Every university or college president envisions bold initiatives -- big projects intended to change the nature of an institution and thus having significant implications across it. How can leaders and senior managers charged with implementing reforms be most effective in framing their work and anticipating potential pitfalls?No organization can maximize its capacity, defined as the administrative foundation essential for establishing and sustaining initiatives, without considering its core elements individually and in concert, according to J. Douglas Toma. This book examines eight essential organizational elements -- purposes, structure, governance, policies, processes, information, infrastructure, and culture -- and illuminates their influence in strategic management through case studies at eight institutions.Building Organizational Capacity situates strategic management within the context of higher education, providing practitioners with needed tools to better understand challenges faced by their institution in accomplishing its missions and realizing its aspirations. Toma's clear and wellintegrated review of the latest research, as well as his advice for decisionmakers applying the book's lessons in practice, ensures this volume's place in the growing literature on strategy and management in higher education.
Foreword, by James E. Morley, Jr. Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Strategic Management and Systems Thinking 2. Managing Increasingly Complex Institutions 3. Purposes: Redesigning the Curriculum at The College of New Jersey 4. Structure: Rethinking the Setting for Teaching Mathematics at Virginia Tech 5. Goverance: Enterprise Resource Planning Implementation at Valley City State University 6. Policies: Enhancing Faculty Scholarship and Integrating Student Research into the Curriculum at LaGrange College 7. Processes: Improving Student Retention at Paul D. Camp Community College 8. Information: Tuition Discounting at the University of Redlands 9. Infrastructure: Maintaining Quality with Static Resources at Seminole Community College 10. Culture: Invigorating Undergraduate Education at the University of Georgia Conclusion Appendix Notes Bibliography Index
""Toma achieves the stated goal of the book. With practical concepts and real-world examples, he convincingly proposes Building Organization Capacity as fundamental for creating and sustaining initiatives to improve institutions of higher education.""
