Facts and Constructs: Defining Reality in Higher Education Organizations

This paper considers the implications for researchers and administrators if the organizational environment is interpreted as “enacted.” In so doing, the paper demonstrates now supposing that environments are socially constructed implies (different orientations to problem-solving and raises new research questions than if we assume environments are a finite number of objective facts. The essay differentiates between objective and enacted environments and suggests ways administrators might identify what they need to do and how they do it, given the socially constructed organization in which they find themselves.