REDESIGNING COMMUNITY COLLEGES TO COMPETE FOR THE FUTURE

Abstract

Redesigning community colleges to meet changing needs and expectations is a key top management responsibility. New competitors are challenging existing boundaries and changing market rules. Colleges that cannot change from within will be at a disadvantage in fast‐moving markets. To get ahead of these markets, they will need to find new ways of creating value while simultaneously creating flexible structures and processes. Organizational development, of course, cannot be accomplished solely through structural change. People and cultures enter the equation and through routine behavior help or hinder the process of redesign. If community colleges are organized in layers that insulate them from their environments, how can top management redesign the institution to compete in a new market? The answer to this central question is the topic of this article. The key premise is that community colleges will need to get into motion if they are to create the kind of organization that will be successful in the future. Organizational tinkering, where much of the current interest lies, is too deeply enmeshed within current organizational designs to produce sufficiently radical change. Without more thought to totally different ways of organizing, managing, and leading, not only will new designs be under exploited, but they may well reinforce the current limitations of community colleges.

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