Jaime Lester, Ph.D. Associate Professor

1. Essential Tools for Consortium Management: The Role of Organizational Culture in Promoting Collaboration Jaime Lester, Ph.D. Associate Professor

2. Outline of Presentation • Rationale for the importance of collaboration • Advantages of collaboration • Challenges of collaboration • Appreciate the role of organizational structure and culture • Model for collaboration • Tools for leveraging organizational culture

3. Defining Collaboration • Partnerships and collaboration involve: • joint goals and a reliance on each other to accomplish the goal • to align goals and identify a similar mission • work at a more fundamental level, which entails joint planning and power sharing • it is essential that the process entail an interactive process (relationship over time) and that groups develop shared rules, norms and structures

4. Importance of collaboration • Complexity of problems • New generations of faculty • External pressure • Decreased funding • Enhances learning

5. New Generation of Faculty According to a 2010 COACHE survey, tenure-track faculty seek satisfaction with “balance between professional time and personal or family time”.

6. State Funding for Higher Education

7. Advantages of collaboration • Creates innovation • Cognitive complexity • Better service • Learning • Increases effectiveness and efficiency • Employee motivation

8. Innovation “Innovation occurs when different perspectives and knowledge bases are joined, resulting in the reframing of problems and solutions that would not have been likely or possible from within one perspective” (Mohrman, et al 1995).

9. Student Learning All 20 DEEP schools have high graduation rates and scored better than predicted on NSSE benchmarks: level of academic challenge active and collaborative learning student interaction with faculty members enriching educational experiences and supportive campus environment. Alverno College California State Univ., Monterey Bay The Evergreen State College Fayetteville State University George Mason University Gonzaga University Longwood University Macalester College Miami University (Ohio)

10. Better Service & Motivation A significant predictor for medical schools faculty job satisfaction is meaningful participation in collaborations (Chung et al., 2010).

11. Challenges of collaboration • Specialization and professionalization • Discipline and department silos • Faculty training and • socialization • Loose-coupling

12. Challenges of collaboration • Reward systems • Bureaucratic and hierarchical administrative structures • Class between subcultures

13. Reward Systems “The overall pattern, then, is one of increasingly widespread publication extending well beyond the research university sector” (Schuster & Finkelstein, 2006).

14. Typical Organizational Chart

15. Role of organizational change Without intention and design, over 50% of collaborations fail • What we value matters • What we believe matters • How we structure work matters

16. Role of organizational change • Successful change = appropriate approach (strategies/tactics) + circumstances (org culture) • Bold Strokes vs. Long Marches

17. Role of organizational change + + = Organizational Learning and Change

18. Model for collaboration

19. Values • Values cross bureaucratic organizational boundaries and give meaning to the actions and behaviors • Shared values create a sense of purpose and perspective • Shared values create a sense of trust and a cohesiveness • Values promote practices throughout the institution

20. Examples of value statements • Respect for the rights, differences, and dignity of others • Honesty and integrity in all dealings • Accountability for actions and conduct in the workplace • Value high standards for learning, teaching, and inquiry. • Embrace the diversity of individuals, ideas, and expressions. • We foster personal growth within an environment in which every individual matters.

21. Strategies for value statements • Instill the logic of collaboration among others • Create and foster a value system that supports collaboration • Model collaboration • Hold people accountable for collaboration

22. Learning • Learning promotes collaboration when individuals learn about the value, nature, and importance of collaboration. • Giving people the necessary knowledge and skills to collaborate. • Helping people understand challenges

23. Examples of Learning • Formal learning processes: • workshops • luncheons • speaker sessions

24. Strategies for learning • Encourage people to attend symposium, reading groups, and seminars on collaboration • Create learning opportunities related to collaboration • Make people aware of external pressures and voices • Support collaboration in the budget process • Model collaboration

25. Networks • Networks provided a “ ready - made ” source • Leverage collective influence and power • Provide intellectual resources and cognitive complexity • Foster dedication, decrease isolation, bring together different perspectives and help move initiatives forward

26. Examples of networks • Identify and support network builders • Committee work • Grassroots initiatives • Use: • Use physical space • Open meetings

27. Strategies for networks • Help create mechanisms to sustain the network • Keep people resilient within the network • Set up a task force to examine campus values and alignment with collaboration • Connect people on campus who are like minded

29. Organizational Mission • Creates institutional purpose and articulates priorities • Helps people reflect on values • Develop a shared vision and sense of purpose • Create a sense of priority • Provide specific direction and logic for undertaking

30. Example of a Mission We lead by providing a unique combination of liberal arts and professional education in a challenging, scholarly, and culturally diverse academic community. We engage our students through collaborative teaching, team based scholarship, and cooperative and experiential learning. We inspire our students to be citizens of character who demonstrate professional and civic leadership for their communities. We contribute to the vitality and well-being of the communities we serve.

31. Rewards • Create opportunities • Provide motivation • Support mission and values • Connect mission and values to everyday work • Support the integration of structures

32. Examples of Rewards • Reviews: tenure and promotion/annual reviews • Grants • Awards and recognition • Key: Avoid a one-size-fits-all approach

33. Integrating structures • Sustain collaboration by redesigning and creating new campus structures • Ensure the health, vitality, and growth of campus networks • Help support the mission by making institutional priorities visible, tangible, and concrete

34. Examples of Integrating structures • Assessment team • Technology • Faculty development centers • Multidisciplinary institute on Urban Affairs

35. Strategies for Integrating structures • Support restructuring plans and learning opportunities for collaboration • Create integrating structures and mechanisms that help foster a campus network • Hire people who support collaboration or a specific initiative • Support collaboration in the budget process • Set up a task force to examine campus values and alignment with collaboration

36. Teaching Centers

37. Thank you! Jaime Lester, Ph.D. Higher Education Program jlester2@gmu.edu