: Computer-aided instructing (2); Interpersonal communicating and conferencing (3) MIS-SC: User controllability (4), Personalised (1), Convenience (2) Internal Focus
F l e x i b i l i t y
Open Systems ModelIE: Innovation & change (6); Change (9) Ends: resources acquisition (2); External support (2) Means: Adaptability (1); Readiness (1) LR: Innovator (1); Broker (7) IR: Higher morale (1); Higher levels of leader credibility (1) MIS: Inter-organisational linking (1); Doubt and argument promoting (1) MIS-SC: Ad hoc usage Terms: Entrepreneurial
Means: Information management (4) LR: Monitor (2) S: Vertical (4) IR: Low morale (21); Low levels of leader credibility (1); High levels of conflict (28); Resistance to change (5) MIS: Internal monitoring (7), Internal controlling (1), Record keeping (6) MIS-SC: Standardised (1) GDP: Data-based process (2) Common Terms: Bureaucratic (3); Top-down (1) Internal Process Model
C o n t r o l
External Focus Ends: Productivity (4), Efficiency (4) LR: Producer (2); Director (1) IR: Low morale (21); Low levels of leader credibility (1); High levels of conflict (28); Resistance to change (5) GDP: Goal-centred process (1) Terms: Driven (1); Quality (2) Rational Goal Model
Figure 11. Organisational attributes by CVF quadrant: Academic perceptions
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4.4.2 Interview Results: Non-academic Group.
Comparing the Non-academic group (n = 5) by quadrants over a spectrum
from strongest to weakest, sees the IPM (frequency = 34.5) the strongest followed by
the OSM (frequency = 30), the HRM (frequency = 19) and finally to the weakest the
RGM (frequency = 11.5). The following section looks at comparing the group’s
quadrant in terms of the frequency of attribute in each category.
Table 13. Quadrant by attribute frequency: Non-Academic Group
Group
HRM quadrant by
attribute frequency
OSM quadrant by
attribute frequency
IPM quadrant by
attribute frequency
RGM quadrant by
attribute frequency
Non-Ac (n = 5) 19 30 34.5 11.5
The perceptions of the Non-academic group provided descriptions and
perceptions of attributes (n = 65) across ten of the twelve categories. The IMP
quadrant was the most strongly represented of the quadrants. Of the 65 attributes the
most fell into the MIS (15) category. Of the 15 MIS attributes, the highest number
(7) is for ‘Record keeping’ followed by six for ‘Internal monitoring’ and ‘Internal
controlling (2). As evidenced here:
I probably instigate a lot of the forms. I'm a form filler-outer-er I like forms it keeps order. Um but I suppose a lot of admin people probably like forms. I think that's one thing the academics don't like is forms. Um yeah there seems to be a lot more processes, a lot more hoops to jump through… (N-Ac5, Response 104)
The next strongest category was the GDP where the perceptions of the staff
described a focus on a ‘Data-based process’ (8). They saw the ‘Means’ through
which the organisation achieved its ends was through ‘Information management (3)
and ‘Communication’ (2). The LR was seen as a ‘Monitor’ (1) who collects
information. The MIS-SC was ‘Standardised’ (1) providing reliable, stable, precise
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and detailed information. The category of IR (also spread across the RGM quadrant)
saw staff describe ‘High levels of conflict’ (2), and ‘Low morale’ (1). The term
‘Bureaucratic’ (3) was used to describe this organisation. There is an absence of
perceptions describing the organisation’s ‘Strategic orientation’, ‘Managerial
communications’, ‘Structure’, ‘Ends’, and ‘Ideological emphasis’.
The next strongest quadrant as represented by the Non-academic descriptions
and perceptions is the OSM (n = 30). This quadrant’s strongest characteristics were
in the ‘Ends’ (9) category where ‘Growth (1), Resources acquisition (5) and
‘External support’ were emphasised by the staff as the ends the organisation was
aspiring towards. This can be seen in the following example:
... we've got a fair few labs…we've only got them over the last two years. Before that it was always a battle for labs. Now the faculty itself is making, creating space by pushing a lot of the…um…the admin staff, and the lecturers who are part of the research group across to [other places]. You've got more office space over there, to create more labs for the students here. So certainly the students in our Faculty get a lot more resources, but I look back two years ago, in this building there probably would have been one lab. Now there's probably about ten. So, it's good in that regard for the students here. (N-Ac2, Response 76)
Staff perceived the organisation as having an IE (4) which focused on
‘Innovation and Change’ (3) and ‘Change’ (1). The LR characteristics were seen as
comprising aspects of the ‘Innovator’ (5) who was clever and envisioned change, and
the ‘Broker’ (2) who was resource orientated. They ‘Structure’ (7) was seen as
comprising ‘Non-routine task technology’ where interdependent work flow occurred.
There were elements of ‘Inter-organisational linking’ (2) in the MIS and ‘Ad hoc
usage (1) in the MIS-SC. There is an absence of perceptions describing the
organisation’s ‘Strategic orientation’, ‘Managerial communications’, ‘Means’,
‘Group decision processes’ and the use of ‘Common terms’ associated with this
quadrant.
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Of the two weakest quadrants, the HRM (n = 19) was most represented in the
staff descriptions and perceptions. In this quadrant the MIS attributes of ‘Computer-
aided instructing (2) and ‘Interpersonal communicating and conferencing’ (4) were
strongest. As in the following example:
I mean I think it's... ah technology is now a tool which can make …a university an even better environment. In the sense you can access to your notes on-line, or access to all sorts of administrative things on-line, but which are self-servicing. Take a lot of hard work and waiting out of that sort of stuff, you know tutorial allocation all of that stuff. So the administrative side can be a lot easier and the teaching side can be a lot more effective. I mean, you know you can actually come to university when you want to. When you want to actually have interaction rather than just being…you know if you choose not to attend a lecture you don't have to miss the notes and things like that. So I think technology can be …used very constructively. (N-Ac3, Response 35)
The MIS-SC (5) can be seen as possessing aspects of ‘User controllability’
(1), as being ‘Personalised’ (1) and convenient (3). Some staff thought the
organisational leadership displayed elements of ‘LR’ attributed to ‘Mentor’ (2) as it
showed caring and consideration as well as ‘Facilitator’ (1) due to its facilitation of
interaction. From the descriptions and perceptions of some Non-academic staff the
‘Common terms’ that could be attributed to this organisation were ‘Family’ (2) and
‘Collegial’ (3). There is an absence of perceptions describing the organisation’s
‘Strategic orientation’, ‘Managerial communications’, ‘Means’, ‘Ends’, ‘Structure’,
Ideological emphasis’, and ‘Group decision processes’
The weakest quadrant is the RGM with 11.5 attributes mapped across the 12
categories. ‘Ends’ (3) and ‘Common Terms’ (3) share the strongest categories, with
LR (2) and ‘Means’ (2), the next strongest, followed by IR (1.5). There is an absence
of perceptions describing the organisation’s ‘Strategic orientation’, ‘Managerial
communications’, ‘Ends’, ‘Structure’, Ideological emphasis’, ‘Management
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Information Systems’, Management Information Systems characteristics’ and ‘Group
decision processes’.
This analysis may then be represented graphically as; 1) a figure (see Figure
12, below) and 2) a table (see Appendix D, Table D6).
Human Relations Model LR: Mentor (2); facilitator (1) MIS: Computer-aided instructing (2); Interpersonal communicating and conferencing (4) MIS-SC: User controllability (1), Personalised (1), Convenience (3) Internal Focus
F l e x i b i l i t y
Open Systems ModelIE: Innovation & change (3); Change (1) Ends: Growth (1); Resources acquisition (5); External support (3) LR: Innovator (5); Broker (2) S: Non-routine task technology (7) MIS: Inter-organisational linking (2); MIS-SC: Ad hoc usage (1)
Means: Information management (3); Communication (2) LR: Monitor (1) IR: Low morale (.5); High levels of conflict (1) MIS: Internal monitoring (6), Internal controlling (2), Record keeping (7) MIS-SC: Standardised (1) GDP: Data-based process (8) Common Terms: Bureaucratic (3) Internal Process Model
C o n t r o l
External Focus Ends: Productivity (1), Efficiency (2) Means: Planning (1); Goal-setting (1) LR: Producer (2); IR: Low morale (.5); High levels of conflict (1) Terms: Driven (1); Quality (2) Rational Goal Model
Figure 12. Organisational attributes by CVF quadrant: Non-academic perceptions
4.4.3 Interview Results: Comparison of Groups
There are a number of alignments across the quadrants in terms of categories
and attributes in those categories. Alignment can occur in both the presence of, and
the absence of, certain categories or attributes of categories. There are also non-
alignments between groups across the CVF matrix. Comparing the two groups by
quadrants over a spectrum from strongest to weakest, sees the IPM (combined
frequency = 93) the strongest followed by the OSM (combine frequency = 65.5), the
RGM (combine frequency = 54) and finally to the weakest the HRM (combine
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frequency =36.5). The following section looks at comparing the groups by quadrant
(strongest to weakest) in terms of the frequency of attribute in each category.
Table 14. Quadrant by attribute frequency: Comparison of groups
Group
HRM quadrant by
attribute frequency
OSM quadrant by
attribute frequency
IPM quadrant by
attribute frequency
RGM quadrant by
attribute frequency
Ac (n = 7) 17.5 35.5 58.5 42.5 Non-Ac (n = 5) 19 30 34.5 11.5
Comparing the groups, Non-academic (frequency =34.5) and Academic
(frequency = 58.5) in the strongest quadrant IPM shows alignment in ‘Means’ (5 x
N-Ac; 4 x Ac), ‘LR’ (1 x N-Ac; 2 x Ac), ‘IR’ (3 x N-Ac; 55 x Ac), ‘MIS’ (15 x N-
Ac; 14 x Ac), ‘MIS-SC’ (1 x N-Ac; 1 x Ac), ‘GDP’ (8 x N-Ac; 2 x Ac), and
‘Common terms’ (3 x N-Ac; 4 x Ac). Both groups saw the ‘Means’ through which
the organisation was achieving its goals as being through ‘Information management’
(4 x Ac; 3 x N-Ac). They both thought that the ‘LR’ showed characteristics of the
‘Monitor’ in terms of the collection of information (2 x Ac; 1 x N-Ac). There were
strong similarities in the ‘MIS’ and ‘MIS-SC’ categories where ‘Internal Monitoring’
(6 x N-Ac; 7 x Ac), ‘Internal Controlling’ (2 x N-Ac; 1 x Ac), ‘Record Keeping’ (7 x
N-Ac; 6 x Ac), and ‘Standardised’ (1 x N-Ac; 1 x Ac) were closely aligned. Another
alignment occurred in the ‘Common Terms’ category where both groups described
the organisation as being ‘Bureaucratic’ (3 x N-Ac; 3 x Ac).Furthermore, there were
two descriptions or perceptions concerning the ‘Data-based processes’ of the
organisation provided by the Academic group, and eight provided by the Non-
academic group.
Further alignment occurs in the absences of categories. There was no
indication in the interview material of elements pertaining to ‘Ideological emphasis’,
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‘Ends’, ‘LR – coordinator’, ‘Strategic Orientation’, or ‘Managerial Communications’
categories.
There are also a number of non-alignments across the quadrant. These
occurred in the ‘Means’ where the Non-Academic group offered ‘Communication’
(x 2) as a further mode through which the organisation achieved its ends, and in the
‘Structure’ (x 4) where the Academics perceived or described the organisation as
having a ‘Vertical’ organisational structure with routine task technology, which is
supported by the use of ‘Top-down’ (1) in the ‘Common terms’ category.
The next strongest quadrant with a combined total of frequency of attributes
(n = 65.5) is the OSM where the Non-academic frequency equals 30 and Academic
frequency equals 35.5. The alignment across the groups relative to this quadrant can
be found in the ‘IE’ (4 x N-Ac; 15 x Ac), ‘Ends’ (8 x N-Ac; 4 x Ac), ‘LR’ (7 x N-Ac;
8 x Ac), ‘MIS’ (2 x N-Ac; 1 x Ac), and ‘MIS-SC’ (1 x N-Ac; 2 x Ac). Both groups
saw the organisation in terms of its emphasis on ‘IE: Innovation and change’ (3 x N-
Ac; 6 x Ac), and ‘IE: Change’ (1 x N-Ac; 9 x Ac), ‘Ends: Resource acquisition’ (5 x
N-Ac; 2 x Ac), and ‘Ends: External support’ (3 x N-Ac; 2 x Ac). They both viewed
their leadership’s qualities as being an ‘Innovator’ (5 x N-Ac; 1 x Ac), and a
‘Broker’ (2 x N-Ac; 7 x Ac). The remaining alignments occur in the absences of
categories. Neither group offered perceptive or descriptive evidence pertaining to the
‘Strategic orientation’ of the organisation, its ‘Managerial communications’ nor its
‘Group decision processes’.
