Application Assignment: Week 02 - How Educational Institutions Are Adapting to Their Changing Envrionment

Concepts discussed in this week’s readings can be directly applied to various industries in the business world.  Several concepts can also be applied to the education environment, specifically educational institutions.  In the article Creating Adaptable Universities by Graham B. Spanier (2010), concepts discussed in the Galbraith and Morgan readings are evident in Spanier’s discussion of why and how educational institutions need to keep up with changing environments in order to survive.  Spanier explores how the current environment, mainly budget cuts as a result of recent economic downturn, have impacted institutions and how they need to adapt in order to survive.

One of the theories presented in this week’s readings stresses the importance of adapting to the surrounding environment.  Morgan (1998) describes Contingency Theory in detail and emphasizes how organizations need to adapt and change in order to fit into their surrounding environment.  Spanier explores different ways educational institutions can adapt and change in order to survive in the current economic environment.  One way universities are adapting is by incorporating new technologies.  Many universities, including the University of Southern California, are incorporating technology into their instruction and offering web-based courses and online learning (Spanier 2010). In the current economic environment, people are holding onto their jobs and are less inclined to discontinue working to pursue a graduate degree.  Online learning allows people in the work environment to continue their career while also pursuing a graduate degree, something I’m sure the Fall 2012 Cohort appreciates.

This week’s readings also talked about how cross departmental collaboration within organizations can help in adapting to changing environments.  Collaboration across departments is imperative for an organization that wants to be able to quickly adapt and change with its environment (Galbraith, 2002).  This concept of collaboration is discussed in Spanier’s article and included as a suggestion for educational institutions.  Collaboration between departments within an institution reinvigorates student learning and offers another avenue for investing in student programs, such as Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education programs.  Developing synergies between different departments allows the institution to offer a different form of learning to their students and grow the institution (Spranier, 2010).

Keeping pace with change is important to survival, but it is also important to keep the needs or goals of the organization’s employees as a priority during change.  Organizations need to focus on people and be cognizant of their goals (Galbraith, 2002). This concept is also applicable to the organization structure within educational institutions.  “Even in strained budgetary times, we cannot lose focus on the principle that colleges and universities exist, first and foremost, to educate our students.” (Spranier, 2010, p. 2).  Ensuring that students are learning is imperative to an educational institution’s success and therefore the student’s learning should be the institution’s priority.  Teachers and professors should be concerned with their student’s learning more than their own publication requirements or tenure (Spranier, 2010).  This concept was explored in the Worley and Lawler (2006) reading with their discussion of rewards systems and encouraging performance over other rewards, such as seniority.  Organizational structure can assist with keeping people as a priority if the organizations have an appropriate rewards system implemented (Worley & Lawler, 2006).  If educational institutions have a rewards system in place defining performance or success as students learning instead of rewarding seniority, the institution is keeping their student’s learning as a priority (Spranier, 2010). 

There are several environmental factors that drive businesses to reconsider their organizational structure. The recent economic downturn resulting in budget cuts for educational institutions has resulted in educational institutions having to re-think how they organize as well.  While the concepts presented by Galbraith, Worley & Lawler, and Morgan are easily applied to the traditional business environment, Spranier has suggested similar organizational structures, actions and rewards systems are needed in order for educational institutions to adapt to their environment and survive in today’s world.

                                                                          References

Spanier, G. B. (2010). Creating adaptable universities. Innovative Higher Education. (35)2, 91-99. doi:

10.1007/s10755-009-9134-z 

Galbraith, J.R. (2002). Designing organizations. San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass.

Morgan, G. (1998). Images of organizations: The executive edition. San Francisco, CA: Berrett –  Koehler Publishers, Inc.

Worley, C., & Lawler, E. (2006). Designing organizations that are built for change.  MIT Sloan
Management Review, 48(1), 18-23. Retrieved from http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/
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