The influence of planning on institutional transformation: A study of information technology.

The external environment within which higher education exists has been labeled a postindustrial environment characterized by turbulence, competitiveness, lean resources, and unpredictability. Two organizational responses to the challenges and opportunities inherent in this external environment are planning and transformation. There are implicit suggestions in the literature that planning and transformation are linked phenomena, yet there has been little research conducted on their potential relationship. This qualitative study uses a case study methodology to research the relationship between these phenomena within the context of the migration from a centralized to distributed computing environment at a major research university. The study's central research question is, How does planning influence the internal transformation that results from the migration from a centralized computing environment to a distributed computing environment in a major research university? Five organizational units were chosen for inclusion in this study: the central administration information technology unit, two academic units, and two administrative units. Data was collected through a triangulated methodology that included interviews with sixty informants from the selected units. A content analysis and pattern identification of the data collected was then conducted to ascertain emergent relationships between the data. Five key findings emerged from this analysis: (1) Centralized planning from the information technology unit either had little influence on transformation (in academic units) or inhibited transformation (in administrative units); (2) Planning associated with the attempted transformation differed between the academic and administrative units included in this study. The academic units used a rational approach to planning, while the administrative units used a combination of rational and non-rational planning processes; (3) Leadership and resource factors were integral components of both the planning and transformation processes; (4) The rational and non-rational planning conducted within the units positively influenced the extent to which transformation resulted within these units; and (5) Four factors, leadership, human maintenance, commitment of institutional resources, and the accommodations of tradition, governance, and administrative style emerged in the transformational process and results dimensions of the conceptual framework to provide a research supported framework for further study on transformation.PhDEducationEducational administrationHigher educationUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/129864/2/9635541.pd