Non-alignment occurred in the categories ‘Means: Adaptability’ (0 x N-Ac; 1
x Ac), and ‘Means: Readiness’ (0 x N-Ac; 1 x Ac), ‘Ends: Growth’ (1 x N-Ac; 0 x
Ac), ‘Structure: non-routine task technology and interdependent work flow of the
organisation’ (7 x N-Ac; 0 x Ac), ‘IR: High morale’ (0 x N-Ac; 1 x Ac), ‘IR: High
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leader credibility’ (0 x N-Ac; 1 x Ac), ‘MIS: Doubt and argument promoting’ (0 x N-
Ac; 1 x Ac), and ‘Common terms: Entrepreneurial’ (0 x N-Ac; 1 x Ac).
As previously stated, the next quadrant in the spectrum strongest to weakest
according to the frequency of attributes (combined total = 54) described or perceived
by the groups is the RGM. The alignments occurred in the ‘Ends’ (3 x N-Ac; 8 x
Ac), ‘LR’ (2 x N-Ac; 2 x Ac), and ‘Common terms’ (3 x N-Ac; 3 x Ac). In these
categories the frequency of attributes found similarities in ‘Ends: Productivity’ (1 x
N-Ac; 4 x Ac), ‘Ends: Efficiency’ (2 x N-Ac; 4 x Ac), ‘LR: Producer’ (2 x N-Ac; 2 x
Ac), ‘Common terms: Driven’ (1 x N-Ac; 1 x Ac) and ‘Common terms: Quality’ (2 x
N-Ac; 2 x Ac). Further alignment occurred in the absence of categories. Neither
group offered qualitative evidence in terms of ‘Ideological emphasis’, ‘Structure’,
‘Strategic orientation’, ‘Managerial communications’, ‘Management information
systems’, or ‘Management information systems characteristics’. There was non-
alignment in the categories of ‘Means: Planning and goal-setting’ (2 x N-Ac; 0 x
Ac), ‘LR: Director’ (0 x N-Ac; 1 x Ac), and ‘GDP: Goal-centred process’ (0 x N-Ac;
1 x Ac).
The most striking non-alignment in terms of frequency of description or
perception provided between the two groups is in the ‘IR’ category. While both
groups mentioned aspects of this category (3 x N-Ac; 55 x Ac) it is the discrepancy
between frequencies that needs attention. The Academic group’s descriptions and/or
perceptions relating to this category are significantly different in number to those
offered by the Non-academic group in terms of frequency.
Without the Academic group’s numbers in the comparison across the two
groups the comparison figures align more closely (see Table 15, below) indicating
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some congruence between the two group’s description and perceptions of the
organisational culture/s.
Table 15. Quadrant by attribute frequency (without IR category): All groups
Group
HRM quadrant by
attribute frequency
(without IR category)
OSM quadrant by
attribute frequency
(without IR category)
IPM quadrant by
attribute frequency
(without IR category)
RGM quadrant by
attribute frequency
(without IR category)
Ac (n = 7) 16 35 31 15 Non-Ac (n = 5) 19 30 33 10
Total 35 65 64 25
It may therefore be possible to infer that as the ‘IR’ attributes such as morale,
conflict and leader credibility have emotive qualities they can be interpreted as
reactions to certain organisational emphases or values, which may account for why
they are not mentioned in institutional accounts such as annual reports.
4.4.4 Interview Results: Combined Groups
As Table 16 (below) and Figure 13 (below) show all quadrants are
represented in the interview data. The strongest cultural emphasis is the IPM
quadrant (93.0), followed by the OSM (65.5) the RGM (54), with the weakest
cultural emphasis residing in the HRM quadrant (36.5).
Table 16. Quadrant strength by attribute frequency: All groups
Group
HRM quadrant by
attribute frequency
OSM quadrant by
attribute frequency
IPM quadrant by
attribute frequency
RGM quadrant by
attribute frequency
Ac (n = 7) 17.5 35.5 58.5 42.5 Non-Ac (n = 5) 19.0 30.0 34.5 11.5
Total 36.5 65.5 93.0 54.0
According to Quinn and Spreitzer (1991) and Cameron and Quinn (1999) an
organisation with an emphasis in the IPM quadrant has an “hierarchical culture”.
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Such a culture can be expected to be a “very formalised and structured place” (Quinn
& Spreitzer, 1991, p. 118) where procedures govern people. The leadership (or
management) “pride themselves on being good coordinators and organizers who are
efficiency-minded” (Cameron & Quinn, 1999, p. 82). Maintaining a smooth-running
organisation is most critical and the “glue” that holds the organisation together is
based on formal rules and policies. The long-term emphasis is on permanence,
continuity, order, stability and performance with efficient, smooth operations.
Success is defined in terms of dependable delivery, smooth scheduling, and low costs
with predictable performance outcomes. The management of employees is concerned
with secure employment and predictability of performance. It is an organisation that
focuses on internal maintenance with a need for centralisation, stability and control
(Cameron & Quinn, 1999; Quinn & Spreitzer, 1991). If an organisation was to
operate solely out of this quadrant it could be characterised as a “frozen bureaucracy”
(Quinn, 1988).
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Human Relations Model Means: Development of human resources (1) LR: Mentor – (4);Facilitator (1) IR: Higher morale (1); Higher levels of leader credibility (1) MIS: Computer –aided instruction (4); Interpersonal communicating and conferencing (7) MIS-SC: User controllability (12) Terms: Family (2); Collegial (3) Internal Focus
F l e x i b i l i t y
Open Systems ModelIE: Innovation and Change (9); Change (10) Ends: Growth (1), Resource acquisition (7); External support (5) Means: Adaptability (1); Readiness (1) LR: Innovator (6); Broker (9) S: Non-routine task technology (8) IR: Higher morale (1); Higher levels of leader credibility (1) MIS: Inter-organisational linking (3) MIS-SC: Ad hoc (3) Terms: Entrepreneurial (1)
Means: Information management (7); Communication (2) LR: Monitor (2) S: Vertical coordination (4) IR: Lower morale (22); Lower levels of leadership credibility (1); Higher levels of conflict (24); More resistance to change (5) MIS: Internal monitoring (12); Internal controlling (2); Record keeping (13) MIS-SC: Standardised (3) GDP: Data-based process (10) Terms: Bureaucratic (6); Top-down (1) Internal Process Model
C o n t r o l
External Focus Ends: Productivity (5); Efficiency (6) Means: Planning (1); Goal-setting (1) LR: Producer (4); Director (1) IR: Lower morale (22); Lower levels of leadership credibility (1); Higher levels of conflict (24); More resistance to change (5) GDP: Goal-centred process (1) Terms: Driven (2); Quality (4) Rational Goal Model
Figure 13. All interviewees mapped onto CVF matrix according to frequencies
The next strongest emphasis is in the OSM quadrant (65.5). An organisation
operating out of this quadrant is said to have an ‘adhocracy’ (Cameron & Quinn,
1999) or ‘developmental’ (Quinn & Spreitzer, 1991) culture. Such a culture is a
“dynamic, entrepreneurial, and creative place to work” (Cameron & Quinn, 1999, p.
82). Cameron and Quinn (1999) and Quinn and Spreitzer (1991) believe that such an
organisation would be a place where people “stick their necks out and take risks”.
Where the leadership (or management) are considered risk takers and innovators.
The “glue” is towards commitment to innovation, experimentation and development.
The emphasis is on being at the leading edge, growth, and acquiring resources.
Success is measured in terms of new products and services and being a product and
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service leader is important. The organisation encourages individual initiative and
freedom with creative problem-solving processes. It is an organisation where the
focus is on external positioning with a high degree of flexibility and individuality
(Cameron & Quinn, 1999; Quinn & Spreitzer, 1991).
Following the two strongest quadrants is the RGM quadrant with a frequency
of 54 attributes and categories. An organisation operating out of this quadrant is said
to have a “market” (Cameron & Quinn, 1999) or “rational” (Quinn & Spreitzer,
1991) culture. Such as culture would value results in which the emphasis would be
on “getting the job done” (Cameron & Quinn, 1999, p. 82). As a production
orientated place there would be a focus on tasks, accomplishment and achievement
of organisational goals. The leadership (or management) are “hard drivers… tough
and demanding”, they are producers, and technicians who value competition. The
“glue” that holds such an organisation together is based on the values of winning,
task accomplishment, and achieving organisational goals. Reputation and success are
common concerns. The long-term focus in on competitive actions and achievement
of measurable goals and targets. Success is defined in terms of market share and
market penetration. Common terms associated with this organisation are ‘efficiency’,
‘productivity’, ‘profitability’, ‘outcome excellence’ and ‘quality’. This is an
organisation that focuses on external positioning with a need for internal stability and
control (Cameron & Quinn, 1999; Quinn & Spreitzer, 1991). An organisation
operating solely out of this quadrant has been characterised as an “oppressive sweat
shop” (Quinn, 1988).
The weakest cultural emphasis was in the HRM quadrant with an attribute
and category frequency of 36.5. An organisation operating out of this quadrant is said
to have a “clan” (Cameron & Quinn, 1999) or “group” (Quinn & Spreitzer, 1991)
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culture. Such a culture is a “very personal place, like an extended family” (Quinn &
Spreitzer, 1991, p. 118), where “people share a lot of themselves (Cameron & Quinn,
1999, p. 82). The leadership (or management) is mentor- or sage-like or “perhaps
even parent figures” (Cameron & Quinn, 1999, p. 82). The “glue” that binds the
organisation is based on loyalty and tradition. Commitment is high, employees are
empowered to act, participation is valued, as is open discussion, and employee
concerns and ideas. The organisation emphasises the long-term benefit of human
resources development and attaches great importance to cohesion and morale.
Success is defined in terms of sensitivity to clients and concern for people. The
organisation values teamwork, human relations, cohesion, participation, and
consensus. This is an organisation that focuses on internal maintenance with
flexibility, concern for people, and sensitivity to clients (Cameron & Quinn, 1999;
Quinn & Spreitzer, 1991). An organisation operating solely in this quadrant would
operate like an “irresponsible country club” (Quinn, 1988).
From the analysis of the interview the construction of a CFV-based matrix
depicted as the strongest emphases as being ideologically opposites. If the culture of
an organisation is the personality of the organisation then according to the combined
faculty groups this organisation is schizophrenic. The Academic group were more
likely to perceive the organisation in a north/south balance. The north/south balance
is a more common balance in organisations (Cameron & Quinn, 1999). This can be
seen in the work of Cameron and Quinn where they applied an earlier version of the
OCSI, the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OSAI) to 1000
organisations (Cameron & Quinn, 1999, pp. 18-27). As the quadrants are
ideologically opposed in their diagonal configuration it is less likely to see
organisations with their cultural emphases in the diagonal quadrants. As with the
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survey, it is the Non-Academic group that is showing anomalous tendencies, and as
with the survey, this may be related with the sample size.
4.5 Phase 3: The Survey (OCSI)
Respondents were required to answer 20 questions in the Organisational
Culture Survey Instrument (OCSI) (see Appendix A). The questions were divided
across five dimensions that related to one of four organisational types represented as
“Organisation A”, “Organisation B”, “Organisation C”, and “Organisation D”. The
respondents considered which of the questions related most closely to their
organisation. The organisational types pertain to a particular culture that is described
in greater detail in previous chapters. Those taking part were then asked to distribute
100 points among the four quadrants. The respondents were told that none of the
descriptions was any better than the others; “they are just different”. For each
question, the respondent had to use all 100 points, and an example was provided to
assist.
The OCSI was delivered through the LAN of the university, but restricted to
the faculty through the use of their password. This meant that staff such as research
staff, academic staff, administrative staff, academic managers, and some
postgraduate students with an active staff account were able to log in. However, they
were asked to indicate whether or not they were an ‘academic’ or an ‘administrator’.
Those that did not indicate either group were included in the ‘not defined’ group. A
prize at the local campus café was provided as inducement. This was not considered
as significant in terms of respondent bias (Porter & Whitcomb, 2003). Forty-five
responses were obtained of which 43 responses could be used (Academic n = 28, Not
defined n = 9, Administrator n = 6, Incomplete n = 2).
