Reengineering in Higher Education
by Bizhan Nasseh
Michael Hammer and James Champy's Reengineering the Corporation: A
Manifesto for Business Revolution (1993) presents a new vision about how
companies and universities should operate and if they are going to succeed,
indeed even survive, in the '90s and beyond. They evaluate current theories
of companies' operations which refer to Adam Smith's model and industrial
revolution style. The concepts of reengineering are how to convert from
hierarchical to flat structure, how to prepare teams to achieve goals,
how to change task-oriented employees to multidimensional workers, how
to change managers from supervisor to coach, and how to change overall
processes in order to be competitive in global economics. Some experts
believe that the reason which United States is falling behind as compared
to some western and Japanese companies is a result of using old theories
of operations which cannot satisfy demand and tough competition of today's
needs.
Reengineering has been discovered in the last 15 years by evaluating
patterns of actions of companies and universities that had dramatic success
in processes compared to those that failed to achieve a new way of operations.
If we look back to all innovations, visions, models, and theories which
affected our life, work, and operation, we can call all of those events
the reengineering of their times and places. Adam Smith's revolutionary
model of business Wealth of Nation (1776) was reengineering two hundred
years ago; Henry Ford's vision in the automobile industry was reengineering
in 1903; and John Stevens, father of railroad development, was reengineering
in 1825. I see reengineering as the best use of available technology to
redesign current processes of business, education, and government in order
to achieve the mission of the organization.
When a process is reengineered, jobs evolve from being narrow and task-oriented
to broad and multidimensional work; people who once did as they were instructed
now make choices and decisions on their own; managers stop acting like
supervisors and start behaving more like coaches; and employees focus more
on clients' needs and less on managers' needs. Practically every aspect
of an organization is transformed, often beyond recognition. This certainly
has many wonderful points of strength such as multidimensional employees,
manager as coach, and clients' needs. However, all the employees need some
education for new way of operations. We are talking about change of mind-
set and change of skill-set. Dr. David Garvin, professor of Business School
at Harvard emphasized the conversion of organization to a learning organization
which is skilled at creating, accessing, and transferring knowledge. In
this new organization team work and knowledge of the process with all the
members is the main success of the operation in the reengineered organization.
The process team is a very important part of success in reengineering.
A process team consists of a group of people working together to perform
an entire process. In other words, it is a unit that naturally falls together
to complete an assignment. A process team could be a case team where members
of a team are permanently grouped together. Another kind of process team
has a shorter life span only for completion of a task--this is called a
virtual team. Finally, people with diverse talents may simultaneously be
members of more than one virtual team, splitting their time among different
projects. Empowerment is very important in a reengineered organization
and people working in a reengineered process are, of necessity, empowered.
As process team members, they are both permitted and required to think,
interact, use judgment, and make decisions. It brings back an emphasis
of adult education in a reengineered organization and additional investment
in adult education in a formal or informal setting in order to increase
general knowledge and competency of team members.
In a reengineered organization processes, jobs, managers, and values
are four points of a diamond which are linked together. The top point is
process--the way work gets done; second is its jobs and structure; third
is its management and measurement system; and finally is its culture--what
its employees value and believe. Figure one display the views of Mike Hammer
and James Champy about the reengineered process. The key in this cycle
is interaction and harmonization of these four points of cycle which directly
relate to the success or failure of organization. The process defines structures.
The jobs and structures define appropriate management system. The management
systems are the primary shapers of employees' value and beliefs about organization.
Finally, value and belief shapes performance and support of process.
Reengineering is still a new endeavor and all of us engaged in it are
pioneers for great things in the future. The world of industrial revolution
is giving way to an era of a global economy, powerful information technology,
and relentless changes in demand. The curtain is rising on an age of reengineering
and those who respond to its challenges will write new rules of American
success in the world. All that is needed is the WILL to succeed and the
courage to begin.
Dr. Hofstader and Dr. Munger, in the article "Education in the
Workplace," set the stage by indicating a great need for a new relationship
between business and universities with development of new institutions
to meet the needs and continuation of corporate continuing education efforts
with a proactive attitudes. They understand that operational changes in
the company require educational programs which will play major role in
the preparation of employees in the achieving the corporation's goals and
missions.
Reengineering is a radical redesign of processes of organization by
using power of modern technology and power of people involved in operation
in order to achieve dramatic improvement in delivering of services. Efficiency
and excellent delivery of services is the only way to acceptable operations
in the '90s and survival in the 21st century. Change can be labeled by
many other names such as restructuring, process redesign, productivity
program, and transforming for the year 2000, but the main concern is readiness
of organization, accurate planning, and dependable process for implementation.
