Russian Universities: Organizational Specifics and Development Benchmarks Choice

Russian Universities:
Organizational Specifics and Development Benchmarks Choice


Popova Е.P.

Cand. Sci. (Soc.), Assoc. Prof., National Research University “Higher School of Economics”, Moscow, Russia eppopova@hse.ru

Klimova A.V.

Cand. Sci. (Sociol.), Assoc. Prof., National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia. aklimova@hse.ru

ID of the Article: 7461

Rubric: Sociology of governance and administration

For citation:

Popova Е.P., Klimova A.V. Russian Universities: Organizational Specifics and Development Benchmarks Choice. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Studies]. 2018. No 12. P. 63-72


 Full Text.


Abstract

The article discusses the choice of guidelines for the development of universities as determined by their organizational specificity, the specifics of their activities and the tasks set for them. Оrganizational specifics of universities is analyzed from the point of view of the optimal structure in the context of the implementation of organizational activities involving the combination of educational and research activities. A typology of university models is proposed, which sets the guidelines for their development, taking into account the type of customer and the type of resultant product, the university model as a business organization and as an institution. A business organization operating in a dynamic environment (a saturated market) is customer-oriented, adjusting the content of the activity to its needs. The institution, being a part of a larger system, is focused on the goals of the state – the training of specialists and the development of science. The choice of a university development model determines not only the difference in the content of the activity, the criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of organizational activity, but also the difference in the criteria for evaluating activity and optimal characteristics of the staff. It proves that Russian universities function today and choose development guidelines according to the business organization model. The need to carry out at least two types of basic activities: educational and scientific (with a predominance of research for NRU) makes it impossible for a university to function as a business organization.


Keywords
organizational nature of the university; guidelines for the development of the university; university as a business organization; university as an institution

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Content No 12, 2018