Structural Analysis in Two Frames Paper

CCSD 553 Administration in College Student Affairs_Professor Dennis Sheridan Leadership Analysis in Two Frames by Pepper M.
Lopez
The Situation:
In mid-October 2013, after many years of predictable service, University of the West changed its food vendor which serviced both students and staff on its campus. The previous vendor had very much catered to the tastes of the Asian staff and faculty, and to its Asian students both domestic and international. However, the ethnic diversity of the campus has continued to evolve over the past twenty plus years since the universitys founding. A student led initiative coordinated by the student body president and student government lead to the change in the food service vendor some months earlier. The prior vendor chose to serve Chinese food for virtually every meal, every day; and the growing American community did not appreciate the distinctly foreign diet. The student government is an independently incorporated registered entity which represents University of the Wests students, and is associated with the university similarly and independently as fraternities and sororities would be. The university now enjoys slightly more domestic students than international students. This shift in its student body composition follows a change in direction which was marked by universitys WASC accreditation in 2006. The new food vendor at the university is creating a variety of more Americanized meals in its attempt to provide enjoyable service to all of the universitys resident students, and its staff and faculty. After the student government negotiated with the universities administration the university reached a decision to change to this new vendor. This vendor was selected by the Director of General Services. This new vendor was initially offered a probationary thirty day period for both parties to decide if the relationship would be mutually beneficial. After these initial thirty days, this vendor was offered a permanent service contract to provide food service for the university. The contract did not
CCSD 553 Administration in College Student Affairs_Professor Dennis Sheridan Leadership Analysis in Two Frames by Pepper M. Lopez
include service on university holidays, and the university has approximately thirteen paid holidays during the calendar year. The longest of these holidays is the winter break in which the university is scheduled to be closed from December 24, 2013 to January 1, 2014; inclusive. The vendors contract in relation to the holiday does not provide for service between December 14, 2013 and January 13, 2014 leaving the approximate thirty-five students who will be remain living in the residence halls during this period between semesters without food service. The problem that has arisen for the university is that the food vendors contract does not match the scheduled holidays for the university as published in its calendar. Further, the university catalogue states that dining hall services shall be provided for the student living on campus that purchase a meal plan, and that these meals shall be available Monday through Friday, not on weekends, and not during school holidays. The gaps in the meal service became evident to the resident hall coordinator upon the food vendor completing its probationary period, and a permanent contract being issued by the university. The resident hall coordinator presented this gap in provided meals to the Chief Financial Officer. However, during the food vendors probationary window a small group of students upset with the changes in the predominantly Asian menu offered by the university to a more Americanized one had been complaining vocally to the universitys administration, and disturbingly to the leadership of the Buddhist temple which founded the institute. The student complaints have been raised by temple leadership to many of the senior Asian staff in powerful positions within the university administration in an effort to return the universitys menu to its earlier distinctly Asian flavor, and appease these international students and temple members. Because of this the efforts of the Mexican-American resident coordinator have been undermined by the Asian chief financial officer.
The conflict has not escaped the university president, and he and the dean of student affairs are being blamed by the Asian temple community and the Asian students for their dissatisfaction with the ethnic origins of the food which the university provides. Both the president and the dean of student affairs are white. The president, noting that the decision regarding their current vendor was not made at the level of his office by rather by the department of general services, has questioned privately in emergency staff meetings regarding the food service whether the administration can work together as a team. The director of general service is Asian, and a highly respected member of the founding temple. He, unlike the president, has been with the university since its founding. The president has been with the university approximately six months, and his predecessor was a Chinese national who returned to his country after his work visa expired. Although part of the universitys mission statement is to facilitate cultural understanding and appreciation between east and west, the divisions of heated opinions that have surfaced due to the new food vendor