A SYSTEMS INQUIRY INTO ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING FOR HIGHER EDUCATION by M Victoria Liptak B.A. (University of California, Santa Cruz) 1985 M.Arch. (Southern California Institute of Architecture) 1994 A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctorate in Educational Leadership (CODEL) California State University Channel Islands California State University, Fresno 2019 ii M Victoria Liptak May 2019 Educational Leadership A SYSTEMS INQUIRY INTO ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING FOR HIGHER EDUCATION Abstract This study took an applied systems design approach to investigating social organizations in order to develop a synthetic perspective, one that supports pragmatism’s focus on consequent phenomena. As a case study of reaffirmation processes for four 4-year institutions and their accreditor, WSCUC, it looked for evidence of organizational learning in the related higher education systems of institutions and regional accrediting agencies. It used written documents as evidence of the extended discourse that is the reaffirmation of accreditation process. The documents were analyzed from a set of three perspectives in an effort to build a fuller understanding of the organizations. A structural analysis perspective looked for structural qualities within the discourse and its elements. A categorical analysis perspective considered the evidence of organizational learning that could be found by reviewing the set of documents produced by both WSCUC and the institution as part of the reaffirmation process. The review applied categorical frames adapted from the core strategies identified in Kezar and Eckel (2002b), the five disciplines proposed by Senge (2006), and the six activities identified in Dill (1999). It looked for relationships and interdependencies developed in the content within and between documents. A narrative analysis perspective considered each institution and its relationship with WSCUC through a set of six systemic lenses expanded from the three proposed by Banathy (1995). ii iii Each perspective yielded insight into how institutions of higher education reflect on and describe an intentional pursuit of organizational sustainability and improvement, as well as how both institutions and their accreditor use the reaffirmation process to understand and support their own organizational learning. This study supported the position that multiple perspectives can provide better, though not comprehensive, understanding of a system, and that a system can apply these perspectives to design for its intended future. iii iv Copyright by M Victoria Liptak 2019 iv v California State University Channel Islands California State University, Fresno Collaborative Online Doctorate in Educational Leadership This dissertation was presented by M Victoria Liptak It was defended on April 19, 2019 and approved by: James J. Mullooly, Chair Anthropology California State University, Fresno Elizabeth P. Quintero Early Childhood Studies California State University Channel Islands David M. Rosen Former President O’More College of Design v vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Systems and design inquiry is necessarily collaborative. This inquiry was possible only because so many people shared with me their time, ideas, experience, and good will. I am thankful and incredibly fortunate to have had a committee of serious academics with a sense of humor who are unafraid to think different: Jim Mullooly, fearless chair, fierce skeptic, agile philosopher, Betsy Quintero, open-minded, open-hearted educator par excellence, and David Rosen, mentor, friend, and long-term intellectual interlocutor. Recognizing those who shared their thoughts on systems theory, higher education, and organizational learning, I particularly acknowledge Debora Hammond, Bill Ladusaw, Ralph Wolff, Karen Moranski, Dennis Nef, Deborah Panter, and Shirley McGuire, all of whom engaged in dialogue with me as I tried to make sense of systems in higher education. I am especially lucky to have had the good will and ongoing support of Dick Osborn, soon to retire as VP at WSCUC, where his wisdom and generosity of spirit helped so many institutions become better at meeting their mission. His willingness to engage and encourage my inquiry, even before the dissertation, buoyed my confidence in the value of the work. I deeply appreciate the fellow members of the Accountability Circle/Dissertation Crew: Michelle Pajka Hasendonckx, Larisa Callaway-Cole, and Celine Park. I look forward to our continued friendship and mutual support in our post-doctoral futures. I am grateful for all my peers in our pioneering CODEL cohort. We were both trailblazers and guinea pigs, which makes for an interesting mental image. vi vii And finally, I recognize with humility and gratitude the unbounded patience and support of my spouse of a full quarter century, Bülent Sökmen. The whole of our partnership is so much greater than the sequence and the sum of its parts. vii viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................. xi LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................ xii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ............................................................................ 1 Prologue to Systems ............................................................................................ 1 Background ......................................................................................................... 2 Key Terms ..................................................................................................... 2 The Place of Colleges, Universities, and Higher Education within the US .. 6 Current Perspectives on Change in Higher Education and Its Institutions . 10 Understanding Organizations: Change and Learning ................................. 14 Understanding Organizations: Systems Theory .......................................... 16 Research Problem ............................................................................................. 18 Rationale for the Study ................................................................................ 18 Research Questions ..................................................................................... 20 Significance of the Research ....................................................................... 23 Overview of Chapters 2 and 3 .......................................................................... 24 CHAPTER 2: REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE ................................................ 25 Change Imperatives in Higher Education ......................................................... 25 The Crisis in Higher Education and Its Institutions .................................... 27 Accountability and Accreditation ................................................................ 28 Higher Education as a Field of Organization Study ......................................... 31 Organization Theory: Culture, Change, and Leadership ............................ 31 Systems Theory, Organizational Learning, and IHEs ................................. 34 Intersecting Dissertation Research .............................................................. 40 viii ix Summary ........................................................................................................... 42 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY .......................................................................... 44 Purpose of the Study ......................................................................................... 44 Research Questions ........................................................................................... 45 Paradigm for Investigation ................................................................................ 45 Approach to the Research ........................................................................... 45 Strategy of Inquiry ....................................................................................... 46 Delimitations ............................................................................................... 52 Case Study Method ........................................................................................... 54 Case Selection ............................................................................................. 55 Data Collection ............................................................................................ 56 Data Analysis .............................................................................................. 57 Limitations ........................................................................................................ 58 Interpretation and Positionality ................................................................... 58 Non-generalizable Results ........................................................................... 60 Non-deterministic ........................................................................................ 60 Time ............................................................................................................. 61 Reliability of Reported Information ............................................................ 61 Proposition Rather Than Prescription ......................................................... 61 Summary ........................................................................................................... 62 CHAPTER 4: RESULTS ......................................................................................