The American Community College.

Complexity Theory: An Overview with Potential Applications for the Social Sciences

Systems Thinking: A Review and Bibliometric Analysis

ABSTRACTLibrary leaders promote reconsideration of organisational purposes, processes, and relationships at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California, USA. Systems thinking, fortified by information literacy, informs workplace changes that provide learning experiences transferable to better alignment of library outcomes with changing campus priorities. Grounded in Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) enriched by the Australian and New Zealand Institute for Information Literacy (ANZIIL) framework, this ‘thought leadership’ approach depends on data-driven, boundary-crossing dialogue and reflection. Ongoing practice ‘rethinking what we do and how we do it’ produces improved ways of working, communicating, cooperating and interacting within the library organisation and across the university community, as expressed in an emerging ‘learning commons’ initiative.

Rethinking what we do and how we do it

As part of its mission to enhance the quality and relevance of teaching and learning, the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) has identified student-centred learning (SCL) as an educational reform priority. Research indicates however that uptake is weak, and key stakeholders lack commitment. In response to discrepancy between EHEA rhetoric and reality on the ground, limited policy research, and calls for increased advocacy and dissemination of information, the research critically investigates SCL policy enactment. Drawing inspiration from social constructionism and a critical, participatory and reflexive approach to design-based research, the design and development of a website facilitated data collection comprising 17 semi-structured interviews with EHEA academics, institutional leaders and higher education policy experts. In response to the research question, thematic data analysis led to the development of three major themes and four policy recommendations. The research offers potential originality and significance for higher education theory and practice in the EHEA and beyond.

A Critical Examination of Student Centred Learning Policy in the European Higher Education Area

The pluralistic and often competing goals of myriad constituents, the changing demographics of students, the uncertainty of funding, and the growing demands for accountability from stakeholders have increased the complexity of systems which community college leaders must manage. Emerging from the recent literature on community colleges is a call for new models of leadership in the context of leading in an increasingly uncertain and complex environment. Systems thinking offers a means to help leaders respond to these growing organizational complexities and move leadership from a traditional bureaucratic model to a more adaptive model. A systematic review of literature on systems thinking’s application to organizational performance in higher education was bolstered with evidence from healthcare. Findings revealed three reoccurring ways in which leaders apply systems thinking processes for improving organizational performance. A conceptual model for systems thinking leadership is proposed in which the three processes, characterized as discovery, framing, and action, can be enacted either individually or sequentially for enhancing organizational performance. The model draws upon boundary critique, critical systems thinking, systemic intervention, total systems intervention, systems dynamics, soft systems methodology, complexity theory and complex adaptive systems, yet uses language more readily identifiable to community college practitioners.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID2726026_code2080026.pdf?abstractid=2726026

Anne Powel Davis

Papers

A Conceptual Model of Systems Thinking Leadership in Community Colleges

A Conceptual Model of Systems Thinking Leadership in Community Colleges