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The focused faculty retreat:Addressing academicchallengesS. Mark Comstock & T. A. VernonPublished online: 30 Nov 2009.
To cite this article: S. Mark Comstock & T. A. Vernon (1998) The focused facultyretreat: Addressing academic challenges, Total Quality Management, 9:2-3, 203-211
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0954412989063
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TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT, VOL. 9, NOS 2&3, 1998, 203± 211
The focused faculty retreat: Addressing
academic challenges
S. MARK COMSTOCK & T. A. VERNONMissouri Southern State College, 3950 Newman Road, Joplin, MO 64801, USA
Background information
Missouri Southern State College (MSSC) is a state-supported, comprehensive college oŒeringprogrammes leading to a wide variety of undergraduate degrees and awards. The college wasestablished as an undergraduate institution in 1977, is located in Joplin, Missouri (US) andoŒers programmes in more than 60 ® elds of concentration.
One of the college’s primary emphases is a baccalaureate programme that fosters thetotal education of each student. Central to that mission is a strong commitment to inter-national education, to the liberal arts, to professional and pre-professional programmes andto the complementary relationship that must exist between liberal and professional educationin order to prepare individuals for success in careers and lifelong learning (1995± 96 MSSCCatalog).
The School of Business Administration is one of four schools at MSSC, and is unusualamong similar state schools in that it is not organized along functional lines. The Dean ofthe School of Business Administration directly supervises all faculty and support staŒ. Typicalfaculty teaching load is 12 hours per semester. Traditionally, all faculty are dedicated tokeeping at least 10 o� ce hours per week in addition to their teaching load. These are timesin which the faculty are available for student questions, conferences and career planning.Institutional, professional and community activities are encouraged and supported by boththe School of Business and the college administration.
The School of Business Administration had enrollment of approximately 600 studentsin the fall of 1996. These students were enrolled in a wide variety of programmes, includingthose leading to baccalaureate degrees in accounting, management, marketing, generalbusiness and management technology. Additionally, minor programmes are oŒered inaccounting, management, marketing and total quality management (TQM). Finally, studentshave the option of emphasizing a concentration in entrepreneurship. In addition to providingundergraduate education, the School of Business Administration provides several communityoutreach programmes which support individuals and businesses throughout the region.The outreach programmes include a small business development center, a managementdevelopment institute and an international trade and quality center. The School of BusinessAdministration currently employs 24 full-time teaching faculty, approximately 10 adjunctfaculty and seven management and support personnel. Currently, two School of BusinessAdministration faculty members are from nations other than the US. The school and the
0954± 4127/98/020203-09 $7.00 � 1998 Carfax Publishing Ltd
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college are actively recruiting additional faculty who can bring an enhanced global perspectiveto the institution and its programmes.
The School of Business Administration faculty are actively involved in both school andcollege-wide operations and governance at MSSC. Faculty members serve primarily in anadvisory capacity to the administration through a committee structure as de® ned by a facultysenate. College and School of Business Administration leaders rely heavily upon the strongconvictions and reasoned support of the faculty to ful® ll the mission of the college, as citedfrequently in its on-going self-assessment and continuous quality improvement process.
Academic challenges
In the fall of 1996, the School of Business Administration faced important challenges arisingfrom both internal and external environmental factors. These challenges included the problemof declining enrollment in the School of Business Administration, an increasingly competitiveregional business school environment and a charge by the State of Missouri and the college’ sadministration to develop curricula and outreach programmes to support the college’s newinternational mission.
Enrollment trends
One of the primary challenges faced by the School of Business Administration was asigni® cant decline in student enrollment. This trend had continued over the four-year periodleading up to the retreat. From 1992 to 1996, the school’s full-time equivalent enrollment(FTE 5 credit hours generated divided by 15 for fall or spring or 7.5 for summer) hadexhibited a marked decline, as shown in Fig. 1.
While the decline in enrollment was common to most public and private business schoolsfor the period, it was nevertheless a signi® cant concern to the faculty at MSSC, as well as tomembers of the administration and the surrounding community. The college occupied aprominent position in the social and professional communities in the region, and faculty wereincreasingly being contacted by citizens concerned about the causes and eŒects of the declinein enrollment. Administrators, faculty and staŒwere all keenly aware of the visible role playedby the college and the public concern about the trends in enrollment.
