Organisational culture and external quality assurance

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Organisational culture and external quality assurance in higher education have bothdrawn significant attention to their promise of greater organisational effectiveness andefficiency and enhanced, improved higher education respectively. In recent years, theseconstructs have been linked by an assumption that an organisational culture that isamenable to change would be more receptive to the introduction of formal externalquality‐assurance structures, systems and instruments, as these are aimed at effectiveand efficient higher education practices, processes and outcomes. However, thisassumption has not been sufficiently tested given that there are significant philosophical,conceptual and methodological controversies and contestations surrounding bothconstructs. While the organisational culture literature has been littered with aproliferation of paradigms and, albeit, fragmented theories, there has been a paucity oftheory building in the corresponding literature on quality in higher education in generaland on the impact of external quality assurance on institutions specifically.A qualitative case study was conducted at a newly merged university of technology toinvestigate two taken‐for‐granted assumptions: first, that organisational cultures arehomogenous, unitary and centred around shared values and could therefore easily bemanipulated (usually from the top by management), and second, that the introduction ofexternal quality assurance is an unproblematic technology that will be accepted withoutquestion by higher education institutions as it was premised upon the laudable aim ofimproving the quality of those institutions. A conceptual four‐perspective framework wasdeveloped to critically evaluate the literature and provide the basis for the threedimensionalmodel used in analysing the findings. The research generated several keyconclusions that appear to challenge commonly held and articulated positions withregard to organisational culture and external quality assurance. First, organisationalculture should be considered as being more ephemeral than concrete, multidimensionalthan singular, characterised simultaneously by conflict, consensus and indifference and ina constant state of flux. Second, external quality assurance is not necessarily a value‐freeand neutral exercise aimed at improving the quality of teaching and learning, as promisedin its early conceptualisation and implementation. Third, multiple cultures may existsimultaneously, interact with and influence each other constantly and of coursedetermine interactions within the organisation and the nature of engagement withexternally originated initiatives. Fourth, external quality assurance has purposes that gobeyond its often morally just and public‐good motives as it tacitly and overtly acts as anagent of control, empowerment and transformation and simultaneously as an agent ofthe state, though not necessarily to the same extent.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University