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Practising what we preach: Managing agriculturaleducation in a changing worldM. Warren aa Seale-hayne Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Land Use , University of Plymouth , UKPublished online: 30 Jul 2007.

To cite this article: M. Warren (1998) Practising what we preach: Managing agricultural education in a changing world,The Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension, 5:1, 53-65, DOI: 10.1080/13892249885300161

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Warren

Practising what we preach: Managing Agricultural Education in a Changing World

M. Warren"

Abstract

Using the UK experience as its main focus, this paper examines the pressures on rural higher education, their impact on institutions, and the consequences for those who work in those institutions. It argues that much of the adjustment that has taken place has been an incremental, ad hoc reaction to a succession of crises, rather than as a result of a planned strategy. One of the results is a loss of direction and self-confidence in the sector. Those charged with managing agricultural education can learn from examining anew what their institutions teach students about business management, and questioning whether they really practise what they preach. J Agr Educ Ext (1998, 5. 1, pp 53-66)

"The shoemaker's children are always the worst shod." (English proverb)

Introduction

This article examines the pressures on tertiary education in agriculture and related subjects, and the responses to those pressures. A major theme is that the sector has little to lose, and much to gain, from a 'managerial' approach to the development of tertiary rural education, and that it is possible for such an approach to coexist and support a dedication to the ideals of public service. The contents of a typical business management course, as found in most general agricultural programmes, are used partly as metaphor, partly as practical guide to realising the full potential of agricultural education through careful attention to its management.

The tenr~ 'tertiary education' is broad. It can include, for instance, training, sub-degree diplomas, 'lifelong learning', research, technology transfer, and extension. These are all part of the same continuum, and many writers have explored different aspects of the training/education/extension relationship (see, for example, Errmgton (1989), NILETS

(1995), Ruffio, Mouchet and Barloy (1993), Rolls and Malvem (1995), Warren (1989)). The education/research interface is discussed by Whittemore (1996). In the interests of clarity, however, this article focuses on first Degree education (i.e. BA or BSc), arguing that the conclusions drawn are readily transferable to the whole.

1 Tertiary education under strain

Most would agree that the pace of change in tertiary education is increasing year by year. Change is unsettling, and usually carries with it negative outcomes for some of those affected, even where the net aggregate welfare is enhanced. The worst effects, though, do not arise from the fact of change itself, but rather from the pressure of change meeting inertia, with adjustment retarded as a result.

Scale-hayne Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Land Use, University of Plymouth, UK

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1.1 The pressures

The causes of pressure are many and varied, but much is a reflection of rapid change in society in general: van den Bor et a l (1995, p31), for instance, identify six examples of catalytic global restructuring events:

Geo-political restructuring: the realignment of ideologies Economic restructuring: the internationalization of economic relations Cultural nationalism: the counter-balance to globalization Social restructuring: the growth of new social relations Environmentalism: the ideology of sustainable development Communications rcs~cturing.

We are more likely to recognise the effects of such global events through their more localised symptoms. These will vary in relative impact from country to coun~'y, but will undoubtedly include:

* Reduction in public funding (cynically labelled in the UK as 'efficiency gains')

More overt competition between public institutions; for funds, for students, for research projects, for staff, for places in 'league tables'.

Competition from non-traditional providers, for example, non-state institutions and distance learning.

Rapid development of electronic systems for collation, analysis, storage and ~ansmission of information.

Demands for increasing and more varied participation in tertiary education, catering for different audiences, such as mature students and those with few or unconventional qualifications, and giving more opportunity for progression between levels of education. Increasing emphasis on 'life-long learning' and competence- based vocational qualifications.

Changing expectations on the part of the primary 'customer' (the student) and the secondary customers (employers and society as a whole) in tctu-~s of content and delivery of education - and conflict of expectations between those primary and secondary customers.

Increasing 'vocationalism' from students and parents, judging degrees and their content by their potency as job-tickets (Miller (1995) pl0).

Conflicts between the demands of teaching and research, especially the accumulation of publications in refereed journals as the main avenue for promotion.

Demands from industry for increasing inter-disciplinarity (cutting across traditional subject-based dcpar~nents) and applied research/technology transfer

Increasing ernphasis on public accountability through academic validation/evaluation systems, often with a bias towards single-subject basic research and against inter-disciplinarity.

