ABSTRACT

In this adult educational research, marketisation of education was studied from the perspective of adult education centres’ activity and organisational culture. The research utilised the concept of market orientation originally from the field of economics. First, this research aimed to find out whether features of market orientation existed in adult education centres; second, if such features were found, what kind of contradictions they created; and third, how market orientation has been implemented into the activity of the centres.

Market orientation was understood as the externally oriented activity of an organisation that consists of gathering information about the current and future needs of customers, funders and collaborators and about the factors which might influence these needs, such as competition and the operational environment. In addition to gathering information, market orientation includes the dissemination of information and responsiveness tothe gathered information. The form of responsiveness can be reactive or proactive as well as market-driven or driving markets. In this research, market-oriented culture, studied through the concepts of entrepreneurial culture, was seen as the prerequisite for marketoriented activity.

The aim of the research was to increase the understanding regarding the marketisation of liberal adult education. Gadamer’s hermeneutic way of understanding functioned as the philosophy of science for this study. The research focused on four different adult education centres which operate in different parts of Finland. The data, collected from the four studied adult education centres, included 39 interviews with the personnel and 41 study programmes from the academic years between 1986–1987 and 2010–2011. Additionally, the data included 23 essays written by the personnel of nine adult education centres. The essays were analysed using data driven analysis by dividing the data into different themes. The interviews were first thematized according to the theoretical model of market orientation. The analysis was then continued by subcategorising the themes using data driven analysis and quantifying the contents of these themes. The document data was analysed by means of content analysis, concentrating on the changes in course supply, course fees and course segmentation.

Based on the results, features of market orientation existed in adult education centres. These features appeared especially in systematic and unsystematic interaction between the adult education centre, its customers and part-time teachers as reactive customer orientation that focused on the needs of the already existing, solvent customers. For the studied centres, adopting the features of reactive market orientation seemed to be a survival strategy which secured the continuity of the activity in an operational environment defined by the performativity-based state subsidy system, competition as well as result and revenue targets placed by municipalities. Centres were guided towards market-oriented organisational culture which could be seen in the studied centres as an entrepreneurial culture that emphasised quantitative measures of success, results and economic language and values. In addition to this performativity- based organisational culture, there seemed to exist traces of the traditional organisational culture that is based on the idea of students’ comprehensive personal growth. This traditional culture seemed contradictory in terms of the reactive market orientation and performativity-based organisational culture. Due to the market-based adult education policy, the activities of adult education centres had shifted from tradition to result orientation and performativity. This could be seen in the work of the personnel as an increased pressure for results. Additionally, this change was evident in a shift from student orientation to customer orientation.

Keywords: Adult education centre, market-based adult education policy, market orientation, education, performativity, organisational culture