Models of Organizational Values in the Administration of University Student Services

1. Models of Organizational Values in the Administration of University Student Services Robin Alison Mueller, PhD

2. Benedictine values, liberal arts education play important roles in health care, student success April 24, 2014 - insurancenewsnet.com

3. Sidwell Friends School may have values other than test scores May 15, 2014 – The Washington Post

4. Graduates charged to protect values, freedom at Commencement 2014 May 10, 2014 – Liberty University News

5. Teachers instrumental in producing proper values May 16, 2014 – The Rakyat Post

6. Generating dialogue on values in school classrooms May 12, 2014 – The Hindu

7. Uttar Pradesh Technical University to train faculty in values & ethics May 19, 2014 – The Times of India

8. 'Values Tree' bearing fruit for Eardisleyschoolchildren May 13, 2014 – Ledbury Reporter

9. Seymour School Budget A Reflection Of Community Values? May 16, 2014 – Valley Independent Sentinel

10. Montessori stands for added value May 5, 2014 – East African Business Week

11. How to Create a Culture That Values Both Academic and Athletic Heroes April 24, 2014 – US News & World Report

12. Instilling positive values in children is necessary May 13, 2014 – The New Indian Express

13. What’s wrong with teaching strong moral values? May 17, 2014 – LethbridgeHearlad

14. Challenge #1 – Narrowing purpose • Immense field of study • Theory • Practice

15. Student Services University Education Administration Organizations Values

16. Backstory • Organizational values  strategic planning • Universities  “mission, vision, and values” • Cornerstone to planning effort • “An integral piece of any strategic planning process is early clarification of the mission, purpose, and values of the organization” (Cook, 2010, p. 28)

17. Challenge #2 – Rationale / Justification • Values in educational administration: Them's fighting words! • “…the quite widespread usage of the term ‘values’ provides a skewed perception of its conceptual prominence in administrative inquiry. Indeed, the flippant use of ‘values’ and its cognates in the absence of any attempt to clarify or describe what is meant by these terms incorrectly assumes that there are widely shared understandings of such things” (Richmon, 2004, p. 340)

18. Common response #1: This is easy / this has been done • Organizational values as visible and well-understood • In any school’s culture, we can “…distinguish core values, values near the core, and values distant from the core” (Johansson & Bredeson, 1999, p. 54)

19. Common response #2: Choosing the “right” values • Research involving organizational values (Richmon, 2004)

20. Common response #3: There’s no such thing http://www.gapingvoid.com/0801corevalues.jpg

22. “Trying to explain values to people is like trying to explain water to fish.” (Edwards, 2010, p.1)

23. Why? • If you “back up” to the general concept of organizational values… • We don’t know the rules

24. Why? • We don’t know the rules • But we continue to invest • Response is lukewarm at best, dangerous at worst

25. Why? • Understanding of the organizational values phenomenon is not centrally featured in higher education research and literature • “Organizational values” is ill defined • NOTHING about how people experience organizational values

26. Push-back • Pointed • Visceral

27. Conceptual Framework • Selznick (1957) • Grounding “organizations” • Situating “organizational values” • Sorting literature and research

28. Methodology • Critical realism

30. Method • Purpose – uncover the descriptive, non-negotiable reality of the organizational values concept in university administration • Three-phase study to investigate how: • Organizational values are conceptualized • Organizational values activity is expressed • People experience organizational values in context of their work

32. Analytical Framework • Model development (Newton, Burgess, & Burns, 2010)

34. “Too much.”

35. Phase One • Retroduction – discovering essential parts • Goal  Accurately map how people are talking about the organizational values concept • Cluster analysis

36. Phase One • Literature review: education, higher education, administration, contemporary axiology, corporate/organizational studies • Cluster analysis • Exploratory • Quantitative (non-statistical) data reduction • Classification based on natural relationships • Determining conceptual “skeleton”

37. Phase One Results • 77 variables within definitions of “organizational values”, 37 authors • Preliminary clustering  removed variables found in less than 15% of cases • 32 variables, 37 authors in final analysis • 6 clusters, 3 predominant

39. Cluster One • Variables indicating that org values are individually experienced and expressed • affective, behavioural, emotion, andsubjective • Variables suggesting that “organizational values” is linked to human activity; progression of action • judgement, guide, and motivating force • “Subjective”

40. Cluster Two • Variables characterizing “organizational values” as an end point, purpose, aspiration, or aim • end,transcendental, and good thing • Variables suggesting objective assessment • standard, normative, and criterion • Removed from daily activity of individual people • Applied in reference to the achievement of general desired ends • “Objective”

41. Cluster Three • Variables such as fact and real map onto the same cluster as principleand moral • A middle-ground? • Conceptualization of values includes both subjective and objective elements • Indicate subjective/objective mutual influence • “Hybrid”

42. General model of organizational values

43. Phase Two • Textual analysis of strategic planning texts from university administration (student services) • Language represents phenomena • How language was used to represent the activity associated with the organizational values concept  policy creation • Strategic planning

44. Phase Two Data • Publicly accessible strategic planning documents • Institutions across Canada • Explicit reference to organizational values • Eight documents, twenty pages of text, roughly 100 pages of textual analysis notes

45. Phase Two Data Analysis Fairclough, 2001; Stillar, 1998

46. Results Language System: Strategic Planning • Initial assumption • Textual documents as representations of the activity of policy creationabout organizational values • Textual documents as artefacts of policy creation Activity Represented: Policy Creation Documents: Artefacts of Policy Creation

47. Results Language System: Strategic Planning • Also discovered • Representations of the activity/activities associated with organizational values • Textual documents as artefacts of organizational values Activity Represented: Organizational Values Documents: Artefacts of Organizational Values

48. Results • “Organizational values” interpreted as a variable within strategic planning • Nature of the variable differs • Differing definitions/conceptions • “Distance” in strategic planning documents • Future tense; dissociated from action • One time effort; declarative tone • No avenue for dialogue

49. Results • Emphasis on accountability within the activity of policy creation • Makes organizational values work visible and concrete • Specific action associated with the organizational values principle  “working together” • Interpersonal working relationships • Collaboration, relationship building, communication • Smaller, localized, professional working groups

50. A Specific Model of Organizational Values