There is no doubt that there are beneficial outcomes from these pressures: increasing competition has proved in many areas a spur to action and the enemy of complacency, for instance; the challenge to provide for different audiences and different expectations can be rewarding and stimulating for all parties.

1.2 The inertia

There is, however, an inherent inertia in tertiary education as we know it, which inhibits rapid reaction to the most volatile changes. The long production cycle (3 years minimum for a first degree course, plus development time) is only one factor in creating inertia. One might add the fixed nature of most costs of ~'aditional academic provision in the short term (the majority being

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staffcosts); the unwillingness oft_hose freed resources (i.e. people) to be mobile between uses (i.e. change jobs). Also important is the conservatism of large communities of people, especially academics, and the value placed on tradition, together with the academic snobbery which can often inhibit the catalytic effect of both individuals and institutions.

Perhaps most influential, however, is the confusion of signals sent to the academic institution, by industry, consumers and society. Some are inherent in the pressure listed above. Moreover, governments which license our activities and pay for some of them, send rapidly fluctuating signals, with frequent 'about-turns' (or indecision) in policy concerning participation rates, funding levels (for both teaching and research) funding methodology, quotas of students, and so on. Tertiary education is often a tool (rather than object) of policy, whether in influencing unemployment statistics or in achieving monetary policy goals. [Not all is negative. In the UK, at least, there is increasing recognition of the damage done to the nation's educational capital by public spending cuts. The recent report of the National Committee into Education (1977), 'Higher Education in the Learning Society' (the 'Dearing Report') made recommendations to government, funding bodies, industry, institutions and other organizations, relating to a wide range of issues. It is an extremely comprehensive and, for a beleaguered tertiary education sector, heart-warming report. It is one thing for a committee to make recommendations: it is another for a government, committed to containing public spending to carry them through. Even if the rest of the recommendations are implemented, it will take years for many of them to take effect].

When pressure meets inertia, adjustment to new conditions is retarded, and actions are taken at or after the point of crisis rather than before. Symptoms in an institution can include loss of direction; a generalised fear of losing employment or status; adoption of risk- avoiding strategies; stress on both staff and management; ad hoc attempts to 'buy' time for

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research through increasing class size or by undertaking low-grade contract research or consultancy; 'short-termism' and reluctance to make adequate capital investment.

1.3 Agricultural education in particular

Agricultural education has all this and more. Geo-political, economic and social restructuring, environmentalism and communications restructuring - all have had profound effects in recent history. Old certainties have been challenged, and particularly that of production agriculture as the cornerstone of rural life, and thus of rural vocational education. The potential client base has fallen due to the inevitable relative decline in agricultural incomes, and in some cases (in the Central and Eastern European countries, for instance) through massive structural upheaval. This in turn implies diminishing employment in companies upstream and downstream from farming itself. Farmers' offspring become more tempted by non- agricultural or quasi-agricultural occupations offering more money and better conditions: it is the better-educated of these who are more inclined to be mobile, thus leaving behind an increasingly ageing and less well-educated population, less likely to take up the opportunities of tertiary education or to recommend it to others. In the UK at least, educational attainment is lower in farmers compared to their equivalent in other sectors, and is growing at slower rates (Gasson (1997), Warren (1993)).

In most European countries, pressure to reduce taxes and liberalise trade, coupled with an increasingly urbanised electorate, creates antagonism (or at the least indifference) to support of agricultural education or research, except where specific issues catch the public imagination (such as BSE, environmental improvement and sustainable agricultural systems). A glance at the international pages of the Times Higher Educational Supplement, and a trawl through the recent literature, show this to be a general condition throughout the world (Jose (1997), Miller (1995), Schuh

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(1993), Grabau and Graveel (1995), Kunkel and Skaggs (1996), Roberts (1994), Ruffio and Barloy (1995), Napier (1997), Agrawal (1997)).

