General Further Education Colleges: the continuing dilemma of organisational culture
Abstract
The role of organisational culture in supporting organisational outcomes is well documented in the further education (FE) sector within the UK. The benefits of a strong and unifying culture are recognised as having a positive impact on staff and students. However, a cultural institutional dichotomy has been acknowledged between the business and educational needs of colleges within the FE sector since the advent of incorporation in 1993. This paper utilised an interpretive, hermeneutical approach to analyse the perceptions of principals, middle leaders and teachers, within three general further education colleges (GFECs) in England to determine if that dichotomy exists in their current operating environment. The paper concludes that while there are elements of a clash of business and education ideals, general further education college (GFEC) culture has moved beyond the narrative of being corporate and driven solely by the concept of performativity. The article contributes to the ongoing debate on FE purpose and establishes the importance of aligning macro and subcultures into a set of professional working practices within GFECs to support positive student outcomes.Citation
Lambert, S., & McCarroll, A. (2024). General Further Education Colleges: The continuing dilemma of organisational culture. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 48(1), 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1080/0309877X.2023.2250730Publisher
Taylor & FrancisAdditional Links
https://www.tandfonline.com/journals/cjfh20Type
ArticleDescription
This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Further and Higher Education on 04/09/2023, available online: https://doi.org/10.1080/0309877X.2023.2250730ISSN
0309-877XEISSN
1469-9486ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1080/0309877X.2023.2250730
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Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/