Organizational coupling in higher education institutions: challenges for university governance

Abstract

Control mechanisms have traditionally been used for managing organizations, but the development of concepts of loosely coupled or flexibly coupled systems offers an alternative for managing unbureaucratic organizations or ones whose broad social interactions and power relationships make them complex to manage, as in the case of university institutions. Tensions between loose and tight coupling are common in university governance, but they have not been adequately researched. Addressing this gap is the objective of this study. To do so, a case study methodology was selected, opting for three methods: documentary analysis, semi-structured interviews and focus groups. The findings made it possible to identify three determinant variables of governance: power – social interaction – coupling, which leads us to propose a model with four kinds of governance: control, collegial, self-regulated and concerted managerial.