ABSTRACT             

Aberdeen Business School (ABS) is the largest School in the Robert Gordon University (RGU) and the largest provider of business and management education in the north and north east of Scotland.  The UK business school market is rapidly growing and the competition among the business schools is intense. Internationalisation of business education and the need for the improvement of business school-industry linkages are the two ongoing issues in the market place.

In such a business environment, the appropriate organisational culture for the efficient use of resources and recognition of opportunities, and consequently for a positive effect on the business performance would appear to be an important consideration for the business schools and particularly for ABS. Therefore understanding the dimensions of an appropriate organisational culture for ABS, which might assist in increasing its performance could be of value for the management of ABS.

Theoretical relation between organisational culture and performance was examined. The critical dimensions of an appropriate organisational culture for the ABS was identified in consideration to the theoretical framework and the challenges and key issues in the market place. The existing organisational culture of the ABS was then explored by a combination of qualitative and quantitative research. Finally the research findings were critically analysed to assess the gap between the existing and appropriate organisational culture of ABS.

A cultural model was also constructed to present the critical dimensions of the performance enhancing organisational culture for the ABS. This model was designed to identify the effect of the organisational culture of ABS on the business performance and the interrelations of the critical cultural dimensions.