6. Shared Governance
6
“Shared governance is not a simple matter of
committee consensus, or the faculty's engaging
administrators to take on the dirty work, or any
number of other common misconceptions. Shared
governance is much more complex; it is a delicate
balance between faculty and staff participation in
planning and decision-making processes, on the one
hand, and administrative accountability on the other.”
Gary Olson, Chronicle of Higher Ed, 2009
7. Organized Anarchy
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“A system with little coordination or control”
Baldridge, et. al., 128
10. What do you think?
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How do you think the frames we discussed in
Bolman and Deal interact with the organized
anarchy described by Baldridge?
Do you feel higher education would function better
as a “business” model…defining the product and
centralizing various areas (such as IT)? Why?
Editor's Notes
Blackboard discussion will now be a “reflection” of the readings and Elluminate sessions.
As Budd states the simple chain is not always that simple. Last week we discussed the organizational heirarchies and such…now we look at who is in charge. In higher education that can be very difficult…there is faculty governance, administration, staff organizations, libraries (which can take the form of faculty in some cases and staff in others). As always the power relations are key.
Teaching – as Budd states – is often at the departmental level…establishes curriculum, creates schedules, etc. In our department, for example, curriculum is created in committee then voted on by the entire faculty. If a new course is to be added at that time it has to go to the SOE then to the larger UNCG academic unit. Schedule creation; however, stays in the department. Research on the other hand is individual with faculty; however, it also goes hand in hand with tenure at larger institutions. Research and publishing is the lifeblood of larger universities and if grants are involved then there is another governance structure. In addition, IRB plays a role in many research projects for the SOE.Service is university wide and can span department, school and university. Again, faculty are expected to serve on committees and many of them play a role in developing governance of their department, their School or help craft statements university wide. The question becomes…who really has the power…as governance lays out certain steps but those that implement change or those charged with implementing change often have the most powered.By and large universities operate under a shared governance structure that is supposed to lead to collaborative shared decision making…with a call for universities to adopt a “business-like” model this could change…
When we talk about governance we have to follow the money. The table above is from Budd and shows how deeply indepted to the state many institiutions are…places like UNCG have been hit hard by the financial crisis and despite the many levels of shared governance at the university the money has to be there to implement change…this also has a huge affect on libraries…how do we work in this environment…make do with less…and continue to offer increasingly greater levels of support?
What does shared governance mean…who is in charge, who makes decisions? I think if you ask faculty, administrators and staff you will get three different answer from three different perspectives. Many believe the faculty really make the administrative decisions, but the administration is often the one who is help accountable…while everyone may be a part of the governance system – not everyone has the same power – understanding how the governance works in your institution is key to helping you navigate the system and bring about change. Provosts have been removed, deans and such have been forced to step down…but what about the staff? Is there any place in shared governance for staff members?As faculty or professional staff you will have to understand and work within these power structures while keeping your staff members as a part of the process. This can be especially hard as staff in some libraries feel marginalized and frankly may not be asked to be a part of the committees…how shared is the governance in this case?
You can go in different directions without a central authority…I see this a lot in organizations…individual IT departments, HR departments…so many systems of governance…and this also goes back to the silos we discussed last week. How do we communicate across these departments and govern across these departments? Although as Budd mentions it is a crazy system that seems to work…for higher education.How does this work in business and is it really that different? There is talk in higher education circles that we need to function more like a business, but I want to ask you if this is so different? I believe the answer is yes and no…but the absence of a central authority can make things difficult and engaging…as an employee in higher education you have to understand how this system works in order to use it to your advantage…
As you can see in this graphic I think what makes us interesting is the client-serving role of our institutions…perhaps this is what makes the silos and organized anarchy work so well…this is what we need to do to meet the needs of the various constituents…the technology is interesting as well as again, different needs for different groups…Do you think this works?
I find this interesting as it takes me back to the idea of frames we had last week. Academic organizations encompass all of these models at various points…I know there are times when I wish there was more “rational” decision making – or what I deem rational – in the organization…as you can see in the collegial model the basic theoretical foundations is considered the HR frame….people oriented which seems appropriate but again there are times we can use a little of each. The decision making for the political covers issues of context which are vital to understanding an organization, and academic institutions often celebrate intellectual conflict in order to make the best decisions, the shared governance can serve as a form of legislative process in decision making…I think this model goes well with Bolman and Deal’s reframing and we can use the models to see how higher ed fits in the picture.
