WORK‐RELATED ATTITUDES OF ACADEMIC STAFF AT AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES PART 2 — ROLE DIFFERENTIATION AND INSTITUTIONAL CULTURE

This study develops an empirical basis for examining role differentiation in Australian Universities and Colleges. Multiple discriminant analysis of the work‐related attitudes of academics working at nine Australasian Universities and Colleges of Advanced Education is used to investigate their institutional culture and two discriminant functions are established. The first discriminant function clearly distinguishes between the universities and the colleges, in agreement with their commonly perceived emphases on academic and professional education. The second discriminant function can be interpreted as distinguishing the more conservative institutions. It is found that the cultural differences thus established between the institutions cannot be explained by the demographic differences recorded between their members. Several policy related questions are examined in the light of these findings and their implications discussed.