Figure 1. School of Business Administration enrollment full-time equivalents; fall semesters.
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THE FOCUSED FACULTY RETREAT 205
The enrollment trends had aŒected all the faculty and programmes at the School ofBusiness Administration, but some were impacted more severely than others. The hardest-hit academic ® eld of the school was the accounting programme, which traditionally hadtrained accountants who went on to join the top accounting professionals in the region.Accounting enrollment had fallen from 355 in the fall semester of 1992 to 245 in the fallsemester of 1996. While the caliber and reputation of accounting graduates remained high,enrollment had fallen. The 27% decline in accounting majors was a topic of constant focusby the accounting faculty.
Enrollment in the marketing and management disciplines had also decreased over the4-year period. Prior to 1995, the college had oŒered a combined degree in marketing andmanagement. From 1991 to 1995, the combined degree programme was gradually phasedout and replaced by two new degree programmes, one in marketing and one in management.The combined enrollment in the new programmes was 233 students in the fall of 1996, adecline from the 326 students who were enrolled in marketing, management and thecombined study programme in 1992. This represented a net decline of 29%.
One course of study was a general business major available to students who did not wishto emphasize any particular part of the discipline, but wished to remain generalists.Enrollment in the general business major had fallen from 303 to 264 over the 4-year period,a decline of 13%.
Over the 4-year period, total School of Business Administration enrollment was down17%. This was signi® cantly higher than the 11% decline suŒered by MSSC as a whole. Thecollege-wide decline compared with similar declines suŒered by other institutions of higherlearning in the area.
Accreditation
MSSC operated in an increasingly competitive environment, in which a growing number ofschools compete for a shrinking number of high-school graduates. Speci® c factors that mayhave contributed to the intensity of competition included the close proximity of other collegesand universities as well as other options for high-school graduates, the availability of distancelearning through a widening variety of media sources and increased educational requirementsfor individuals seeking accounting certi® cation.
While MSSC was accredited by the prestigious North Central Association Colleges andSecondary Schools (1995± 96 MSSC Catalog), the School of Business Administration hadnever pursued additional accreditation for its programmes from a nationally recognizedbusiness school accreditation agency, such as the American Assembly of Collegiate Schoolsof Business (AACSB) or the Association of Collegiate Business Schools and Programs(ACBSP). This may have been partly due to MSSC’s traditional emphasis on teachingresponsibilities for its faculty over research requirements. The business accreditation agencieswere perceived as emphasizing research requirements to the extent that MSSC’s teachingmission would preclude professional accreditation.
In light of relatively recent changes in the competitive environment, and apparentchanges in accreditation agency philosophies that appeared to allow increased provision forthe individuality of institutions’ missions, it seemed more reasonable than ever before toinvestigate accreditation for the school.
The Missouri State Society of Certi® ed Public Accountants, consistent with the account-ing professional societies in almost all other states in the US, had recently implemented newrules calling for greater educational requirements than ever before for those wishing to obtaincerti® cation as a Certi® ed Public Accountant (CPA). The new rules called for 150 hours of
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college study to qualify to sit for the uniform CPA examination. This was a signi® cantincrease over the old rules, which merely required that a student obtain an undergraduatedegree with certain accounting courses to qualify for examination. The new rules, whichwould take eŒect in 1999, required the equivalent of a graduate degree. This requirementmay have been motivating accounting students to attend institutions that oŒered mastersdegrees, since sitting for the CPA exam would require the equivalent amount of time andeŒort anyway.
In a broader sense, competitive pressures were introduced nationally by a growing trendamong students to go on to graduate study after completion of undergraduate requirements.This meant that it was in the students’ best interest to complete their undergraduatecoursework at an institution whose credentials would be easily accepted at a graduateinstitution if the student later desired a Master’s degree. One of the considerations thatstudents faced in this regard was accreditation by organizations of institutions of higherlearning. An institution that desired to remain competitive was under increasing pressure togo through a complex and laborious process leading to accreditation. The School of BusinessAdministration faculty were aware of this trend but had not taken concrete measures as agroup to address it. If MSSC business coursework was to be readily accepted by otherinstitutions for later study, the accreditation issue had to be addressed and either pursued orabandoned for identi® able reasons. In the area of accreditation, the School of Business hadreached an important turning point.
