President's Page - November 25, 2019

14th Blog – Communication

An age old criticism cited by employees within any work setting is that communication needs to be more effective and/or inclusive.  You and I have heard this comment over the years and I believe there is a core recognition that yes, communication can always be more effective.  I also believe that our actions of the past eight years has reinforced the recognition and desire to continually improve and establish effective lines of communication within offices/division and within the overall College.  A document that has been commonly referenced since 2012, has been the PACE Survey (Personal Assessment of the College Environment).

PACE Executive Summary

National Initiative for Leadership and Institutional Effectiveness (NILIE) has synthesized from the literature four leadership or organizational systems ranging from coercive to collaborative. Per Likert (1967), the Collaborative System, which he termed System 4, generally produced better results in terms of productivity, job satisfaction, communication, and overall organizational climate. The other systems were Consultative System 3, Competitive System 2 and Coercive System 1. Most college climates fall into the Consultative System 3 across the four factors of the climate instrument. 

In April 2012, October 2014, October 2016, and October 2018 the Personal Assessment of the College Environment (PACE) survey was administered to employees at Barton Community College (Barton). The purpose of the survey was to obtain the perceptions of personnel concerning the college climate (Climate refers to the prevailing condition that affects satisfaction (e.g., morale and feelings) and productivity (e.g., task completion or goal attainment) at a particular point in time) and to provide data to assist Barton in establishing priorities for change while promoting more open and constructive communication among faculty, staff, and administrators. Using a five-point scale, respondents are asked to select their survey response to items divided into four domains: institutional structure, supervisory relationships, teamwork, and student focus. 

On the Institutional Structure (communication within the institution) measure Barton is consistently above the Norm.

• The Institutional Structure climate factor focuses on the mission, leadership, spirit of cooperation, structural organization, decision-making, and communication within the institution. 
  • Coercive=1, Competitive=2, Consultative=3, Collaborative=4

The assessment summary above is helpful, but as stated, we should always strive for being better in our communication practices.  In the past year, the list of Institutional Teams was updated to ensure documentation of current planning workgroups and that memberships were accurate. 

In addition, the following list of workgroups have either been restructured or implemented in the last two years:

Academic Calendar Committee
Academic Integrity Council
Academics Advisory Board
Academics Month
Active Learning Classroom
ADA
Archive Committee 
Assessment Institute
Barton STEM
BOL Audit Committee
Center Advisory Council
Co-Curricular Assessment
Course/Institutional Assessment
Engineering Advisory Board
General Education Project
Honors Celebration
Inclusion & Diversity
Instructional Council
Open Education Resources (OER)
Professional Development Steering
Professional Development Taskforce
Scales Technician Advisory
Student Authenticity
Student Evaluation
Substantive Interaction
Touchnet
Timeclock Plus
Agile Performance Plus
25Live
Esports
Scholarship
Banner Cloud Implementation

The above listing is telling and impressive, but more importantly, it is the willingness of so many employees to voluntarily engage and accept opportunities for collaboration and influencing the direction of the future. 

Kudos 

From: Perkins, Myrna 
Sent: Wednesday, November 20, 2019 8:48 AM
Subject: Email Issue

As you are well aware yesterday I experienced a dismaying issue with my email which required intervention from the IT department.  I wanted to express my appreciation of the professionalism of Michelle’s department.  I realize this is their job, but I feel they really went above and beyond to protect Barton and get me up and working again as soon as they possibly could.  Everyone involved yesterday was extremely professional, thorough, and quickly yet calmly took care of the situation.  This was very reassuring to me in the midst of such a big disruption to the work schedule of all involved.

I wanted you to be aware of how appreciative I am of this quality of work, protection, and professionalism! 

"Band Director," Brian Howe