De-bureaucratising organisational culture at a public university: A mixed-method study of the implementation of a liberal arts programme

This article explores how public higher education institutions may design and implement new study programmes based on an example of a liberal arts programme adopted recently at a Polish university. Using a mixed-method approach (actor analysis, ethnographic thick description, and discourse and rhetorical analysis of communications), we approach the data to trace the processes of negotiating and implementing the programme innovation. The study identifies which aspects of organisational design and organisational culture facilitate curricular innovations in the context of a public university in order to offer evidence-based recommendations for innovation managers. Of special interest here are (1) relations of power and responsibility (leadership styles) that are conducive to institutional innovations, (2) (in)formal norms and communication practices of effective teamwork and organisational culture, and (3) discursive patterns that spawn innovative solutions that bring about institutional changes. The analysis offers an insight into the specific processes involved in the de-bureaucratising of public universities and reframing their organisational culture to resemble a ‘learning organisation’ that allows a continual renewal of its structures and communication routines, with the support of adequate managerial practices.