Just as agricultural education has its own additional pressures, so it has its own inertia This is bred partly from long association with an industry and community which, while having demonstrated impressive ability to innovate and experiment in production of food and fibre, remains essentially conservative in outlook. [According to Winter (1995), a survey conducted in 1990 for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds revealed that 78% of colleges in the UK included no conservation teaching in their mainstream agricultural courses. More recent surveys are more encouraging, but 'much still remains to be done']. Kunkel and Thompson (1996) put it thus:

.... the belief in the intrinsic value of production is so basic today that many faculty and administrators would not list this as one of their values, and would express little beyond puzzlement and consternation when confronted by those who take the goodness of production as something that might require defence. It may be impossible for them to imagine agriculture in any other light. Yet, the main thought of many criticisms of agricultural education has been to suggest that cultural, environmental, or consumer practices are as constitutive of agriculture as is production. The faculty's and traditional clientele's inability to understand these values on a par with production has been a barrier to change.

2 Past progress

Agricultural education has not stood still in the light of these pressures, and there have been many notable attempts to overcome (or at least work around) the inertia, reacting positively and rationally. One school of thought, closely associated with Wageningen, has used the vehicle of systems theory to rework the model of curriculum and its

delivery in agricultural education (see, for instance, Kunkel and Skaggs (1996), Jiggins (1994), Wijnand (1994), Roberts (1994)). Another more general approach has been the 'modularization' and credit-rating of educational programmes, borrowing from the American model, in order to allow more freedom of choice for the student, and more flexibility and rapidity of response to new opportunities for the institution.

Programmes catering for 'new' interests in society have proliferated, ranging from broad issues such as rural development, environmental management and sustainable agricultural systems, to specialist matters such as equine enterprise management, rural tourism and floristry. Collaborations have sprung up between complementary institutions, whether between different 'levels' (such as the University of Plymouth's close academic partnerships with the tertiary colleges in its region) or between small institutions in a single sector combining skills and fmancial strength in the interests of stability. Some institutions have made great strides in developing innovative approaches to learning, with or without the intervention of new communication technologies.

We read more about the grand ideas and ideals than about the results in practice. For every institution that has committed itself to a thoroughly systemic approach to development, for instance, there must be dozens that have reacted in an ad hoc fashion to change. Even where systemic change is seen as the ideal, institutional and other constraints may inhibit its wholesale adoption (see, for instance, Rchrnan and Keatingc (1994)).

Informal empirical observations suggest that the norm has in fact been incremental, production-oriented change, focusing on curriculum and its delivery, with each institution reacting to successive crises by frequent revision. The effect is of constant 'nibbling' at the edges of the problem in response to shortages (or excesses) of students, or resources, often with no more

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than a token attempt to test the market for the product with either primary or secondary customers. [For instance Brassley (1996) asks, in reviewing a history of an agricultural college in England: "should (its vocational) courses on health and social care, and hospitality and catering, be seen as educational sensitivity to local demand in a rural area with significant retirement and tourism interests, or are they evidence of an insitution faced with the decline of its major client indus~a'y, desperately scratching around for anything that will put mottoms on seats in times of tight funding?] There is nothing wrong with incremental change per se, but if it is the only response to change, operating in a strategic vacuum, it exacerbates the loss of the purpose referred to above. If incremental change is applied where a 'quantum leap' is required, the effect can be disastrous.

This situation may be relatively new to education, but commercial organisations are well used to dealing with pressure and high rates of change. In agricultural education, most of the courses we offer students include tuition in some elements of business management. Perhaps we can gain some insight into our own predicament by learning from what we ourselves teach!

3 Practising what we preach

3.1 Management in general

What do we teach our o w n students about the management of farms or agribusinesses? How do we expect them to develop a resolutely proactive approach to developing organisations? Dealing with management in gcnerat, we develop the premise that good managers are essential to the well-being of an enterprise, and that the prime function of a manager is to enable and support staff in the overall effort to achieve the company's objectives. We tend to take it for granted that managers should be well-equipped for their role, ideally through education, and certainly through periodic in-service training.

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Do we, in education, practise what we preach - or do we promote people into management positions because they are good at being academics (and particularly because they are good at research)? Do we devote ample resources to training of managers, or do we assume that they will somehow, intuitively, be prepared for the rigours of decision-making? How much of the 'piecemealism' arises from poor managers (albeit good academics), chosen in less demanding times and ill- equipped for the relentless pressure of modem conditions?

