Continuing Education Department - Essay Example

Introduction The new administrator of the Continuing Education Department is faced with a very daunting task, because of the many feasibility issuesthat threaten its ability to continue to provide services to its markets. The organizational culture requires thorough research, analysis development and implementation of programs which will address the plummeting enrollments of the Staff Development and Outreach programs, as well as the internal infrastructure of the organization and the market (s) served. These assessments must be done to properly evaluate the operating core, the internal and external environments of the organization, administrative level as well as study and understand the needs and trends of all employees connected with the organization. Multiple tiers of research, analysis, theories, hypotheses, and conclusions will be drawn apply the necessary programs as well as the human and other resources to successful serve all areas -- senior level managers/executives and the board of directors, full time employees, professional and paraprofessional staff, as well as the clients from the urban community -- of the organization. Organizational Definition In a professional bureaucracy such as the Continuing Education Department, the administrator must be disseminate the department piece by piece, work group by work group, market segment by market segment to properly determine roles and responsibilities as well as levels of accountability. "Its operating core is large relative to its other structural parts - particularly the technostructure. Few managerial levels exist between the strategic apex creating a flat and decentralized profile. Control relies heavily on professional training and indoctrination." (Bolman & Deal, 2003, pp. 65-66) This approach will provide a grid and foundation for future forecast and the building of paradigms and theories to manage and develop programs in response to the needs of employees and affiliates as well as market (s) and community needs. Further segmentation, research and analyses provides greater understanding of the customers needs, trends and opportunities for innovations to serve both the community outreach efforts and the staff development activities. The identification, research and analyses should provide the material to determine best practices, development of the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analyses, due diligence, competition within and without the immediate market community as well as trends in the distance and continuing education industries collectively. The development of other approaches will provide the basis for understanding decline in enrollment over the last two (2) years for both the staff development and community outreach programs. It is necessary to thoroughly understand the organizational chart, gaps strategy, reevaluation of corporate missions, the identification and qualification of redundant and/or overlapping responsibilities and programs, as well as streamlining departments, funds for the programs from both the strategic and operations levels to appropriately identify, define, qualify, design, redesign, develop and implement effective and efficient solutions and methodologies. Leadership and Strategic Planning Any philosophy developed to properly administer policies and procedures must reflect the organizational proficiencies as well as the community's needs, as this will allow both the internal and external environment to grow synergistically and symbiotically. The objectives must be apparent in the organization's long and short term goals and be a model to develop other programs as well as a foundation on which the organization can grow in response to the community's needs. In order to approach or create methodologies that address the organizational needs, careful assessment must be made to understand corporate mission and Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunity and Threats (SWOT). These are areas which provide focus and bench marks in checking and reviewing environmental feasibility issues. These issues range from stakeholder - customers, board of directors and upper management, regulators and employees (staff), etc. - economic trends, political, legal, etc., which all affect the way an organization does business and is able to continue to do business from a strong and solid strategic standpoint. Strengths The Continuing Education Department is currently the only program which addresses both corporate and community based needs as well as a foundation of trained personnel to assist in the development of its customer base. Another strength is the organization's standing in the community, it is visible and known from a corporate as well as a social perspective for its training and developmental programs for education and empowerment. Weaknesses An apparent weakness of the Continuing Education Department is its inability to understand what the trends and needs are now. The lack of focus made it difficult for management to see or forecast the shifts in educational, corporate and financial needs, which has caused decline in enrollment for community based and corporate based customer groups. There are key weaknesses that require administration to ask the following questions: 1. Which programs is not in-line or in-tune with societal needs and trends 2. Who are currently enrolled and why are they enrolled Is it mandatory, because of a community program's requirement to keep a job, get social and public government programs, etc. 3. Why are people not enrolling, are there courses and or programs they require or requested that are not available at the Continuing Education Department Opportunity There are many opportunities that can be used to recapture some of the market based the firm had, to do so requires market research to poll potential customers and customer surveys to find out form current and past customers what their needs are. Another way to increase enrollment is to find out what other organizations in the same industry are doing to keep or increase enrollment by asking the following key questions: 1. Are they changing programs 2. (If so,) What programs are these continuing educational organizations changing 3. What are there new programs out there and how are these programs doing 4. Is the staff equipped and able to provide the level of continuing education required to be competitive and on point Threats There are many threats to the organizations many of them feasibility issues that are beyond the control of the Continuing Education Department, but must be identified, qualified and dissolved or turned into opportunities. Some of the major feasibility issues that should be addressed are: 1. Economic down turn. 2. Lack of appropriate programs or courses which addresses the needs of the students. 