Change always brings many uncertainties and risks, which results in the
necessity of strong departmental and institutional analysis with a strong
and motivated team which has innovative thinking and in some cases courage
to take risks.
Finally, I have divided reengineering into three related categories:
human power, which is related to employee desire and motivation; educational
power, which is related to the commitment of the organization to adult
education; and technological power, which is related to achieving activities
we have so far only dreamed about. There is no return from the 21st-century
journey; survivors are going to be organizations with clear strategies
in planning, changes in attitude toward team work, absolute dedication
to responsibilities, commitment to clients, extraordinary attention to
taking advantage of technologies, and employees with multidimensional talents.
Reengineering in Higher Education Institution
Peter Smith (1992) wrote, "External forces are dramatically changing
the public's aspirations and expectations from higher education institutions.
And the system's perceived inability to respond effectively is seriously
eroding public confidence." Public expectations, parents' concerns,
demographic changes in students population, and cost of education all are
reasons for major changes in educational process design in higher education
institutions.
There is a major confusion among faculty and support groups concerning
the purpose and function of the university's operations and priorities.
It is very important that everybody involved in the operation understands
the main mission of higher education institutions. University is established
for teaching and learning, administrative and support groups are designed
and assigned to facilitate, support, and prepare environment for teacher
and students in order to have a greater success in the academic achievement.
American corporations and universities are built with nineteenth-century
philosophy, Adam Smith's theory of mass production in a hierarchical system.
Throughout most of the twentieth century, the hierarchical system was the
dominant philosophy in the design and operation of university's functions.
In the last 15 years, society's expectations, global economy, needs
for continuing education, cost of education, and new information and service
economy are the main driving forces toward the development of new way of
doing jobs in the universities. In the university the process of reengineering
depends upon the development of a viable information technology infrastructure.
Universities are in major needs of strong leadership by people who are
teachers, learners, program designers, team members and leaders, listeners,
and experienced in the information technology support. Continuation of
planning and of changes with stereotypical heroes or traditional title
holders are potentially disastrous for reengineering. In the last 15 years
lack of knowledgeable leadership was the main reason for unsuccessful implementation
of most of the strategical planning. The implementation of this planning
has been with frustration, disappointment, wrong tactical planning, and
abandoned processes.
William F. Messay (1989) described that between 1975 and 1985, administrative
functions grew by 60 percent while the number of faculty grew by 6 percent.
There has been too much attention to the administrative supports in the
university which did not contribute effectively to the academic operation
of universities. Most of the higher education leaders concluded that the
higher education institutions that enter the 21st century must be dramatically
changed from those we know today. The reengineering concepts can significantly
reshape and redesign the process of services, teaching, and learning in
the universities. Advancement in technology, cost of education, global
competition, and society's expectation are the four major factors in transformation
of universities operation to the reengineered one. I have divided the reengineering
of a university into two main sections.
- Reengineering in administrative and support operations.
- Reengineering in academic operations.
1. Reengineering in Administrative Operations
Reengineering in administrative and support should happen before academic
reengineering. Figure two represents my ideas about the changes from a
function oriented (traditional) organization to a process oriented (reengineered)
organization.
In a reengineered organization every activity and assignment is based
on the proper arrangement of process team. The leaderships in every section
of university has to have adequate competency and a base knowledge of operations
and objectives in order to arrange, participate, and lead the process team.
Leaders' participation and contributions are a major value and belief builder
for the rest of the employees.
Hierarchical to Flat Organization
American corporations are built with theory of hierarchy and mass production.
Our universities in order to support business and industry try to teach
and operate with the same theory. Throughout of most of twentieth century
hierarchical philosophy dominated administrative operations and functions
in the universities. The hierarchical system emphasized top-down and high
control orientation, but in a flat system the suggestion is from down-top
with shared control orientation. In hierarchical system success is defined
as moving up the ladder, but in flat system success is measured by contribution
to the process competition. In hierarchical system people are controlled
by detail instruction and procedure, but in flat system people are involved
in the process design and decision-making. In a hierarchical system employees
are dependent on direction of leadership for survival, but in flat organization
there is encouragement for support of mission with freedom for independent
action.
Empowerment
Empowerment is the act of having authority, responsibility, and accountability
on the assignment. Today's process depends on the contribution from many
different members. Leaders are no longer experts in everything related
to the process and in most cases, a team member has greater skills and
understanding in his or her individual positions than the leader. The main
issue in the success of empowerment is the leader's eagerness to give up
some power and responsibility to the team members. In the empowered organization
the information flow is open and shared with all the team members. The
empowerment brings a sense of ownership and deep responsibility to the
team members in the contribution to the completion of process.