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Determining exact staff numbers from the data provided by the institution is a
difficult task. The equivalent full-time (EFT) numbers of faculty staff members in
2004 were 221.37, with the number of FTE academic staff at 111.48. Due to the
number of crossover roles that staff had determining numbers remained elusive for
staff engaged in other activities. As with the archival material and the interview data
the analysis will be placed on a spectrum strongest to weakest in terms of the four
CVF quadrants.
4.5.1 The Survey Results: Academic Group
The Academic group indicated that their organisation was operating strongest
as a Rational Goal Model organisation (32.10) (see Figure 14 and Table 17, below).
This group also believed that their organisation was operating fairly evenly across
the Human Relations Model (23.47) and an Internal Process Model (24.12).
Although the Open Systems Model at the mark of 20.3 indicated that this group
thought their organisation was reasonably balanced between the three models.
4.5.2 The Survey Results: Administration Group
The Administration group (n = 6) considered the organisation to be operating
strongest in the Internal Process Model (35.16) followed by the Rational Goal Model
(32.16) quadrants (see Figure 14 and Table 17, below). They indicated that the
organisation operated less strongly out of the Open Systems Model (25.16) and
weakest in the Human Relations Model (7.5). The mark of 7.5 was the lowest of all
the groups and well below the mean (20.33) of all respondents. This group also gave
the highest mark of any of the organisational types, 35.16 for the IPM
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4.5.3 The Survey Results: Not Defined Group
The Not Defined group indicated they perceived their organisation as
operating with a strong RGM culture (see Figure 14 and Table 17, below). The next
strongest culture was the Open Systems Model (26.44) with the Human Relations
Model (19.11) and the Internal Process Model (19.55) evenly spread as the weaker
two of the four models.
4.5.4 The Survey Results: Comparison of Groups Figure 14. Survey: Comparison of groups.
In terms of numerical consistency the RGM is most consistent across groups
(Academics 32.10, Administration 32.16, Not Defined 34.88). The next consistent is
the OSM where the Academic group scored 20.30, the Administration group scored
25.19 and the Not defined group scored 26.44. The next consistent quadrant is the
Org. A Org. B
Org. C Org. D
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
Academics Admin Not defined
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IPM where the Academic group scored 24.12, the Administration group scored 35.16
and the Not Defined group scored 19.55. The weakest quadrant in terms of
consistency of scores is the HRM where the Academic group scored 23.47, the
Administration group scored 7.5 and the Not Defined group scored 19.11. The group
with the highest scores for a quadrant was the Not Defined group with 34.88 (RGM)
while the lowest score, and significantly so, were recorded by the Administration
group in the HRM at 7.5.
Across quadrants the most consistent group was the Academics who scored
20.30 (OSM), 23.47 (HRM), 24.12 (IPM), and 32.10 (RGM). The least consistent
was the Administration group who scored 7.5 (HRM), 25.16 (OSM), 32.16 (RGM),
and 35.16 (IPM). The scores indicate that the Academic group rates their
organisation as operating strongest out of the RGM (32.10), followed by the next
strongest quadrant, the IPM (24.12), and then closely followed by the HRM (23.47)
and the weakest quadrant being the OSM (20.30). The Administration group sees the
organisation as operating strongest as an IPM (35.16) culture, followed by the RGM
(32.16), the OSM (25.16) and the weakest as the HRM (7.5) culture. The Not
Defined group’s scores indicate that they perceive the organisation as operating
strongest in the RGM (34.88), followed by the OSM (26.44) and the IPM (19.55)
with the weakest being the HRM (19.11).
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Table 17. Survey: Comparison of groups by CVF quadrant
Group
Org A (HRM)
Org B (OSM)
Org C (IPM)
Org D (RGM)
Academics (n = 28) 23.47 20.30 24.12 32.10 Administration (n = 6) 7.5 25.16 35.16 32.16 Not Defined (n = 9) 19.11 26.44 19.55 34.88
4.5.4 The Survey Results: Combined Groups
Overall the combined number of respondents (n = 43) indicated that the
organisation was predominantly operating out of the Rational Goal Model quadrant
(32.69), with the Internal Process Model (24.71) being the next strongest culture
followed by the Open Systems Model (22.26) and finally the Human Relation Model
(20.33) as the weakest (see Table 18 and Figure 15, below).
Table 18. Survey: Comparison of groups by quadrant and all groups combined
Group
Org A (HRM)
Org B (OSM)
Org C (IPM)
Org D (RGM)
Academics (n = 28) 23.47 20.30 24.12 32.10 Administration (n = 6) 7.5 25.16 35.16 32.16 Not Defined (n = 9) 19.11 26.44 19.55 34.88 All respondents (n = 43)
20.33
22.26
24.71
32.69
This means that the staff perceived that the organisation as working mostly in
a culture concerned with productivity, efficiency, and planning and goal-setting as
the means through which its functions are achieved. The organisation has an external
focus and is concerned with control of its functions. If an organisation were to
operate solely within this quadrant it could be characterised as oppressive sweat shop
(Quinn & McGrath, 1985; Quinn & Spreitzer, 1991). They also believe that the
organisation is operating least like an organisation with a culture of the Human
Relations Model (HRM). The HRM culture values cohesion and morale with an
emphasis on human resource and training. People are seen not as isolated
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individuals, but as cooperating members of a common social system with a common
stake in what happens. It is a culture of flexibility with an internal focus.
Figure 15. Survey: All respondents combined.
4.6 Comparison of Phases
The descriptive comparison of phases will be conducted in the following
manner. The 2004 Annual Report will be used from the archival material in a direct
three-way comparative analysis with the Interview and Survey results. There will be
a comparison between the results provided by the each group of Academics
(Interview and Survey), between each group of Non-Academics (Non-Academics in
the Interview phase, and Administration and Not Defined in the Survey phase).
There will also be a comparison between the Academics (combined groups) and the
non-academics (combined groups) as well as a comparison between the phases where
the groups have been combined. The rest of the Archival material analysis will
provide support for aspects of the Interview analysis (see Section 4.7). Comparison
Org. A Org. B
Org. C Org. D
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
10
15
20
25
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35
40
10
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40
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between the rest of the Archival material and the Survey results will not be
attempted. There is no direct numerical relationship between the two groups,
however if the numbers are thought of as inferences for the strength of the cultural
emphases then combining the numbers may provide useful for comparative analysis.
4.6.1 Comparison between Academic Groups (Phases 2 and 3)
The Interview Academic group perceived their organisation as operating with
the strongest cultural emphasis within the IPM quadrant, followed by the RGM with
the next strongest being the OSM and the HRM quadrant the weakest emphasis. The
Survey Academic group saw the strongest cultural emphasis in the RGM quadrant
followed by the IMP, the HRM with the OSM quadrant as the weakest cultural
emphasis. This is represented in the following table (Table 19, below) according to
the frequency of attributes and categories along with the (incomparable) numerical
values.
Table 19. Comparison between academic groups (Phases 2 and 3)
Group HRM OSM IPM RGM Academic
(Interviews)
17.50
35.50
58.50
42.50 Emphasis
Strength (ES)
Weakest
Weak
Strongest
Strong Academic (Survey)
23.47
20.30
24.12
32.10
Emphasis Strength (ES)
Weak
Weakest
Strong
Strongest
Total 40.97 55.80 82.62 74.60 Overall
Emphasis Strength (ES)
Weakest
Weak
Strongest
Strong
Table 19 above shows there is non-alignment between these groups in
comparative numerical and emphasis strength for each quadrant. Of course, there can
be no direct comparison made between the numerical values of the interviews and
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the survey. It is only the relative strengths that are being compared here. Although
when considered in terms of the northern (corporate-collegial) and southern
(corporate-mercantile) aspects of the framework there is alignment, with the northern
Human Relations and Open System Models showing weaker emphasis compared
with the southern Internal Process and Rational Goal Models. There is further
discussion on this point in Chapter 5.
Human Relations Model Open Systems Model Group and Phase ES Group and Phase ES
Academic: Interviews Weakest Academic: Interviews Weak Academic: Survey Weak Academic: Survey Weakest
Flex
ibili
ty
Internal Focus External Focus
Group and Phase ES Group and Phase ES Academic: Interviews Strongest Academic: Interviews Strong Academic: Survey Strong Academic: Survey Strongest
Internal Process Model
Con
trol
Rational Goal Model Figure 16. Comparison of phases by axes: Academic groups
A further comparative aspect of the CVF matrix concerns the axes of the
Internal/External axis and Flexibility/Control axis. This then plots the groups in a
north/south orientation in terms of the organisation’s Internal or External focus and
east/west in terms of the Flexibility and Control focus. That is, when the two
quadrants, for example at the top or ‘north’ of the matrix (HRM and OSM), are
combined and the two quadrants at the bottom or ‘south’ of the matrix (IPM and
RGM), are combined then a comparison can be made (see Figure 16, above). When
the two phases are compared in this way there is alignment between the phases.
Looking at the Internal/External focus both groups indicated that their organisation
was operating strongest with an external focus and weakest with an internal focus.
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That is, the Interview Academic group had a combined total of 78 for the two eastern
quadrants (OSM and RGM) and the Survey Academic group had a combined total of
52.40 for its two eastern quadrants (OSM and RGM). This was stronger than the
combined totals for the two western quadrants for both groups (Interview Academic
= 76, Survey Academics 47.59). In terms of the Flexibility/Control axis there was
also alignment. The Survey Academics had a combined total for their north
quadrants (HRM and OSM) of 43.77 while the Interview Academics had a combined
total of 53.00, which were both weaker than their southern quadrants (IPM and
RGM) of 56.22 and 101.00 respectively.
4.6.2 Comparison between Non-academic Groups (Phases 2 and 3)
The Interview Non-Academic group perceived their organisation as operating
with the strongest cultural emphases in the IPM quadrant, followed by the OSM with
the HRM quadrant being weak and the RGM the weakest. The Survey Non-
Academic group (as a combined Administration and Not Defined group) saw the
strongest cultural emphases in the RGM quadrant followed by the IMP, the HRM as
weak and the OSM quadrant as having the weakest cultural emphases.
Table 20. Comparison between non-academic groups (Phases 2 and 3)
Group HRM OSM IPM RGM Non-Academic
(Interviews)
19.00
30.00
34.50
11.50 Emphasis
Strength (ES)
Weak
Strong
Strongest
Weakest Non-Academic
(Survey)
26.61
51.60
54.71
67.04 Emphasis
Strength (ES)
Weakest
Weak
Strong
Strongest Total 45.61 81.60 89.21 78.54
Overall Emphasis
Strength (ES)
Weakest
Strong
Strongest
Weak
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As with the Academic group, Table 21 above shows there is non-alignment
between these groups. These groups show significant non-alignment, notably in the
RGM quadrant and the OSM quadrant. The External/Internal focus axis the
Interview: Non-Academic group (53.50) was strongest in the western quadrants
(HRM and IPM) whereas the Survey: Non-Academic group (118.64) was strongest
in the eastern quadrants (OSM and RGM). This then made the Interview: Non-
Academic group (41.50) weakest in the eastern quadrants (OSM and RGM) and
conversely the Survey: Non-Academic group (81.32) was strongest in the western
quadrants (HRM and IPM).
Human Relations Model Open Systems Model Group and Phase ES Group and Phase ES
Non-Academic: Interviews
Weak Non-Academic: Interviews Strong
Non-Academic: Survey Weakest Non-Academic: Survey Weak
Flex
ibili
ty
Internal Focus External Focus
Group and Phase ES Group and Phase ES Non-Academic: Interviews
Strongest Non-Academic: Interviews Weakest
Non-Academic: Survey Strong Non-Academic: Survey Strongest
Internal Process Model
Con
trol
Rational Goal Model Figure 17. Comparison of phases by axes: Non-academic groups
According to Cameron and Quinn (1999) emphases should be opposed across
the diagonal axes. The Non-Academic group (see Figure 17 above) in the survey
shows congruence with this trait, that is, Weakest in the HRM is diagonally opposed
with Strongest in the RGM quadrant and Weak in the OSM is diagonally opposed in
the IPM quadrant. However, the Non-Academic Interview group shows anomalous
tendencies with the trait.
