Building Organizational Capacity: Strategic Management in Higher Education (review)
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Effective strategic planning is more important than ever at colleges and universities today. Adapted from the fields of business and nonprofit management, strategic management approaches have evolved distinctive and important elements in order to function successfully in higher education. J. Douglas Toma further develops strategic management concepts and practice for this challenging and unique industry in his book, Building Organizational Capacity: Strategic Management in Higher Education.
Toma’s background is noteworthy. An Associate Professor at the Institute of Higher Education at the University of Georgia until his death in 2011, Toma has written frequently on strategy in higher education in previous books and prestigious research journals.
The book’s premise, as indicated though its title, is that the application of strategic management in higher education relies upon certain foundations for Building Organizational Capacity (BOC). Those foundations include: purposes, governance, structure, policies, processes, information, infrastructure, and culture. Each topic is presented and discussed sequentially in separate chapters. Using his own expertise with case methodology and following the form often used in other academic strategic management books (Keller, 1983; Martinez & Wolverton, 2009), Toma and his team illustrate the concepts in each chapter by examining eight institutions of varying types that have implemented related initiatives.
The institutions are thoughtfully selected as examples of best practices, including the College of New Jersey (purposes in Chapter 3), Virginia Tech (governance in Chapter 4), Valley City State University (structure in Chapter 5), LaGrange College (policies in Chapter 6), Paul D. Camp Community College (processes in Chapter 7), the University of Redlands (information in Chapter 8), Seminole Community College (infrastructure in Chapter 9), and Toma’s own University of Georgia (culture in Chapter 10).
A list of respected higher education scholars comprise the aforementioned research team who contributed to the individual chapter elements and case analyses. These experts include Greg Dubrow, Matthew Hartley, Adrianna Kezar, Kevin Kinser, Christopher Morphew, Kathleen Shaw, Kelly Ward, and Lisa Wolf-Wendel.
Toma leads off the book with an informative introduction and two chapters that intelligently explain “Strategic Management and Systems Thinking” (Chapter 1), and “Managing Increasingly Complex Institutions” (Chapter 2). Through these early chapters, Toma conveys the book’s overall strategic management thesis. First, organizational leaders need to build capacity in order to carry out their institution’s priorities. Second, Building Organizational Capacity (BOC) is accomplished by categorizing the operations of a college or university into a “manageable set of specific elements, suggesting the need for them to be in sync” (p. 2). These elements include the aforementioned foundations: purposes, governance, structure, policies, processes, information, infrastructure, and culture. Toma’s method offers a straightforward structure specifically for colleges and universities. [End Page 651]
The remaining chapters discuss each of these elements in turn, using case studies to illustrate concepts and best practices. Combined, the chapters and cases examined therein explain and exemplify Toma’s thesis. Tying strategic management to systems thinking (which considers the interrelated environment of components in complex institutions) and appropriately lining up each of the aforementioned elements or foundations yields a holistic and industry-appropriate approach.
The appendix, notes, and bibliography at the end of the book are very thorough. The appendix provides the master interview protocol of the specific questions that were asked in the research process, as well as a list of the participating institutions and the individuals who were interviewed. This information reveals not only details about the research methodology but also the significant institutional positions held by the research subjects—for example, president, provost, vice president for academic affairs, dean, chief information officer, comptroller, department chair, and other senior administrative posts.
The notes and bibliography are comprehensive and include informative supplementary explanations of research activities for each of the book chapters. As expected, the bibliography is a strong compendium of significant previous research in higher education administration, management and organizational studies, and many works in the field of systems thinking that may encourage readers unfamiliar with this area to explore the topic...