Multi-dimentional Employee
Conversion of team members from how to do the job to why to do the
job will make a major differences in the quality of final outcomes. In
order for a basketball team to be successful, every member should have
an adequate knowledge about playing ability and responsibility of the other
team members. In the reengineered organization a team member has to have
multi-dimentional talent and a basic knowledge about roles of other members
in the team. The leaderships of organization should provide learning opportunity
for members to understand contributions of each other to the organization.
Supervisor to Coach
New leaders in a reengineered organization are people who are responsible
for the growth of the members of the organization. Instead of intimidation,
one way of decision- making, and power practice the new leaders have compassion
for others, honesty in decision making, understanding of process design,
knowledge of team work, education and experiences in the field. A supervisor
believes in reactivity, which is a short term solution, while a leader
believes in proactivity which is a power to choose with solutions based
on the logic and principals.
2. Reengineering in Academic Operations
Personal-contact model of instruction has been dominant way of designing
teaching and learning in the American universities. In this model the faculty's
effectiveness and students' progress are measured by number of hours of
lecture and availability of teachers to students. After centuries, for
the first time we have opportunities and pressures to redesign our personal-contact
model to a digital-based model of teaching and learning. In this new model,
faculty have a new role as facilitators and directors, and students as
researchers and participants. The new model has a few more characteristics,
it converts teacher-centered curriculum to teacher-student-centered or
student-centered curriculum, it also changes process-oriented to outcome-oriented
teaching and learning. In the new paradigm, computer technology has a major
role and contribution to the designing and implementation of the teacher-student-centered
or student-centered model. Unfortunately, lack of attention to the human
power (faculty) in the utilization of technology is the most important
reason for failing most of the planning. Compared with all other resources,
faculty is the only one that can direct and coordinate utilization of technology
in the classroom. Figure three display the process of reengineering in
university.
I divided academic reengineering to two separate sections. The first
section, teaching and learning is divided into the technology in the classroom,
faculty competency, and student competency. The second section is curriculum
development which is divided to three sub-sections, undergraduate, graduate,
and distance education. Figure three represents my ideas about reengineering
in university.
1. Teaching and Learning
Today's teaching and learning is based on the educational computing
technology. This educational computing refers not only to the hardware,
instructional systems, and management systems, but also includes the software
that embrace the curriculum, and the intelligence and ideologies that guide
the use of computers in educational environments.
Technology
Technology by itself can not satisfy university's objectives and generate
the desired outcome from teaching and learning. Universities should have
adequate infrastructure for access and delivery in order to design and
direct a technology oriented curriculum.
The minimum infrastructure are:
- Network access from dorms, classes, and off campus.
- Network connection to every faculty's offices.
- Network ports for students to connect their portable computers.
- Network access from computer labs.
- Computer labs equipped with needed computer hardware, software, and
support team.
- Training center with multi-talented support staffs with 8:00 to 5:00
availability for all the faculty and students.
- Network with capability of real-time video conferencing, multimedia,
and rapid movement of large amounts of data.
- Capable workstation in every faculty's office and in the labs.
- Faculty development labs with hardware and software (scanner, audio
and video editing), allowing rapid and high quality development.
- Support team that can participate and contribute to the more complicated
developments.
Faculty Competency
In the last 15 years, with all different forms of technology thrown
at us, still we are not sure how to answer a simple question. Do we have
a revolutionized teaching and learning? The answer for the most of higher
education institutions is no. We enjoy more to purchase and talk about
technology than finding a practical way to use them in the curriculum.
Faculty development is the critical key for opening the new world
of learning to the students. If institution's faculty are competent and
comfortable with technology, that institution will have remarkable success
in using technology in curriculum. Faculty can envision what technologies
to use in the curriculum and why universities should use those technologies.
The major question is how to prepare faculty for this change. The first
and last rule is to provide learning options and let faculty make decisions
about learning. The following are some of my suggestions.
- Create a plan for continuous systematic investigation of faculty and
student learning needs.
- Create a learning center with a multi-dimentional staff to help faculty
to learn.
- Create on going workshops for department by department, based on the
department's need assessments and evaluations.
- Create opportunities for one on one training, based on the faculty's
request.
- Provide free time for interested and committed faculty to develop computer-based
curriculum.
- Strengthen your academic consultation and support groups.
- Strengthen your academic application development group.
- Design a faculty development grant program for using technology in
the curriculum.
- Create reward system for innovative use of computers in the curriculum.
Student Competency
Faculty has a major role in the students involvement with the computer
technology. Students development has direct relation with the teacher's
assignments and expectations. In today's teaching and learning, most students
use internet application for access to educational resources and e-mail
is a common part of communication with teacher or other students. A few
years ago we were worried that we are using computer only as super typewriter,
but today we are worrying about using computer only for access and communication.
