Adrianna Kezar

The Effect of Institutional Culture on Change Strategies in Higher Education: Universal Principles or Culturally Responsive Concepts?

This study examines the impact of institutional culture on the change process in colleges and universities. Using an ethnographic approach and two-tiered cultural framework, it investigates comprehensive change at six institutions. Results suggest that campuses should conduct audits of their institutional culture before engaging in the change process.

EXAMINING THE INSTITUTIONAL TRANSFORMATION PROCESS: The Importance of Sensemaking, Interrelated Strategies, and Balance

This study develops elements of a transformational change framework that is theoretically and empirically grounded and is context based through case studies of 6 institutions over a 4-year period. The 3 key findings include: (a) 5 core strategies for transformational change; (b) the characteristic that makes them the essential, sensemaking; and (c) the interrelationship among core and secondary strategies, the nonlinear process of change, and the need for balance among strategies. Two major conclusions are developed from the study findings: (a) the efficacy for researchers of combining multiple conceptual models for understanding change processes; and (b) the importance of social cognition models for future studies of transformational change based on the significance of sensemaking.

Meeting Today's Governance Challenges: A Synthesis of the Literature and Examination of a Future Agenda for Scholarship

Previous governance scholarship focused almost exclusively on structural and political theories and provided limited explanation of improving governance. This article reviews theoretical perspectives that have been applied to the study of governance to identify conceptual gaps, synthesizes what we know about governance from existing scholarship to understand new directions, and identifies new questions for study, encouraging a broad-based agenda of scholarship on governance.

Obtaining Integrity?: Reviewing and Examining the Charter between Higher Education and Society.

How is the new industrial model of privatization, commercialization, and corporatization altering higher educations traditional mission? To provide policymakers with understanding about the traditional charter between higher education and society, this article defines the concepts of the public good underlying the charter, analyzes the new models pervasiveness, synthesizes empirical evidence about its effect on the social and public purposes of higher education, and proposes a list of issues and questions for discussion among education and government leaders.

The Effect of Institutional Culture on Change Strategies in Higher Education

The array of challenges that higher education faces today is virtually unparalleled when compared to any other point in U.S. history. The litany of changes is familiar to those in the field of higher education: financial pressure, growth in technology, changing faculty roles, public scrutiny, changing demographics, competing values, and the rapid rate of change in the world both within and beyond our national boarders. The changes many institutions face have accelerated beyond tinkering; more campuses each year attempt to create comprehensive (or transformational) change. Yet, change strategies have not been exceedingly helpful in their capacity to guide institutions, and we know even less about how to facilitate major, institutionwide change. The current change literature in higher education provides mostly generalized strategies about what is effective: a willing president or strong leadership, a collaborative process, or providing rewards (Roberts, Wren, & Adam, 1993; Taylor & Koch, 1996). This broad writing may mask information helpful to advance institutional change on a specific campus. “Achieving buy-in” or “communicating effectively” can seem very empty to institutional leaders and higher education scholars. Can this strategy be used at every institution and in the same way? The assumptions behind this approach are that each strategy is enacted similarly on each campus and that nuance and context do not much matter. Broad change strategies are presented as uniform, universal, and applicable.

Examining the Ways Institutions Create Student Engagement: The Role of Mission

This article reviews the results from an in-depth multi-site case study of 20 institutions examining approaches to student engagement exploring differences by mission. The research questions pursued were: Is mission related to distinctive approaches for creating an engaging environment for students? If so, in what ways? The results demonstrate a set of relationships between institutional mission and the five benchmarks of effective educational practice identified by the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE). Implications for institutional policy are reviewed.

Consequences of Radical Change in Governance: A Grounded Theory Approach

Recently, policymakers have called for total restructuring and redesign of campus governance, claiming governance processes are incapable of making strategic decisions. The purpose of this study and article is to provide evidence about the consequences of engaging in radical alteration of an institutions governance system. Because no earlier studies of radical change within a governance system have been conducted, a grounded theory approach to analysis and data collection was adopted. Four frameworks related to radical change are used: business process reengineering, political, cultural, and institutional theories. The scant literature on proposed outcomes of radical change is reviewed. Two theoretical propositions about the consequences of radical change are described, identifying negative outcomes often not reviewed in the literature.

Redesigning for Collaboration in Learning Initiatives: An Examination of Four Highly Collaborative Campuses

Much has been written about the barriers to collaborative work, but little research has been conducted on how to foster collaboration within higher education. This article presents the results of a case study of four campuses that have organized to enable collaboration. The study builds on earlier literature from the corporate sector using a model developed by Mohrman, Cohen, and Mohrman (1995). The main finding is the development of a model that can be used to redesign higher education to enable collaboration including the following elements: (a) mission/philosophy; (b) campus networks; (c) integrating structures; (d) rewards; (e) a sense of priority from people in senior positions; (f) external pressure, (g) values; and (h) learning.

Beyond the “National Container” Addressing Methodological Nationalism in Higher Education Research

This essay argues that there is a need for higher education researchers to become aware of methodological nationalism (MN) and take steps to reframe their scholarship in new ways. It illuminates two characteristics of MN prevalent in higher education research and suggests that although a few researchers have attempted to move beyond MN in the higher education globalization literature, most remain encapsulated in a view of nation-state equates society. The authors address this gap by arguing for the expansion of analytic approach to some of the common phenomena studied within U.S. higher education (such as college student experience, diversity, and governance) and highlight how these typical objects of study would transform once we overcome MN.

Theory of Multiple Intelligences: Implications for Higher Education.

This article reviews implications of Gardners theory of Multiple Intelligences for higher education—responding to increased access, the necessity of meeting the needs of diverse users, and the accountability movement.