3. Corporate clients may have decided to provide in house training for their employees. 4. Virtual training programs via the internet. The corporate mission should reflect the reason why the organization is in business, the market (s) and industry (ies) it serves, legal and ethical perspectives and the customers they service. Therefore the following mission statement was created to address the Continuing Education Department's mission: The Continuing Education department provides quality, state of the art and timely educational programs and services that addresses corporate and community needs in order to facilitate education, industry, social and economic growth and prosperity. This mission statement addresses all facets of the community and promotes strategic growth and prosperity through corporate enrichment and community involvement. It will also provide the refocus and restructuring needed in both the internal and external organizational relationships. The Strategic Planning Process In every organization whenever there is a decline in the demand for its services and/or products, it must begin to assess, identify, research and analyze all variables internal and external to the corporate environment. Once there has been some idea(s) to the cause of the issues it faces, there should be a set of key policies and procedures as well as guidelines and methodologies which provides information and other data to move to the next phase of its strategic initiative(s) and continue its corporate mission. This approach embodies all areas of the organization on all levels as well as its corporate and community based partners and customers. Thorough analyses must be done once the SWOT Analysis has been done and core feasibility issues have been identified. It is this analysis that will provide the necessary information on creating the necessary core for the staff, target market, retention programs, core courses and other courses which aptly addresses the needs of both the corporate and community customers/students. Realigning and refocusing must be done to inform, educate and reeducate staff - professional and paraprofessional - corporate sponsors and customers as well as community organizations and individuals. It is this process that will secure a strong base or core and allow the Continuing Education Department to redirect and reposition itself as a corporate and community provider of quality based, effective, efficient and cutting edge continuing educational programs and services. Evaluation Plan Evaluating the internal infrastructure requires a keen sense of the organization's mission as well as strategic goals and initiatives; it identifies key persons, groups and organizations and/or department that are directly responsible and accountable to the firm's mission of educating its customers -- corporate and community based. The administration must also understand the organizational structure, culture and sub-culture in order to aptly address and solve the organizational issues such as declining enrollment, programs or courses that have high enrollment versus programs and courses with low enrollment, identify and define profit bases for programs and/or courses as wells as customer base. Also identifying the roles of all employees on every level provides a better understanding of organizational reengineering and elimination of individuals, groups and departments and redistributing human resources where they would provide the most value. Evaluations must also be measurable; therefore time frame(s), benchmark (s) and other metrics must provide a gauge as to how far and where resources and changes must be concentrated to effect the desired changes. These changes must be quantifiable and qualified as well as measurable, in order to ensure tracking and historical data and forecasting of future strategic initiative(s). The cost of technical and educational resources and supplies must also be analyzed to determine breakeven points and cost benefits analysis as a way of ensuring that the Continuing Education Department has created value added opportunities and developed their strengths and eliminated weaknesses and threats in the internal and external environment of the organization. The newly created initiatives and methodologies must be applied on all levels of the organization, in order to be in sync with the corporate level goal(s) and initiative(s), therefore policies and procedures are uniform in each department and level, for professional as well as paraprofessional employees. Separate set of metrics must also address the students from both the corporate and community based markets, and applies to current and future students in the continuing education market. Monthly, quarterly meetings and reports allow all stakeholders to be informed as well as to understand the process and progress of the new programs and strategic initiatives at the Continuing Education Department by the new administration. It allows for auditing, feedback mechanisms, accountability policies and procedures and redress. Using these tactics and strategies also provides open door as well as trust in the new policies and procedures, which is very necessary in any new initiatives. Implementation The implementation of programs to address the issues presented to the new administration at the Continuing Education Department requires a roll-out pilot program and design, in order to effectively measure and work out the kinks and perfect the process. However, adequate "buy in" must be calculated from the top down in order for implementation of any program to take place. Therefore it is important that key stakeholders - professionals and other important players to the undertaken be consulted and informed to the new