diverge along distinctly ethnic lines. When the resident hall coordinator initially presented the insolubility between the postures stated in the universitys catalogue and the food vendors contract he was told by the CFO that none of the students staying in the residence halls wanted that vendor. The resident hall coordinator then appealed to the CFO pointing out the contractual obligation to students stated in the universitys catalogue, and suggested that best practices for students necessitated that the university provide food for the students who would be living on campus during the winter break. The resident hall coordinator has a degree in student affairs which he received from Cal State Fullerton, and has also been with the university approximately six months. After this appeal he was directed by the CFO to conduct a survey of the thirty-five students to see if they wanted the food that was currently being
offered by the vendor. The resident hall coordinator has been privy to both the student complaints and praises for the new food service vendor, and made clear to the CFO that the students likes or dislikes of the current food provider were not a relevant factors to him bringing the issue to the CFOs attention. Providing food service as stated in the catalogue for the students who would be remaining in the dormitories under his supervision during this winter break was his sole and primary concern. The CFO procrastinated, offered no alternative solution for providing service in the form of extending a contract to the current vendor or selecting another service provider, and on December 13, 2013 after a university function to honor its staff and faculty the CFO went on vacation. December 16, 2013 arrived to reveal the universitys failure to cooperate amongst its decision making management team, and the failure of its contractual obligation to provide food service to the thirty-five students who will be living on campus between semesters. Meals will again be provided by the universitys contracted vendor in a months time.
The Players:
The Student Body President is white and from the east coast. He enlisted in the army right after high school, and is a veteran and reservist with ten years of duty. He is currently enrolled in the Masters of Divinity program, and aspires to be a military chaplain.
The Dean of Student Affairs has been with the university for many years. She is American, and white. She had previously served in the capacity of international student advisor as well as an adjunct professor in the universitys English department. For many years she had worked with her brother at the university until his passing. Her brother had served as the department chair for the religious studies department, and had been instrumental in
establishing WASC accreditation for the university. She was promoted to the position of dean of student affairs serving in a critical role in completing and extending her brothers work.
The Director of General Services is a well-respected member of the Buddhist temple that founded University of the West, and a native of China. He has worked for the university since its inception.
The Chief Financial Officer is Asian, from China, and a temple member. He serves multiple functions at the university. In addition to being its CFO, he is also the co-chair of its business department and a professor within that department. The CFO has a reputation for never wanting to spend university funds. In fact he has exclusive, final approval on many of the university expenditures. During his university financial report delivered to staff this past summer the CFO indicated that the university expenditures exceeded its revenue by $500,000. This figure was roughly equivalent to the amount the university awarded in its scholarship programs last year. Creating this type of financial access for students was considered by the CFO problematic.
The Resident Hall Coordinator lives with the students on the university campus. He is Mexican American. His position was created by the university just six months ago, and he is the universitys first resident hall coordinator. He is in charge of enriching the resident hall experience of the students living on campus through various co-curricular learning programs. He holds a degree in student affairs which he received from Cal State Fullerton, and has experience at multiple universities in a resident life capacity. He is motivated to serve students, and unlike most of the faculty and staff at the university he is academically trained in the student affairs profession. He understands the universitys obligation to culture students, and has stated this event is best viewed as a learning opportunity for the university staff and its administration.
The University President is also a white American. He is the positioned as the ultimate authority, after the board of director, in regard to the university decisions. He is new with
University of the West, but very experienced. He was at the helm of another local private university, University of La Verne, for some twenty. Under his leadership that university grew from a small private college with an unfocused identity to a major private university with defined direction. He has been lured out of retirement by the board of directors in the hope that he can do the same for fledgling University of the West.
What the Heck is Going On? A Symbolic Frame Perspective:

