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Moving from I to we: reorganizing for collaboration in higher education
Author: Change
Institutions across the country need to find ways to work collaboratively on a host of important initiatives, from technology integration to service-learning to interdisciplinary research. But when discussing organizational collaboration in higher education, it is not uncommon to hear comments such as the following.
"No matter how many good ideas emerge on this campus, they fail in the face of the history and approach to doing things here," said one community college faculty member. "People retreat into their individualistic routines. It is really frustrating."
According to a staff member at a research university, "Faculty and administrators cannot work together, and at times work at odds with each other. The plethora of units, divisions, and departments is staggering. I have given up on the idea of collaboration or people working together in meaningful ways, even though it is important to me."
The provost at a large comprehensive university explained that "the problem is that we keep trying to force collaborative innovations into a structure and culture that supports individual work."
These frustrations might be expressed at any community college, research or comprehensive university, or liberal arts college in the country. They represent the struggles of people who want to work collaboratively but who are locked into institutional structures and cultures that reify and reinforce individualistic work.
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