3.2 The managerial process

What would we teach our students about the process of management itself?. The principal elements are likely to include:

* introductory economics * economic policy * financial management, including project

planning and investment appraisal * human resource management * marketing * business organization and strategy

This is a very basic skeleton, and most institutions will include other specialist elements. Sequence and degree of integration with other topics will also vary, according, for instance, to the degree to which systemic principles are applied to curriculum design. The fact remains that these are elements which will be found, in one form or another, wherever business management is taught. Examination of these elements in detail may give us some clues about management of our own institutions.

3.2.1 Introductory economics and economic policy

An introductory economics module will deal with fundamental aspects of economic behaviour of individuals (e.g. supply and demand), of fn-ms (e.g. marginal cost and revenue), and of countries (e.g. comparative

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advantage and international trade). The economic policy module will build on these principles to exarnine the rationale for, and mechanisms of, economic policy for agriculture and rural areas in general.

Although the emphasis in these areas is on creating understanding rather than on developing managerial skills, there are challenges here for us. If we understand the basic principles of supply and demand, do we apply that understanding in our decisions about what 'products' to supply? If we have truly grasped the fundamental concept of international trade, that of comparative advantage, do we attempt to apply it to our own institutions? Or do we persist in suspicion of all potential competitors, trying to do everything in-house, losing out on valuable opportunities for increasing net welfare by collaboration with other institutions? Do we profit from analyses of likely agricultural policy changes (understanding, for instance, that unrelenting pressure to 'decouple' support for farmers from production will accelerate the decline in demand for traditional production agriculture education), or do we plough on regardless of the insights of our own teachers and researchers?

3.2.2 Financial management

Financial management is partly concerned with collection and management of past and projected information. The primary aims here are to ensure maintenance of cash flow, and to satisfy the stakeholders of the institution (especially government and other fundcrs) that resources are being used responsibly. Generally speaking, these functions are performed well in our institutions - not least because we employ specialists, rather than academics, to do so on our behalf.

There is another aspect to financial management, however, that of the use of information in making decisions. We teach our students about the importance of good management accounts, acknowledging the

limitations of accounts prepared for official purposes (Warren (1997)). We show students the fallacy of making decisions based on full- cost accounts, teaching them to distinguish between fixed and variable costs. We encourage them to concentrate only on the costs and benefits which are relevant to a given decision, perhaps using a 'partial budget', or even its more advanced form, the discounted cash flow.

Do we practice what we preach? Or are our managers struggling with information designed for ease of the auditor, rather than the decision-maker? Do we resist the introduction of a new course (or continuation of an existing course) because the revenue will not cover the whole attributed costs, including overheads - although a simple calculation might show that the marginal benefits would outweigh the marginal costs? Conversely, when trying to preserve a long- standing but struggling course, do we properly examine the opportunity costs (i.e. the benefit lost from not being able to develop other, more profitable provision) as well as the more easily identifiable cash costs of retaining it?

3.2.3 Human resource management

In studying human resource management, our students will learn about the legal implications of employing people, and about industrial relations in general. They will practise the skills involved in recruitment and selection of employees, with particular emphasis on careful and systematic job design. They will appreciate how understanding of motivation is essential to achieving the best from an individual, and understanding of group behaviour to getting the best from teams. They will discover challenges, such as that of the 'flexible workforce', to the conventional model based on assumptions of full-time employment. They will learn that ongoing staff development is an essential prerequisite to every employee achieving his or her best. They will begin to discern the lraits and skills that make for a good leader, rather than just a good administrator.

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Do we practise what we preach?

As with basic accountancy, most educational institutions are reasonably competent in dealing with the straightforward administrative and legal processes concerned with employment - partly because the penalties of not being so can be high, and partly because specialists can be used rather than academic managers. But even if, under the pressure of international competition for the best people, standards of recruitment and selection in education have improved, to what extent are academic jobs subject to job analysis and design?

