On Corporate Culture of the Russian Universities

Abstract

   The paper proposed focuses both leaders and academics of the Russian universities on phenomenon of the university corporate culture. Special importance of this phenomenon for the university advancing is explained by value-oriented nature of the university activity firstly, and by the fact that the corporate culture is the main factor ensuring unity and uniqueness of a university, secondly. Research of the web-sites of 237 Russian universities administrated by the Russian Ministry of Science and Higher Education showed that it is very difficult or even impossible to get any information about corporate culture of these universities. It caused not because both rectors and academics do not pay enough attention to corporate culture, but because the evolution of the corporate culture in the main part of the universities is carried out spontaneously, but not on the system bases. Current condition of the corporate culture is not described in the terms ensuring the shared by the university community picture of this culture. Challenges to the culture from external environment as well as impact of the environment on the culture are not analyzed. An example of influence of these shortcomings on prestige of both Russian universities and Russia as a country is given. It is shown that experimentally found trend to increasing hierarchical component in the Russian university’s corporate culture can become an obstacle on the way of these universities to the technological leadership.