The Relationship between Organizational Culture and Change Programs in Universities

 Today, the higher education system is faced with many economic, political, and societal changes. Rising international competition, diverse students, increasing demand from industrialized societies, declining budgets, and rapid technological advances are among the key drivers of change in such an environment. In other words, change is a necessity for higher education, not an opportunity. Organizational culture is one of the factors through which the necessary changes can be easily made in the system and create new orientations in the organization. Thus, it should be noted that the success of the change process depends to a large extent on organizational culture and employees’ willingness to adapt to new work environments. Therefore, considering the importance of organizational culture in directing the change programs in organizations, especially in educational ones, the current study was to examine the relationship between organizational culture and change programs in Iranian universities.

 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK :

After reviewing previous research, it was found that there exist two other programs (change in process and results) in addition to three traditional change programs (Change in structure, technology, and human resources). These two programs were also considered in the current study. On the other hand, in order to study organizational culture, the current research considered the components of innovation, attention to detail, attention to the outcome, attention to members of the organization, attention to the team, and ambition

 The present cross-sectional research is an applied study in terms of purpose, and in terms of method, it is a survey. At first, this research has reviewed the literature on organizational culture and change programs in universities. Needed data to test the relationship between these two variables was collected by a questionnaire and then was analyzed.

 The focus of this study was on a comparative investigation of the relationship between change programs and organizational culture in Azad, public, and Payam-e-Noor universities. In this regard, five types of change programs (human resource, restructuring, technology, process, and results change program) were identified. The structural equation model of the research was evaluated and fitted. Finally, organizational culture and its relationship with change programs were compared in different universities.

CONCLUSION & SUGGESTIONS:

The results of comparative investigations showed that there is a significant difference in the mean value of all dimensions of organizational culture except for attention to detail and attention to members. This implies the difference in organizational culture and change programs between different universities. Also, results indicated that, in public and Payam-e-Noor universities, there is a positive, strong, and significant relationship between organizational culture and change programs. But in Azad Universities, the above-mentioned relationship is weak. It was also found that this relationship is stronger for Payam-e-Noor Universities than for public universities. The results of this research help managers to select change programs that are compatible with the specific culture of their university and will help them succeed in the process of implementing change programs. In order for this to be possible, it is recommended that university administrators consider that organizational culture as a necessary factor for implementing the change programs. They should increase their knowledge of the university-specific culture to create the necessary context for improving and strengthening the organizational culture in line with the acceptance of change programs.