This break down in student services can be interpreted in a very real sense as a cultural identity conflict. University of the West has been culturally shifting from an international serving Buddhist instituted which offers religious and English language studies to primarily non-American students from Asian countries to a more Americanized higher educational institute that now serves more domestic students than international since receiving WASC accreditation in 2006. In this situation, as is postulated very accurately by three of the five major suppositions of the symbolic frame of organization, reasons for the conflict can be interpreted: 1. What is important is not what happens, but what it means. 2. Events and processes are often more important for what is expressed than what is produced. 3. Culture forms the superglue that bonds an organization, unites people, and helps an enterprise to accomplish desired ends. (Bolman & Deal, 2013)
The myths and values of differing cultures have come into conflict. This values result in behaviors different from stated or written goals, intents, or mission of the presidents office at the university. In this case, cultural understanding between east and west revealed its insolubility in a form as mundane as cafeteria service. The deeper struggle that is revealed is cultural dominance.
Much of the Asian community associated with the university as students or temple affiliates prefer that a distinctly Asian toned status quo be maintained. American leadership at the university is trying to build the solid foundations on which to create an outstanding institute reflective of American higher education. The conflict is succinctly illustrated by the universitys new Am erican president when he questions if the administration and management from very diverse cultures are capable of working together as a team. One particular cultural symbol lends an insight to the difficulty the chief financial officer had in placing the students well-being as his ultimate goal, rather than protecting the wealth of the universitys endowment and capital. A symbol of Chinese fortune, wealth, and prosperity is a frog with a coin in its mouth, and often depicted sitting on a floor of scattered coins. In the most positive sense it does serve as a symbol of prosperity for the Chinese culture. The symbol is similar in its connotation to the cat sitting with a single up turned waving paw endeared by neighboring Japanese culture. In its most negative sense the frog serves as a symbol of indifferent cultural greed. The CFO is demonstrating the cultural values that characterize the negative aspect this symbol represents in his application of blind of thriftiness and cost-effectiveness. The actions of the student government represent the cultural culinary tastes of the domestic students at the university. The university administration, and perhaps fairly, took the actions of the student government as a representation of the student body. It seems unlikely that any immediate realization of the impact of their decision prompted to serve the needs of all students as represented by the student government conceived of the student bodys cultural divisions. But there were consequences stemming from the student affairs divisions decision to impose a change in the cultural norms of such a large population of students and staff that were so deeply connected to a
different cultural and faith than the dominant American standard. The founding temple immediately began to wrest its power and influence at the university to reinstate the values of its people, and the situation rapidly transformed to an us vs. them issue. The temple blamed the university president and dean of student affairs for the change, rather than acknowledging that it was one of its own, the director of general services, who selected and hired the new food vendor. The actions that were spawned by the universitys failure to provide food service during this incident can be place in a lens of dramaturgical and institutional theory. Again from Bolman and Deal (2013), If an institution or its environment changes, theatrical refurbishing is needed. Audiences call for revisions in actors, scripts, or settings. As a student affairs professional, when the resident hall coordinator brought the gap in meal service to the CFOs attention, he expected real and substantial action to address the students needs. He was met with a certain demonstration, or portrayal of feigned concern by the CFO for these students. The resident hall coordinator was asked to conduct a survey of interest in relation to the current vendor, and the need for their service over the winter break. Yet prior to this break the CFO; who was in a position and empowered to extend a contract to the new and current food vendor, or find a different temporary one; left on vacation. The CFOs actions in the end seemed to allow him to stall, procrastinated, and further sabotage the reputation of the food vendor among the Asian students and invasive temple leaders. The CFOs values are also influenced by his professional training. Normative isomorphismoccurs because professionals (such as lawyers, doctors, engineers, and teachers) bring shared ideas, values, and norms from their training to the workplace. (P)rofessionally trained individuals are becoming more numerous and predominant. Managers with MBAs from accredited business schools carry values, beliefs, and practices wherever they go. New ideas from business schools may or may not produce better results,
but they spread rapidly because the newly minted professionals believe in them. (Bolman & Deal, 2013)
A co-chair of a business department very likely has different values, beliefs, and practices than a student affairs professional; but in this case the actions of that individual proved to be a disservice to students, and an endangerment to the new hierarchy at the university.
What the Heck is Going On? A Human Resource Frame Perspective:

