Dynamics of Public Nonprofit leadership

The University of La Verne is a private not for profit university in Southern California. Its mission is to offer a “distinctive and relevant educational experience to a diverse population of traditional-age, adult, and graduate learners, preparing them for successful careers and a commitment to life-long learning across the liberal arts and professional programs” (Mission, Vision, n.d.). I believe it is an appropriate mission for a university that provides education and caters to a wide variety of people. The university prides itself on its diversity and inclusion.

“Mission statements carefully define products and markets” (Nanus, 1992, p.46). The university’s mission defines its product as education and its markets to anyone who wants to learn and advance their careers.

The University of La Verne, like many universities, provides students with skills to compete in the workplace. It improves lives by enhancing student’s self-knowledge and employment opportunities. “Universities are more than sites of training and instruction, they are crucial intellectual milieus where knowledge is created, disseminated and challenged” (Addie, 2017).

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A college experience positively impacts individuals through cultural enrichment and camaraderie. Students leave as cultured individuals who will one day work for organizations and community agencies because they want to help people. Students are also taught the value of teamwork, healthy living, and leadership. These opportunities contribute to making society more productive and produce more well-rounded individuals (Banya, 2011).

The university’s unique position in the higher education industry is its close student-faculty interactions, putting students first, and bringing an academic perspective to real-world problems.

“We believe that a university can play a transformative role by bridging the gap between the abstract role of academic theory and the world of practical problems” (Faculty and, n.d.). They pride themselves in the small class format and integrating real-world issues into research and teaching. The university also has a signature academic initiative that gives students the opportunity to apply what they learned in the classroom to real life.

To be successful, the university must properly allocate money into its faculty and staff, building maintenance, and students. They must keep good relations with their alumni, local businesses, and government official. This will help network expansions, funds, and experiences for the students. Other success factors include the quality of the services it provides, the degree of which the students are satisfied with the opportunities that the college produces, and how well the university can coordinate and watch over the resources from other agencies they use.

University of La Verne’s values include ethical reasoning, diversity and inclusivity, lifelong learning, and civic and community engagement. The university values supporting peace with justice, respect for all, and helping the planet and people. It supports diversity and inclusiveness through recognizing the benefits of seeing other viewpoints from students, staff, and faculty. The university “teaches students how to learn, to think critically, to be capable of original research, and to access and integrate information to prepare them for continued personal and professional growth” (Vision, Mission n.d). The University of La Verne is also committed to improving the community they reside in.

The strengths and weaknesses are:

Strengths

Weaknesses

Excellent student to teacher ratio

Poor classroom design

Generally, scandal free

Insufficient parking for students and staff

Good relationship with local business

Strained relationship with alumni

Increase demand for higher education

Insufficient staff to advise all students

The current strategy is divided into four strategic initiatives and goals: achieving educational excellence, strengthening the human and financial resources of the university, heightening reputation, visibility, and prominence, and enhancing appropriate, quality campus facilities and technologies (2020 Strategic, n.d.). The current strategy will not be difficult to sustain over the long term. Under each initiative, there are goals that will help keep things in place. For example, in achieving educational excellence, there are seven goals. Each goal needs to always be maintained in order to reach excellence. If, for example, goal 4 – ensure all La Verne campuses meet the university’s mission- is not met, then it will be difficult to keep the momentum of the initiative going.

The University of La Verne has a clearly stated vision statement. The university vision is to be “nationally recognized for its enriching and relevant educational experience, which prepares students to achieve more than they ever imagined” (Vision, Mission, n.d).

The University of La Verne has been around for over 125 years. They have been innovating and adapting to the changes in society. If the organization continues on its current path, it will continue being sustainable for the next ten years. They have innovative marketers to draw in new students. They are upgrading and expanding the campus to better serve their customers. The university is aware of its limitations and has their financial people advise them and their decisions. The organization does not act on impulse, rather they strategically spend their money, so that it can maximize its presence in the high education industry.

The key people in the organization know where the organization is going, and they’re in agreement over the present direction as well. Every faculty and staff understand the increase in demand for higher education. The board of trustees is involved as well. “We had as much consensus from top to bottom and bottom to top as is possible in such an effort. People understand who we are, where we are going, and why.” (Strategic vision, n.d.). Everyone is in agreement, which is good because everyone’s input was used, so students, faculty, staff, alumni, and trustees can all feel like they had a voice in the direction the university is heading.

