Systemic Approach in the Study of the Current State of Knowledge in the Field of University Management
Systemic Approach in the Study of the Current State of Knowledge in the Field of University Management

Summary/Abstract: Theoretical background: Analyzing the current set of publications relating to the issues of universitymanagement, one can distinguish a set of works relating to, among others, the quality of management atuniversities, the issues of sustainable development of universities, adapting teaching and research to theneeds of industrial enterprises, concepts of university quality management, communication barriers at anacademic university, and issues of human resource management in higher education. Regardless of thearea of research, the work draws attention to the lack of consistency in the concepts which are used to understand the specific field of university management, the rigorous conceptual framework deficiency andvaluable contribution to theory development is limited.Purpose of the article: The aim of this paper is to organize the current research results related to the issuesof university management. The work uses the integration of the concept of systematic literature reviewwith a tool supporting systemic thinking, i.e. System Operator. The paper points to the benefits resultingfrom the use of a tool derived from the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (TRIZ) in shaping the imageof the current state of knowledge, in a holistic approach.Research methods: The method of systematic literature review was used in the work. Research activitieswere divided into four stages, (1) determination of the purpose of the study, (2) selection of basic literature(n = 1,534), and selection of publications (n = 999) and development of a publication database, (3) bibli-ometric analysis, using content analysis and (4) development of a report using a tool supporting holisticthinking, i.e. System Operator.Main findings: As a result of the conducted research, six clusters relating to the issues of education and itsevaluation (Cluster 1), management of human factors, including students, researchers and administrative staff(Cluster 2), shaping entrepreneurial attitudes, including knowledge and innovation management (Cluster3), university management in the education system (Cluster 4), issues related to sustainable developmentand leadership policy (Cluster 5 and Cluster 6) were distinguished. As a result of content analysis, 16thematic areas in general terms were distinguished in the scope of identifying research problems raised inthe collection of the most frequently cited scientific publications. In the last one, as a result of the use ofSystem Operator, the research problems raised in the analyzed set of publications were mapped in a com-prehensive manner, i.e. determining the relations between individual elements of university managementand university environment, as well as in terms of time, relating to the evaluation of past activities andstrategies, research into current solutions, as well as works related to shaping the concept of future solutionsin the field of university management.

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