A Mixed-methods Design for Diagnosing the Organization Culture of an Educational Organization

Research title: A Mixed-methods Design for Diagnosing the Organization Culture of an Educational Organization for the diagnostic Assessment of Educational Organizations emerged from a request by the private educational organization “P” to develop a plan for improving its management system and scaling. The relevance of the study is determined by the need to diagnose organizational culture as a prerequisite for transitioning from intuitive administration to professional management, as well as by the necessity to identify strengths and “gaps” in the values, norms, and practices of the team. Keywords: mixed–methods design, organizational culture, culture diagnosis, organizational life cycle, spiral dynamics, Competing Values Framework (CVF), OCAI, Schein’s three–layer model of culture, data integration, joint–display technique. The work pursues Research Objective No. 1 – to develop and implement a diagnosis of the organizational culture of the educational organization “P” using a mixed–methods design. Practical Objective No. 2 – to prepare an analytical report based on the results of the mixed–methods diagnosis of organization “P, ” containing recommendations for developing elements of organizational culture as drivers of growth. The object of the study is the organizational culture of the private educational organization “P, ” while the subject of the study is the mixed–methods research design as a tool for diagnosing and designing the evolution of organizational culture in an educational organization. Nature of the work: project–research. To address the research tasks, a variety of methods were employed: theoretical (analysis of approaches to organizational evolution, theoretical modeling of the mixed–methods design), empirical (qualitative – in–depth interviews, document content analysis, participant observation; quantitative – OCAI–based survey, artifact analysis according to E. Schein; integrative – convergent analysis using joint–display technique). The conducted research demonstrates that a mixed–methods design enables comprehensive diagnosis of organizational culture, revealing its evolution from a predominantly clan–family model toward a more structured and innovative profile while taking into account available resources and constraints. The materials of the study may be used by heads of educational organizations and education management specialists for diagnosing and designing cultural changes in small and medium–sized institutions. Scope and structure of the course work. The work consists of an introduction, two chapters (five sections in total), a conclusion, a list of references, and appendices. It comprises 100 pages, is supplemented by appendices, contains 4 figures and 17 tables, and is based on 44 sources, including scientific monographs, articles, electronic resources, and other publications by Russian and foreign authors.