The university’s structure, processes, personnel, incentive, and information do support the current direction of the organization. They are organized and staffed to meet the needs of their current and prospective students. Their personnel are friendly and enjoy their job. There are no known incentives, but the turnover rate is low because personnel is satisfied in their position. Their information system also supports the current direction by it giving them enough information to cater to the needs of their customers.

The Vision Scope

The key stakeholders are:

· Students

· Government

· Parents

· Board members/ management

· Professors

· Employers

· Auditors

· Non-teaching staff

The higher education institution’s stakeholder relation is linked with the mission and future of the university. There are internal stakeholders like full-time professors, other personnel, and students that are major stakeholders. Other stakeholders include government, employers, parents, non-teaching staff, and auditors. Higher education institutions cater to their stakeholders because that is how they remain successful (Maric, 2013). They are all important to the institution.

The top five stakeholders are the students, professors, other personnel, board members, and parents. Students are interested in the success of the organization because they are the ones investing their time and money to be getting educated and learning life skills. If the institution was to fail, students would have gone there for nothing and would have wasted their time. Professors interested in the success of the organization is that it is their career and their workplace. They would be out of a job if the institution failed. Other personnel would be in the same boat as the professors, where they would be out of a job. Board members are interested in the success of the organization because it would reflect poorly on them by showing that they are not good leaders and decision-makers for the organization. Parents want the institution to succeed because they are trusting it to protect and teach their children and develop them into successful adults. If the institution were to fail, then it would have been all for not.

Those who enroll in the university offer the opportunity of users being willing to pay for the service of small class sizes and it is a private university. For example, parents may be willing to pay a little more for bigger and safer dorm rooms, so that they are comfortable with their child living on campus. Students may pay more to be on a small campus because it is safer and easier to get to classes.

A threat would be if students were unsatisfied with the service, they will transfer out and not recommend anyone to go to the institution. Students have influence and connections that can make an impact on the university image. For example, they can go on university rating websites and give it a low rating, which can deter prospective students.

Alumni also have the power to help donate funds to the university. Generous donations are how the institution is able to build and grow the university. This could be a threat because if Alumni do not feel like the university prepared them for the real world, then they will not be willing to give back.

An opportunity is their online education which can relieve the pressures of having to go on campus and be on university time. Some people feel comfortable having control of when and where they can learn. It is more convenient and attractive, which is something people are willing to pay for.

As a stakeholder, I would contribute to the organization’s success by being an alumnus. I would give back to the institution by donating money towards student’s scholarships, so that new students have to opportunity to get a higher education and better themselves. I would also give back by providing opportunities for students to gain experience to put on their resumes. This will contribute to the success by helping the customer feel like the service and opportunities the university provides is worth their time and money. It will benefit them in the long run if they continue going to school there.

Financial constraints might hinder their organization's vision because they may not have enough resources to cater to every student’s needs. Some students may get the short end of the stick and not reap the benefits of being a part of a 4-year institution. Another constraint would be social factors because there are people who don’t think college is the right choice for them, or that they won’t fit in. They may also be the first in their family to attend college, which is also very intimidating. These social factors could make it difficult for the university to help their students go past their goals because the students might be too scared to go out of their comfort zone and take chances.

The top mission-critical objectives that the organization must accomplish its service quality and accessibility. One objective is to provide high-quality education to current students, so they feel like their time was well spent at the University of La Verne. The second objective is to be accessible to people who want to start their educational career. In order to measure the success of the first objective, we must look into the productivity of the faculty and staff. By surveying the students and their satisfaction with their professors, we can learn if the faculty is productive or not. In order to measure the success of the second objective, we must look at the convenience of how we provide the service, affordability, and fairness of distribution.

Critical issues that must be addressed in the vision is the lack of support from alumni and how the institution can enhance the quality and accessibility of educational opportunities to future students. The lack of support from alumni is something that needs to be addressed because alumni help with creating connections and opportunities for current students. Enhancing the quality of its service is critical because it can give the institution a bad reputation of having lazy professors who don’t do anything. Enhancing accessibility is also important because it will allow more people to enroll in the university and become a part of the community.