Environment, Culture, Politics: Organizational Response to Externally Mandated Structural Change.

Abstract

The higher education change literature primarily addresses adaptation and diffusion strategies that examine change after it has occurred and that has been internally initiated. This study examines the variables and organizational dynamics that explain an institution of higher education's response to an external m and ate for change. Specifically, the study investigates the responses formulated and enacted by three, two year state supported institutions which were pressured through a state governing board's mandate to undergo major structural reorganization. For two of the institutions the reorganization involved merging, for the third the reorganization involved splitting from the parent campus. The investigation employs a conceptual framework, initially grounded in theory, then modified through observation. The framework incorporates three conceptual perspectives (organization-environmental interface, culture, political processes) to identify independent variables and then explore their relationships to the response variables. The response variables include willingness to alter structure and capability to reallocate resources. The intent is to determine whether the variables and their relationships are useful in examining the organizational response to external mandate and to determine where modifications in the conceptual framework should be made for future study. This study followed an inductive approach and used a comparative case study method. A review of the literature was used to develop the conceptual framework and to identify the sixteen variables examined as determinants of organizational response. Data were gathered through interviews and document review of the three institutions which were confronted with the same dictate but which had varying response patterns. Content analysis and the case cluster method were used to measure the primary variables. These were analyzed independently for each institution and then analyzed comparatively by the conceptual domains. The investigation found that the most critical variables were those dealing with the organization-environmental interface. An institution's decision to undergo a major structural change is influenced greatly by the recommendations of those external organizations with which it is resource interdependent. Organizational culture variables were discovered to have little or no impact on the institution's chosen response. Based on findings of this study, implications for further research and a more sophisticated model, that could include quantitative analysis, was discussed. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.)