Organizational structure and behavioral

issues affecting a business college in a

university during an accreditation process
Journal of Organizational Culture, Communications and
Conflict, Jan, 2005 by Frank R. Lazzara
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ABSTRACT

This paper analyzes the organizational structure and behavioral issues affecting a Business
College in a university during an accreditation process in the areas of process impact,
leadership challenges, and customer service. Looking at the organization, three main
organizational behavior challenges face them. The challenges are threefold. First,
organizational behavior issues caused by accreditation by the Association to Advance
Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) influence the organization. Secondly, the dramatic
change in the leadership structure to support this accreditation effort is trying to settle into
their management style and deal with the effect internal politics from their every decision.
Finally, the paper discusses customer service issues pertaining to the College's customers
trying to remain competitive among the local colleges and universities and establishing
relationships with its customers--the students. This paper will address these organizational
structure and behavioral issues. The paper identifies and properly cites current research in
support of possible interventions a College of Business should implement to remedy some of
the shortcomings.

INTRODUCTION

Columbus State University is a public regional university in a southern state with an

enrollment of 6250 students (ATCOB, 2003). The College of Business (COB) (The College)
faces three main organizational behavior challenges. Upon entering the accreditation process,
the COB faculty assessed many challenges and organizational projects that they must address
in order to become accredited. This paper will address three of them. The first challenge is
the organizational change caused by the accreditation process conducted by the Association
to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB). The second challenge is the dramatic
change in the leadership structure necessary to support this accreditation effort. The third
challenge is assessing customer service issues pertaining to The College's customers, (the
students), more effectively in their academic pursuits.

A primary, most visible challenge affecting the COB is the COB's business school
accreditation. The COB faculty and staff see business school accreditation as the license for
long-term acceptance by the local business community to prove the College is making the
efforts to improve quality and productivity. The accreditation process has lasted the last five
years with the College, in a self-evaluation year (2003). Whereas the accreditation effort has
been stressful, it has also been a unifying factor for much of the COB in terms of assessing
goals. All faculty and staff have contributed to the process and results. This involvement has
created a sense of ownership in the process. The accreditation effort helped bring about a new
commerce and technology center with state of the art technology. Negative impact of the
accreditation process influences many areas. Besides the challenges mentioned above, the
accreditation process has strained the two additional areas, The College's budget and the
outreach mission. Competition from local unaccredited alternative educational institutions
places additional pressure on the COB. The College's stakeholders (business community and
students) demand increasing levels of services. However, the accreditation guidelines limit
the COB's ability to respond as quickly to market needs as the number of competing
(unaccredited) institutions has been able to do.

The second challenge facing the COB is the success of the new leadership team, which has
been in place for about eleven months. The new administrative team still is trying to settle
into its management style and internal politics threaten every administrative and instructional
decision. Luthans (1998) examined the types of managers who try to align themselves
politically with their employees and become are good managers. The former COB dean
attempted to do this, thus creating an ineffective type of management. Luthans explained in
his article, "just because they are political/successful managers does not mean that they are
effective managers" (Luthans, 1998). The COB has experienced and continues to experience
a lot of this political posturing among the faculty and staff in the hopes a new leadership team
does not take charge. Thus, the COB went through more than enough "successful" (Luthans,
1998) managers. The new leadership faces problems over the management of diversity. The
faculty is diverse and includes Asian-American, African-American, Indian, and Caucasian
members. As faculty and staff members' average ages drop, turnover is starting to increase
partially due to frequent leadership changes and political liaisons. The COB is, by nature, a
service-oriented organization. As a higher education institution, a great challenge remains in
staying competitive among the local colleges and universities. Therefore, it is dependent upon
the relationships the faculty and staff have with its customers--the students. The issue is more
than a student seeking a degree. It is the quality of instruction, advising, mentorship and
professional guidance the College has to exhibit and needs to demonstrate in order to keep
student enrollment up and continuing to grow. If students are not satisfied, enrollment will
decrease and reorganization will be possibly result. To satisfy these students' needs, The
College must improve its quality of service and expand its service. This opportunity might
affect the balance of traditional students versus non-traditional students' needs.
ACCREDITATION IMPACT ON THE COLLEGE OF BUSINESS

The first challenge the faculty determined that affects either COB is the accreditation effort
(ATCOB, 2003). "Accreditation is a process of voluntary, non-governmental review of
educational institutions and programs" (AACSB Web Site, 2003). Institutional accreditation
reviews entire colleges and universities. Specialized agencies award accreditation for
professional programs and academic units in particular fields of study. As a specialized
agency, AACSB International grants accreditation for undergraduate and graduate business
administration and accounting programs. Recognition by AACSB International requires "an
institutional commitment to fulfill its mission, and continues to sustain and improve
educational quality of its undergraduate, master's, and doctoral degree programs according to
the standards of AACSB International as interpreted by its Peer Review Team(s),
accreditation committees, and Board of Directors" (AACSB Web Site, 2003).

The D. Abbott Turner College of Business of Columbus State University delivers high
quality business programs. The College offers the Bachelor of Business Administration
(BBA) and the Master of Business Administration (MBA) degrees. The Dean of the College
of Business perform administration over the faculty, supervises the faculty and staff, and
influences curriculum of these degree programs. Students pursuing the BBA may major in
accounting, computer information systems, finance, general business, management, or
marketing. The MBA is a general business degree.

As demonstrated in the COB's mission statement (Loughman and Hadley, 2003), The College
achieves program quality by effectively using available resources to accomplish its mission to
provide management education to the region. Mindful of its mission, The College follows
accepted practices for institutions that provide management education and uses assessment
information to develop its faculty, improve its curriculum, and enhance its teaching. As part
of its initial accreditation candidacy for AACSB International--the Association to Advance
Collegiate Schools of Business--the D. Abbott Turner College of Business has undertaken a
thorough review of its resources, programs, processes, and achievements. The self-evaluation
report represents The College's best efforts to portray the results of that review. The Self-
Study report provides the data and annotated processes necessary to seek an accreditation
visit (Loughman and Hadley, 2003)

Exhibit 1 is a list of College of Business goals (Loughman and Hadley, 2003) which the
accreditation self-evaluation report identified for college accreditation. The COB faculty,
while compiling and working on the accreditation processes identified by the AACSB
accrediting body, developed these goals. They address short term and long-term strategic
goals for The College and its stakeholders.

Faculty animosity lies deep in the faculty's experiences and embarrassments in not having
achieved accreditation prior to this effort. These experiences contributed greatly to their
cognitive dissonance, which has been detrimental to the leadership's ability to get the
accreditation self-study year to begin