Senior staff members' perceptions of organisational culture and quality in higher education institutions in England

This thesis sets out to examine the two major concepts of organisational culture and Quality Management (QM) in English Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) by investigating the attitudes of senior staff. The development of QM in commercial, industrial, local government and higher education contexts is chronicled and analysed. The proposition, that emerging QM approaches fail to take account of the diversity of cultures which exists in HEIs, is formulated. In order to examine this proposition, two phases of research were undertaken with senior managers, senior administrators and senior academics. The first phase of the research made use of depth interviews and document analysis in seven particular HEIs. The second phase research involved canvassing the views of senior staff in a larger number of HEIs. The research supports the general findings from the relevant literature that there is diversity of organisational culture between and within HEIs. In addition, the literature and research highlight a noticeable shift in emphasis towards outcome rather than process measures, to fitness of purpose rather than fitness for purpose and towards standards rather than quality. Thus, there is a tendency for the emerging QM approaches to be more absolutist and less relativist than was the case with Higher Education Funding Council for England Quality Assessment. The empirical research tends to support rather than refute the proposition. The complexity of organisational cultures in HEIs, and the consequent disjunction with the emerging QM approaches, is illustrated through the construction of a three dimensional model. This new model adds the dimension of the three stakeholder groups to Dopson and McNay's (1996) model of universities as organisations. In addition, the new model suggests several areas that merit further research