Under the European Union framework program for research and innovation, Horizon Europe for the years 2021–2027, having the "Gender Equality Plan" becomes inevitable and necessary for a scientific institution to be able to apply for funds.
As part of the Horizon Europe Programme, all universities and scientific institutions applying for funding for research projects have been obliged to prepare and implement Gender Equality Plans (in short: GEP) by 2022. Having a GEP has become an eligibility criterion in all Horizon Europe calls. Such Plans have been developed in many Polish public Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), but the quality and methods of their implementation vary dramatically. The reality shows that there is often a discrepancy between the prepared strategic documents and the real level of changes in organizations that occur as a result of the implementation of the provisions of such documents. A special case is the GEP implementation process, due to the fact that this change is somehow "forced" by the conditions imposed by the European Commission.
The aim of the study is therefore to analyse and assess the possibility of introducing real changes in the organizational culture of Polish universities and scientific institutions in the field of gender equality on the basis of the quality of their GEPs. The main research problem is: Are real changes possible in the organizational culture of Polish public HEIs due to the introduction and systematic implementation of GEPs?
The most common problems of change leaders in organizations are: the incorrect assessment of possible disruptions in the implementation of change, unrealistic assessment of the ability to change among employees, and especially self-sustaining patterns of behaviour, thinking, feeling and work, including unconscious prejudices. In addition, there is always a natural resistance to change among staff, which results from specific elements of culture, and a certain scepticism resulting from previous (especially unsuccessful) attempts at change. Bearing in mind these "blind spots" of each organizational change, the following detailed research problems will be posed:
1) What is the quality of existing GEPs in Polish public HEIs?
2) How are goals and activities formulated? Are they possible to reach?
3) What potential barriers may occur in the process of implementing changes in the area of gender equality?

In this presentation, I’m going to show the results of the content analysis of existing GEPs in Polish HEIs. They are public documents, published on organisational websites, so everyone can have access to them. My aim is to identify the intentions, focus and communication trends in institutional GEPs. Content analysis is the perfect tool to find out about the purposes, messages, and effects of communication content. It is also possible to make inferences about the producers and audience of the texts. The analysis will be conducted in five steps: 1. Selecting the content (GEPs) 2. Defining the units and categories of analysis 3. Developing a set of rules for coding 4. Coding the text according to the rules 5. Analysing the results and drawing conclusions

Finally, I would like to show how potentially the real transformation can be distorted by extensive managerialism at Polish public HEIs. They are not-for-profit spheres of education, but managerialism is ubiquitous because for the last several years these public institutions have been run “as if” these were for-profit organizations. The idea is to ensure that bureaucrats are more responsive to users of services (mainly students) and report results and policy delivery to political masters. Unfortunately, often managerial regimes have unintended outcomes with workers becoming defensive about performance rather than being innovative - the exact opposite of what managerial regimes are designed to achieve.

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