Higher Education Leadership Strategy in the Public Affairs Triumvirate

College and Community Engagement

Jeffrey W. Goltz

• Publisher: Palgrave Pivot
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9783030380571
• eBook ISBN: 9783030380588
• Topic: Politik & Internationale Beziehungen
• Subtopic: Hochschulausbildung

This book provides a comprehensive approach for colleges rethinking their community policy connections. From a 'pracademic' perspective, it introduces a new paradigm for contemporary college and community connections through the evolution of research, scholarship and experience, and the application of the Public Affairs discipline from Higher Education Leadership. The book explains how the public affairs forces of Community, Organization, and Administration offer a unique combination of concepts and theory that can transform practice, develop innovation, strengthen communities, and transform lives through a college partnering in a variety of community projects. The book's defined ethical composition institutes leadership in the public realm, within the Public Affairs Triumvirate; and its discussion of the 'science to service to philosophy' will advance higher education strategy scholarship, creating new ideas for how academia and communities can create sustained connections and partnerships for solving problems in any community.

Part IPublic Affairs Triumvirate Model, Theory and Confirmation

© The Author(s) 2020

J. W. GoltzHigher Education Leadership Strategy in the Public Affairs TriumvirateRethinking University-Community Policy Connectionshttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38058-8_1

Begin Abstract

1. Introduction to the Public Affairs Triumvirate: A Guiding Principle for Higher Education Strategy in the Community

Jeffrey W. Goltz¹

(1)

Valencia College, Orlando, FL, USA

Jeffrey W. Goltz

Email: [email protected]

Abstract

This chapter is an introduction of a newfound higher education leadership strategy within the Public Affairs Triumvirate, the guiding principle of the book. In the earliest stage of a “science to service to philosophy” perspective, the conceptual model, the label, and the author’s motivation to present the Public Affairs Triumvirate leadership approach is presented and Public Affairs is defined to give the reader a clear understanding of this multi-dimensional discipline. The Public Affairs forces or sciences of Community, Organization, and Administration, and a trilogy of components within each science is introduced to establish the premise to enhance community policy connections in order to establish comprehensive and creative solutions for leaders in higher education.

Keywords

AdministrationCommunityOrganizationPublic Affairs TriumvirateScience to service to philosophy

End Abstract

Introduction

Decades ago, in his book Academic Strategy: The Management Revolution in American Higher Education, George Keller (1983, p. 121) reminded us that colleges needed to strengthen their management, and shape academic strategies by asking several questions: What special role do we play in America’s higher education network? What attractive and important set of services does our institution provide that cannot be obtained elsewhere? What should our campus be building toward? What should our college aspire to be 10 years from now? In addition to these questions, Keller believed the external environment was receiving more attention and a major transformation in higher education was occurring: the acute awareness of the economic, political, and cultural environment surrounding campuses. Moreover, the American Association of Community Colleges (2014) emphasizes the mission of a community college is to serve its community as a community-based institution of higher education with lifelong learning.

Keller (1983) illustrated three elements of academic strategy: leadership, environmental trends, and the competitive situation (p. 152). He further added the fundamental aim of strategic planning is one of linking the forward direction of your organization with the movement of historical forces in the environment, and administration is the provisioning and coordinating of activities. Thus, good administration facilitates good learning and Keller emphasized that colleges needed to gather the proper information on which to base their strategy. As you get set for the actual formulation of a strategy you need a conceptual framework to assemble a plan so your institution can effectively serve the community as a resource for lifelong learning.

Decades after Keller’s intuition of academic strategy, Sanaghan (2009) indicates that collaborative strategic planning methodologies in higher education improves or builds organizational capacity by constructively challenging thinking about institutional issues to solve complex problems. He adds that community building and connections is a characteristic when laying the foundation for collaborative strategic planning in higher education. Similarly, Bryson (2011) believes that public organizations must understand their external and internal contexts to respond effectively to changes in their environment, and strategic planning should explore the environment outside the organization to identify the opportunities and challenges the organization faces. Moreover, as public problems have increasingly been identified in ways that are beyond the competence of a single organization or sector to solve, collaboration is a way to pool competence to mount an effective response. Cross-sector collaboration is seen as a way to systematically harness each sector’s unique strengths (Bryson, p. 121).

