Balancing Freedom and Structure: Tight–Loose Cultural Orientations in European Student Radio Organisations

This paper examines the organisational culture of European student radio stations through the lens of the tight–loose cultural continuum, drawing on the author's previous studies that explored these organisations at the levels of artefacts, espoused values, and underlying assumptions using Edgar Schein's model of organisational culture. European student radio stations exist within resource-constrained and transient environments, requiring constant adaptation. This paper reinterprets data from three earlier empirical studies, an analysis of organisational artefacts, a competing values framework analysis of espoused values, and a qualitative case study of core assumptions, through the theory of cultural tightness and looseness. The findings reveal how stations balance flexibility and structure, with some gravitating toward tighter rules for stability, while others maintain looser norms to foster creativity. The paper contributes to understanding the organisational dynamics of youth-driven, mission-oriented media institutions, offering a analytical framework to evaluate how cultural regulation shapes their evolution.