Beyond Isomorphism in Social Organisations: Quality in Universities Through the Case of the Sapienza Service Charter

Abstract

In recent decades, social organisations seem to be moving against the dominant representation of the ‘isomorphism’ in literature. In practice, they contemplate several paths simultaneously and on the cognitive level this is reflected in the presence of several intertwining theories. In this article we address the issue of quality as effectively representative of the hypothesis that the approach to organisations is never just one type, but instead reveals a combination of different dimensions and orientations, reflecting a pluralistic model. The interpretation of quality through the Service Charter – and, in particular, the case of the Service Charter of the Sapienza University of Rome – seems to clearly exemplify this assumption. Through the analysis of three elements in particular – the role of the external context, organisational learning and communication –, which can be considered as points of a possible strategy to focus on in order to improve the university's quality model, the intertwining of the above-mentioned perspectives will be accounted for, highlighting how organisations tend to move mainly between a cooperative and an institutionalist approach.

Received: 29 March 2023 / Accepted: 30 October 2023 / Published: 5 November 2023