Case Analysis

Strategic Human Resource Management, Old State University

The School of Business Administration at Old State University is one of 12 state-supported collegiate business schools in a Midwestern state. It is located in a city with a population of 400,000 and a diversified industrial base. Old State is the only state-supported institution in town. One small private college provides competition to the University Business School.

Recently, the University has experienced leadership transition. Dr. George Barnes, Dean of the Business School since 1998, retired. During his administration, the enrollment had increased from 1,202 undergraduates and 76 M.B.A. student in the 1998-99 academic year to 2, 089 undergraduates and 218 M.B.A. students in the most recent academic year.

Dean Barnes was well liked by students, faculty, and the central administration of Old State. However, he had not led the School of Business in any new directions and had basically concentrated on “doing the same things better.” The “same things” meant an emphasis on traditional programs (accounting, marketing, finance, etc.) teaching undergraduate students in the age range of 18-22 in daytime programs, and teaching a small number of full-time M.B.A. students. The latter have been mostly graduates of the school’s undergraduate program who decided they were willing to spend two more years on campus to obtain the second degree.

Dean Barnes had also been successful in upgrading the proportion of faculty with terminal degrees from 56 percent in 1998 to 85 percent in the most recent year. Exhibit 1.1 provides faculty and student enrollment data for the University for selected years during Barnes’s tenure.

During the most recent academic year, the Dean’s Search Committee (consisting of faculty, students, alumni, central administration, and local business representatives) met frequently, screened over 100 applicants, and personally interviewed six. While the committee arrived at no consensus, the majority supported Mr. Jack Blake for the Deanship. An offer was made and, after several weeks of negotiation, Blake accepted the Deanship. His background was an M.B.A. from a prestigious Ivy League business school, and executive leadership positions in a variety of U.S. corporations in marketing. He left the position of Vice President of Marketing at one of the “Fortune 500” companies to accept the Deanship.

During the screening interviews with the Search Committee, Blake had made it clear that, if he were selected, the school of business would be “moving in new directions and exploring new markets.” It was very clear Blake did not want to be a “paper pusher,” but did want to be an innovator and an entrepreneur. When pressed for specifics, he had indicated he “would have to study the situation in more detail.”

When the new Dean arrived on campus in the fall, he immediately convened a Strategic Planning Committee to (1) evaluate the University’s external environment, opportunities, constraints, competitive advantages, and internal environment, and (2) recommend a new set of long-term missions, goals, objectives, and programs. The committee consisted of two senior professors, the University’s Vice President for Academic Affairs, one graduate student, one undergraduate student, two prominent alumni, and two local business leaders.

The committee recommended that the school focus on the adult learner since demographic analysis suggested the age group 18-22 was shrinking and would be a declining market over the next decade. Specific recommendations included (1) more evening courses for both undergraduate and graduate students; (2) structuring the schedule so that both degrees could be earned entirely in the evening; (3) offering credit courses in some suburban locations; (4) offering requested noncredit practitioner courses at the school, at the employer’s work site , and in various underserved small cities around the state; (5) exploring the possibility of offering degree programs at these locations; (6) offering new M.B.A. degree concentrations in such areas as management of the arts, health care management, and public sector management, and (7) offering a new “executive” M.B.A.

The new Dean enthusiastically endorsed the report and distributed copies at the last faculty meeting of the fall semester. Several questions were raised, but it didn’t appear serious opposition existed. However, at a following meeting of department Chairs, the Dean indicated that his top priority of the next academic year was to fill the five vacant positions with new faculty who would be supportive of the new directions in which the school was moving. Specifically, he asked them to keep several criteria in mind while recruiting and selecting new faculty. These included previous managerial work experience, a willingness to teach night courses, a willingness to travel to other cities to offer coursework, an ability to work with management practitioners on special projects, and previous experience in teaching executives.

In addition, he suggested that the Chairs consider those criteria when evaluating the performance of existing faculty and recommending salary increases. Finally, he indicated that one of the faculty positions would be used to recruit a new Assistant Dean for External Affairs who would become his link to the practitioner community. The latter would be involved with helping practicing managers identify their needs, working with faculty to meet these needs, and negotiating contracts for these services.

When word of the Dean’s faculty recommendations spread through the “rumor mill” the reaction was swift and negative. Many of the “old guard” faculty felt they were hired primarily to teach full-time students on campus during the day. Consequently, they were threatened by the new evaluation criteria. They were also concerned that the Dean was interjecting nonacademic criteria into their departmental faculty recruitment processes and diverting resources to nonacademic activities. These faculty members felt the inevitable result would be a declining quality of education in the school.

A group of these faculty members have asked to meet with the Dean to discuss his proposals. The Dean is preparing a justification for both his strategy and his human resource management (faculty) recommendations.

Exhibit 1.1 – Faculty and Student Enrollment Date for the College of Business Administration in Selected Years, 1998-2016.

Academic Year	Faculty	Faculty with Ph.D.s	Student Enrollment B.S	Student Enrollment M.B.A.	Total Student Enrollment
1998-99	54	30	1,202	76	1,278
2000-01	58	36	1,289	98	1,387
2005-06	66	46	1,654	134	1,788
2010-11	74	57	1,913	154	2,067
2012-14	78	66	2,065	221	2,286
2015-16	80	68	2,089	218	2,307

1. What organizational strategy (defender, prospector, analyzer, reactor) was Dean Barnes pursuing?  Discuss the strategy Dean Blake is pursuing.  What do you perceive to be his objectives?  Does this strategy make sense in terms of the internal and external environment of the school?

2. Identify the key problems and the key opportunities in this case.

3. Formulate an HR strategic plan that will support Dean Blake’s new organizational strategy.  Your plan will make recommendations for HR activities in the areas of staffing, performance management, compensation, and employee relations (the ER section should address issues of communication and employee participation and provide recommendations on how Blake’s changes should have been introduced to the faculty).   Support your recommendations with appropriate HR theories, concepts, models and processes (utilizing your textbook as a reference).

From: Nkomo, S., Fottler, M., & McAfee, R. B. (2005). Applications in Human Resource Management (5th edition). Mason, Ohio: Thomson Southwestern, p. 96–98.

 

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