Transformations  in
Business & Economics

Corporate Culture and Postmodern Universities: The Case of Poland
Agnieszka Kołodziej-Durnaś

ABSTRACT. In postmodern societies, the notions of ‘sense’, ‘order’, ‘authority’ and others have been questioned. Both experts and ordinary people are skeptical about any universalities. Everything is historically and culturally relative. That is why nobody has to have decent knowledge as nothing may be known for sure. The only thing to do now is to consume life – nice form (packaging or container) is more important than the content. It is the same with some more specific fields of our lives – we start consuming education as it a part of mass culture. Universities become open and multicultural, lecturers and students exchange and the plurality of theories, schools and approaches is the norm now. The number of students grows, whereas higher education institutions seem to be open for everybody, who has enough money to pay the tuition fee. Postmodern academic culture should be, therefore, analysed as corporate culture as universities become companies where the dominant relation is a client – service supplier, and not teacher(master) – student.

KEYWORDS: corporate culture, higher education institutions, management at university, consumption culture, Poland.

JEL classification: M14, P2, P36.