Olexsandr Ignatiev. Organizational changes in higher education institutions in the context of transformations

DOI: https://doi.org/10.62204/2336-498X-2025-1-12

ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGES IN HIGHER EDUCATION

INSTITUTIONS IN THE CONTEXT OF TRANSFORMATIONS

Olexsandr Ignatiev,

National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Kyiv, Ukraine,

o.ihnatiev@ukma.edu.ua; ORCID ID: 0009-0001-8697-6412

Annotation. At the beginning of the 21st century, information and knowledge are becoming a qualitatively new factor of production, which is fundamentally different from the traditional factors of land, capital and labor. While the industrial revolution created industrial technology and machinery, which led to an increase in labor productivity, the scientific and technological revolution of the late twentieth century turned information and knowledge into a new factor of production that increases the efficiency of both production and service provision. Such an economic model is the economic system of those countries where the information sector occupies a prominent place in the structure of the economy and has a decisive impact on the functioning of all other areas of activity through the use of highly skilled intellectual labor, investment in the development of information resources, creation of new information, knowledge as the main product of production activity. Today, against the backdrop of intensive development of the latest information technologies, the processes of economic transformation are unfolding, forming a new economic and social reality that Ukraine cannot ignore, since transformation processes, their adequate perception and participation of our country in these processes will determine Ukraine’s place in the global economy of the twenty-first century. In this regard, at the present stage, much attention is being paid to the study of the transformation of the governance system. This interest is also largely due to the intensification of information and integration processes in the economy, transnationalization of production activities, increased risks, and decreased profitability of many business segments. Education is of particular importance in this transformation. The search for new organizational forms for higher education institutions (HEIs) in Ukraine is an urgent process that requires finding effective solutions.

The study was based on the use of: method of comparison, generalization – to clarify and formalize the essence of the concept, graphoanalytical method – to provide clarity of the material and schematic representation of a number of theoretical and practical provisions of the study.

Keywords: organizational change, educational institutions, transformation, bifurcation, transformation, motivation for change, strategy, change strategy, management system, adaptation, change potential.

Introduction. The article analyzes the peculiarities of organizational changes required by higher education institutions in Ukraine, in particular under the influence of the development of the digital economy. The current situation in the economic environment of Ukraine requires comprehension and development of certain management and economic tools to adapt higher education institutions to new conditions. The article outlines the main directions of transformational changes in higher education institutions due to the impact of war and COVID.

Results and their analysis. In order to determine the directions of organizational changes required by Ukrainian higher education institutions, it is worth investigating the importance of higher education for the economy and its role in the development of society. It is necessary to consider the world experience of the existence and transformation of universities as one of the most sustainable institutions of modern society. The first university is considered to be the University of Bologna, founded in the middle of the XII century. Thus, the university is about 850 years old, but if we take into account, for example, its prototypes, such as the medical school in Salermo, then its age will exceed a millennium [1, 2].

When universities appeared and spread throughout Europe, there was no state as we know it today.

The organization of the first universities of the 12th and 13th centuries reveals characteristic elements of the workshop structure or specific features of the oldest medieval associations.

The first university corporations could exist as associations of teachers or as associations of teachers and students.

At the oldest university in Europe, the University of Bologna, this corporation united only students, who elected their own leader, the dean, to whom professors were subordinate. The professors were elected by students for a certain period of time and received a fee from the funds collected by the dean from students. In addition, the elected professors were obliged not to teach anywhere but Bologna.

The University of Bologna was one of the most democratic institutions in Europe and became a source of free thinking, which was of great concern to the church of the time. In 1563, Bologna became part of the Papal State, and the Catholic Church tightened its control over the university and proclaimed the thesis: “knowledge is a gift from God, and therefore, the sale of knowledge is a form of sacred trade.” Therefore, the church condemned the collection of money to pay teachers and established professors’ salaries, mostly in the form of land plots.

It is worth considering the historical background of the transformation of universities in different eras. Each era created its own type of education:

The Middle Ages created “labor education” – learning professions directly in the course of labor activity, the era of industrial society (17th century) created a classroom system of “academic education” – training in professions in isolation from direct production in special educational institutions (academies, institutes, universities). Management in these institutions was based on the principles of linear-functional and goal-oriented structures. “Industrial education” was fully aligned with the requirements of production and the labor market, and was focused on mastering various professional skills typical of the era of knowledge-skill reproductive activity.

At the turn of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, two main university models emerged: the French university, managed and controlled by the state (here, the key was state regulatory instruments, not science), and the Humboldt University, endowed with broad autonomy and combining teaching and research functions. The organizational structure of this university was based on the principles of linear-functional structures and the principles of goal setting and value orientation. The logic of Wilhelm Humboldt’s reasoning is as follows: the state that maintains a university, for its own benefit, should give it full autonomy in research and teaching. This is necessary because the university corporation is engaged in the search for scientific truth, and without freedom, such a search is impossible. Without autonomy from the university, it is impossible to achieve progress in knowledge, which means that such a university will not be able to solve the pragmatic tasks for which the state takes it under its care.

