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Exploring the Impact of Performance-Based Funding Policy Reform: The Role of Institutional Research in Supporting Data-Driven Decision-Making
Get PDFThe institutional pressures placed on the Ontario college system, exercised through funding model reform, brought forward organizational challenges difficult for even the most fiscally savvy to navigate. The enrollment corridor mechanism and the expansion of the proportions of the differentiation envelope to create a performance-based grant, implemented via the 2020-25 Strategic Mandate Agreement (SMA3), demonstrate the Provincial Government’s calls for efficiencies and accountability and the alignment of institutional and provincial priorities. Remaining financially sustainable while moving from performance reporting to performance funding and weathering the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic requires a solid understanding of not only enrollment challenges and opportunities but also data and information used to inform decisions. Institutional Research (IR) units are responsible for providing leaders with data and information for this work. However, access to data and information does not imply their effective use (Marsh et al., 2006), pointing to a gap in data literacy skills amongst higher education leaders (Mathies, 2018). The problem of practice that will be examined is the role of IR in supporting effective data-driven decision-making related to achievement of the College X enrollment and SMA3 priorities. This Organizational Improvement Plan proposes that an existing Strategic Enrollment Management governance structure be leveraged for development and implementation of a group-level capacity building strategy. The planned change is used to inform enhancements to existing data tools and resources responsive to stakeholder needs and mindful of organizational context. The Change Path Model (Cawsey et al., 2016) provides the framework to implement this solution using distributed and adaptive leadership approaches
Autonomy and Empowerment to be Creative and Engaged in a Collaborative Culture
Get PDFThis document is an Organizational Improvement Plan (OIP). The purpose of the OIP is to address a specific problem of practice (PoP) at a private career college in Ontario (the College). The PoP at the College is the need for instructors to have autonomy and empowerment to be creative and engaged in a collaborative culture. An organizational analysis at the College determined that the present functionalist theoretical organizational framework and its hierarchical structure inhibit collaboration. After a comprehensive review of scholarly literature, this OIP recommends that a postmodernist theoretical organizational framework and a follower-centric approach to leadership using the transformational and authentic leadership theories be implemented. To substantiate the robustness of the recommendation, peer-reviewed articles and published books on educational leadership are chosen as they are established literature; over 200 references are used. A 3-pronged solution comprising defined autonomy, a collaborative council, and a community of practice is suggested. Kotter’s (1996) change process, congruent with postmodernism as well as the transformational and authentic leadership approaches, will guide the implementation of the change intervention. An implementation plan is developed and monitoring and evaluation strategies are advanced. Face-to-face meetings including one-on-one interviews, considered rich media, along with surveys and focus groups, are utilized to ensure optimal stakeholder engagement. This OIP then presents a communication plan that will inform and raise the awareness of stakeholders of the need for change while actively engaging them in bringing the change to fruition.
Keywords: leadership, autonomy, empowerment, collaboration, functionalism, postmodernis