What about motivation? This can be particularly difficult when pressure is on education, as management and staff may need to be moved, regraded or made redundant, and opportunities for advancement reduce. Thus it is more vital then ever to maintain morale. Opportunities for advancement are limited by decreasing staff complements and the introduction of flatter management structures, but the simple motivators (such as thanks, recognition and responsibility) still work and are much needed. The 'tough' management demanded in high-pressure times should not preclude management which is prepared to work with all those who make up the organisation, valuing dynamic attributes in staff- entrepreneurial flair, innovation, organisational skill, leadership, specific enthusiasms - and using them, irrespective of seniority. Nor should it imply a one-way process, but should emphasize the crucial role of firm support from the top, encouraging managers to take risks, stand by their juniors, take responsibility for failures as well as SUCCCSSCS.

Are organisational changes made with sensitivity, with due regard for the inevitable and varied concerns of the individuals affected (as discussed in Van den Bor 0997))? Are staff encouraged to develop a changing portfolio of employment, self-employment and other work over time (as suggested by Handy (1991) Ch. 7), with opportunities for part-time working allowing a gradual

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withdrawal and role change, easing the passage into early retirement or redundancy?

Is there still an assumption that the desirable norm is a faculty comprised primarily of full- time academics? The author's own department makes significant use of part-time faculty and external professionals, providing much greater flexibility in terms of curriculum and mode of work, and significant benefits for students who can learn from those who spend most of their time in relevant professional occupations. Yet the practice is regarded in some quarters as inherently suspect.

In times of rapid change, do we make training and development of both managers and staff a high priority, a vital step in increasing flexibility in work patterns and attitudes - or is it the first item of expenditure to bc cut? As well as the more obvious pedagogic and discipline-related skills, training may be needed in use of new technology. Perhaps most important is that those with managerial responsibility should be trained in leadership and adminis~ation, and given ample opportunity to learn from other managers in the same or other institutions. The University of Plymouth, for instance, takes this very seriously: as well as an annual management conference and numerous in-house short courses for managers and supervisors, all senior managers take part in a year-long action learning programme with 14 of their peers, forming smaller mutual help groups in the process.

Nor does the need for staff development apply only to academics. In seeking increases in productivity, there will be occasions when expenditure on the development of support staff will give a higher marginal return than an investment of similar size in faculty.

In industry, staff appraisal schemes are heavily used as a basis for planned staff development: they can be extremely valuable in academic institutions, allowing managers and managed to work on objectives together, and giving staff a guaranteed opportunity to spend time with the boss discussing their

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future, rather than working to the manager's agenda. The author has been both appraiser and appraised for several years in the University of Plymouth, and currently has a leading role in the introduction of staff appraisal and development in the Czech University of Agriculture in Prague. In both cases the experience has been of a generally enthusiastic adoption by staff after some severe initial doubts.

3.2.4 Marketing

In striving to win customers (students) we pay a lot of attention to certain aspects of marketing, particularly promotion and selling. However, marketing, according to a typical module descriptor from our taught programmes, is based on a thorough understanding of customer attitudes and bchaviour. Students are taught that only by paying attention to these, through market research, for instance, can a product be delivered at an acceptable price, and in the form, time and place required by the customer. They learn the importance of developing a marketing strategy which evolves from and informs the overall organizational strategy, and within which tactical decisions concerning promotion, pricing, ctc can be made.

We teach our students that the consumer is sovereign, and complain at the slowness of farmers to acknowledge the fact in their business management. Yet in education we fmd it as difficult as any farmer. We attempt to produce a product (embodied in the student) which meets the needs of the eventual employer, but we do not like it when employers dare to suggest that we have got it wrong. Most difficult of all is to acknowledge the student as a customer: it goes completely against our self-image of teacher as fount of all knowledge, and sole arbiter of what is 'right' for the student. Now that more and more funding comes with the student, rather than direct from the state, however, the reality is that the student, and his or her parents, are the prime customers for the bulk of our work.

This is not to suggest ad hoc classroom votes to decide the content of every module (although this can have its place). But we do have to adopt a much more client-centred mentality in the design and delivery of our programmes, learning lessons from Total Quality Management along the way.

Where students are concerned this implies genuinely responding to them as people we want to serve. It means taking seriously any concerns about poor library and computer provision, indifferent teaching, difficult access to staff, inadequate social environment. It means providing them with useful and credible packages of learning, not just what we want to provide because we happen to have the expertise in house. It means being clear upfront about what the student can expect from us. It means encouraging students to take more responsibility for aspects of their own learning. It means providing ample opportunity for students to express their feelings about their courses (both positive and negative), and giving them constructive feedback.

