Evolution of Methodological Approaches to the Study of University Corporate Culture: Theoretical Review

The category of «corporate culture» today is rightfully considered interdisciplinary, and the phenomenon itself is actively studied by domestic and foreign scientists. Until the mid-20th century, corporate culture was the focus of attention of researchers who focused exclusively on economic organizations and empirically proved a direct correlation between economic efficiency and the dominant type of corporate culture of the organization. The focus of attention shifts at the turn of the 20th-21st centuries, the cultural-ideological and socio-economic transformation of society  gives rise to scientific interest in the study of the corporate culture of educational organizations through the prism of an anthropological approach. Modern universities are characterized by a dynamic corporate culture, the essential content of which becomes the object of pragmatic, phenomenological, semiotic, philosophical, functional approaches recognized as classical. The emergence of innovative approaches from the point of view of identifying the functional potential of corporate culture determines the need for their deeper study.

The purpose of the author’s research is to theoretically analyze and systematize methodological approaches to the study of the phenomenon of university corporate culture in the context of their evolutionary development. The methodological basis of the study is presented by general sociological methods; a retrospective analysis made it possible to identify the features of the transformation of the category “culture” as a result of changes in social formations; the cultural paradigm was formed on the basis of the dominant ideology in society and dominant group values, from the universal work culture to the academic culture of the classical university. The evolution of theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of university corporate culture is presented in the author’s interpretation as a consistent, multi-s tage process: from the prerequisites for the emergence of the first postulates of culture to the formation of alternative areas of applied research.

A generalization of theoretical positions on the classification and systematization of approaches to the study of corporate culture of a university determined the conclusion about the consistency of classical and modern approaches, a permanently growing interest in the introduction of anthropological, linguistic, commemorative approaches to the interpretation of the culture of educational organizations. Scientific novelty lies in identifying the possibilities of innovative approaches in revealing the sociocultural, heuristic potential of the corporate culture of a modern university.

The classification of approaches to the study of corporate culture developed by the author, based on the principle of complementarity, is of practical importance, allowing for a significant expansion of the possibilities for using the functionality of the culture of educational institutions.

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