A “Die-Hard” Institution: The Organizational Structure of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens

Relying upon the assumptions and intellectual tools of the embeddedness approach in the organizational theory of higher education, this article analyzes the organizational structure of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA), parsing its institutional environment and its response to external pressures toward organizational completeness and global managerial scripts. The examination revolves around the dominant governance dilemmas in contemporary higher education organizational theory discourse, NKUA’s self-portrait, and its self-professed organizational and administrative structure, as well as its intellectual positioning along the basic ideological and organizational categories of identity, hierarchy, and rationality. The discussion presents and negotiates the evidence for NKUA as an institution inclined toward a model of loose connections between classroom practices, administrative goals, and symbolically charged organizational rationales, which promotes a sense of public service to the detriment of international neoliberalism.