Institutional change in a transitional society: Support and resistance to new academic programs at two distinct universities in Bulgaria. A case study

In the early 1990s, and since then, just like institutions in any other sector, higher education institutions have been looking for models of restructuring. Best practices show that the most prestigious universities adapt by new programmatic designs. The research provides evidence to assess the proposition that The New Bulgarian University opened in 1991 as alternative to the traditional universities is better aligned with the requirements of modern times than the traditional university, Sofia University. The New Bulgarian University is an entrepreneurial liberal arts teaching and research university. It is funded by various sources but is mostly tuition-based. It can be viewed as the embodiment of new trends in institution building.; This study is an embedded, two-site case study (Yin, 1994). The embedded case study allows for grouping of the participants into main units and subunits. In this study, the two universities are the main units; the leadership and faculty groups are the main subunits; students and other stakeholders constitute other subunits. Programmatic changes are examples of institutional restructuring. The research examined decision-making as a measure of support and resistance to restructuring.; Data from 78 participants were collected over a one-year period by means of open-ended and guided interviews, different printed materials, and direct observations. Questions were guided, in part, by theories of institutional change, strategic change leadership theories and attitude change theories. Using the pattern-matching technique (Yin, 1994), data were presented as two institutional patterns of decision-making in relation to key institutional change and leadership concepts.; The study contributed further to the understanding of another aspect of the implementation of the state legislation, namely, what patterns of institutional decision-making have occurred as a result of the limitations of the law. Findings revealed that new leadership trends clearly appear at both universities, but mostly at The New Bulgarian University. The new leadership skills are the opposite of the old ones---active behavior vs. inactivity, positive attitudes vs. negative attitudes to change, risk taking vs. prolonged deliberations regarding opportunities, and overt opinions, vs. covert judgments.; In a second finding a dialectic seems to be operating in which the traditional Sofia University is under pressure to respond more effectively to the needs and demands of the global market, and The New Bulgarian University, correspondingly, is challenged to further accommodate the traditional demands of academic excellence.; The criteria for interpreting the findings support two theoretical propositions. The starting theoretical proposition was that leadership skills are key to institutional change and its implementation. Additional proposition suggests that leadership skills are necessary yet not sufficient for implementation of change.; In conclusion, universities need to accept responsibility for learning how to integrate business models with their traditional way of doing business. Recommendations suggest that university leaders and faculty need to get past the defensive stage, past the compliance stage, past the managerial stage and embrace the strategic and civil stage of responsibility.