Development of organisational culture in the system of higher education quality improvement

Abstract

In the context of the formation of the knowledge economy, the intellectualization of labour, the acceleration of information exchange processes due to the digitalization of all spheres of public life, the role of education is increasing every year, knowledge and modern educational technologies are becoming increasingly important. A developed organizational culture is one of the important elements of the mechanism for the effective management of educational institutions and ensuring the high quality of educational services of universities. Organizational culture’s increasing role in the activities of educational institutions is also associated with trends in the socialisation of the economy, orientation towards sustainable development and the need to obtain long-term competitive advantages. Strategies and plans for the development of educational institutions are largely formed under the influence of existing corporate values, principles and traditions, which have formed during many years of their activity in the educational services market. The need to improve existing and develop new conceptual approaches to managing the development of organizational culture and improving the quality of higher education in the face of modern challenges led to the choice of the topic of the dissertation, its goals and objectives. The aim of the dissertation research is the development of theoretical and methodological foundations for the study of organisational culture in the field of education and the development of modern tools for managing the development of organisational culture in the system of higher education quality improvement. The object of the research is the processes of development of the organisational culture of educational institutions for the higher education quality improvement. The subject of the research is the theoretical, methodological and practical foundations for the development of organisational culture in the system of improving the higher education quality. The dissertation describes the essence, functions and significance of organizational culture for the development of the knowledge economy, its nature and features in the field of human capital formation, as well as the system for ensuring the quality of higher education and its significance for the sustainable development of universities. Based on the results of the study, the most common characteristics of organizational culture are identified, on the basis of which the author's classification of approaches to its essence in modern conditions is proposed (value-oriented approach, element-oriented approach, result-oriented approach, essence-oriented approach, person-oriented approach), and on the base of these approaches, the own definition of organizational culture focused on improving the quality of higher education is proposed. A number of basic and specific functions of organizational culture is identified, which are characteristic of modern realities and formed under the influence of the formation of the knowledge economy, digitalization of the economy, the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine. It has been determined that organizational culture also acts as a factor in the development of human capital, and combines economic and social elements, as a result of which a model for the formation of human capital has been developed in the system of interaction with the organizational culture of an educational institution, which functions through a system of situational and individual components, tools of organizational culture, motivational, communication and managerial factors. The proposed model makes it possible to analyse the existing and missing elements, relationships of organizational culture, to identify its strengths and weaknesses, impact on quality assurance of higher education, and determine the effectiveness of the formation and use of the potential of human capital. It is proved that the interrelationship between the quality of higher education and the organizational culture of a university is reflected in the education quality culture. In educational institutions the culture of education quality as a value and collective responsibility of all educational process participants contributes to the establishment of effective internal and external quality assurance procedures in their complementarity and focus on the implementation of the principles of transparency, trust, partnership, objectivity, subsidiarity, academic integrity, academic freedom, communication, collective responsibility, etc. At the same time, the quality of education is an important tool for sustainable development and ensuring of the growth of well-being not only of educational institutions, but of the entire society, since a modern university is a social institution that accumulates human capital of the highest quality. The methodology for assessing the organizational culture of educational institutions is proposed, the empirical study of the organizational culture of higher education institutions is performed, and reserves for the development of the organizational culture of educational institutions are identified in the context of improving the quality of higher education and sustainable development of universities. The proposed theoretical and methodological approach to assessing the organizational culture of educational institutions combines six stages: development of a system of indicators for evaluating the organizational culture of educational institutions, taking into account their characteristics as objects of evaluation; normalization of indicators; determination of indices for each of the three blocks of indicators and the Integral Index for evaluating the organizational culture of educational institutions; visualization of the results of evaluation of the organizational culture of educational institutions; characterization of the organizational culture of educational institutions using qualitative and quantitative methods that are most widely used in the scientific literature; identification of reserves for the development of organizational culture to improve the quality of higher education and development of recommendations for their implementation in the existing socio-economic conditions. It has been stated that most of the evaluated educational institutions have a very high level of development of organizational culture and are leaders in international educational ratings. For the assessed educational institutions having lower indicators, reserves were identified for increasing the level of development of organizational culture through the development and approval of corporate culture codes (codes of ethics, codes of values), the formation of value-oriented development strategies and improving the quality of educational services. The challenges that affect the activities of educational institutions and higher education quality in modern conditions are characterized, a strategy for the development of organizational culture and corporate social responsibility is developed, which is an element of anti-crisis management of educational institutions in the conditions of Russian military aggression against Ukraine. Directions are proposed for the transformation of organizational culture to ensure competitiveness and innovative development of educational institutions. It has been stated that in modern conditions the functioning of the national higher education system and the educational services quality are influenced by the following factors: the COVID-19 pandemic and other epidemic threats, the intellectualisation of the labour market and the expansion of opportunities for remote employment, Russia's aggression against Ukraine, the further globalization of the educational services market, the socio-economic crisis, a clear evidence which is the difficulty to control inflationary processes. The proposed scientific and methodological approach to determining of the factors which influence the activities of educational institutions contributes to a more effective development of the Strategy for anti-crisis management of educational institutions, which combines the following elements: the development of the organisational culture of educational institutions and its adaptation to a changing external environment; creation of reserve funds of educational institutions by attracting international grants; development of educational programmes to increase the internationalisation of the university; improvement of the quality of services of higher education institutions; use and development of distance learning technologies. The advantages of this strategy are that it provides for the implementation of activities that do not require significant financial resources and is more focused on the use of the existing resource support of educational institutions, the effective use of existing human, intellectual and social capital. The proposed directions for changing the organisational culture to ensure competitiveness, innovative development of educational institutions, and improving the quality of educational services combine the following: changes in the management of educational institutions, and in the field of scientific and didactic activities. These areas cover the main aspects of the activities of educational institutions in the context of digitalization, globalisation of the educational services market and the increasing impact of the socio-economic crisis on all spheres of public life. The scientific and practical significance of the work is in the development of modern tools for managing the development of organisational culture and improving the quality of higher education. In the framework of the research the personal contribution of the author is in the development of the theoretical foundations for the study of organisational culture in the system of higher education quality improvement, the analytical characteristics of organisational culture in higher education institutions and modern tools for managing the development of organisational culture in the conditions of modern challenges. Based on the results of the research, 10 scientific papers were published, of which: two articles were published in publications included in the SCOPUS scientometric database; two articles were published in professional journals of Ukraine; three articles were published in foreign specialized journals three publications were published in the materials of scientific conferences.