Internationalizing the curriculum
In the fall of 1995, MSSC received permission and support from the state of Missouri andfrom the Missouri Coordinating Board of Higher Education to adopt an internationalapproach to undergraduate education. It had become the college’ s express mission and desireto prepare its students for success in the increasingly competitive global business environmentexpected in the new millennium. To support this enhanced mission, the college’ s leadershipcreated the institute of international studies, the international trade and quality center, theinternational language resource center and the center for studies of English as a foreignlanguage. Each area of study had been aŒorded the opportunity to develop internationalcourses and educational experiences in support of the college’s new international mission.This responsibility was accompanied by ® nancial support in the form of funding for newfaculty positions, travel, pedagogical aids and other needs identi® ed by the faculty.
At the beginning of the fall 1996 semester, the School of Business Administration hadone course speci® cally designed to address issues in international business. Although this wasan elective course, it was quite popular among the students. The course was a rigorousintroduction to the intricacies and complexities of international trade and commerce. Thecourse integrated a focus on cultural considerations with a comprehensive survey of theoriesof international trade, ® nance and economic development. The programme of study wasfurther enhanced by a conclusion which emphasized practical applications in starting andmaintaining international trade and business relationships.
In addition to the course in international business, the school had just opened aninternational trade and quality center. This center was planned to be a centrepiece foracademic and professional discussion and resource provision for education and administrationrelated to international business. Apart from the international business class and the inter-national trade and quality center, discussion had been initiated, but no consensus had beenreached, on the role the School of Business Administration would play in support of thecollege’ s international mission. It was obvious that the process of internationalizing the school
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THE FOCUSED FACULTY RETREAT 207
curriculum must start soon, and that all members of the organization should be included inthe process.
Methodology
The challenges faced by the School of Business Administration in the fall of 1996 wereimportant to the future success of the school and the college. This section describes theinnovative methodology used by the dean, the school’s long-range planning team and thefaculty to address these challenges, and discusses their implications for the long-term successof the school.
The dean
The dean of the School of Business, James M. Gray, had harbored growing awareness of thechallenges faced by the institution for several years. While the faculty was invariably supportiveand appreciative of the dean’s eŒorts to address strategic planning issues, the dean felt thata concrete, focused plan of action was needed to direct the group energy of the entire Schoolof Business Administration faculty. Firm in his belief that leadership was a necessary elementto achieve an educational environment based on quality, the dean had determined that asystem of continuous quality improvement was necessary.
Components of the dean’s quality strategy for the school of business included innova-tiveness, programme development (as opposed to administration), a focus on people, cultiva-tion of the ability to inspire trust, a long-range perspective and a willingness to challenge thestatus quo. The dean, in consultation with a broad spectrum of faculty, including both seniorand junior professors, was determined to bring an environment of continuous qualityimprovement to the school.
In pursuit of implementation of a system of continuous quality improvement for thecollege, the dean had developed several innovative programmes. One of the most visible ofthese programmes was a School of Business quality administration circle. This circle, whichbegan meeting in 1993, had weekly meetings at which developments in quality philosophywere discussed, and proposals for bringing quality principles to the college and the communitywere conceived and adopted. Membership in the quality circle was voluntary, and includedmembers of faculty, staŒand students. As the challenges of the future loomed larger, thedean decided that a long-range planning team, composed exclusively of relatively new facultymembers, was necessary to address the new environment.
The dean appointed ® ve assistant professors, representing every discipline in the school,to the long-range planning team. The group was assured that the dean’s o� ce would standfully behind it in matters of policy recommendations and implementations. Inasmuch asmost members of the long-range planning team were untenured faculty, this was an importantcontribution towards their administration and ultimate success as a primary policy driver.