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4.6.3 Comparison between Combined Groups: Academics and Non-academics
(Phases 2 and 3)
As shown in Table 23 below, three of the four quadrants appear similarly
aligned, with the OSM quadrant indicating non-alignment. In terms of the two axes
there is, however considerable alignment between the groups. The External/Internal
focus axis for the combined Academic group sees the strongest (130.40) in the
eastern quadrants (OSM and RGM) and conversely the weakest (123.59) focus in the
western quadrants (HRM and IPM) align with the combined Non-Academic group.
This group has the strongest focus (160.14) in the eastern quadrants and the weakest
focus (134.21) in the western quadrants. For the Flexibility/Control axis the
combined Academic group showed the strongest (157.22) emphasis in the southern
quadrants with the weakest (96.77) emphasis in the northern quadrants (HRM and
OSM). This aligns with the combined Non-Academic group who had the strongest
focus (167.75) in the southern quadrants with the weakest (127.21) emphasis in the
northern quadrants (HRM and OSM).
Table 21. Combined groups by emphasis strength (ES)
Combined Group
(Interview and Survey)
HRM
OSM
IPM
RGM
Academics
40.97
55.80
82.62
74.60
Emphasis strength (ES)
Weakest
Weak
Strongest
Strong
Non-Academics
45.61
81.60
89.21
78.54
Emphasis strength (ES)
Weakest
Strong
Strongest
Weak
Total 86.58 137.40 171.83 153.14 Overall
Emphasis strength (ES)
Weakest
Weak
Strongest
Strong
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When combined in this way (see Figure 18, below) then a further alignment
occurs, that is, there is alignment between the quadrant strengths of the 2004 archival
material (for example Figure 10, above) and the quadrant strengths shown
numerically here. The analysis of the 2004 Annual Report shows a strong alignment
to this representation in that the strongest cultural model is the IPM, followed by the
RGM (strong), the OSM (weak) with the weakest being the HRM.
Human Relations Model Open Systems Model Group and Phase ES Group and Phase ES
Academic: Interviews Weakest Academic: Interviews Weak Academic: Survey Weak Academic: Survey Weakest Non-Academic: Interviews
Weak Non-Academic: Interviews Strong
Non-Academic: Survey Weakest Non-Academic: Survey Weak
Flex
ibili
ty
Internal Focus External Focus
Group and Phase ES Group and Phase ES Academic: Interviews Strongest Academic: Interviews Strong Academic: Survey Strong Academic: Survey Strongest Non-Academic: Interviews
Strongest Non-Academic: Interviews Weakest
Non-Academic: Survey Strong Non-Academic: Survey Strongest
Internal Process Model
Con
trol
Rational Goal Model Figure 18. Comparison of Phases 2 and 3 by axes: All groups
HRM 86.58
OSM 137.40
IPM 171.83
Strongest
RGM 153.14 Strong
External focus
Control
Internal focus
Flexibility
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Figure 19. Combined quadrant strengths along axes
The External/Internal focus axis for the combined groups sees the strongest
(290.54) in the eastern quadrants (OSM and RGM) and conversely the weakest
(258.21) focus in the western quadrants (HRM and IPM). For the Flexibility/Control
axis the combined groups showed the strongest (324.97) emphasis was in the
southern quadrants with the weakest (258.41) emphasis in the northern quadrants
(HRM and OSM).
This indicates that the evidence gained from the 2004 text does not align with
the interview and survey evidence in three quadrants, however alignment did occur
with all three phases win that they indicated that the HRM had the weakest cultural
emphasis. This may account for the high frequency of HRM attributes such as, lower
morale, high conflict, and more resistance to change, as well as lower leader
credibility in the interview material. It may also reflect why the RGM quadrant in the
survey was strongest overall. If staff were to react to a cultural shift by the
organisation, it is reasonable to assume that staff would react to any move away from
the cultural values contained in the HRM, as it is these values that are most closely
sympathetic to personal needs or concerns of the individual.
4.7 Conclusion
The section detailed in a descriptive manner the results of the analysis of the
data. The data were gathered through three sources, archival material, interviews and
a survey. These three data sources were the main elements of the three phases of the
study, although there was constant reference to the literature throughout the data
gathering. In terms of the aim of the study, which was; to use the CVF to explore the
culture of a university in order to seek patterns over time between any, competing
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cultures, the results indicate that the organisation had made a number of cultural
shifts over time, and that staff were cognisant of aspects of these shifts. This can be
seen mostly in the archival material analysis and partly in the interviews. The results
of the archival material analysis indicated that after its amalgamation, the
organisation had moved away from a northerly cultural emphasis (HRM and OSM)
into the southerly emphasis (IPM and RGM). While not representative of all staff,
the interview analysis indicated that staff perceptions of the organisation were mixed,
with academic staff perceiving the organisation operating with a southerly (IPM and
RGM) emphasis while the non-academic staff perceived the organisation to be
operating across the OSM and IPM diagonal. The survey, with its limits of size and
scope, indicated where faculty staff perceived the organisation to be operating (at
that moment in time); this was strongly in the southern quadrants (IPM and RGM).
The results of the three phases offered tantalising glimpses of a changing
organisational culture that need further investigation.
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Chapter 5 - Discussion
5.1 Preamble
Leaving the previous chapter to conclude that the triangulation of the three
phases’ results offers inferences that there have been changes in the culture of the
case study, the following chapter contains a discussion emanating from the findings
as they relate to the research questions. The Introduction (Section 5.2) is followed by
three sections (5.3, 5.4, and 5.5), each of which pertains to a research question (1.
What are the changing cultural values of the organisation as evidenced by the CVF
over time? 2. How do staff perceptions of university culture relate to the competing
criteria identified by the CVF? And, 3. Can the CVF be usefully applied to higher
education contexts?). The chapter concludes with a section of limitations (5.6), and a
section of further research (5.7).
5.2 Introduction
Notwithstanding some incongruence between the analyses results of the three
phases, there was considerable alignment that allows for discussion. For instance, the
archival material indicated that there was a cultural difference between the two
founding institutions and when compared with research reported in the literature this
difference could be attributed to internal institutional foci. The archival material
when mapped onto a CVF-based matrix showed shifts in organisational emphases
indicating the presence of certain entrepreneurial and externally focussed cultural
traits as the organisation changed over time. Additionally, the interview material co-
indicated shifting cultural emphases as well as showing the present cultural emphases
when mapped onto a CVF-based matrix. Whereas, the survey data produced from a
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different set of metrics, though still CVF-based, could not be aligned directly with
the other phase analyses. These inconsistencies
One aspect to emerge pertained to terminology. The terms ‘corporate’ and
‘traditional’ were vague and untenable as definitive terms to describe the cultural
emphases and served as introductory labels that assisted in the exploration of the
literature and conceptualisation of the study. It is already noted in this work that
universities have always been corporations. Notwithstanding national differences, a
general view was that attributes of the commercial or mercantile worlds were being
overlaid onto organisational elements such as management practices and leadership
qualities in educational contexts. These attributes are often placed under the same
nomenclature - ‘corporatisation’. It may now be more apt to differentiate the process
of corporatisation, which is essentially a commercial or mercantile process, in the
higher education context as a ‘corporate-mercantile’ process.
As the CVF is a framework of competing values that are at times oppositional
to each other, it may be useful to consider the opposing or competing values in other
terms. In consideration of the main values and functions of higher education systems
many of the ‘traditional’ values and functions are contained in the northern half of
the CVF matrix (HRM and OSM), whereas many of the attributes associated with the
corporate-mercantile values and functions can be found in the southern half of the
matrix (IPM and RGM). To this end the term, ‘corporate-collegial’ was chosen as it
has cross-references in both the CVF (and organisational theory, Human Relations
theory) as well as being an integral quality, value and function in higher education as
indicated by its longevity in the literature and the veracity in which it is defended in
the contemporary literature on change in higher education. The authors of the CVF
suggest that organisations can be thought of as operating across quadrants, often
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having a strong emphasis confined to one or two quadrants, but almost always
operating in relative balance across all quadrants.
Therefore, if higher education systems can be thought of as possessing
similar cultural attributes as other organisational systems then higher education
systems will also operate across quadrants with varying degrees of cultural
emphases. It seems then that within the organisation of higher education systems are
the corporate-mercantile values that share and compete as a symbiotic system with
another set of values often perceived as its ‘traditional’ functions and values.
Therefore it may be beneficial to think of these values as the corporate-collegial
values. This means that the northern half of the CVF corresponds to the corporate-
collegial aspects of a university and the corporate-mercantile corresponds to the
southern quadrants of the CVF creating a whole, symbiotic organism where a
balance between the competing values is important.
It is also important to consider that the division of these cultural emphases
does not occur down staff role lines only. That is, academic staff are just as likely to
embrace aspects of the corporate-mercantile culture as they are to embrace corporate-
collegial traits. Just as non-academic staff are likely to have complementary and
competing values spread across the corporate-mercantile and the corporate-collegial
matrix. What this study has shown is to what degree of cultural emphasis these
groups have. What it does not show is where the balance between quadrants should
be in order to enable effective and quality organisational performance. This is
certainly an area for further exploration.
5.3 The Changing Cultural Values as Evidenced by the CVF over Time
The archival material when analysed through a competing values perspective
suggested that the organisation had been constantly shifting its organisational foci
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and emphases, culturally. In 1966 one of the foundation institutions of the university,
the technical institute, had a ‘northerly’ (HRM and OSM) emphasis. This
combination according to Cameron and Quinn (1999) would constitute a
clan/adhocracy culture. In such a culture the organisation would be focusing on
internal affairs with some flexibility on how it managed those affairs. This type of an
organisation would have been, according to Cameron and Quinn (1999, p. 82), “held
together by loyalty and tradition” and the organisation’s long-term emphasis would
have been on “growth and acquiring resources”. Contextually, the contemporary
socio-political climate was one that saw the Commonwealth Government becoming
increasingly involved in higher education (Harman, 2000). The government saw
technical and teacher training institutions should be there “to meet the vocational
requirements of students and to serve society in a practical way” (Davies, 1989, p.
128). The institute’s focus may have been to focus on securing funding through this
relatively new funding source.
In comparison the technical institute’s emphasis was in contrast to the teacher
training college in many respects. Although ten years later, in 1976, the other
foundation organisation, the teacher training college, while having a number of
similarities with the technical institute, differed in that it had a strong emphasis on
HRM attributes. The HRM quadrant emphasises collegiality and the long-term
benefit of developing human resources. Cameron and Quinn (1991, p. 82) offer that
an organisation such as this “attaches great importance to cohesion and morale”.
Both these organisations had little external foci at this time. This northerly focus
(HRM and OSM) has been characterised as an “irresponsible country club” and a
“tumultuous anarchy”. Such a summation has parallels with the conclusions of
Birnbaum (1988), and Cohen and March (1974) (and others) who suggest that
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universities could be viewed as organised anarchies. As these authors were observing
and writing in the 1970s and 1980s the suggestion is that higher education
organisations in other parts of the world were operating with cultural tendencies
similar to those shown by the analysis of the archival texts in this case study. It also
suggests that the CVF may be capable of reading the culture of a university
organisation, as it appears to be able to come to similar conclusions from a different
analytical pathway.
In comparing the differences between the two foundation organisations,
Zammuto and Krakower’s (1991) study of American higher education institutions
using a competing values framework may offer an explanation as to why there was
variation. Notwithstanding the temporal difference of ten years, the technical
institute was specialising in science, engineering, business and computer studies
while the teacher training college was specialising in the performing and fine arts,
education and social sciences (University website, 2005). In their study of a small
established theological institution (pseudonym, Mission University) and new
research and development institution (pseudonym, R & D University) using an
instrument based on the CVM (later known as the CVF), Zammuto and Krakower
found that Mission University was strongly located in the HRM with aspects of the
other three quadrants, and R & D University was located strongest in the RGM and
weakest in the HRM (see Figure 20 below).
