UNIVERSITY CORPORATE CULTURE TRANSFORMATION: SOCIOLOGOCAL AND LINGUISTICS DIAGNOSIS METHODS

Abstract

The purpose of the research article described the experience of sociological and linguistic studies of the National Research Tomsk State University corporate culture transformation during the 5-100 program (2013-2016) is to diagnose the current state and dynamics of the university corporate culture transformation, providing analytical support for changes. The novelty of the research is provided by using a complex of sociological and linguistic methods. This allows us to identify the value orientations and preferences of employees in relation to the current image of the university and its desired image, which are revealed by the results of a sociological survey and according to the content analysis of the discursive practices of the university. For the first time, qualitative-quantitative sociological methods were verified by phenomenological data obtained due to analyzing the corporate discourse of the university. The relevance of the study caused by the fact that the corporate culture of the university and the corporate discourse as the exponent of the ideology and organization of core values serve as a strategic management tool to guide the divisions of the university community on common goals, to strengthen the vision of a world-class university, to ensure loyalty of employees, students, university partners, to facilitate communication within the university environment. The sociological approach to the diagnosis of the configuration of TSU corporate culture used to relying on complex techniques: 1) self-diagnosis method «Metaphor» (by A. I. Prigozhin); 2) the construction of the frame structure of competing values based on the university staff survey «OCAI» (by K. Cameron and R. Quinn); 3) research of public opinion during the analytical data focus groups with representatives of the university community (supervisor: V. Kashpur, co-host - LA Dmitrieva, N. Gulius). The main objective was to identify the type of the dominant culture, its potential problem areas and gaps, as well as the dynamics of the changes under the influence of competing values. Changes in the organization language (2005-2016) were analyzed on the material on three groups of text documents: 1) documents regulating the TSU ethical rules and corporate culture norms - «Regulations on the corporate culture of Tomsk State University» (2005) and «Code of Ethics of the Tomsk State University» (2015); 2) Rector ‘treatment to the university community (2005-2016); 3) decoding of oral interviews with employees on the theme of the University changes (2014-2015). The analysis method included: 1) determination of the tokens number by the automatic processing of the analyzed texts by the program “Content analysis 1 Pro», 2) sample keywords of the corporate discourse and performance of their frequency; 3) formation of the ratings of keywords frequency in certain chronological and thematic groups of the analyzed texts 4) conceptual, semantic, contextual keyword analysis; 5) a comparative analysis of the composition and frequency of keywords in the text groups related to specific thematic groups and chronological periods; 6) changes in fixation; 7) interpretation. TSU diagnostics revealed a mixed picture: stretching between clan culture and the market. The University discourse translates values mostly of the clan culture, although management practices are focused on the strict implementation of “market” indicators of world-class university. It was identified the orientation to rigid implementation of the goals and the achievement of results planned by the top-managers, but in respect of staff the “human” strategy of maximum involvement of the staff and the minimum number of dismissals has been selected. Keyword analysis confirms this transformation vector: the elements of the high pathetic rhetoric focused on the enthusiasm of employees are disappeared, it was found the increasing modality of negation and duty; strengthening the opposition of “our” and «them». The axiological dominant picture of the world is shifting from progressive and positive, inspiring to work together - to the tense and antagonistic calling to mobilize in a situation of fierce competition, the polarization and the erosion of values. The required invariant of the dominant clan culture is the university’s corporate culture as a culture of cooperation, serving the people, education, science, real interaction between professors and students. In conclusion, practical recommendations for the control period of the organization transformation are offered.