Page 140 - Crisis in Higher Education

A Customer-Focused, Resource Management Perspective • 111

suppliers to ensure that necessary equipment is either available or
can be acquired as part of the proposal. In many fields such as art,
business, humanities, and social science, external funding is limited.
In many cases, research in these fields does not require expensive
equipment, facilities, or supplies. To support research, universities
reduce the workload for tenured faculty so they can devote time to
research, and universities may fund travel, computer hardware and
software, data acquisition, and other expenses.
2. Investigation: Tenured faculty and graduate research assistants execute
the plan. In some fields of study, postdoctoral researchers and techni-
cal support people may be involved. When external funds are avail-
able, graduate research assistants may be supported by government or
industry, but in other cases they are funded by the university.
3. Dissemination: Tenured faculty and graduate research assistant col-
laborate in writing up the results and disseminating the research.
In some but not all cases when private industry funds research, results
are proprietary because the entity does not want to share the outcomes
with its competitors. In nearly all cases when governments and uni-
versities fund research, results are published in academic journals and
discussed with colleagues so ideas are shared, duplication is reduced,
and the greater good is enhanced. Academic journals are important
avenues for publishing results. Here the results can be examined and
critiqued. Learned societies are groups of researchers who meet, share
ideas, discuss the meaning of their research, examine synergies among
different research projects, and outline future research agendas.

5.3 STRATEGY: VISION, MISSION, VALUES, AND GOALS

An institution of higher learning, like other organizations, has a strategic
planning process that identifies a vision for what it wants to become, a
mission describing what it wants to achieve, values that clarify accept-
able behavior in reaching its vision and accomplishing its mission, and
institution-wide goals that drive its actions. Ultimately, these actions
determine what resources to acquire, to what programs they should be
allocated, and how they are used.
Most institutions, especially four-year colleges and universities, have a tri-
partite mission that includes research, teaching, and service, although service