There is a good deal of talk about the need for accountability today-defining learning outcomes, for example, or asking that faculty be accountable for the effectiveness of their teaching. In short, there is a shift from offering programs and degrees to creating value.
Like it or not, this growing orientation is shifting the definition of the "business" institutions of higher education are in, from inputs to outcomes and value creation. Yet the processes, culture, governance, and structure of the university are not set up to deliver value. This means a different management framework has to be in place to focus the entire institution on value. The implications of a focus on value, therefore, go to the core of leadership and management.
We propose value as the cornerstone of a new framework for regenerating higher education, and will concentrate here on the leadership and management challenges involved in implementation.
What's in It for the Leadership?
A focus on value will give institutional leaders:
A handle for getting unstuck. Extraordinary times need extraordinary solutions, and the times aren't just tough, they are changing. Institutions face resource shortfalls and changes in public expectations that will not disappear when economic conditions improve. Focusing on value can provide just the catalyst needed for rethinking and reconfiguring the core elements of the educational model.
Sustainability. The conventional academic strategy of increasing inputs in order to increase rankings may not be sustainable for the long term. The New York Law School's dean, Richard Matasar, calls the current model of legal education "unsustainable." The quest for higher rankings drives up costs without, in most cases, increasing the value of the degree in the marketplace. Graduates are faced with a combination of large debts and a declining job market. Small and middle-tier law schools, consequently, may put themselves out of business if they continue to increase inputs. This hypothesis is applicable to higher education in general.
A sound basis for differentiation and competitive advantage. Consider the University of Phoenix. By traditional measures of reputational quality, its offerings are undistinguished. But its leaders have understood the critical needs and expectations of working adult learners that determine value to them. In response, it has created world-class, convenient support services and accelerated adult-learning offerings in both classroom and online settings. The university's distinctive value proposition is in its ability to provide consistent and superior value, keep costs low, and develop a learner-centric approach to curriculum and services.
How to Lead for Value: Turning Ideas into Action
There is certainly no dearth of ideas about change in higher education. The challenge lies in execution. Institutional leaders must be able to first recognize the management and leadership challenges, implicit in conceptual models of change, before they can identify solutions.
Value has limitless potential. Yet value maximization requires imagination and innovation to identify, leverage, repurpose, reuse, and create new value combinations. A key challenge for leaders is to hire, reward, develop, and motivate staff along criteria consistent with their vision and strategy. Providing all stakeholders with the environment, roles, and responsibilities that allow them to succeed is a related challenge. Strategic reorientation, consequently, is not simply a question of establishing new processes or programs, but one of leading and motivating people toward a new vision and objectives.
The conventional academic strategy of increasing inputs in order to increase rankings may not be sustainable for the long term.
Pioneering for-profit providers, for example, used the concept of a value web to deconstruct sequential processes and enhance value at all stages of relationships and services. They were thus able to help stakeholders re-conceptualize the higher education model around a focus on meeting the needs for accelerated adult learning in key professional areas. Further, they developed organizational systems and culture to support strategy. The value proposition they constructed is based on superior accelerated learning experiences, not traditional program quality or lower price, alone. The overall experience also features efficient and customer-friendly support services. Together, all the elements that go into that experience comprise a value web, whose ability to create and constantly increase value depends not only on the component parts but the dynamic interrelationships among them.