At the turn of the XX-XXI centuries, it became clear that Humbolt University did not fully meet the requirements of the emerging era of globalization, the new technological order and the market economy. Humboldt State University was poorly connected in terms of organizational and substantive partnerships with industry and business, did not understand the need for commercialization of science and education, and failed to meet the demands of society and individuals for personalized scientific and educational services.

Modern universities in the world: classical, technical, research universities are innovative structures that actively use innovations in their activities, make changes in the style of their activities in order to take a more promising position in the present and future, while maintaining traditional academic values.

In an innovative university, research is aimed at obtaining new knowledge, educational activities are aimed at using this knowledge in the educational process to train highly qualified specialists, and innovative activities are aimed at commercializing knowledge, i.e. commercially effective use of new knowledge.

At the current stage of development of the post-industrial society, education is becoming a purposeful, continuous (throughout active life) activity of an individual focused on using the educational system and the educational environment for self-improvement, meeting individual educational needs and obtaining a specialty necessary for the socio-economic development of society. Solving these problems requires a new approach to the organization and management of the university.

In the context of the modification of the educational and scientific system of Ukrainian higher education institutions, there is a transition to a new organizational structure, which can be characterized as a transition from a rigid organizational structure to a flexible one – an adaptive network structure. In its essence, the adaptive network structure is the development of the organizational structure in relation to post-industrial education and characterizes the transition from rigid structuring of activities to destructuring, and a new term for such a destructured structure appears in socio-economic theory – adaptive network.

A comparison of the properties of the hierarchical organization structure of higher education institutions and the adaptive network structure is presented in Table 1.

It should be noted that designing a higher education institution on the principles of adaptation and network organizational structure allows to present an innovative higher education institution as a set of interconnected and complementary structural units of educational, scientific, and innovation complexes within the institution, as well as coordinated by the institution independent, associative or under complex agreements with it related research, design, development, research and production, financial, small and medium-sized innovative production and service enterprises and institutions, other organizations, agents, and other organizations.

They ensure the process of comprehensive, interconnected, mutually coordinated and simultaneous implementation of educational activities based on innovation and development of innovation activities in all areas of the HEI for the development, creation, modification, operation, sale or transfer of innovative products and coordinate interaction with government, industry, and business.

On the one hand, an innovative HEI can be characterized as a system of social activity that implements purposeful activities of people focused on the production of final products and services to meet the needs of society, as well as value-oriented activities aimed at transforming the HEIs themselves and developing their creative potential. On the other hand, an innovative higher education institution in the modern socio-economic system is, by necessity, a subject of market relations, operating in the conditions of formation and development of specialized domestic and international markets.

According to the above, it seems adequate to describe an innovative university as a holistic, value-oriented system. This is what determines the directions of organizational changes required by the management system of the HEI.

It is logical to study the goal- and value-oriented systems as the basis for the formation of the organizational structure (Table 2). The purposeful nature of the formation of the management system of a higher education institution requires strict management, and the management system is designed as a purposefully functioning structure capable of solving problem situations under certain external conditions and given resources. The end product of the management activities of such an organizational system is a decision that prescribes the required behavior of the HEI. Purposeful organizational management structures are usually determined by hierarchical schemes depending on the degree of centralization of management and its nature: linear, functional, linear-functional.

Activities within a purposeful system always act as a given rational (optimized) behavior of the higher education institution, necessary and sufficient to achieve the set goals. The leading relations in the process of activity here are subject-object relations. Therefore, in systems of this class, individual characteristics and originality of elements are leveled, activities aimed at achieving goals are distributed and any other activities are suppressed, the own goals of the subjects of activity are ignored, their activity, social activity and initiative are limited [7].

The formation of a management system in value-based systems, on the other hand, can be characterized as soft management and self-governance (reflective management). The management tools used are of the nature of personal influence of subjects on the objects of management, which is dominated not by the transfer of information and norms of behavior, but by communication, collegial discussion, justification, and cooperation in achieving a conscious consensus of the objects of management in choosing areas of activity.

The peculiarities of managing the life of value-based systems are ensured by highly developed intra-system self-governance, the creation of collegial and collective bodies. Self-governance is a characteristic feature of value-based systems that ensures the harmony of collective activity with personal mechanisms of creativity. The governing bodies of value-oriented systems, unlike goal-oriented systems, do not develop decisions, but rather a mission, goals, regulations, expert opinions, charters, memoranda, reviews, etc., the implementation of which involves the creative approach of the executors, as well as the freedom to choose the forms and methods of solving the tasks set by these documents.

Conclusions. Thus, the problems of formation and development of a higher education institution as a subject of domestic and foreign specialized markets of educational services, intellectual labor, scientific products, real estate, consulting services, and financial markets introduce significant features of management of an innovative higher education institution.

And the formation of a higher education institution as a subject of market relations is not limited to a single act of making a relevant decision, but is a rather long, multifaceted and systematically organized process that involves a significant restructuring of all areas of activity of the higher education institution, changes in socio-economic and professional research and educational relations in the scientific environment, as well as the formation of new relationships between the higher education institution and external institutions. Successful implementation of the announced changes requires awareness of the need for organizational changes and adaptation of existing adaptation and network structures to the specifics of the activities and transformation of Ukrainian HEIs.

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