Abstract
Earlier research has brought organizational identity to the fore as an institutional response to the developments in higher education field. Following literature, this study aims to examine the organizational identity of universities through an analysis of themes communicated at their websites. The study findings reveal that participant universities communicate five common identity themes institutionalized by higher education field. Among these themes, social values presented to the society for belongingness and capacity for enriching main university functions are found out to be most communicated themes. The findings also show that each university communicates distinct themes that still fall under these five common themes. Therefore, the study presents that distinct themes symbolizing the uniqueness claim of the university identity emerge within the pre-determined theme categories in the field.
Highlights
The recent trend of internationalization has increased the competition in higher education field and led to the dominance of business-like management (Gioia and Thomas, 1996; Stensaker, 2015)
Thereby based on the previous research, the current study aims to examine the concept of university identity through analyzing the identity themes reflected in their websites
Analysis Results The thematic content analysis aimed to examine the university identity themes communicated by five US universities
Summary
The recent trend of internationalization has increased the competition in higher education field and led to the dominance of business-like management (Gioia and Thomas, 1996; Stensaker, 2015). The understanding of university experience as a ‘commodity’ to be marketed and sold has never been as explicit as it is today. Alongside this shift, there is an increasingly relentless race between universities to acquire high quality staff, students, and administrators together with substantial donations that can create a difference in value. While trying to maintain academic quality and integrity, universities compete for public and private financial support. All of these changes have created a more competitive and dynamic environment for universities
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