This chapter examines the differences between institutions with high and low levels of involvement in service learning as well as the differences between students with high and low levels of involvement. The study shows a correlation between institutional organization and service-learning emphasis and describes, at the student level, correlations…

This chapter introduces the concept of benchmarking and how higher education institutions began to use benchmarking for a variety of purposes. Here, benchmarking is defined as a strategic and structured approach whereby an organization compares aspects of its processes and/or outcomes to those of another organization or set of organizations to…

Although institutional researchers devote a great deal of time mining and using student data to fulfill mandatory federal and state reports and analyze institutional effectiveness, financial and personnel information is also necessary for such endeavors. In this article, the authors discuss the challenges that arise from extracting data from…

To meet the sustainability challenge, colleges and universities will have to reorient their educational programs. Institutional research (IR) can help assess and demonstrate the success of such initiatives. The change that is required in the way people view the world and their place in it is what the author calls a "sustainable mindset." A…

Presents a model of institutional research as comprising three tiers of organizational intelligence: (1) technical/analytical intelligence, (2) issues intelligence, and (3) contextual intelligence. The model suggests that institutional researchers need different kinds of knowledge and skills to fulfill their many roles and tasks. (DB)

The authors present an overview of strategic planning, examine its history and mystique, and conclude that planning, if properly implemented, can have a powerful impact on advancing and transforming colleges and universities. (Contains 1 note.)

Policy analysis is a real-world decision-making tool. Its literature is published most frequently in the fields of public administration, political science, organizational psychology, economics, and business administration. A review of this literature gives insight into its nature and practice. (MSE)

The culture of an organization helps to determine the degree to which a new way of working is adopted and used. Team-based decision making in colleges and universities, as in other institutions, is more likely to be successful if organizational beliefs support the idea that change strengthens organizational goals. (Author/MSE)

External and internal forces are driving institutions not only to create departments and positions that specialize in planning, quality improvement, and institutional research but also to link them within a systems context.

The appropriate combination of personal and professional variables with supportive environmental conditions needs to be established on a campus to capitalize on valuable faculty resources. Information on significant faculty attributes and environmental factors related to professors' performance can clarify the personal-environmental fit and…

This chapter extends the discussion of the Baldrige framework in the preceding chapter by highlighting the eleven lessons learned from Baldrige best-practice organizations. (Contains 6 notes.)

Based on the theory that institutional change and improvement are motivated more by knowledge of problems than by knowledge of successes, a fault tree analysis technique using Boolean logic for assessing institutional ineffectiveness by determining weaknesses in the system is presented. Advantages and disadvantages of focusing on weakness rather…

Examines common assumptions about the rationality or irrationality of organizational behavior and finds that decision making occurs in a complex context that successful college/university institutional research offices must recognize and work with. Finds that emerging organizational theories suggest there are limitations on the use of data and…

Do institutional researchers need to get approval from their Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)? Are IRBs difficult to work with? This chapter explains the functioning of IRBs and offers suggestions for enhancing cooperation between IRBs and institutional researchers.

Total Quality Management, based on theories of W. Edward Deming and others, is a style of management using continuous process improvement characterized by mission and customer focus, a systematic approach to operations, vigorous development of human resources, long-term thinking, and a commitment to ensuring quality. The values espoused by this…