3.2.5 Business organization and strategy

Of all the elements of our basic business management course, this is the most central to the argument of this paper. Such a module will no doubt draw on all the other elements in planning for the long-term health of a business. Students will learn to identify the explicit and implicit values of the organization, and to embody these in mission, objectives and, eventually, a strategic plan or framework. They will learn to anticipate the advantages and disadvantages of various forms of management structure, given a company's stage of development and need for flexibility.

Do we practise what we preach?

Values and mission It is difficult to have a meaningful discussion about strategy without considering values. Values are 'the concepts, rules and normative

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beliefs that guide an organization from the inside' (Kunkel and Tompson (1996) p30). Every organization has them: in most cases, however, one suspects they are implicit rather than being explicitly thought through, let alone openly expressed. In a small organization and in stable times this may not be a problem: a system of values is developed over time (tradition) and, because the distance between top management and junior staff is small, becomes shared almost by osmosis. The difficulties come when radical change is required, and the shared values act as inhibitors.

In an agricultural college or university department this can be particularly acute, since the shared values relating to the pre- eminence of production agriculture and the farming community, for instance, may be so strong as to prevent faculty considering diversification. Where diversification does occur, the shared values may result in new areas of endeavour being marginalised in value terms even where they contribute a significant proportion of income. Students are often worse than faculty in this respect. It is vital, therefore, that firstly the shared values of the organisation are discovered and made explicit (involving the whole of the organisation, including students), and that secondly it is accepted that such values may need to change over time, thus requiring periodic (explicit) review. The more turbulent the times, the more frequent will review be necessary.

The 'mission' of an organization defines its purpose in general terms, giving an overall direction which can be subscribed to by all. That of the University of Plymouth, for instance, is:

To be an academic community working together to create a learning environment in which teaching and research is of the highest quality, supporting our students and their personal development, and contributing to the well=being of our region and nation.

The very generality of such statements threatens to devalue the concept of mission unless supported by a 'vision': a picture of where the organization intends to be in five, ten or twenty years. In setting out a list of desired outcomes, derived in consultation with all stakeholders, the vision statement forms the first step to creating a list of objectives. An example of such an outcome might be: 'the provision of learning support will be a high priority, and technology will support learning both on and off campus'.

The crucial and most difficult task here is the objective and clear-sighted review that forms the basis for that statement. Because this can be a very uncomfortable process, it is often compromised, with potentially disastrous effects - if the organisation has no clear and rational vision, how can the rest of its strategy be effective?

Strategic thinking We teach students that strategy is a systematic process for bringing about the vision, taking account of shared values. A conventional model of strategic planning (Warren (1997b) pp203-210) includes:

• Determining the shared values, mission and vision of the business (as above);

• Setting aims and objectives;

Assessing the 'internal' characteristics of the business - Strengths and Weaknesses - including any constraints which are likely to limit the range of alternative actions open to the business, such as limited r e s o u r c e s .

Assessing the external environment of the business - Opportunities and Threats - including forecasting likely changes in that environment.

Considering all the alternative plans which could be expected to achieve the objectives.

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Selecting the plan which appears to have the greatest chance of achieving the objectives.

• Implementing and communicate that plan.

• Periodically monitoring, evaluating and revising plans.

While being rather well-worn, this is a model which is widely used, but rarely exploited fully. It is difficult to bc truly objective (even brutal) in self-analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT), for instance, and to be sufficiently free-thinking when considering the full range of alternative plans. 'Thinking the unthinkable' is the priority, but predictably difficult if the livelihood or status of individuals or groups is threatened. A business would probably here seek outside stimulus from consultants, 'learning raids', and focus groups of customers. Also, it might well harness the imagination and energy of junior staff, rather than relying entirely on senior executives.

