The Role of Institutional Researchers in Promoting Institutional Change & Improvement
Gary R. PikeExecutive Director,Information Management & Institutional ResearchIndiana University Purdue University IndianapolisProfessor, Higher Education & Student AffairsIndiana University
A Continuing Focus on Change
A Debt to Patrick Terenzini
Change is Inevitable
Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.
Will Rogers
Issues Confronting Higher Education
AIR• Strategic Planning
• Enrollment Management• Access• Success
• Assessment, Testing, & Accountability
MENA-AIR• Strategic Planning
• Enrollment Management• Access• Success
• Quality Assurance & the OECD’s AHELO Initiative
Future Trends
• Higher education needs to be an engine for economic development …• Trained workforce;• Research to advance knowledge; &• Service to our countries and our communities.
• Higher education needs to understand and respond to technological change.
Change IS Inevitable
Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.
Will Rogers
Change can be Frightening
Why?
• Change leads to uncertainty about the future.
• During times of change, an incorrect response can make matters worse.
• Change frequently means a loss of control.
Change and Institutional Researchers
Institutional researchers can help navigate change:
• Identify issues
• Provide data• Turn data into
information
Institutional Research Skills
1. Technical/Analytical Intelligence
2. Issues Intelligence
3. Contextual IntelligencePatrick T. Terenzini, 1993
Technical/Analytical Skills
• Technical Knowledge• Knowledge of the institution’s data system (variable
names, definitions, counting rules, etc.).• It is also knowing who to go to when you don’t know
the answer.
• Analytical skills• Knowledge of, and skill in, conducting social science
and business research.• It is also knowing who to go to in order to supplement
your skills.
Technical/Analytical Skills
• Technology skills• Knowledge of and skill using new forms of technology.• The wisdom to know when not to use technology.
• Communication skills• The ability to translate data into information.
Issue Intelligence
• Knowledge of what issues are faced by higher education.• These issues can include budgeting, curriculum
(re)design, enrollment forecasting, and resource allocation.
• Knowledge of how higher education institutions function.• This requires a knowledge of governance, lines of
authority, and formal and informal forms of power in an institution.
Issue Intelligence
• Substantive knowledge of at least some areas of decision making.
• Budgeting, enrollment management, student engagement/learning, etc.
• Knowledge of who to ask about the things you don’t know.
Specialization … and Trade
Wealth is built through specialization and trade.
Adam Smith
Contextual Intelligence
• Understanding our institutions.• It includes knowledge of an institution’s people,
history, and politics.
• Application of technical and issue intelligence in the context of our institutions.• What are the issues facing our institutions?• What methods are appropriate for our institutions?
Contextual Intelligence
• Knowledge of our constituents.• Representatives, history, and interests of these
external groups.
• Knowledge and understanding of the global environment.• What are the issues being confronted by
institutions in other countries?• How are they responding?
Intelligence Reconsidered
Society(Issue)
Job(Technical)
Functions of Institutional Research
1. Required Reporting – government agencies, accreditors, and significant external publics.
2. Decision Support – institutional leaders, mid-level managers, faculty, staff, and students.
3. Decision Identification– institutional leaders, mid-level managers, faculty, staff, and students.
Function & IntelligenceTechnical Contextual Issue
Decision Identification
Decision Support
Required Reporting
Required Reporting
• Technical Knowledge and Skill
• What information should be reported?• What are the data definitions?• Are there ambiguities in the data definitions?• What are the counting rules?
• Where is the information located?
• Do our data definitions match their data definitions?
• Do our counting rules match their counting rules?
Decision Support
• Technical Knowledge and Skill
• What is the decision that needs to be made?
• What kinds of information is needed?
• Do we have data that can inform this decision?• Where are the data?• What are the limitations of the data?• How can I transform this data into information?
• What is the best way to present the information?
Decision Support
• Contextual Knowledge
• How are decisions made at the institution?
• What types of information do the decision makers use?
• Do decision makers have preferences about how information is presented?
• What is the chain of command/communication in the organization?• Does that influence the types of information provided?• Does that influence the method of presentation?
Bad Decision Prevention
The problem ain’t what people know. It’s what people know that ain’t so that’s the problem.
Will Rogers
Bad Decision Prevention
• What do decision makers need to know that they do not now know?• Provide them the information they need to know.
• What do decision makers believe they know that is just plain wrong?• Can you convince them they are wrong?• What information should you provide to convince
them they are wrong?• Is there additional, correct, information you still need
to provide?
Indecision Prevention
Indecision may or may not be my problem.
Jimmy Buffett
Indecision Prevention
• Two major causes of indecision (and what to do about them).
• Analytical Atrophy• Decision makers have too much information.• Frequently results in wanting to see the data analyzed in
every possible way.• Provide enough data to make a decision, but not so much as
to lead to atrophy.
• Some people can’t make decisions.• That’s making a decision.• Find someone else to make the decision.
Don’t be Indecisive about Indecision
Decision Identification
Trying to predict the future is like trying to drive down a country road at night with no lights while looking out the back window.
Peter Drucker
Decision Identification
The future is not a scenario written, which we only have to act out; it is a work which we have to create.
Roger Garaudy
Decision Identification
• Issue Intelligence
• What are the issues confronting higher education globally?
• What are the issues confronting higher education nationally?
• What are the issues confronting higher education locally?
• Which of these issues are likely to impact my institution, and how?
Decision Identification
• Contextual Intelligence
• Who is responsible for monitoring the external environment?
• Who is responsible for interacting with the external environment?
• What types of information will be useful to those interacting with the external environment?
Decision Identification
• Technical Knowledge and Skills
• Strategic thinking – The ability to generate insights on a continual basis to achieve competitive advantage” (Rich Horwath).
• Knowledge
• Tools
• Approach
Decision Identification
• Technical Knowledge Skills
• SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats).
• Five SWOT Killers:1. The laundry list,2. Generalities,3. Special effects,4. Mistaking Influence for control, &5. Not quantifying opportunities and threats.
Contextual and Issue Intelligence are Critical
If institutional researchers come to be viewed as competent technicians, but nothing else, they will not have a seat at the table when decisions are made.
Pat Terenzini
Acquiring Intelligence
• Reading (& attending conferences);
• Observation of others; and
• Our own mistakes.
Reading & Attending Conferences• AIR Resources
• Professional File
• IR Applications
• New Directions for institutional Research
• AIR conferences and papers
• MENA-AIR Resources
• Conference presentations and papers
Observing Others
• Identifying successes to emulate.
• Best practices presentations.
• Effective campus leaders.
• Identifying problems to avoid.
• Ineffective practices presentations.
• Ineffective campus leaders.
Our Mistakes
Boy! If we learn from our mistakes, today should have made me pretty smart.
Some Final Thoughts
If you want to be successful, it’s just this simple.
• Know what you are doing.
• Love what you are doing.
• An believe in what you are doing.
