Managing for Innovation

Book by Theodore S. Glickman and Susan C. White
Review by Janice Lindsley
Academic Advisor, Advising First
Florida State University


How can we create and maintain programs around our campuses in the midst of decreasing finances? If the demand for higher education is greater than ever before, how can we assure the public that they have easy access to higher education? Once students are enrolled in our institutions, how can we retain them and generate a feeling of community among all users of campus resources? Today, faculty and administrators must answer these questions in a new way. Editors Glickman and White note that these issues are examples of challenges that require new and creative ways of solving the problems. The overriding theme of this edited volume is how to cope with the tension between the traditional values of the academy (the way the university sees itself) and the values of the contemporary marketplace (the purposes our society foresees for the university) (p. 62).

Innovation (and specifically, renovation) is the key word used throughout the book. Here the editors gather six essays written by professors and administrators around the world which describe the ways in which they handled campus problems. Advisors considering a career in administration will find the book useful for delineating the kinds of challenges they may face. The book also demonstrates that advisors can have active roles in innovation.

Readers will learn how they can contribute to innovation at their respective college or university based on one of the core values of the Malcolm Baldridge Criteria for Performance Excellence (focusing on faculty and staff collaboration). The University of Wisconsin-Stout adapted these criteria and was the first to win an award for best implementation of these criteria. On innovative campuses, the president, provost, and deans do not make unilateral decisions but work with other members of their leadership team and include faculty and staff as they plan and allocate resources; collaboration is the fabric of the institution (p. 12).

Authors of other chapters discuss the importance of academic advising in a non-traditional campus environment (Chapter Two, Western Governors University), differences between the concepts and models of leadership in the United Kingdom and the United States (Chapter Four), and how information technology contributes to the kind of collaboration mentioned above (Chapter Six). The Editors include a summary chapter in which they pull the chapters together and compare innovation strategies. They also speculate as to whether it is too late for higher education innovation in the United States since this country lags far behind other countries in percentage of degree and certificate completion.

In all, this edited volume will be helpful to advisors who desire career advancement. Advisors  working on advanced degrees should know the kinds of challenges that could face them as an administrator or faculty member with administrative duties. This book gives valuable insight to these issues and much more.

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Managing for Innovation. (New Directions in Higher Education, no. 137, Spring 2007). Book by Theodore S. Glickman and Susan C. White (Eds.). Review by Janice Lindsley. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 120 pp. $29.00 (paperback), ISBN # 978-0-7879-9744-1