Organisational features of Norwegian higher education institutions: perceptions on organisational change

Abstract

In 2015 a large-scale re-structuring of the Norwegian higher education sector was launched, resulting in a number of merger processes leading to more comprehensive institutions than before. The merger processes are complex organisational processes which arguably have impact on key organisational features such as information flow, communication, engagement, collaboration, organisational culture, commitment, leadership and organisational change. Based on data from a 2021 survey among academic staff, this brief compares six of the institutions merging between 2016 and 2017 (INN, NORD, HVL, USN, UiT and NTNU) with a sample of 15 other higher education institutions in Norway. The tendency is that academic staff at the merged institutions in general are less positive with respect to organisational features of their institution than those in the group of other institutions. Both the type of institution and subject fields do play a role in staff reflections on organisational features as well.