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1 DOCUMENT RESUMEED 119 564HE 007 303 AUTHOR Schroeder, Roger Management System Improvement: OverallDescription of the Review Phase. working Management System Improvement Univ., Minneapolis. Graduate School ofBusiness AGENCYEXXON Corp., New York, DATESep PRICEMF-$ HC-$ Plus PostageDESCRIPTORSData Analysis; Data Collection; *EducationalAdministration; *Higher Education; *InformationSystems; *Management Development; *ManagementSystems; Post Secondary Education; ProgramDescriptionsABSTRACTThe Resource Allocations and Management Program grantfunds a-project aimed at facilitating the use of management scienceand information systems techniques by developing, documenting, andtesting a methodology that small postsecondary units can use inconsidering the application of these tools. This DOCUMENT provides adescription and an overview of the data collection methods used inthis project.

2 In developing the review phase, the thrust is toprovide an approach that is based on data collection and analysis andis systematic in nature.'"Also developed is a general description ofthe review phase structure that forms a basis for the development ofspecific data collection methodology.(Author)**Documents acquired by ERIC include many informal unpublished** materials not available from other sources. ERIC makes every effort ** to obtain the best copy available. Nevertheless, items of marginal** reproducibility are often encountered and this affects the quality** of the microfiche and hardcopy reproductions ERIC makes available** via the ERIC DOCUMENT Reproduction Service (EDRS). EDRS is not* responsible for the quality of the original DOCUMENT . Reproductions ** supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original.

3 **COLLEGE MANAGEMENTSYSTEM IMPROVEMENT PROJECTCENTER FOR ACADEMIC ADMINISTRATION RESEARCH oftheCOLLEGE ,OF EDUCATION ANDGRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATIONUNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA2U S OEPARTMENTOF HEALTH,EDUCATION&WELFARENATIONAL INSTITUTEOFEDUCATIONusDOCUMENT HASBEEN REPROOur ED fXAr fi,* ASCiECE NEDPROMRSONION ORIGth-NCA I,Nr,r P)4N,v,4 trOEPOStAiroNr,, NurrsAct, ,5rA, ()NA, IWO'TutOFED ,rPo,, or,Ok POLICYPROJECT INVESTIGATORSCarl R. AdamsAssociate ProfessorGraduate School of Business AdministrationUniversity of MinnesotaTheodore E. KelloggProfessorCollege of EducationUniversity of MinnesotaRoger G. SchroederAssociate ProfessorGraduate School of Business AdministrationUniversity of MinnesotaADDRESS93 Blegen HallUniversity of MinnesotaMinneapolis, Minnesota 55455(612) MANAGEMENT SYSTEM IMPROVEMENT PROJECTC ollege Management System Improvement:Overall Description of the Review Phase* working G.

4 SchroederAssociate Professor, Business AdministrationDirector, Center for Academic AdministrationResearchUniversity of MinnesotaMinneapolis, Minnesota55455 September 1974*This paper was developed as part of a researchproject supportedby the EXXON Education Foundation through aRAMP Grant to AugsburgCollege, Minneapolis, assistance of the author'sfellow researchers, Professors Carl R. Adams andTheodore and of the project research associates,Marcia Hanson andMalcom Munro is gratefully paper discusses the review of management systems in the contextof a research project that is aimed at improving the management system of asmall postsecondary is one of a series of working papers that documenta general approach to the improvement of management systems in such series of papers is being prepared by members of the College Management SystemImprovement Project team at the University of efforts of theteam are being supported by the Exxon Education Foundation through its ResourceAllocation and Management Program grant to Augsburg College, Minneapolis, research efforts of the project are aimed at facilitating the use of managementscience and information systems techniques by developing, documenting.

5 And testinga methodology that small postsecondary units can use in considering the applicationof these order to avoid the complexity of problems and organization involvedin the administration of multi-college multi-campus institutions, the method-ology was developed for a college-size unit (enrollment of 1,000-5,000).Theseunits could be independent or part of a larger institution or theproject investigators are particularly sensitive to the human considerations oforganizational change, the primary focus of the proposed methodology is on changesto the structural aspects of the , the project focuses onorganizational features such as decision procedures, formats, and 1indicates the topics to be covered in each of thepapers in theproject box has been drawn around the subject of 1 COLLEGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM IMPROVEMENT DOCUMENTATIONAn Overview of the ApproachTHE DESIGN PHASETHE IMPLEMENTATION PHASETHE REVIEW PHASEpAn Overall DescriptionInstitutional GoalsManagerial TopicsOperating TopicsEnvironmental ContextProject and ManagementSystem EvaluationAn Overall DescriptionChoosing MajorImprovement AreasDeveloping AlternativeCourses of Action foreach Improvement AreaSelection of a FinalDesignProject and ManagementSystem EvaluationAn Overall DescriptionEstablishing theProject ManagementPlanDeveloping DetailedChange PlansTraining andImplementationProject and ManagementSystem EvaluationAs can be seen from Figure 1, the improvement approachhas three mainparts.

