大学组织变革研究及其新进展

The Forefront and Progress of Research on University Change

大学组织变革是指大学内部结构和组织制度的变革,它是高等教育管理研究的前沿性命题,也是当今高等教育发展中最感困惑的问题。在最近30年中,学术界提出了三种主要的大学组织变革分析范式,即同构性理论、分化理论和同质异形理论。同构理论强调变革的动力来自于外部环境,变革是一个自上而下的过程;分化理论强调大学组织变革的动力来自于大学组织及其行动者,变革是一个自下而上的过程;同质异形理论试图把两者综合起来,强调大学组织变革是一个自上而下和自下而上相结合的过程。这三种理论其实是从新制度主义中演化和生发出来的,它们各有优势。未来的发展趋势是:以同质异形理论为主,充分借鉴制度分析理论和资源依赖理论,把三种理论范式中的某些要素综合起来,更好地解释大学组织变革问题。

University change refers to the internal structural and institutional changes of universities. It is the forefront of research issue on management of higher education as well as the most puzzling problem at present in the development of higher education. In the past thirty years, there have been three main analyzing paradigms on university change in the academia： the isomorphism theory, the divergence theory and the allomorphism theory. The isomorphism theory emphasizes that the impetus of change comes from the external environment, and change is a top-down process; the divergence theory emphasizes that the impetus of change comes from university itself and its actors, and change is a bottom-up process; and the allomorphism theory attempts to combine the former two theories, emphasizing that change is a combination of top-down process and bottom-up process. In fact, these three theories are evolved from new institutionalism and each has its own advantages. The future trend is with the allomorphism theory as a core, making full use of the institutional analyzing theory and resource dependence theory, and combining some elements of these three theoretical paradigms, to better explain the issues of university change.