The human resources frame serves as a second distinct and beneficial organization lens through which to view the conflict. Some of the basic and important human resource strategies illustrate how and why the evolving situation of cultural and power paradigm shifts went awry in this situation at University of the West. First, best practices in a human resources frame philosophically demand that an organization build and implement a human resources strategy. This defines the organizations specific core believes, ideals, methods, and practices in managing people. At University of the West, the cultural tone is fundamentally changing because of the greater domestic influences of students, staff, faculty, and administration, and the then proportionally shrinking Asian cultural influences. This dynamic is manifesting as both passive and overt unreigned challenges to the board of directors ratified power of the newly positioned university American hierarchy as represented by the president, dean of student affairs, resident hall coordinator, and the student body president. The old guard of Asian power is represented by the CFO, the director of general services, and the temple leadership. Because of the cultural changes that have been evolving at University of the West there are not currently clearly defined core beliefs, or adhered to practices for managing the differing divisions leadership.
The CFO is running his own program, and is as of yet unwilling to adhere to the ideals embodied by the new president. The CFO has in the past cancelled expenditures approved by the president, in this other incident it was approved university advertisement on his interpretation of cost effectiveness. These actions from the CFO and others have the president questioning whether he and his administrative team can work at a unified group on a shared mission of student service. Human resource strategies also seek to hire the right people by being selective and defining what is wanted by the organization. This president inherited this CFO. It should be questioned at this point if the CFOs demonstrated actions are cohesive with the defined mission of the university. Bringing it back to symbolic frame briefly, it is imperative that the universitys mission be more than show or theater to reduce students and shareholders tensions and uncertainties. In the human resource frame the universitys mission should serve as the guiding principle for the actions of the institutions staff and faculty. In progressive organizations employees are empowered. But, the petitioning for a solution by the resident hall coordinator to the CFO illustrates that these best practices are not part of the structural organization of University of the West. The resident hall coordinator was not empowered to provide the solution that was obvious to any appropriately degreed student affairs professional. Complete control resided with an accountant, or the Chief Financial Officer; and he made as would be important to him and reflective of his values an economic decision through his inaction. His economic value took precedence over providing food service and fundamental care for the thirty-five students remaining on campus during the winter break. He simply left on vacation, unperturbed, leaving the university impotent to in its ability to provide any solution.
The management actions of the CFO and the resident hall director can be framed in Argyis and Schons theories for action. They postulate two models of behavior within a dynamic they have termed theory-in-use. These are simply labeled model I and model II. Of these two models, model I represents a far less emotionally intelligent pattern of managerial behavior than model II. Emotional intelligence is the attribute that is marked by an awareness of self and others, and the ability to engage emotions and relationships positively. Those with more adept abilities in the sphere of emotional intelligence are more adaptable in social environments. The CFO lacked in this fundamental attribute needed in a university setting. The actions of care demonstrated by the resident hall coordinator are characteristic of the second emotionally superior model. From Bolman and Deal (2013) the behaviors indicative of these differing models are listed below: 1. Model I : A self-protective mode of interpersonal behavior
a) assume that the problem is caused by the other person b) develop a private, unilateral diagnosis and solution c) Since the other person is the cause of the problem, get that person to change d) If the person resists or becomes defensive, it confirms that the other person caused the problem e) respond to resistance through some combination of intensifying pressure and protecting or rejecting the other person f) If your efforts are unsuccessful or less successful than hoped, it is the other persons fault. You feel no personal responsibility
2. Model II: Integration of advocacy and inquiry into your behavior in your relationships
a) emphasis common goals and mutual influence b) communicate openly; publicly test assumptions and beliefs c) combine advocacy with inquiry 1. advocacy communicates what an individual wants, knows, thinks, and feel 2. inquiry seeks to learn the above same in others
It is clear that the university failed in its promised obligation to provide food service for its students as outlined by its online and print catalogues. The reasons are multi-faced and complex stemming from differing human needs and values. Hypothesizing on the why behind the behaviors of the differing players that had roles in the drama can be interpreted in a lens framed by Maslows Hierarchy of Needs. Constantine Stanislavskis theory of method acting is also helpful in understanding these deep very human motivations that can prompt large or petty actions. The below passage from Bolman and Deal (2013) is particularly appropriate in light of this intuitional managerial failure, and concludes this analysis. People are imperfect cogs in the bureaucratic machinery. They form relationships to fit individual styles and preferences, often ignoring what the organization requires. They may work, but never only on their official assignments. They also express personal and social needs that often diverge from formal rules and requirements. A project falters, for example, because no one likes the managers style. A committee bogs down because of interpersonal tensions that everyone notices but no one mentions.
Bibliography:
Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T.E. (2013). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass

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CCSD 553 Administration in College Student Affairs_Professor Dennis Sheridan Leadership Analysis in Two Frames by Pepper M.

What the Heck is Going On? A Symbolic Frame Perspective:

What the Heck is Going On? A Human Resource Frame Perspective:

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