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Figure 20. Comparison of two universities (adapted from Zammuto & Krakower,
1991, p. 102)
Zammuto and Krakower (1991) highlight how different higher education
organisations with particular dispositions construct cultural tendencies that support
those dispositions:
At Mission, it is reflected in the emphasis on collegiality and shared values. At R&D, it is seen in the emphasis on productivity and strategic planning. And these differences are strongly reflected in their respective internal climates. Mission is a very collegial institution; R&D is marked by conflict and poor morale. (p. 108)
Org. A Org. B
Org. C Org. D
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Mission University
R & D University
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The inference here is that when the organisational (internal) focus is on the ‘hard’
disciplines a more southerly cultural aspect (IPM and RGM) is likely and when the
organisational (internal) focus is on the ‘soft’ disciplines a more northerly (HRM and
OSM) is likely. The graphic’s ‘kites’ in Figure 20 above, were constructed using one
of the earlier incarnations of a culture-identifying instrument based on the CVM. As
such there can be no direct comparison made with the case study ‘kites’ (as
graphically shown in Section 4.5, above), however as an indication or inference
between organisational cultures some comparison can be made. That is, it is worth
noting that the Mission University with its emphasis on ‘soft’ disciplines of teaching
and theology is operating with a strong emphasis based in the northerly quadrants
and a weak emphasis in the south, whereas the R&D University with its emphasis on
the ‘hard’ science disciplines is operating with a strong emphasis in the southerly
quadrants and a weak emphasis in the north. This is somewhat replicated in the
matrices of the study’s predecessor institutions, the technical institute (hard
disciplines), with its cultural emphasis stronger in the south, and the teacher training
college (soft disciplines) with its cultural emphasis stronger in the north.
From the evidence obtained in the 1986 archival text of the study’s teacher
training institution the cultural emphasis had spread across all quadrants of the CVF-
based matrix. For Cameron and Quinn (1999) such an organisation would have a
clan/adhocracy/hierarchical/market culture. The most notable change was that the
organisation now had a stronger external focus with stronger emphasis on internal
control of its operations and functions and there remained goals of growth and
resources acquisition. Planning and goal-setting were also developing in complexity.
Compare this to the preliminary findings of a 1996 study of the culture of the Sydney
Institute of Technology (Frew, 1996, n. p.), which used an adaptation of the CVM
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that indicated the institution had, “a congruent hierarchical culture. A move towards
adhocracy and market cultures, with characteristics of innovation,
entrepreneurialism, less rule, profit share, market capture, competitiveness and
external customer focus”.
At the time the development of ICT such as computer technologies, would
have allowed management information systems to develop their capacities for
internal monitoring, internal control, and record keeping offering an explanation as to
why the emphases on internal control could be heightened. Furthermore, one
explanation for the cultural change may be found in the changes in the external
environment. Australian higher education was in a process of major change
precipitated largely by socio-political imperatives which had been evolving
throughout the previous two decades (Mahony, 1992). The institution itself had
acknowledged the need for cultural shifts due to these external influences and
imperatives. In a 1989 study, commissioned by the institution and conducted by the
institution to report on the conditions for “changing the culture” of the institution, it
reported:
Both changes from within and outside events have had an influence on the institution… the Dawkins Green and White papers proposed changes for tertiary education… Dawkins pointed to the failure of higher education to face economic realities… interventive strategies of DEET [the federal department overseeing higher education] have required more and more information. There has been a concomitant increase in the administrative duties of all those with managerial responsibilities… the last five years have been ones of continuous change for the institution. Changes have combined to support an expanded mission for the University and to redirect the energies of many staff… Fewer committees have meant less representation and a decrease in the number of people who feel they have input into the decision making process. (1989, pp. 10-11)1
1 This document is available on request to the author of the presented dissertation. Ethical considerations prohibit a full reference of the quote.
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The report was published immediately prior to the institution’s transition to become a
university and reported on changes in the culture of the institution over the preceding
five years as well as recommending cultural changes for the future. In “exploring the
notion of corporate culture” the study stated that it “requires an understanding of the
particular institution in relation to how it has adapted its internal operations to a
changing external environment” (1989, p. 3). The study concluded “new traditions”
had to be established and that:
The vision of the new University is that it will be proactive, dynamic, and competitive… New traditions being established include a move to more internal and external accountability, more emphasis on research, a shift to a market driven economy, and a different organisational structure. (p. 22)
The commissioning of such a study was likely to have been the result of the
organisation’s leadership scanning the political environment and making necessary
preparations in terms of planning and the changing rationality of its staff. The
evidence from the 1996 text as well as some comments obtained in the interviews,
suggest that a cultural shift had indeed occurred. Long-serving staff in the interviews
referred to the loss of collegiality and community and pointed to aspects of the
corporatisation process as being responsible, as evinced in the following two
extracts:
And rampant you know managerialism, managers make decisions. From what I understand, it sounds like I'm really harping back, "In the old days…", and I don't think it will ever go back to that. (Ac7, Response 18)
Oh yes. Um universities used to be nice places to work in (laughs) I don't think, well um I think some places still are. Um but yeah they've become much more corporate. The university that we're in is much more corporate, it's much more looked as, you know the language of 'clients' and um you know all these kind of things. The competitive nature of everything is such that it doesn't lend to necessarily a really happy working environment at times. (Ac5, Response 14)
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Harman (2000, p. 351) writes that during the period 1981 to 1987 there was a
“serious fall in morale in many institutions”. Harman suggests this was due to the
changes being made to the sector as initiated by the Commonwealth Government’s
policy direction. A key element of the Commonwealth Government’s plan to have
institution’s follow policy was to tie funding to certain criteria, for example “to be
eligible to even basic funding, institutions had to have at least 2000 EFTSU, while …
to be funded for comprehensive involvement in teaching and research, institutions
had to have at least 8000 EFTSU” (Harman, 2000, p. 353). Hence the process of
mergers and proactive engagement of student enrolments and success was counted in
terms of student numbers. This change in the organisation’s focus is reflected in the
CVF matrix constructed from the analysis of the archival material for the period. The
ideological emphasis (IE) of the HRM is on “People” with an the organisational
“Ends” being “Cohesion” and “Morale”, and the “Interpersonal Relations” having
higher levels of “Trust”, “Morale” and “Leader Credibility” (see Appendix C, Table
C1). Any loss of morale could therefore be explained with the corresponding loss of
HRM cultural emphases.
In 1996, after six years operating as a university the organisation had shifted
its cultural emphasis to an easterly focus (OSM and RGM) on the CVF matrix. There
is a corresponding loss of the attributes from the western half of the matrix (HRM
and IPM). Such an organisation according to Cameron and Quinn (1999) would be
operating culturally with an adhocracy/market focus. This means its focus is strongly
directed toward the external world with both flexibility and control internally.
Cameron and Quinn use the words “dynamic”, and “entrepreneurial” to describe
such a culture. They suggest that an organisation operating with an adhocracy/market
focus would be concerned with “competition”, and “measurable goals and targets”
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where success is defined in terms of the market. Such an organisation would focus on
external positioning with a need for both “stability and control” and “flexibility”.
These terms are similar to the terms used in the institution’s 1989 study (cited above)
on changing the organisation’s culture. Of course there is a difference between
rhetoric and intention, and action and agency, insomuch that the study reported its
recommendations, and recommendations may not be taken up, or taken up partially
or if taken up may not be translated in the way they were intended by the staff.
However, it does appear from the CVF analysis of the archival material that there
was a cultural shift away from a ‘traditional’ collegial culture towards the “new
tradition” of a corporate culture as recommended by the study.
The loss of many organisational attributes in the western half of the matrix is
significant. This half of the matrix (HRM and IPM) is an indicator of the strength of
the internal focus of the organisation. The analysis of the 1996 text suggested there
was a loss of a people focus. Cameron and Quinn (1999) believe that an organisation
with the HRM and IPM attributes would be “held together by loyalty and tradition”
(HRM). The 1989 study acknowledged the cultural attribute of tradition and
recommended “new” traditions. The document while acknowledging the ‘old’
tradition as important, proposed that any new tradition should be a corporate
tradition. The ‘old’ tradition was too inwardly focused and needed to have a stronger
external focus. This type of rhetoric or innovation “narrative” (Birnbaum, 2000)
reflected the change in the Commonwealth Government’s policy towards higher
education, a policy which insisted that (higher) education was a key element to
national economic sustainability (Mahony, 1992). As higher education was
increasingly being tied to Commonwealth funding, higher education was
increasingly being tied to Commonwealth policy (Mahony, 1992, Harman, 2000).
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By 2004 three of the four cultural models were addressed in the leader’s text
although significantly attributes associated with all four of the Ideological Emphasis
category were addressed. This suggested the writer was cognisant of the major
cultural qualities of an organisation, that is, its people, a need to have both change
and stability, as well as task accomplishment. Denison, Hooijberg, and Quinn (1995)
found that highly effective leaders were likely to be able to work and succeed in all
quadrants, even though the quadrants are diagonally as well as ideologically opposed
to each other in terms of leadership styles. As higher education systems have become
larger and more complex places leadership and management strategies and qualities
have also needed to keep pace (Birnbaum, 2000; Davis, Schoorman, & Donaldson,
1997).
The HRM in 2004 was significantly depleted suggesting that the focus was
elsewhere. Indeed attributes associated with other quadrants were more prevalent.
For instance the concern for goal-setting, policy direction, and planning that
dominated the text indicated a RGM cultural orientation. Such an organisation would
be operating in a market/adhocracy/hierarchical culture with a strong focus on
external conditions and a need to maintain a strong internal control. According to
Cameron and Quinn, (1999, p. 43) the criteria for effectiveness in such an
organisation would contain the following characteristics:
• Efficiency
• Timeliness
• Smooth functioning
• Predictability
• Achieving goals
• Outpacing the competition
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• Increasing market share
• Acquiring premium levels of financial return
• New products
• Creative solutions to problems
• Cutting-edge ideas
• Growth in new markets
There were many examples in the interview material pertaining to all of the above
characteristics. However, an external comparison may serve useful in highlighting
the effectiveness of the CVF in indicating cultural characteristics.
Gallagher, (2001, ¶ 3), in the capacity of First Assistant Secretary, Higher
Education Division, Department of Education, Training and Youth Affairs (DETYA)
observes several major shifts in Australian higher education. These are detailed in the
left hand column of Tables 25 and 26 below. These observations have been matched
against the CFV-based characteristics listed above.
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Table 22. Comparing CVF findings to higher educationalist’s observations - shifts
Gallagher’s observations Matching CVF characteristic Growth in the student body, diversification of student backgrounds and rising expectations of students (most of whom now pay a share of costs)
Increasing market share Acquiring premium levels of financial return
More exacting public accountability requirements on universities, including for planning, performance reporting and quality assurance
Predictability Smooth functioning Efficiency Acquiring premium levels of financial return
Increasing reliance of universities on non-government sources of income, especially through expanding involvement in the business of international education
Acquiring premium levels of financial return Growth in new markets Increasing market share Outpacing the competition
Accelerating application of Communications and Information Technology to teaching, learning, research, student services and administration
Predictability Smooth functioning Efficiency Outpacing the competition
According to Gallagher, (2001, ¶ 4), associated with those “big” shifts may also be
observed several main effects:
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Table 23. Comparing CVF findings to higher educationalist’s observations - effects
Gallagher’s observations Matching CVF characteristic Stronger corporate management of universities
Greater instrumentalism in curricula for workforce skilling of graduates
Closer research links between universities and industry
Outpacing the competition Increasing market share Acquiring premium levels of financial return New products Creative solutions to problems Cutting-edge ideas Growth in new markets
More aggressive competition and the beginning of increasing differentiation among universities
Growth in new markets Increasing market share Outpacing the competition
Improved productivity (higher student throughput for lower unit costs without apparent diminution of quality)
Efficiency Timeliness Acquiring premium levels of financial return Creative solutions to problems
Increasing threshold capability costs (for infrastructure and expertise) involved in world class research
Efficiency Timeliness Acquiring premium levels of financial return Creative solutions to problems Cutting-edge ideas Outpacing the competition
Changing nature of academic work, including a shift from ‘cottage industry’ to ‘mass production’, specialisation of curriculum design and assessment functions, and rising expectations of output and self-generated earnings.
Acquiring premium levels of financial return
The matching of the characteristics constructed from the analysis of the 2004
archival material against the observations of one of the government’s major figures
in policy development for higher education in Australia indicates how closely the
case study organisation had aligned with the Commonwealth Government’s
imperatives. This is borne out by the change in the organisation’s focus from internal
(1966 and 1976) to an external focus (1986, 1996, and 2004).
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One of the criticisms of a corporate model is that it is too aligned to the
commercial or business worlds and does not address adequately (core) aspects of
higher education. In the above tables (Table 25 and Table 26), the observer notes that
the corporate governance should be increased as, “some traditional vertically-
integrated, locally-focussed universities will find it increasingly difficult to compete
in the new global era”. As First Assistant Secretary, Higher Education Division
(DETYA) Gallagher would have been instrumental in policy setting and
implementation. The institutional rhetoric contained in the archival material as
analysed through the CVF confirms that there has been a shift in the focus of the
study’s institution and that this shift is towards an emphasis on a corporate
(mercantile) model.
