A Metasynthesis of University Organizational Culture Components: A Qualitative Approach to Recognizing the Priorities of the Meritocratic Academic Community

The purpose of this study was to provide, recognize, and metasynthesize the components of university organizational culture. To this end, a metasynthesis of the Iranian and international articles published from 2010 to 2020 was carried out. The findings of the study were categorized into three parts, namely assumptions, values, and artifacts. The prioritization of the 88 components derived from 74 articles revealed that in the assumptions construct, the value principles of the organization and physical-spiritual wellbeing in the epistemology component and organizational identity and organizational experiences in the identity-seeking component are of importance. In the value construct, components such as academicians’ competences, participation and teamwork, scientific independence and freedom, organizational learning, and learning methods (as norms) and negative clichés (as anomalies) were identified. Finally, within the artifacts construct, components such as communication platform, interaction among individuals (structure), academic management and the role of leadership (human resources), resource allocation and bargaining over resources, and organizational change and evolution atmosphere (process) were recognized. Finally, the artifacts construct was deemed as the principal priority of the meritocratic academic community, the main part of which is the structure component.