THE INFLUENCE OF ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE ON INTERNATIONALIZATION OF UNIVERSITIES: A CASE STUDY OF MAHIDOL UNIVERSITY INTERNATIONAL COLLEGE

Abstract

The Internationalization of universities is complex and multifaceted in different contexts. Organizational culture is one of the critical factors that foster or inhibit this process and while this has been widely studied in western context, it has not attracted the same level of interest in Southeast Asia. Thus, this study has sought to assess how organizational culture has influenced the internationalization of a higher education institution via research in Thailand.
Empirical research was used to develop an in-depth understanding of various internationalization activities as well as organizational culture and its influence on the internationalization of Mahidol University International College (MUIC). Employing quantitative and qualitative approaches, this study invited 181 working staff to respond to the survey questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 9 working staff at MUIC. The findings reveal that MUIC is dominated by a pre-entrepreneurial culture. The internationalization activities were extensive but ad hoc in terms of systematization. Thus, MUIC is positioned in quadrant C in Davies’ (2001) means and style of development of entrepreneurial culture. Suggestions have been made for developing activities that will ensure culture becomes more entrepreneurial with which the internationalization were optimized.