Abstract
The aim of this article is tooutline a theoretical framework to addressHigher Education organizational change in aglobalized and globalizing age.The paper will start with a brief descriptionof trends characterizing the global landscapeand their relationships with Higher Educationpolicies and institutions.Although these trends are well known, theirimpact on HE institutions is to some largeextent ambiguous and open to different and evendiverging interpretations.In particular, is possible to identify two mainand opposed interpretations concerningglobalization outcomes:
(1) the convergence thesis, that emphasizes thehomogenization processes
(2) the divergence thesis that, on the contrary,emphasizes different, pluralistic andlocalized responses to globalizationprocesses.
In terms of organizational change the debatefocuses on isomorphic change vs.idiosyncratic strategic responses, translationprocesses and heterogeneity. Both grasp a partof the truth, but they tend to offer mutuallyexclusive explanations of responses to widerinstitutional processes and pressures.The article argues that these perspectivescould be integrated in one different,offering an interpretation of change dynamics,based on the concept of organizationalallomorphism.This concept is derived from linguistics and itused to point out a morphological variant of asame morpheme depending on the context of use.A morphological variant is meant not to besomething different or idiosyncratic, butsomething recognizable as a declension of onedefinite pattern or form.In organizational terms, this concept point outthat, although organizations adapt or translateinstitutional patterns in the face of theirformal structure and arrangements, as well asof their social context, it is possible toidentify a common set of institutionalizedpatterns, or institutional archetypes, whichstructure the organizational arrangements andbehaviors.
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Vaira, M. Globalization and higher education organizational change: A framework for analysis. Higher Education 48, 483–510 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:HIGH.0000046711.31908.e5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:HIGH.0000046711.31908.e5