Designing an Organizational Polyphony Model in Higher Education of Iran

This research seeks to design the organizational polyphony model in higher education of Iran in order to provide a comprehensive model of the variables affecting the phenomenon of the polyphony and its consequences, so that pave the way for the development of the lofty goals of the higher education system. The research method is qualitative and the axial phenomenon is modeled using the grounded-theory approach. For this purpose, 20 experts in the field of polyphony and experts in cultural, political and social fields were interviewed. They were university faculty members and had executive positions in the higher education system. A set of concepts were extracted, categorized and presented using the Corbin and Strauss paradigm model during three stages of open, axial and selective coding. The diversity of voices was considered as a central phenomenon, and the categories of diversity of organizational structure, diversity of missions, diversity of personality traits and leadership style were considered as causal conditions. Strengthening the skill of discourse creation, mediation, translation of discourse, positive power, strengthening of cooperative complementary structures and re-engineering of procedures were recognized as strategies. Also, national culture, organizational culture, competitive environment inside and outside the system, economic conditions and transnational approach are considered as background factors. Planning limitations, managerial, legislative, and political obstacles, human and financial resources and structural factors were introduced as intervening factors. The consequences were also divided into four categories: individual, organizational, national and transnational. In this research, based on the opinion of experts, the effective components and management strategies of the diversity of voices in the higher education system have been analyzed and presented in the form of a comprehensive model. Finally, based on the findings of the research, suggestions were made for managers, institutions and future researches.