Gallagher’s observations reflect the socio-political climate that asks its
education systems to have more direct social and economic value in terms of
government spending ratios. After the Federal Minister for Education John Gorton in
1964 appointed K. N. Jones an economist to the most senior post in Commonwealth
education, with an assistant, also an economist (with a doctorate in social
administration from a School of Economics) there was a definite shift towards this
policy (Davies, 1989). A policy that subsequent federal education ministers allied
themselves to (Pusey, 1991). The rationalisation of higher education under the
Federal Minister John Dawkins in the 1980s was instrumental in actualising this
policy into the higher education sector in Australia (Harman, 2000; Mahony, 1992).
The federal-level triumvirate of Cabinet, Treasury, and Department of Finance views
the other departments as those that generate revenue (for example, those concerned
with mining, tourism, manufacturing and primary industries) and those that require
revenue expenditure (for example, those concerned with education, and defence)
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(Pusey, 1991). Minimising fiscal output while maximising fiscal input is a primary
directive of the triumvirate (Pusey, 1991). Higher education has become a major user
of taxpayer funds the total Australian Government funding through the Education,
Science and Training portfolio for 2004 was $6,749.921 millions (Department for
Education Science and Training, 2006, p. 38), the economic rationalisation of the
sector is ongoing.
At the site-level institutions have known for sometime that they needed to
seek other sources of funding (Cain and Hewitt, 2004), hence the increase in full-fee
paying students, mostly from overseas, the rationalisation of Departments (Connelly
& Anderson, 2001; González, Nemeier, & Navrotsky, 2003), and the interest in
partnering industry in research and development projects (Harman & Sherwell, 2002;
Hum, 2000). Within higher education systems, those areas that are most at risk of
losing out are in the ‘soft’ discipline areas where direct and short-term fiscal or social
gains are seldom evident. Thus prompting the debate concerning applied research in
favour of pure research (Clark, 1995), the imperative for timely higher degree
research (Manathunga, 2002), the increase in resources for ‘hard’ disciplines such as
ICT (e-Research Coordinating Committee, 2005) and science (Department of
Education Science and Training, 2005).
If the argument has any validity then it may explain why so many of the
critical commentaries concerning the so-called corporatisation of higher education
emanate from the ‘soft’ disciplines (for example, history, sociology, and philosophy).
For example, while there are 256 references listed for this work more than 2,000
were researched, Of those 2,000 plus references 1,122 were selected and stored in a
bibliographic database software, of those 1,122, 312 were concerned with the
corporatisation of higher education and of those 312, 284were critical of the
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(corporate) changes with 271 being written by academics who are from the ‘soft’
disciplines.
During the period of the instrumental/vocational versus liberal/moralist
education debate started in the time of Cardinal Newman in the early 19th century
until the Second World War the debate had largely been an internal debate,
notwithstanding the reforms of Oxford (1854) and Cambridge (1856) instigated by
Britain’s parliament (Davis, 2002). After the Second World War it became part of
the external socio-political debate. In Australia in the 1960s the Federal education
minister would view technical colleges and teacher training colleges as facilities for
applied research “as distinct from the pure research of universities proper”, in which
the vocational institutions would collaborate “in fill-time advanced work of all
kinds” (Davies, 1989, p. 129). The undercurrents of these debates persist, sometimes
with a different vocabulary and sometimes with a forgotten vocabulary given
different meaning, as in ‘corporation’.
5.4 Staff Perceptions of University Culture as they relate to the Competing Values
Criteria Identified by the CVF
Participant’s perceptions were formed chiefly through the context in which
they worked. For some, an external focus was more evident than an internal focus
and conversely for others an internal focus was more evident than an external focus.
Understandably this can be attributed to the roles and functions they served in the
organisation. It seems reasonable to expect staff to be focused on their roles and
functions within the context that those duties need to be perform in. For instance,
academic staff were for the most part internally focussed on issues related to
pedagogy, community service, and research and saw external influences as
problematic to performing their core functions. Non-academic staff could also be
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internally focussed, as they were largely concerned with issues related to procedure,
rules, regulations, management processes, and other administrative functions. Non-
academic staff were more likely to see them selves in a ‘them and us’ dynamic
between the academic and non-academic ‘tribes’. Almost all staff were cognisant of
the institution’s need for funding and believed that recent changes were brought
about by that pursuit of funding. While many showed resistant tendencies towards
the changes, especially when the changes impinged upon their core duties, some
were less resistant to the idea of change. This observation in the analysis further
supports the idea of how staff, from either group, may hold competing or conflicting
cultural tendencies at any one time. That is, they may support aspects of the
corporate-mercantile model while at the same time resisting aspects of the model or
they may support aspects of the corporate-collegial model while at the same time
denigrating other aspects.
5.5 Can the CVF be Usefully Applied in Higher Education Contexts?
The culture of an organisation has been likened to the personality of an
individual. The study of human personality has a long and distinguished history and
is considered a science in its own right. The study of organisational culture is
relatively new emerging from the work of Deal and Kennedy (1982) and Peters and
Waterman (1982). The work of Quinn and associates in developing an instrument to
measure cultural characteristics has been on-going since the early 1980s. This
developing work has, for the most part, been applied in organisations outside of
education systems.
One of the criticisms of the recent changes is that many of the changes are not
sector specific, that is, many of the attributes of the corporate process are better
suited to organisations outside of the education sector (Birnbaum, 2000). Education
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organisations used not to have fiscal outcomes as focal part of their core goals,
however the current debates surrounding the stock market-listed childcare services
(Sutherland, 2005), the financial sponsorship of fast-food corporations for schools
(Minion, 2001), and the increase in corporate and private higher education
institutions (Greenberg, 1998) are challenging that ideal. Yet this work has shown
that there is literature to suggest that a university has always been a corporation, an
organisation needing to balance funding to survive with its core functions of teaching
and learning, research and community service and its core values of academic
freedom, collegiality, scholarship, and liberalism.
There are three points to be made in raising these trends; firstly, the CVF has
been usefully applied in a wide variety of organisations outside of education (see
Figure 21 below). Secondly, an organisation that is becoming more like these
external organisations may benefit from understanding its cultural disposition, and
thirdly, applying externally generated instruments such as CVF-based ones, may
highlight differences between (not-for-profit) education organisation and for-profit
organisations, education orientated or otherwise.
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Figure 21. “An average culture plot for more than 1000 organizations” (Cameron &
Quinn, 1999, p. 66)
Of the 1000 organisations surveyed by Cameron and Quinn the Retail and
Wholesale Trade organisations’ ‘kite’ aligns closest to the ‘kite’ formed by the
faculty respondents in the case study site (see Figure 22 below, and Figure 15, p. 118
above), suggesting a further correspondence with the idea that the institution had
taken on a stronger mercantile focus in its cultural emphases.
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Figure 22. Retail and wholesale trade (n = 44 organisations) (Cameron & Quinn,
1999, p. 69)
Polemics such as the one posed here are usually not very useful, as it is often
the case that neat divisions are untenable in complex, dynamic and organic systems.
Nonetheless aspects of the literature attempt a division between past practices and
the forces of change, while organisational analysts have also attempted to
compartmentalise aspects of organisational systems. It could be argued that the very
nature of enquiry is to dissect and compartmentalise systems. The conceptual nature
of the study does provide tenable and persistent evidence that cultural divisions are
inherent in university systems. These divisions can be competing, contradictory and
complementary and they can be found across organisational groups or ‘tribes’.
Suggesting that is why some observers have come to the conclusion that there is no
one or single culture but a “multi-versity” of cultures.
This study, rather than viewing the dialectic as a dualism between the two
elemental parts (collegial and mercantile) “without any possibility of one being
reduced to the other” (Jary & Jary, 1991, p. 175), proposed that the elemental parts
are symbiotic, “attached to each other… one within the other to their mutual
advantage” (Sykes, 1976, p. 1171).However, it is asserted here that when one part
has more influence over the other it will not only upset the relationship between the
elemental parts, but the entire functionality of the organisation. So that when an
organisation such as a university has an over-emphasis on the corporate-collegial
culture it is can be thought to be counter-productive to the functionality of the
institution. For example, it has been argued that an over-emphasis on the HRM leads
to an “irresponsible country club”, which could be seen as reminiscent of the
“eccentric gentleman’s club” (Brown, 1996) of the eighteenth, nineteenth centuries
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of the Oxbridge universities which had “sunk into sloth and decay” (R. Davis, 2002).
Conversely, when the balance is over-emphasised in favour of the corporate-
mercantile cultural values the contention is that an organisation can become an
“oppressive sweat shop” (Quinn, 1988), a ‘psychopathic’ entity focused on fiscal
outcomes to the exclusion of the humanity of the organisation (Bakan, 2004; Baker,
1989; de Gues, 1997; Giroux, 2005; Reid, 1996). If the parallel has validity that the
culture of an organisation is its personality, then the psychopathic metaphor has some
weight.
It is considered by some analysts that when the focus is on the corporate-
mercantile a displacement of priorities occurs so that the organisation may believe
that its best interests are served by providing resources in that area (Bergman, 1991;
Gander, 1999; Halfond, 1991; Leslie & Rhoades, 1995). Such an imbalance can also
lead to dysfunction and organisational failure (Crime and Misconduct Commission,
2004; Finkelstein, 2003; Walshe, 2003).
History shows higher education is an ancient and enduring institution that has
survived, and indeed flourished, despite all manner of social disturbances (Flexner,
1968; Patterson, 1997). However, there has been contemporary commentary
asserting that the institution as a social entity is in jeopardy, ruination, or even
imminent collapse (Brimelow, 1993; Gaita, 2002; Maslen & Slattery, 1994;
Readings, 1996). Such assertions have historical precedent but are yet to reach
fulfilment (in any era). So perhaps there is an internal dialectic based on competing
cultural values that has been played out throughout the centuries, and the present
status is little more than the corporate-mercantile in the ascendancy.
The evidence provided by this study, indicated that the corporate-mercantile
cultural emphasis in the case study organisation is in the ascendancy and as such the
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study supports some of the assertions in the literature, particularly those that assert
the loss of HRM characteristics such as collegiality, human resource development,
decision-making at the chalk-face level, as well as those peculiar to high education
systems such as institutional autonomy, academic freedom, pure research, and
knowledge for knowledge sake. Whether or not such ascendancy is problematic to a
number of traditional or corporate-collegial aspects of higher education, as claimed,
remains open to debate. However, organisational dysfunction in other publicly
funded organisations suggests that when the corporate-mercantile paradigm is the
dominant focus of the organisation, then core functionality is compromised. In higher
education, resources are likely to be taken away from core functions such as
teaching, learning, research and community service that do not have direct or short-
term financial gain, in favour of teaching, learning, research and community service
that generate revenues. With federal government increasingly wanting to track
funding outcomes there will be an increase in support services, management,
administration and bureaucratic functions that support that tracking.
Perhaps prompting observations such as Halfond’s (1991, p.17) that “[s]ince
1975 EEOC figures show, student enrollment has risen 10 percent and the number of
full-time faculty members has increased 21 percent. Administrative positions,
however, increased 45 percent” in the United States over the period 1975 to 1990.
From 1991 the study’s university saw its student numbers grow by 18.21 per cent,
with an increase of 10.66 per cent in academic staff and 15.62 per cent in general
staff in terms of actual bodies, and 12.92 per cent for equivalent full time (EFT)
students, 13.29 per cent EFT academics and 14.96 per cent in EFT general staff. This
can be compared to the CMC’s (2004) figures of the Department of Family Services
which suggested that 48 per cent of the staff were involved in field work while 52
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per cent were involved in non-field activities, and Queensland Health’s 47.34 per
cent in clinical duties, with 52.66 per cent in non-clinical duties (Queensland Health,
2005). This can be further compared to the study’s university where in 2005 the
university had 41.88 per cent of its staff involved in academic duties with 58.12 per
cent involved in non-academic duties. The Department of Family services’ figures
were of “concern” for the Commission. Inter-organisational comparisons, of course
are tenuous due to the breadth of variables such as core function/s, values, and goals
of the organisation.
However, the study site’s percentages of academic and non-academic staff
have remained relatively static with 56.77 per cent (general) and 43.23 per cent
(academic) in 1976, 56.87 per cent (general) and 43.13 per cent (academic) in 1986,
54.80 per cent (general) and 45.20 per cent (academic) in 1996, and 58.88 per cent
(general) and 41.12 per cent (academic) in 2005 suggesting that a university relies on
a large support network and supporting the notion that it is the focus and values of
the organisation which are important rather then creation of a ‘them and us’ polemic
between academics and non-academics.