Long-range planning team
During its ® rst year of existence (1995), the long-range planning team addressed importantissues in a process of determining the nature and scope of the team’s authority. The teamadopted as a special project the planning and coordination of the school’s participation inthe college’s career development day and, due to innovative and resourceful eŒorts, studentparticipation in this important event was greater than it had ever been before.
The team also engaged in the development of strategies to increase the conversion of
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students with undecided majors to committed business majors. Success in this endeavour ledto increased con® dence and enhanced ability to work together as a team, and spurred thegroup to continue tackling tough issues. As members became increasingly comfortable withtheir leadership role in the School of Business Administration, they were able to perform afunction that was rapidly becoming important in the context of new innovations andprogrammes of the college.
In the summer of 1996, the dean felt that the team was ready for its most importantassignment to date. The dean, in consultation with the president and the other administrationat the college, asked the team to plan an event whose success was to be integral to the futureof the college. For the ® rst time in its history, the School of Business Administration wasgoing to have a community social/business interaction that would seek to integrate andsynthesize the talents and abilities of the entire faculty toward providing a blueprint for thefuture.
Faculty retreat
In June of 1996, the dean asked the long-range planning team to begin planning for avisionary event that would lead to a new conceptualization of a planned response to thechallenges faced by the school. The dean advised the team that the college’ s administrationwould support any eŒorts by the group to address the future innovatively and creatively.
The team, after consultation with other members of the faculty and the faculty of otherinstitutions, conceived of the possibility of a faculty retreat, to be held at a location remotefrom the day-to-day operations of the campus. With anecdotal evidence of modest successof similar programmes at other institutions and other groups at the college, the team enlistedthe support of the dean’s o� ce for the notion of the faculty retreat. Armed with the promiseof ® nancial support for the planned retreat, the team began planning the event.
Having obtained support for the retreat, the dean placed responsibility for the entireevent on the long-range planning team. The team was given charge of determining the focusof the retreat, and of structuring the retreat in such a manner that its results would bespeci® c, measurable, obtainable and compatible with the on-going core operations of theSchool of Business Administration.
The faculty-at-large’ s initial response to the group’s plan was not altogether positive.Some faculty members cited research suggesting potential ineŒectiveness of group projectswhen faced by daunting prospects. Other individuals pointed out the scheduling and otherlogistical challenges associated with convening the entire faculty in a remote location at agiven time. Since most of the faculty were battle-hardened veterans of traditional academiccommittee meetings, the idea of taking 25± 30 individuals with strong opinions to a neutrallocation to reach group consensus did not seem promising. It was (and remains) a sad truismthat a considerable amount of time and eŒort can be wasted by faculty in committeemeetings. For these reasons, some of the faculty felt that the retreat seemed like a certainway to waste time, lose money and reinforce anecdotal evidence that faculty groups areineŒective in problem-solving. One faculty member warned darkly that if the project wereundertaken and proved unsuccessful, it would spoil any opportunities for successful futurefaculty retreats.
Undaunted by the constraints and hurdles with which they were faced, the long-rangeplanning team pressed ahead with plans for the retreat. Reservations were made at a lakesideresort approximately 50 miles from the campus. The team began to talk frequently about theplanned event, sharing their building excitement with the other members of the faculty. Mostimportantly, the young members of the team began to prepare for the meeting, convinced
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THE FOCUSED FACULTY RETREAT 209
the success of the event was dependent largely upon careful planning and strategy developmentwell before the actual event. The retreat was planned for the weekend of November 8 and 9,1996.
The importance of the planning of the ® rst School of Business Administration facultyretreat was considerably more involved than a simple application of project planning in anacademic setting. The importance of the issues to be addressed, initial faculty skepticism ofthe retreat process and the opportunity to introduce TQM tools for the ® rst time to some ofthe faculty combined to make the planning and execution of the retreat critical. The long-range planning team felt strongly that retreats of the kind being planned could be animportant channel of distribution for innovation and change to a college faculty that wassometimes intractable. This retreat should not only help to address the challenges facing theinstitution, but also lay the foundation for continuous improvement in future faculty retreatplanning. If the retreat were successful in its ® rst implementation, it held the potential forbeing an important tool for the faculty to use in addressing current and future issues in atimely fashion.
