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Addressing Student Attrition in an Era of Evolving Student Demographics
Get PDFStudent attrition is a concern for all organizations that provide education, as high levels of attrition can have a significant impact on an organization’s finances and reputation. Online learning provides access to individuals of varying educational and experiential backgrounds who may not have otherwise embarked in an education or training program (referred to here as “Underserved Students”). While education supports personal and professional growth, if students feel that an Education Program is not meeting their needs in terms of curricular relevance or student support, attrition will likely result. This Organizational Improvement Plan (OIP) addresses a problem of practice concerning high attrition rates among Underserved Students in Organization X’s (a pseudonym for an organization offering professional education in the business/finance field) Education Program. Organization X is an established organization rooted in by-laws, policies, and procedures, and the OIP’s overarching leadership lens is informed by the functionalist paradigm. The political and structural frames provide perspective on Organization X’s internal and external environments. Recognizing that attrition among Underserved Students is a multifaceted problem, and acknowledging Organization X’s functionalist attributes, the OIP proposes that a formal committee that relies on stakeholder input be formed to investigate and address the needs of the Underserved Student population. Lewin’s Three-Step Change model and Schein’s extension of it are used to lead the change plan described in this OIP, which will require transformational and distributed leadership. Nadler and Tushman’s Organizational Congruence model is also discussed, as it provides an assessment of the disparity that exists between Organization X’s current and desired organizational state
Better Together: Fostering Student-Level Intercultural Competence Through Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) and a Collaboratively Created Assessment Tool
Get PDFMany Japanese universities have been undergoing processes of internationalization to mitigate demographic realities that conspire against robust student enrolments. These internationalization initiatives often attract students from other Confucian-based contexts who are expected to move away from their homeland and fully integrate into an unfamiliar, Japanese environment. Resultantly, international student needs are often camouflaged by cultural similarities that favour group harmony and collectivism over more equitable approaches to learning. Therefore, this Organizational Improvement Plan (OIP) aims to serve student needs by fostering the development of intercultural competencies through a pilot collaborative online international learning (COIL) project open to all students, and the creation and adoption of a context-specific rubric for intercultural competence assessment at a small, private, Japanese university to make the on-campus environment more inclusive for all students. A combined servant leadership and creative leadership approach is a foundational complement to traditional Japanese organizational practices for leading the change effort. Moreover, a context-specific adaptation of Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is supported by the Change Leader’s Roadmap (CLR) in the implementation process. A context-specific, critical-theory-supported approach to AI is also fundamental to the monitoring and evaluation process. The resulting project is focused on increasing student-level intercultural interactions to better align the university’s public-facing policy documents with on-campus practices to make the learning environment more inclusive
