Strategic responses to the Quality Reform: a comparative study of change in Norwegian higher education

Public sector organizations have been described as being complex with multiple and sometimes conflicting goals (Lozeau et al., 2002). It has often been argued that public sector organizations are subject to institutional pressure and that in the context of such pressure the quest for legitimacy leads to similarities between organizations within a field (DiMaggio and Powell, 1983). Previous research has suggested that in the face of change, public organizations respond by changing systems and structure, but without changing core features (Meyer and Rowan, 1977).