Honesty and Openness as Values of a Contemporary Academic Teacher

Abstract

The changes that contemporary organisations go through result in a shift in management conduct, organisation and management of human resources. Such trends are observable in public higher education institutions in Poland. Organisations striving to actively compete in a dynamic environment, and answer its needs, introduce amendments in various areas of their operations. Endeavours to improve the quality of teaching and ensure more efficient and effective management of higher education institutions are becoming ubiquitous. Changes are not only “cosmetic” in nature, but regularly interfere with organizational culture – and, as such, are challenging and implemented over a long time frame. Organisational culture, with values at its core, is a resultant of many factors, including values brought in by an organisation’s employees. For higher education institutions, this aspect is an important starting point for further reflections. The ethos of academics, through historical determinants, is based on honesty and openness – some key values that form the basis for decision making in diverse areas of operations. This article focuses on honesty and openness as desirable social values and components of a wider social capital – trust, with the benefits of professing trust taken into account as well. At the same time, an attempt has been made to show the role of those values in the context of the work of public higher education institution employees. Theoretical considerations are backed by illustrative quantitative empirical research. Research has been conducted among employees in the positions of researchers, educators and researcher-educators in all higher education institutions operating in Lodz, Poland.