Furthermore, it is most likely that the present changes in higher education are
merely part of the dialectic between the corporate-collegial and the corporate-
mercantile organisational modes and that the movement in such dialectic can be
attributed to larger social paradigms and discourses that the institution has always
had to deal with.
The phenomenon of the corporatisation of government-funded organisations
is widespread and has as yet unknown repercussions. Although problems identified
in government agencies such as Queensland Health and Queensland Department of
Families may provide vital clues as to what can happen when resources are
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withdrawn, administrative duties take precedence over clinical duties and staff are
required to do more with less without any accountability or evaluation processes to
monitor when organisations have reached breaking point.
Lacy and Sheehan (1997) in their international study of job satisfaction across
eight nations focused on the Australian context and concluded “That if academic
staff are to be encouraged to express higher levels of job satisfaction and lower levels
of dissatisfaction, attention must be paid to the environment in which they work”.
Lacy and Sheehan (1997, p.321) linked satisfaction to climate or the sense of
community (collegiality) and claim that the elements of the environment which raise
satisfaction levels with staff are acknowledgement, support, participation in decision-
making, nurturing the intellectual environment, clarity of institutional mission, and
faculty/administration relations. Most of these elements are dimensions found in the
Human Relation Model of the CVF, this is the quadrant that has had the least
emphasis in the study’s university since 1976 when it was a teacher training college.
This study supplements a body of knowledge that has investigated the
changes in higher education through an understanding of organisational culture.
Being able to predict quantitatively system failure is a significant boon for setting
policy, management and leadership directions in the present corporate-mercantile
climate. Instruments such as those based on the CVF may in the future be further
developed to achieve such a task.
There were three research questions asked by this study. They are as follows:
1. What are the changing cultural values of the organisation as evidenced by the
CVF over time?
164
2. How do staff perceptions of university culture relate to the competing criteria
identified by the CVF? And;
3. Can the CVF be usefully applied to higher education contexts?
Additionally, the study had three objectives. These were:
1. To apply the CVF to examine the cultural shift over time.
2. To apply the CVF to examine the perceptions of current staff. And;
3. To explore the value of using the CVF in an higher education organisation as
an instrument that interprets cultural emphases.
The study answered each question in the following way. In answering the
first question; What are the changing cultural values of the organisation as evidenced
by the CVF over time? The study was also able to satisfy the first objective; to apply
the CVF to examine the cultural shift over time. This was achieved by conducting a
line-by-line analysis of the archival texts of the target years, aligning CVF-based
attributes and categories with the textual information and mapping these onto a
matrix. Five matrices were developed and were showed, graphically, the cultural
emphases for the five target years, spanning almost 40 years of the institution’s
history. In this way enough evidence was amassed, within the limitations of an
exploratory study and its methodology, to allow the inference that the CVF could
show that the organisation had shifted its cultural values and emphases over time. In
terms of triangulation for this conclusion, there was the added alignment of the
literature, which described changes at a national and global level. Additionally, the
data was triangulated for validity, when each phase was compared by year or group
for internal validity, and then compared with each of the other phases for an external
validation. The shift was shown to be away from the organised anarchy of the 1960s,
165
1970s and early 1980s to the entrepreneurial market-orientated corporate style of the
late 1980s, 1990s and 2000s.
In answering the second question; How do staff perceptions of university
culture relate to the competing criteria identified by the CVF?, the second objective
was fulfilled, that is; To apply the CVF to examine the perceptions of current staff. In
so doing, the study was able to map the perceptions of current staff members onto a
CVF-based matrix by applying a line-by-line analysis of the interview transcripts,
through the identification and alignment of CVF attributes and categories. Using the
frequency of attributes and categories to provide a numerical value, the cultural
emphases of the organisation could be shown across a spectrum from strongest to
weakest in each of the four CVF quadrants. The quantification of the qualitative data
proved useful in making comparisons with parts of the archival material and with the
findings of the survey.
There was however, some anomaly with a small part of the data. This
concerned the data provided by the Non-Academic group. No conclusion, based on
the data, could be drawn as to why this anomaly existed, except that the sample may
have been too small. It was considered that this was an incongruity where further
research might prove useful. There was also some degradation of potential
congruence between the analysis results of the staff perceptions and the CVF due to
the focus of the interview questions. So in terms of how the staff perceptions related
to the CVF, the data results indicated that it was possible to align staff perceptions
with the attributes and categories of the CVF. It is considered that this would have
been stronger had the questions been more specific to the CVF quadrants or the
survey questions.
166
In answering the third question; Can the CVF be usefully applied to higher
education contexts? The third objective; To explore the value of using the CVF in an
higher education organisation as an instrument that registers cultural patterns, was
addressed. The literature suggested that education systems have in the past, operated
with different outcomes and goals from for-profit organisations. Generally these
outcomes and goals had a not-for-profit inclination, which focused on core functions
such as pedagogy and knowledge production. Higher education systems have also
tended to focus on the additional functions of research and community service. The
CVF was developed in the private sector, often in for-profit organisations; its
application in the higher education sector has been limited, as shown by the literature
in this respect. Nonetheless, this exploratory study has shown that there is scope for
the application of such a framework in higher education, for the current hybrid for-
profit and not-for-profit organisation, in an Australian context.
5.6 Further Research
One outcome of an exploratory study is to provide enough evidence to
warrant further investigation. It may be useful therefore, to test the CVF across
faculties and then across other organisations in the higher education sector. In this
way a larger study, using a similar (though sounder) methodology, could provide
more convincing evidence as to the worth of a CVF-based instrumentation in
measuring culture and cultural shifts in the sector.
Additionally, there were a number of questions that arose during the study
that may prove useful in exploring further. These are as follows:
1) What is the value of higher education?
2) How do cultural shifts occur in organisations?
167
3) Is there an optimal organisational balance between competing values
for higher education?
4) Are the different (less emphasised) cultures always present, and
remain latent, only to become emphasised in certain favourable
conditions?
5) Could CVF-based instrumentation be used to highlight differences
between for-profit and not-for-profit organisations, with a view to
highlighting difference between the mercantile corporate organisation
and the education corporate organisation?
6) Map cultural shifts over lengthier durations in older institutions in
order to understand more about the ongoing dialectic between the
corporate (mercantile) and the corporate (collegial) cultures.
7) What is the core function, or what are the core functions, of higher
education?
8) At what point does organisational dysfunction occur, and/or at what
point does an organisation become so dysfunctional as to
organisationally implode? And;
9) The vagaries in the Non-Academic group results in Phases 2 and 3,
most likely attributable to the sample size, warrants further
investigation.
168
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Appendices
Appendix A, Organisation Culture Survey Instrument ……………………….. 174 Appendix B, Structured Interview Questions ………………………………….. 178 Appendix C, Organisational Characteristics by CVF Quadrant ……………….. 180 Appendix D, Mapping of Archival Material onto CVF-based Matrices………... 183
188
Appendix A
Organisation Culture Survey Instrument
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Organisation Culture Survey Instrument (OCSI) (used with permission of the authors)
Organisational Role (Administrative or Academic) ------------------------------------------ These questions relate to the type of organisation that your organisation is most like. Each of these items contains four descriptions of organisations. Please distribute 100 points among the four descriptions depending on how similar the description is to your organisation. None of the descriptions is any better than the others; they are just different. For each question, please use all 100 points.
For example: In question 1, if Organisation A seems very similar to mine, B seems somewhat similar, and C and D do not seem similar at all, I might give 70 points to A and the remaining 30 points to B.
1. Organisational Character (Please distribute 100 points) ______Organisation A is a very personal place. It is a lot like an extended family.
People seem to share a lot of themselves. ______Organisation B is a very dynamic and entrepreneurial place. People are
willing to stick their necks out and take risks. ______Organisation C is a very formalized and structured place. Formal procedures
generally govern what people do. ______Organisation D is very production oriented. A major concern is with getting
the job done. People aren't very personally involved. 2. Organisation's Leaders (Please distribute 100 points) ______Managers in Organisation A are warm and caring. They seek to develop
employees' full potential and act as their mentors or guides. ______Managers in Organisation B are risk-takers. They encourage employees to
take risks and be innovative. ______Managers in Organisation C are rule-enforcers. They expect employees to
follow established rules, policies, and procedures. ______Managers in Organisation D are coordinators and coaches. They help
employees meet the organization's goals and objectives.
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3. Organisational Cohesion (Please distribute 100 points) ______The glue that holds Organisation A together is loyalty and tradition.
Commitment to this organization runs high. ______The glue that holds Organisation B together is commitment to innovation and
development. There is an emphasis on being first. ______The glue that holds Organisation C together is formal rules and policies.
Maintaining a smooth running operation is important here. ______The glue that holds Organisation D together is the emphasis on tasks and goal
accomplishment. A production orientation is commonly shared. 4. Organisational Emphases (Please distribute 100 points) ______Organisation A emphasizes human resources. High cohesion and morale in
the organization are important. ______Organisation B emphasizes growth and acquiring new resources. Readiness
to meet new challenges is important. ______Organisation C emphasizes permanence and stability. Efficient, smooth
operations are important. ______Organisation D emphasizes competitive actions and achievement.
Measurable goals are important. 5. Organisational Rewards (Please distribute 100 points) ______Organisation A distributes its rewards fairly equally among its members. It's
important that everyone from top to bottom be treated as equally as possible. ______Organisation B distributes its rewards based on individual initiative. Those
with innovative ideas and actions are most rewarded. ______Organisation C distributes rewards based on rank. The higher you are, the
more you get. ______Organisation D distributes rewards based on the achievement of objectives.
Individuals who provide leadership and contribute to attaining the organization's goals are rewarded.
191
Scoring: Record the number of points you assigned to each scenario in the spaces below. Then calculate a total for each column. Org. A Org. B Org. C Org. D
Quest. #1 _____ _____ _____ _____
Quest. #2 _____ _____ _____ _____
Quest. #3 _____ _____ _____ _____
Quest. #4 _____ _____ _____ _____
Quest. #5 _____ _____ _____ _____
Totals _____ _____ _____ _____
Divide each total by 5:
Profile Score _____ _____ _____ _____ Drawing your cultural profile: Plot the Org.A, Org. B, etc. profile scores on the appropriate diagonal axis. Then connect the dots.
Adapted from Zammuto and Krakower (1991).
Org. A Org. B
Org. C Org. D
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
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Appendix B
Semi-Structured Interview Questions
193
Semi-Structured Interview Questions Demographics
1. Would you describe yourself as an academic or administrator?
2. How long have you been an academic/administrator?
3. How long at this university? Definitions
1. Do you think there is a core function of higher education? Could you describe what you mean?
2. Do you think higher education institutions have a single culture? Could you
describe what you mean?
3. Do you think higher education has a place in our society?
Cultural change
1. Do you think the core function/s of this university have/has changed in the time of your employment?
2. What, if anything, do you think has contributed to the changes in higher
education in general?
3. What, if anything, do you think has contributed to the changes at this institution?
194
Appendix C
Organisational Characteristics by CVF Quadrant
195
Table C1. Organisational characteristics (attributes and categories) by CVF quadrant
CVF Quadrant Human relations Open systems Internal process Rational goal CVF Dimensions (CVFD)
Flexible/internal F/I
Flexible/external F/E
Control/internal C/I
Control/external C/E
Ideological emphasis (IE)
People Innovation and change
Stability and control
Task accomplishment
Ends Cohesion Morale
Growth Resources acquisition External support
Stability Control
Productivity Efficiency
Means Training Development of human resources
Adaptability Readiness
Information management Communication
Planning Goal-setting
Mentor Caring, empathetic – shows consideration
Innovator Creative, clever, envisions change
Monitor Technically expert, well prepared – collects information
Producer Task orientated, work focused – initiates action
Leadership roles (LR)
Facilitator Facilitates interaction – process-orientated
Broker Resource orientated, politically astute – acquires resources
Coordinator Dependable, reliable – maintains structure
Director Decisive, directive – provides structure
Structure (S)
Decentralised complex training demands, less use of rules, policies, and procedures, less use of formal planning
Non-routine task technology, interdependent work flow, less use of rules, policies and procedures, less use of formal planning
Vertical coordination, routine task technology, more use of formal rules, policies, and procedures, formal planning
Centralised, complex training demands More use of rules, policies, and procedures, More use of formal planning
Interpersonal relations (IR)
Higher levels of trust. Higher morale. Higher levels of leader credibility. Lower levels of conflict. Less resistance to change.
