Organizational change in higher education institutions: thematic mapping of the literature and future research agenda

This article presents a comprehensive integrative review of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and organizational change, an analysis crucial for understanding the evolution of these concepts. While both the concepts individually date back to the 1970s, it is only in the late 1990s and early 2000s that these gained prominence together. The primary reasons are the vicissitudes in economic systems across countries, changing demands in the workplace, and evolving roles of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), leading to organizational change in HEI research being largely fragmented. This study acknowledges the current forces at work and the advancement of management research on organizational change in higher education institutions (HEIs). Performance and content analysis are offered by including citations in Scopus’ multi-disciplinary database over the last 25 years (1999–2024). VOSviewer and Bibliometrix R were employed to generate visualizations of the bibliometric networks. The systematic synthesis of published research has identified thematic areas and emerging trends, providing a roadmap for future research directions in this interconnected field and the sustainable development of HEIs. This study’s findings hold significant implications for future research in the field of higher education institutions (HEIs) and organizational change. The results advocate for a comprehensive approach in future research, suggesting the application of established Organizational Change models alongside the development of new models to explore and document the change process within an HEI. Steering points are suggested to organizational change practitioners and higher education policymakers regarding managing change and further developing HEIs.