Organizational culture in the adoption of the Bologna process: a study of academic staff at a Ukrainian university

Abstract

The growing influence of the Bologna Process on higher education around the world has raised concerns about the applicability of this set of reforms in diverse cultural contexts. Ukraine provides an instructive case study highlighting the dynamics occurring at the convergence of the new framework with a state-centred model of higher education. The goal of this study was to examine the professional identity of faculty at one Ukrainian university and their perceptions regarding the implementation of Bologna at their institution. We found that instructional and institutional innovations were successfully implemented only to the extent that they were integrated with the existing pattern of values and beliefs held by faculty. These findings provide insight for how other countries may approach Bologna compatibility in the presence of social and cultural forces divergent from those in which the Bologna process originated.

Keywords:

• Bologna process
• institutional change
• organizational culture
• academic identity
• qualitative research