Organizational Archetypes from the director . . . Recently, ITS has been evaluating several instances of software designed for institution- wide deployment. These interactions have illustrated some of the distinctions between corporate culture and corresponding university approaches.
Differences occur in both the technical and political fabrics of the institutions.
As we move from a world where higher education was at the forefront of technology development into one where the commercial sector is the locus of invention, we will deal increasingly with the choice of either adapting corporate systems to fit our ways, or changing our modes to a new, perhaps more corporate, model. Unlike previous versions of NT, which are oriented around stand-alone LANs, a hierarchical schema has been engineered in to provide an institutional structure. While the hierarchical tools are a welcome addition and a valuable asset in the corporate world, universities frequently have organizational structures that are not strictly hierarchical. Joint appointments and matrix management are common in higher education and require more flexible software systems than hierarchies do. For instance, databases that do purchasing in a corporate environment tend to have open read-access so that economic efficiencies can be found by central management.