Institutional research/effectiveness offices are instrumental in advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion (D.E.I.) efforts. Ideally they have the knowledge, perspective, and network within an institution to impact practice, process, policy, and planning in order to guide the institution toward a goal of being fully inclusive. With an…

As institutions seek to shift into more advanced analytics and data-based decision-support, many institutional research offices face the challenge of meeting the office's current demands while taking on more intricate and specialized work to support decision-making. Given the great need organizations have for information that supports real-time…

This chapter centers on the challenges of translating glass ceiling research findings into meaningful organizational change initiatives, moving from theory or scholarship to practice.

This chapter introduces the concept of benchmarking and how higher education institutions began to use benchmarking for a variety of purposes. Here, benchmarking is defined as a strategic and structured approach whereby an organization compares aspects of its processes and/or outcomes to those of another organization or set of organizations to…

This study provides a multilens examination of the diversity of full-time faculty in the United States across 11 institutional types derived from Carnegie classifications, by the intersection of race/ethnicity, citizenship, and gender and to make comparisons across time. Whereas few other studies have assessed faculty diversity for the for-profit…

Many authors (Kezar, 2005; Duke, 2002; Keeling, Underhile, and Wall, 2007; Matier, Sidle, and Hurst, 1994) propose a new model of higher education organizations or a style of decision making whose central component is collaboration. This key characteristic helps make full use of all of the institution's resources to increase the likelihood that it…

Despite their apparent popularity among those seeking degrees and credentials, today's colleges and universities face several interrelated public criticisms and concerns. When these competing concerns about student success, productivity, cost, and educational effectiveness all collide at the campus level, they create an array of campus tensions…

A diverse society has created a diverse education system, which in turn requires diverse and complex mechanisms of quality control. The diversity and complexity of the industrial, service, and knowledge-based economy, with its vast variety of occupations and dynamic labor markets, heavily influences the curricular structures and academic profiles…

Three institutions' planned change strategies that introduced a comprehensive array of new approaches to planning, management, communication, information and analysis, and staff development are discussed. The larger purposes of these planned change activities--educational change and institutional vitality--await future evaluation. (MLW)

The author describes practical steps for infusing the strategic plan throughout the organization. These steps have carried the University of Wisconsin--Madison effectively through two cycles of reaccreditation and planning. (Contains 1 figure.)

To implement Total Quality Management concepts successfully, colleges and universities must change their cultures significantly. In higher education, with its organizational characteristics and traditions, authority relationships between faculty and administrators must be recognized, and some changes in the role and attention of leaders must…

The culture of an organization helps to determine the degree to which a new way of working is adopted and used. Team-based decision making in colleges and universities, as in other institutions, is more likely to be successful if organizational beliefs support the idea that change strengthens organizational goals. (Author/MSE)

The contemporary context and some recent trends affecting college program reviews or evaluations, current options in purposes and practices, and impacts on programs and institutions are discussed. It is recommended that the process be viewed as a contribution to the general knowledge base for campus constituencies rather than as "right answers"…

Essex Community College (Maryland) has used issue-oriented planning to maintain flexibility and adaptability while responding to environmental changes. Issues addressed by centralized and structured processes include management information systems, budget development, and external resource development. Issues addressed by decentralized processes…

Institutional researchers and planners can play a key role in the application of Total Quality Management (TMQ) to institutional processes by exciting others about TMQ, exploring with others the possibilities of TMQ, clarifying the principles through application, and crystallizing the benefits through action. (Author/MSE)