Organizational Culture at St. Mary’s University College: An Assessment Using the OCAI Instrument

Abstract

Organization culture is a pattern of shared basic assumptions that the group learned as it solved its problems of external adaptation and internal integration that has worked well enough to be considered valid (Schein, 1992). It is a primary component of functional decision making in universities. In order to let administrators, faculty, and staff to effectively and efficiently coordinate the academic environment in St Mary’s University College, a continuous cultural assessment and related change are necessary. The purpose of this study is to explore the concept of culture at a Main campus of the University College. Specifically, 50 Members of the university college consisting of regular degree program students, academic and administrative as well as administrative support staffs are studied with regard to three main levels of culture with respect to the University College’s Artifacts, Espoused Values, and Basic Underlying Assumptions. The Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI) is mainly utilized in addition to interview and document analysis to determine how culture of the university impacts the perceptions, thoughts, and feelings of respondents. In this paper, results of the OCAI are examined in terms of how the college members rated the current university college culture and what they would prefer it to be in next five years using descriptive co- relational analysis method. The Hierarchy culture is dominant in the current situation however the clan culture has been preferred. It is observed that the respondent’s perceptions of the current Main campus culture negatively coincide with the overall mission, goals, and core values of the University College.