Figure 2 contains a Gantt chart which outlines the activities undertaken in the planningand execution of the faculty retreat. A Gantt chart was selected over a ¯ owchart because itbetter shows concurrent tasks, and in computerized form (i.e. Microsoft Project 4) allowsusers to modify plans easily and document the project for continuous improvement eŒorts.
The long-range planning team was certain that the entire faculty could not hope to reachconsensus as a group regarding the relevant issues. The group was too large, and the facultytoo varied in background and perspective. The team agreed that an eŒective approach wouldnecessitate breaking the large group down into smaller subgroups. Accordingly, meetingswere scheduled for faculty from each functional discipline within the School of BusinessAdministration. These were accounting, marketing and management, economics and ® nance,and general business. Each group was composed of between ® ve and eight members. Mostimportantly, the members of each group made a commitment to addressing the threetopics of interest identi® ed for the retreat: (1) potential School of Business Administrationaccreditation; (2) full implementation of the school’s international mission; and (3) addressingthe downward trend in enrollment.
The long-range planning team felt that it would be easiest to allow the participants toplay primarily passive roles in the retreat on Friday, the ® rst day of the retreat. Specialpresentations were scheduled by faculty members who had done extensive research beforethe meeting regarding the three topics of interest. On the ® rst day of the retreat, thesepresentations would be viewed, and a special guest would address the dinner about theinternational mission of the college. This would be followed on the second day by activeparticipation in meetings segregated by discipline.
The retreat was scheduled as follows:
Friday 8 November 1996
1:00± 4:00 p.m. Check-in, Shangri-La Resort, Grove, Oklahoma4:30± 5:00 p.m. Factual presentation regarding accreditation5:00± 5:30 p.m. Factual presentation regarding enrollment trends5:30± 6:30 p.m. Factual presentation regarding the international mission7:00± 9:00 p.m. Dinner; Special guest presentation regarding the international mission
Saturday 9 November 1996
8:30± 10:15 a.m. Functional group meetings10:30± 11:30 a.m. Group reports to the long-range planning team
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Fig
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Gantt
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THE FOCUSED FACULTY RETREAT 211
The second day of the retreat began with the actual discussion sessions to address the threetopics of interest. Each group was asked to spend as much time as the members feltappropriate addressing the three issues, up to a total of one and three-quarter hours.Refreshments were provided, and there was no further structure or guidelines providedregarding appropriate timing.
Prior to the event, the long-range planning team appointed one facilitator and one scribefor each group. The facilitator was to keep the discussion moving and on track, and thescribe was to record the activities and discussion of the group. The charge to each group wasto provide up to three recommendations or conclusions regarding each topic to the long-range planning team. The team would then consider and research the recommendations,making ® nal recommendations to the dean for potential action.
Results
By all accounts, the retreat was a success. One hundred per cent of the faculty participatedin the activity, and each discipline produced exactly three recommendations for each topic ofinterest. The recommendations were speci® c, measurable, obtainable and compatible withthe institution’s mission and other activities.
Perhaps most remarkably, the total of the three recommendations for each of the threeareas by each of the four functional groups produced only about 15 discrete ideas. This wasthe result of an astonishing degree of overlap among the recommendations. In other words,the nine recommendations of each group were very much like the nine recommendations ofthe other groups. It could be argued that this was the result of communications among thefaculty prior to the retreat, but this in no way diminished the value of the exercise or thequality of the results.
The recommendations made by faculty members at the retreat are in various stages ofimplementation on campus. Some are still under review by the long-range planning team orother campus policy-makers. Accreditation is being pursued, a concrete plan to boostenrollment is in place and faculty members, emboldened and encouraged by initiatives andincentives produced at the retreat, are showing a greater interest in international issues thanevery before.
The ® nest result of the retreat, though, was inarguably the renewal of cohesiveness andcamaraderie among the faculty. Armed with a greater appreciation for teamwork, a greaterwillingness and ability to work together and the practical ability to implement some of thetools of quality and teamwork, the School of Business Administration is better able to meetthe challenges of the coming century.D
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