program (s) and focus (i) Bolman, & Deal (2003, p. 66) cautioned that "Professional bureaucracies respond slowly to changes in the environment. Waves of reform typically produce little impact because professionals often view change in their surroundings as an annoying distraction from their work. The result is a paradox: individual professionals may be at the forefront of their specialties while the institution as whole changes" Providing gradual implementation and metrics to determine how well and where new tactics should be applied in an effort to update and develop newer and better strategies is an approach that will help the culture and the organization to assimilate and move forward. Core teams are invaluable to any organization undergoing infrastructure reengineering. The teams or process champions provide leadership and sense of focus and credibility to the organization and its strategic initiatives. It also allows feedback and communications sharing, as well as focused and well thought out reporting up the chain of command. Core teams should represent all areas and levels of the organization, so that no sub-cultural group is left out or under-represented. By doing this, it provides a sense of inclusion and the opportunity to consider that each employee whether they are professional, paraprofessional, administrative, clerical, etc. has a stake in the success of the organization. This further indicates that the overall success of the organization is shared across the board and was developed and approved by all. In order to determine if the implementation of polices and procedures are working and effecting positive change, there should also be feedback. The methodologies that must be used to measure these successes as well as failures must be reliable and able to pinpoint areas of low returns and others in needs of tactical changes and redress. There should be an open forum on all levels as well as across departmental lines to ensure that all issues are presented, critiqued, analyzed and adequate solutions develop in response to the organization's strategic goals and initiatives. Any deviation or misappropriation of data could critically undermine progress and short circuit the flow of organizational processes and methodologies. All areas of the organization as well as the external stakeholders -- corporate and financial sponsors, corporate customers and community customers -- must be accounted for and determine how and when the implementation process (es) is and is not affecting these groups. Careful data management and information exchange will provide the necessary information via feedback to gauge progress and determine the next steps in the process. Once the implementation of the programs is successfully installed in the first pilot group/department, it is necessary to analyze the findings -- good bad and indifferent - and determine how to proceed and implement the program in the next slated department. This roll out methodology allows all involved to take "baby steps" in the process and given the right queue will also feel that their input is vital to the success of the Continuing Education Department program(s). The roll-out process also allows administration with the opportunity to redirect, reallocate and reengineer its human resources to appropriate areas of the organization where talent, skills, knowledge and experience will provide the greatest value. Open forums and reorganizations further motivate participants in the process to play an active role and deliver the level of performance as directed. Lesser participants may also look to more versed and knowledgeable participants for leadership and guidance through the process, which alleviates the pressure for administration, because they don't have to motivate employees who are not familiar with strategic shifts and changes and business process engineering (Organizational reengineering). Successful implementation must also be recognized as tools to motivate and address questions and issues that participants/staff/employees may have regarding the organization shifts and changes. Redirecting and implementing new departments, supervisors, team leaders as well as programs and courses allows everyone to take notice of the changes. This participation should be recognized and compensated through rewards, promotions and other types of corporate sponsored initiatives. The encouragement of the organization by showing appreciation is necessary to gain acceptance and diminish any resentments and/or resistance. Variations in the success of implementation is to be expected, but testing and feedback processes and other metrics and methodologies will allow the new administrator to properly gauge progress of the programs and determine when and where to apply tactical responses and planning as well as removal and disbandment of other programs. Constant testing and analysis of the internal and external environments of the Continuing Education Department's programs, staff of employees, board of directors, management, corporate and community sponsors as well as community and corporate customers will provide the necessary data and input to continue to develop and implement programs in response to the needs of the market(s) and industry (ies) served. Conclusion Management and leadership of any organization whether it is in decline, on steady ground or on a successful climb requires thorough understanding and analysis of the organization's structure, culture as well as the feasibility issues to successfully refocus, identify, develop and implement programs that are responsive to the needs of all stakeholders. The ability to use critical analysis to research and derive appropriate SWOT information with which to address, define and solidify organizational mission(s), forecast future initiatives and identify the core/foundation of the organization requires input and participation on every level and at every juncture. It also needs monitoring and constant proactive stances to provide the readiness to adapt to changes in the internal and external environments of the organization. References Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2003). Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice, and Leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Read More