Utilization of computer beyond access tool by students has relation with
competency and vision of faculty. Taking advantage of technology in the
curriculum in the form of simulation, case study, intelligent system, and
problem solver are very important for the development of critical thinking
and decision making skills.
Students' general competency about computer technologies has to be
a part of students' orientation with an option of a week long training
classes. This optional class should start a week early for new freshmen
in August. In addition to these general classes, each faculty member should
spend two hours per semester introducing the computer's applications and
technologies which will be used in that specific course. In addition to
faculty's help, students should have access to the knowledgeable help desk
staff and qualified computer lab management.
2. Curriculum Design
In the curriculum design section, process oriented activities should
be converted to outcome oriented activities with special attention to empowerment
of students in learning activities. Technology should be part of the curriculum
for accessing resources (library, internet applications), communication
(e-mail, bulletin board), and computer based education applications (simulation,
case study, and intelligent system).
Undergraduate Curriculum
In the undergraduate study, teacher-centered curriculum can continue
to be a dominant theory for teaching and learning. The teaching model is
based on the lectures, presentations, computer based assignments such as
participation in group discussion (bulletin board) and communication (e-mail),
accessing educational resources by internet, and using computer based application.
For example, water pollution, a simulation program for natural resource
students or hospital information system, a case study for nursing students
(both systems are part of curriculum at Ball State University). I am sure
World Wide Web in the future will be a strong addition to the curriculum.
Future utilization of web is dependent on proactive planning, practical
vision, and qualified application developers.
Graduate Curriculum
Graduate activities should be changed from teacher-centered to teacher-student-centered.
In this model, students should have input in the designing the process
of teaching and learning. Most of the assignments are based on the team
work and research activities. Students should have freedom in selecting
materials and tools to achieve the tasks. Design of computer based applications
(simulation, case study, and intelligent system) at the graduate level
is very complicated and time consuming. In graduate activities, knowledge
of internet applications is necessary for locating, accessing, and transferring
materials and resources.
Distance Education Curriculum
Distance education is process of teaching and learning that delivers
an interactive, responsive, convenient, empowering, and outcome oriented
activities. These activities are not limited by time, place, procedures,
and resources. Most universities either offer distance education or are
preparing for this new model of delivery. Computer-based distance education
is a necessity for the good of our learning society. A basic telephone
lines and modem can provide enough functionality in order to establish
computer-based classes. The reality of information superhighway with capabilities
of World Wide Web will revolutionize distance education in the near future.
Student-centered curriculum are dominant model in the computer-based classes
in the distance education. Basic training for teachers and students about
using communication tools, bulletin board software, and locating resources
are a must in computer-based distance education. Computers, modem, network
providers, internet applications, communication software, bulletin board
(VAXNote, Usenet News), library access, and applications on the VAX are
many different pieces in the connection, delivery, and understanding of
distance education. University should establish the following standards
and procedures for an acceptable and successful distance education program.
Training of faculty before assigning computer-based classes. Evaluating
the level of computer competency of each student, before registration in
the class. Establishment of the communication procedures from students
home to campus resources before start of the class. Coordination of all
the computer distance education activities under a knowledgeable committee.
Commitment of university to provide support for faculty and students in
computer-based classes. Designing a few hours of orientation program which
includes access to computers resources.
Conclusion
Utilization of technology in higher education will continue to be one
of the higher education's dominant missions in the future. Survivals and
successful ones are those universities that understand the role of administrative
and support groups in the academic activities. Those universities have
proactive attitude which wisely use human power (faculty) in the utilization
of technology power. Expectations of the next generation of students will
be far beyond what we are offering today. Reengineering in university is
freedom of process design with input from everybody that will be effected
by the process. Commitment and support of university in the faculty's training
have very critical role in the utilization of technology in teaching and
learning. We should provide an environment in which faculty and students
should embrace the technology. We should not make technology a burden for
users, it should be an enjoyable teaching and learning adventure for faculty
and students. Higher education institutions are here for the good of society
and world which more than ever is in need of educational institutions for
support and contribution.
Finally, reengineering is a commitment from whole organization with
practical and common sense strategical planning. This planning is based
on the results of a precise systematic investigations and inputs from everybody
involved in the process. In the 21st century, survivors are those higher
education institutions with extra-ordinary commitment to the proper utilization
of technology in the process of teaching and learning. The intelligence
and ideology that guide our strategical planning are our most important
tools for failure or success in this exciting journey.
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Copyright © Bizhan Nasseh 1996
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