Higher Education: A Field in Ferment

Abstract

Higher education in the United States is in the throes of change as existing institutions are being challenged and new forms and modes of educational delivery are appearing. To understand and examine these changes, three versions of the “organization field” perspectives are employed. The first emphasizes the forces that have created and perpetuated the existing configuration of colleges and universities. The second stresses the ways in which colleges compete for scarce resources and engage in strategic behavior to survive and gain advantage in a highly competitive and contested arena. And the third focuses attention on consumers (students) rather than providers (colleges), noting alternatives that are emerging to offer training and education outside of the conventional providers. In combination, these perspectives identify varying players and processes that collectively are shaping the future of higher education.

To couple or not to couple

“…Decoupling was evident in both case organisations in terms of achieving external legitimacy and also internal flexibility (cf. Meyer and Rowan, 1977;Tilcsik, 2010;Scott, 2015) Administrative staff at UniOz did not share the enthusiasm of their academic colleagues and students when it came to using Google solutions. On the contrary, UniOz found the features of Google a hindrance to the productivity.…”

“…usability, easy to share documents with external research partners, etc.) from academics are in conflict with the externally generated pressures (Scott, 2015) and security conformity interpreted by the IT management staff in coalition with the external SUNET body. The official sanctioning of Box.com was aimed at meeting the user needs for easily accessible SaaS solutions, whilst ensuring that the concerns of privacy and security, associated with public clouds, are minimised.…”