Higher levels of trust. Higher morale. Higher levels of leadership credibility. Lower levels of conflict. Less resistance to change.
Lower levels of trust. Lower morale. Lower levels of leadership credibility. Higher levels of conflict. More resistance to change.
Lower levels of trust. Lower morale. Lower levels of leadership credibility. Higher levels of conflict. More resistance to change.
Strategic orientation (SO)
Reactive Proactive Reactive Neither reactive or proactive
Managerial communications (MC)
Relational Builds trust, expressive, open, candid, honest, credible, believable, plausible, conceivable.
Transformational Stimulates change, strongly worded, emphatic, forceful, insightful, expansive, mind-stretching, visionary.
Informational Provides facts, rigorous, precise, disciplined, controlled, focused, clear, logical, organised.
Instructional Directs action, interesting, stimulating, engaging, absorbing, conclusive, consequential, decisive, action orientated.
196
Management information systems (MIS)
Computer-aided instructing Interpersonal communicating and conferencing Group decision supporting
Environmental scanning and filtering Inter-organisational linking. Doubt and argument promoting
Internal monitoring. Internal controlling. Record keeping
Modelling Forecasting Sensitivity analysing
System characteristics (MIS-SC)
User controllability, personalised, convenience, user feedback
Ad hoc usage, provision of multiple cues, wide and frequent access
Standardised, reliable, stable, precise and detailed information.
Integrated systems, quantitative, time and accurate information.
Group decision processes (GDP)
Participatory process Supportability of decision
Adaptable process Legitimacy of decision
Data-based process Accountability of decision
Goal-centred process Efficiency of decision
Common terms and Concepts (associated with organisational type)
family, trusting, loyal, empowered, collegial
innovative, aggressive, adaptable, entrepreneurial
bureaucratic, rule-bound, by-the-book, top-down
driven, goal orientated, achievers, focussed
Organisational characteristics
Irresponsible country club
Tumultuous anarchy
Frozen bureaucracy
Oppressive sweat shop
Adapted from Zammuto et al., (2000, pp. 266-269), and Cameron and Quinn (1999), and Quinn (1988)
197
Appendix D
Mapping of Archival Material onto CVF-based Matrices
198
Table D1. Organisational characteristics by CVF quadrant - 1966 Annual Report CVF Quadrant Human Relations Open Systems Internal Process Rational Goal CVF Dimensions (CVFD)
Flexible/internal F/I
Flexible/external F/E
Control/internal C/I
Control/external C/E
Ideological Emphasis (IE)
Change
Ends Growth, Resources acquisition
Means Adaptability Leadership Roles (LR)
Facilitator Facilitates interaction – process-orientated
Broker Resource orientated, acquires resources
Coordinator Maintains structure
Structure (S)
Non-routine task, interdependent work flow, less use of rules, policies and procedures, less use of formal planning
Interpersonal Relations (IR)
Strategic Orientation (SO)
Neither reactive or proactive
Managerial Communications (MC)
Informational/ provides facts. focused, clear, logical, organized.
Management information systems (MIS)
Interpersonal communicating and conferencing, Group decision supporting
Inter-organisational linking.
System Characteristics (MIS-SC)
Ad hoc usage, provision of multiple cues, wide access
Standardised, reliable, stable, information.
Group Decision Processes (GDP)
Participatory process, Supportability of decision
Common Terms and Concepts (associated with organisational type)
collegial adaptable,
199
Table D2. Organisational characteristics by CVF quadrant: Annual Report 1976 CVF Quadrant Human Relations Open Systems Internal Process Rational Goal CVF Dimensions (CVFD)
Flexible/internal F/I
Flexible/external F/E
Control/internal C/I
Control/external C/E
Ideological Emphasis (IE)
People Change Stability
Ends Cohesion Morale
Growth, Resources acquisition, External support
Efficiency
Means Development of human resources
Adaptability, Readiness
Goal-setting
Mentor Caring, shows consideration
Leadership Roles (LR)
Facilitator Facilitates interaction – process-orientated
Broker Resource orientated, acquires resources
Coordinator Maintains structure
Structure (S)
Non-routine task technology, interdependent work flow, less use of formal planning
Vertical coordination, routine task technology, formal rules, policies, and procedures, formal planning
Interpersonal Relations (IR)
Higher morale. Higher morale.
Strategic Orientation (SO)
Proactive
Managerial Communications (MC)
Relational Builds trust, Expressive, open, candid
Management information systems (MIS)
Interpersonal communicating and conferencing, Group decision supporting
Environmental scanning and filtering, Inter-organisational linking.
Internal monitoring.
System Characteristics (MIS-SC)
User feedback
Group Decision Processes (GDP)
Participatory process, Supportability of decision
Adaptable Process, Legitimacy of decision
200
Table D3. Organisational characteristics by CVF quadrant: Annual Report 1986 CVF Quadrant Human Relations Open Systems Internal Process Rational Goal CVF Dimensions (CVFD)
Flexible/internal F/I
Flexible/external F/E
Control/internal C/I
Control/external C/E
Ideological Emphasis (IE)
People Innovation, Change Stability, Control
Task accomplishment
Ends Cohesion, Morale
Growth, Resources acquisition, External support
Efficiency
Means Training, Development of human resources
Adaptability, Readiness
Information management, Communication
Planning, Goal-setting
Mentor Shows consideration
Innovator Envisions change
Monitor Collects information
Producer Task orientated, work focused – initiates action
Leadership Roles (LR)
Facilitator Facilitates interaction
Broker Resource orientated, acquires resources
Structure (S)
Non-routine task technology, interdependent work flow, less use of rules, policies and procedures, less use of formal planning
Vertical coordination, routine task technology, more use of formal rules, procedures, and formal planning
Interpersonal Relations (IR)
Strategic Orientation (SO)
Reactive Proactive Reactive
Managerial Communications (MC)
Transformational Stimulates change, Strongly worded
Informational Provides facts, Rigorous, precise, focused, clear, logical, organised.
Management information systems (MIS)
Computer-aided instructing Interpersonal communicating and conferencing Group decision supporting
Environmental scanning and filtering Inter-organisational linking.
Internal monitoring. Internal controlling. Record keeping
System Characteristics (MIS-SC)
Standardised, precise and detailed information
Quantitative, time and accurate information.
Group Decision Processes (GDP)
Adaptable process
Data-based process
Goal-centred process
201
Legitimacy of decision
Accountability of decision
Efficiency of decision
202
Table D4. Organisational characteristics by CVF quadrant: Annual Report 1996 CVF Quadrant Human Relations Open Systems Internal Process Rational Goal CVF Dimensions (CVFD)
Flexible/internal F/I
Flexible/external F/E
Control/internal C/I
Control/external C/E
Ideological Emphasis (IE)
Innovation, Change Task accomplishment
Ends Growth, Resources acquisition, External support
Productivity, Efficiency
Means Adaptability, Readiness
Planning, Goal-setting
Mentor Shows consideration
Innovator Envisions change
Producer Task orientated, initiates action
Leadership Roles (LR)
Broker Resource orientated, acquires resources
Structure (S)
Interpersonal Relations (IR)
Strategic Orientation (SO)
Reactive Proactive Reactive
Managerial Communications (MC)
Transformational stimulates change, visionary.
Informational provides facts. clear, logical, organized.
Instructional. action orientated.
Management information systems (MIS)
Environmental scanning and filtering, Inter-organisational linking.
System Characteristics (MIS-SC)
Group Decision Processes GDP)
Goal-centred process
203
Table D5. Organisational characteristics by CVF quadrant: Annual Report 2004 CVF Quadrant Human Relations Open Systems Internal Process Rational Goal CVF Dimensions (CVFD)
Flexible/internal F/I
Flexible/external F/E
Control/internal C/I
Control/external C/E
Ideological Emphasis (IE)
People Change Stability, Control
Task accomplishment
Ends Resources acquisition, External support
Stability, Control
Productivity, Efficiency
Means Adaptability, Readiness
Planning, Goal-setting
Mentor Shows consideration
Innovator Envisions change
Monitor Collects information
Leadership Roles (LR)
Broker Resource orientated, acquires resources
Coordinator Maintains structure
Director Provides structure
Structure (S)
Vertical coordination, routine task technology, more use of procedures, formal planning
Interpersonal Relations (IR)
Strategic Orientation (SO)
Proactive Reactive
Managerial Communications (MC)
Transformational Stimulates change.
Informational Provides facts.
Instructional Directs action.
Management information systems (MIS)
Environmental scanning and filtering, Inter-organisational linking
Internal monitoring, Internal controlling, Record keeping
Forecasting
System Characteristics (MIS-SC)
Standardised, precise and detailed information.
Integrated systems, quantitative, time and accurate information.
Group Decision Processes (GDP)
Adaptable process Legitimacy of decision
Data-based process Accountability of decision
Goal-centred process Efficiency of decision
204
Table D6 Organisational characteristics by CVF quadrant: Interviews – Academic group CVF Quadrant Human Relations Open Systems Internal Process Rational Goal CVF Dimensions (CVFD)
Flexible/internal F/I
Flexible/external F/E
Control/internal C/I
Control/external C/E
Ideological Emphasis (IE)
Innovation and change (6) Change (9)
Ends Resources acquisition (2) External support (2)
Productivity (4) Efficiency (4)
Means Training (1) Development of human resources (1)
Adaptability (1) Readiness (1)
Information management (4)
Mentor Caring (1) Shows consideration (1)
Innovator Envisions change (1)
Monitor Collects information (2)
Producer Task orientated (2)
Leadership Roles (LR)
Broker Resource orientated (7) Politically astute (1)
Director Directive (1)
Structure (S)
Vertical coordination (4) Routine task technology
Interpersonal Relations (IR)
Higher morale (1) Higher levels of leader credibility (1)
Lower morale (21) Lower levels of leadership credibility (1) Higher levels of conflict (28) More resistance to change (5)
Strategic Orientation (SO)
Managerial Communications (MC)
Management information systems (MIS)
Computer-aided instructing (2) Interpersonal communicating and conferencing (3)
Inter-organisational linking (1) Doubt and argument promoting (1)
Internal monitoring (7) Internal controlling (1) Record keeping (6)
System Characteristics (MIS-SC)
User controllability (4) Personalised (1) Convenience (2)
Ad hoc usage (2) Standardised, Precise and detailed information (1)
Group Decision Processes (GDP)
Data-based process (2) Accountability of decision
Goal-centred process (1) Efficiency of decision
Common Terms and Concepts
Entrepreneurial (1) Bureaucratic (3) Top-down (1)
Driven (1) Quality (2)
Frequency totals 17 36 58.5 42.5
205
Table D7. Organisational characteristics by CVF quadrant: Interviews - Non-Academic group CVF Quadrant Human Relations Open Systems Internal Process Rational Goal CVF Dimensions (CVFD)
Flexible/internal F/I
Flexible/external F/E
Control/internal C/I
Control/external C/E
Ideological Emphasis (IE)
Innovation and change (3) Change (1)
Ends Growth (1) Resources acquisition (5) External support (3)
Productivity (1) Efficiency (2)
Means Information management (3) Communication (2)
Planning (1) Goal-setting (1)
Mentor Caring (1) Shows consideration (1)
Innovator Clever (1) Envisions change (4)
Monitor Collects information (1)
Producer Task orientated (2)
Leadership Roles (LR)
Facilitator Facilitates interaction (1)
Broker Resource orientated (2)
Structure (S)
Non-routine task technology, interdependent work flow (7)
Interpersonal Relations (IR)
Higher levels of conflict (2) Lower morale (1)
Strategic Orientation (SO)
Managerial Communications (MC)
.
Management information systems (MIS)
Computer-aided instructing (2) Interpersonal communicating and conferencing (4)
Inter-organisational linking (2)
Internal monitoring (6) Internal controlling (2) Record keeping (7)
System Characteristics (MIS-SC)
User controllability (1) Personalised (1) Convenience (3)
Ad hoc usage (1) provision of multiple cues, wide and frequent access
Standardised, reliable, stable, precise and detailed information (1)
Group Decision Processes (GDP)
Data-based process Accountability of decision (8)
Common Terms and Concepts (associated with organisational type)
Family (2), Collegial (3)
Bureaucratic (3) Driven (1) Quality (2)
19 30 34.5 11.5