Organizational culture factors that-may influence the competitiveness of higher education institutions

Even though the higher education institutions are public organizations they have many elements common to the private organizations: they have customers, competitors and they have to be efficient on a more and more competitive market. An important element in reaching competitiveness is the elaboration of a well structured strategy and also the usage of knowledge within the organization. One of the most important factors that can support or hinder the implementation of the strategy or the knowledge management is the cultural factor. The importance of studying organizational culture is given by its practical capacities. The ability of successful organizations to gain extraordinary contributions from a large number of people becomes the ability to create a sense of a highly valued goal. Such goals derive from product focus, high quality services, and respect of innovations and contributions of all people. Our paper tries to identify the types of organizational culture that can support the transfer of knowledge and innovations in a higher education institution, elements that can bring quality and competitiveness to any organization.