Moreover the 'recipe' format can to some imply a 'one-off process: 'we've done our five-year strategic plan, so we can relax for five years'. Its formulaic nature can rob it of flexibility and creativity, and a simpler, freer model of strategic development might be preferred, such as that of de Woot (1997):

* pressure for change * a clear shared vision * capacity for change * actionable first steps

Other alternatives include 'business process re-engineering' and 'the learning organisation'. Whatever the model, it is essential to make strategic thinking an ongoing priority, involving staff, employers, and advisers, based on a purposeful mission statement and being prepared to redirect radically if that is what is required. This process should direct and support curriculum development and renovation in delivery, not the other way round.

Organisat ional s t ructures The organisational structures that were appropriate for more stable times may not be the best for dealing with rapid change. Conventional hierarchical structures, usually based on (often quite arbitrary) subject specialisms, can create rigidity and stifle creativity unless blessed with particularly flexible managers and staff:

The organizational structures of colleges of agriculture typically vest strong power bases within academic departments. These departmental boundaries may discourage cooperation among individual faculty members, allow duplication of effort, constrain curriculum coordination across units, and deter development of interdisciplinary teaching programs. (Singha (1996) pi 15)

On the other hand, such structures feel secure for both managers and managed, in that there is a mutual understanding of where lines of responsibility and accountability run. Thus it is comparatively rare to find matrix management in agricultural education, although Needle (1989 p84) points out that in the UK at least, it was being adopted in large numbers of business schools just as most business organizations were beginning to reject it as unnecessarily complex. However, the institution working to bring about rapid change might benefit from study of the potential of a matrix sWacmre. An alternative is to keep the basic hierarchy, possibly in a flattened form, but make use of project teams: cross-deparmaent groups with a specific purpose (such as redesigning management information systems) which are dissolved when that purpose is achieved. These have the additional advantage of allowing junior members of staff (faculty and support staff) to develop through membership and eventually leadership of such groups.

A major issue for all organizations (business and otherwise) in the 1990s is the degree to which the revolution in communication systems (and the flexible, dynamic work

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patterns they allow) will affect organizational structures.

Conclusions

This paper has at times been forced to deal in generalizations rather than quantifiable specifics, and to pose questions rather than supply answers. However, it argues that, in agricultural education, we face a paradox. We devote much time and resources to teaching students the essence of good entrepreneurship, and yet can be reluctant to take on the full implications of our own teaching.

Of those implications, two are particularly important. The first is that any educational organization should have a systematic, rather than ad hoc, process of formulation, monitoring, evaluation and revision of strategic plans. This process should include recognition and challenge of the explicit and implicit values that underlie the activities of that organization. This is a particularly important task in agricultural/rural business education, where reaction to a changing environment can easily be inhibited by conservative values.

The second is that good management of people becomes recognized as a core skill for academic managers, be they rectors, principals, professors, or heads of department. This in turn implies provision of programmes to allow good academics to develop as good leaders and managers. It implies removing the assumption, still dominating higher education, that the best researchers should become the academic managers - a recipe for ensuring frustrated researchers and poorly-managed departments. It implies creating an environment which, though not without

uncertainty, is not rife with blame and fear, and which encourages people to take the creative risks necessary for a vibrant academic culture. It implies creating partnerships with students and other stakeholders rather than trying to hold them at arm's length, and setting up quality assurance systems which really work. It implies harnessing the creativity and expertise of those who are currently teaching management subjects to our students, even (or perhaps especially) the more junior staff.

There will be those who are concerned that such adoption of 'managerial' or 'business' processes will involve the sacrifice of public- service and academic values to what are seen as damaging, threatening, and crass commercial values. Uncritical adoption of an overly-simplistic commercial model can, indeed, lead to inappropriate approaches to provision of a public service. However, explicit consideration of shared values, and adaptation of the model accordingly, can help to obtain the best of both worlds.

Life in tertiary agricultural education is tough, and will undoubtedly get tougher. We cannot count on others to help us: those who do not adapt will fall by the wayside. We can do a lot worse than look at what we teach our students - and then try to apply it to our own organizations.

Acknowledgements This article had its origins in a paper presented to the XVII International Agricultural- Pedagogical Colloquium, Wageningen, 1997. The author gratefully acknowledges the comments of Professor Andrew Errington and Paul Brassley on an earlier draft, and those of two anomymous referees, while retaining responsibility for all errors and omissions.

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