Strategies In Universities: A Comparative Analysis Through The Institutional Perspective

Having the organizational complexity as background, in conjunction with the Oliver’s (1991) tipology, which established five patterns of distinct strategic responses from the organizations to institutional processes, the present study aimed to comprehend how strategies performed by UEM – Universidade Estadual de Maringá and by PUCPR – Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Paraná were influenced by changes occurred in their institutional environments of reference between the years of 1996 and 2011. The conducted research was qualitative and descriptive and used the strategy of comparative cases study, with transversal cut and longitudinal perspective of analysis. 12 semi structured interviews were conducted with 6 members and former members of each one of the two universities. The content analysis allowed to relate the major changes in the institutional environment of reference to the major strategies used by the universities. It is possible to highlight that, although significant differences between the two universities exist, both of them seek their internal efficiency and for that, use strategies and tactics of responses to the environment in accordance to each situation considering their own interests. Nevertheless, the pattern of strategic responses of both universities to the institutional environment remained between acquiesce and compromise, indicating low degree of resistance to the institutional demands, according to the adopted analytical model.