Page 260 - Crisis in Higher Education

Reforming Administration and Management • 231

11.4 CHANGING ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE
Organizational culture is a set of shared values and beliefs that guide
employees toward acceptable and rewarding behavior. It includes the
experiences, expectations, and philosophies that create the social and
psychological environment of organizations. It determines how power
and information flow through the organization, the level of freedom in
decision making, and how organizations treat their employees and cus-
tomers. These factors collectively define how organizations perform,
including new product ideas, productivity gains, and quality improve-
ments. Organizational culture is difficult to change. 7
In many cases, the need for culture change becomes evident only when
organizations underperform and are headed toward failure. As General
Motors (GM) emerged from bankruptcy in July of 2009, its CEO Fritz
Henderson recognized that GM needed to change its culture and focus on
accountability, customers, and products to be successful. As Mary Barra
8
took the helm in early 2014, she faced the ignition safety switch crisis that
was linked to 32 or more deaths, and she continued efforts to change the
culture at GM. After more than four years of effort (July 2009 to January
9
2014), the change was not complete. But the real story is that GM faced
these problems for more than five decades before attempting to address
the underlying culture. The most telling statistic is that GM’s market share
in the United States was more the 50% in the 1950s and today sits at less
than 18%. It has been a long and slow decline, and customers have voted
with their pocketbooks. 10,11
Universities in the United States are still riding high. Although they face
problems, as noted earlier in the book, enrollments continue to grow. To
put universities in a “GM perspective,” it is the 1950s with serious prob-
lems on the horizon but no perceptible change in outcomes. The ques-
tion for universities is: What forces can disrupt success? There are at least
three possibilities. Some public universities may grasp these problems and
change how they operate so costs decline and quality increases, thereby
capturing demand and running other institutions out of business.
Second, private, for-profit universities may eventually understand why
they are failing and make the changes needed to improve graduation
rates, lower completion times, enhance quality, lower cost, and increase
job placements. That is a lot to do, but smart and resourceful academi-
cians working with capable business leaders can achieve the right blend