Public Affairs Forces

Interestingly, common themes emerge in the conversation of the strategic role of higher education. Keller indicates environmental trends, the direction of an organization, administration, and leadership are important elements of academic strategy. Although Sanaghan provides a higher education planning strategy and Bryson offers a public organization planning strategy, both agree the community and changes in the environment require a collaborative strategy. Of prime importance, Bryson promotes one of the characteristics in the field of Public Affairs, cross-sector collaboration. Therefore, I will move three main dimensions, or forces forward to broaden my discussion of strategic leadership in higher education: community, organization, and administration. These three forces, along with leadership are precisely the Public Affairs Triumvirate that offers a management strategy for leaders in higher education who are responsible for workforce programs and workforce development to rethink community policy connections and transform practice, develop innovation, strengthen communities, and transform lives.

A Guiding Principle

The Public Affairs Triumvirate is the guiding principle of this story that takes place at Valencia College in Orlando, the wider community of central Florida, and the island of Puerto Rico, a sister community of central Florida. In this book, from a “pracademic” perspective guided by the Public Affairs Triumvirate, I share four distinct projects that connect the college to the community. My intent is to introduce a “science to service to philosophy” leadership strategy in higher education. Figure 1.1 illustrates these stages.

Fig. 1.1

Public Affairs Triumvirate philosophy

This book is a story of a strategic leadership approach to facilitate dialogue and identify best practices to enhance the theory and practice of college and community relations to introduce a new leadership philosophy in the public affairs context. Therefore, to establish an understanding of this context I believe it is essential to provide a meaningful definition of the discipline of Public Affairs and highlight the sciences and components that make up this transformative strategy in higher education. What is Public Affairs?

Public Affairs Defined

The discipline of public affairs is ambiguous, nebulous, and misunderstood by many. To many, public affairs is often considered a sub-discipline of public relations, or building and development of relations between an organization and politicians, governments and other decision-makers. The latter are elements of this discipline, but the academic discipline of public affairs is much more. The leading resource in public affairs education, the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration (NASPAA), serves as a national and international resource for the promotion of excellence in education and training for public service and offers a comprehensive discussion to define public affairs.

NASPAA and its institutional membership includes numerous university programs in public affairs, public policy, public administration, public and nonprofit management, and accomplishes its purposes through direct services by representing the objectives and needs of education for public affairs and administration (American Political Science Association, 2017; NASPAA, 2017). NASPAA’s flagship journal, the Journal of Public Affairs defines public affairs broadly as the fields of policy analysis, public administration, public management, public policy, nonprofit administration, and their subfields. David Shultz, the Co-Editor of the Journal of Public Affairs indicates that public affairs education includes the old and no longer clear concepts of the politics/administration dichotomy or neutral competence, and the ideas of transparency, limited discretion, and accountability. He also believes this area of education may include governance, social equity, or cultural competence (Shultz, 2016).

During my doctoral studies, I discovered that public affairs encompassed many aspects to include urban, economic, health, environmental, social work, and public safety. Public affairs goes beyond boundary issues, reaching into core activities of an organization to guide the formulation and implementation of policies and strategies. Additionally, Abiy Agiro (2010), a doctoral student at the University of Central Florida wrote the article “Positioning Public Affairs Education and Research” that I believe contributes to the efforts to explain and offer an understanding of the discipline of Public Affairs for the higher education audience.

In the fall of 2011 while preparing to teach the Foundations of Public Affairs to incoming public affairs doctoral students, I was intrigued by Agiro’s critical review of the public affairs literature. In his opinion, he believes the reason for the ambiguity of public affairs stems from the frequent use of the term...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Front Matter
• Part I. Public Affairs Triumvirate Model, Theory and Confirmation
• Part II. Application of the Public Affairs Triumvirate
• Part III. Leadership Philosophy and the Public Affairs Triumvirate
• Back Matter