Strategy briefing for universities: No.5

Aligning behaviours with ambitions

How universities can foster supportive cultures for 21st century strategies

Success is a cultural thing

More than almost any other type of organisation, except perhaps monasteries, universities perceive themselves as communities, defined by their shared commitments to academic excellence and scholarship. 

It follows that a university's strengths and weaknesses are determnined largely by how effectively their communal culture - the mix of values, behaviours and interactions that they display - is aligned with their external environment.  Indeed, the challenges posed in these Strategy Briefings - outside-in thinking, integrated management systems, joined-up operations - can all be interpreted as calls for a re-alignment of organisational cultures in response to a changing world