Organizational cultures of higher education institutions operating amid turbulence and an unstable environment: the Lebanese case

Abstract

This paper seeks to categorize and analyze the organizational culture and organizational culture components – leadership style, decision-making modes, standards of performance, evaluation strategies, perception of students, organizational unit, goal definition, and source of authority – in a predominantly private higher education sector. By examining the perceptions of faculty and senior academic administrators of the organizational culture of their respective universities, using a model that identifies cultures by dimensions of policy definition and operational control to produce the quadrants of collegium, bureaucracy, corporation, and enterprise, it provides insights on what organizational culture characteristics result in an effective institution able to respond to the ever-changing demands of the higher education landscape. It also seeks to explore whether the historical period of establishment of the institution influences its organizational culture and the features it comprises. Findings suggested that multiple organizational cultures co-exist at a time while some are predominant. The corporate culture was mostly prevailing within all universities established at any time period. It was permanently overlaid on bureaucracy so that many institutions operated in highly regulated environments with a mixture of both modes of governance. Emerging universities were found to be more entrepreneurial as per the loose-tight coupling defined in the model and the perceptions of participants. Despite the wealth of organizational culture literature on the benefits of less control-oriented cultures, private universities in Lebanon have not transformed significantly. Rather, they tend to adhere more to organizational cultures that emphasize stability amid turbulence, thus acting as a kind of security blanket or risk mitigate.