6 1) the Review Phase, 2) the Design Phase,and 3) the Review Phase describes the existing managementsystem and the needsfor Design Phase identifies major managementsystem improve-ment areas based on data from the Review Phase and itgenerates design improve-ments for each of those Implementation Phase implements and evaluatesthe resulting new management reasoning behind the three phase structureand a brief description of the methods used ineach phase is contained in theseries overview paper [2].62 INTRODUCTIONThis paper provides a description of the structure of the review phaseand an overview of the data collection methods used in this approachis defined below for colleges, the type of postsecondary institution, where it isbeing applied by the , the methodology could almost certainly beapplied to other types of organizations as existing bodies of literature are related to the review of first of these is the general management literature (eg.

7 , Anthony [3],Ackoff [1], Koontz and O'Donnell [7], and McGuire [8]).This literature has ad-vocated basic principles of management, but they are far too broad to be of directuse in collecting data for the review of an existing management system and theydo not link the theory to the design of better management we will seebelow, however, the structure provided by these principles is necessary for theorderly development of our second body of literature is that of systems approachis represented by authors such as Glans, et [6] and Couger [5].These authorshave tended to discuss very detailed questions about systems include checklists, paperwork flow analysis procedures, flowcharting, andother techniques which are used to analyze the clerical or operating subsystems ofan approach tends to be ad hoc in nature and it presumes the typeof improvements which are , the systems analysis approach has notin the past concentrated sufficiently on the planning and control functions , it has been primarily concerned with improving is a need for the development ofbetter methods for the review ofmanagement developing the review phase.

8 The thrustis to provide anapproach which is based on data collectionand analysis and is systematic next section providesa general description of the review phasestructure which forms a basis for thedevelopment of specific data OF REVIEW PHASE STRUCTUREThe purpose of the review phase isto collect data which can be used for(1) the design ofan improved management system and (2) evaluationof improve-ments after they have been collection is at the heart of carefully structuring the data collection,some of the ad hoc nature ofother methods will be discussion of the review phasestructure is organized into four parts;systems definitions, selection ofsubsystems for review, the components ofthereview phase, and a framework fordata of these parts contributesto the overall structure of the review DefinitionsIn describing the review phase it isuseful to provide a systems view ofan will help define what ismeant by words such as "the manage-ment system" and "the operating system.

9 "The concept of an organizationas asystem is shown in Figure 2 and thecomponents of that system are 2 DESCRIPTION OF AN ORGANIZATION AS A, Structure Environment(people, resources)ManagementStructureDirectivesF eedbackOperationsInstitutionalFeedbackOu tputsSome of the elements of the above figure are defined as follows:Manapment Structure - Consists of procedures, policies, and methods thatdirect the operations of the consists of a set ofmanagerial activities that are used to set goals, plan, make'policy,manage resources, implement plans, and evaluate Structure Environment - Consists of the people and resourcesthat are used in connection with the structure to direct the operationsof the System - The management system consists of the managementstructure together with its erations - Consists of programs and activities that produce the outputsservices and products)

10 Of the operations aredirected by the management organization includes both a management system and phase being discussed in this paper is concerned with the review of themanagement excludes the review of operations for the purpose ofoperating are reviewed only in terms of their relation-ship to- the management of Subsystems for ReviewSince an entire system cannot usually be reviewed as a whole, it is importantto subdivide the system into components or methods of subdivision59were considered: by processes (activities), by organizational components,or byfunctional operating an entirely comprehensive review, data shouldprobably be collected by all three methods of subdivision, since eachmethodprovides information from a different , most circumstanceswould probably not allow such a comprehensive process subdivision method was developed for this one werelooking for organization structure weaknesses, then itwould be appropriate tocollect data by organizational focus for review here is not on organi-zational changes, therefore, the organizational method isnot of primary the other hand, the method of dividing the system into functionaloperatingsubsystems is particularly useful when changes in operationsare desired becausefunctions are typically defined from an operating standpoint,see for exampleGouger [5].