The effects of organizational structure on academic and student affairs collaboration at a Texas community college

The era of accountability, increased competition for students, and the performance-based funding practices for public higher education institutions have created a need for community colleges to focus on student learning and success. Community colleges have a difficult time creating and implementing opportunities for academic and student affairs collaboration due to the organizational structure and division of labor. The challenges in academic and student affairs collaboration stem from the organizational structure in which the two divisions operate as independent units or functional silos. The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions and experiences of community college academic and student affairs professionals regarding how collaboration between the two divisions affects student success. The study focused on their perceptions of the elements that contribute to or inhibit collaborative activities, their roles in creating and maintaining a seamless learning environment through collaborative activities, and how they perceived current organizational structures of academic and student affairs divisions contributed to or inhibited collaborations.
Data collection instruments used in this study was the researcher, semi-structured interviews, field notes, reflexive journal, and institutional documents. The constant comparative approach of data analysis was used to analyze the data collected. Open coding was used to identify distinct concepts and categories in the data. Axial coding was used to ensure the concepts and categories accurately represented the participants’ responses and to explore how the concepts and categories were related.
The findings of this study indicated that academic and student affairs professional do not perceive the college as an environment that fosters academic and student affairs collaboration. However, the collaboration between academic and student affairs professionals occurred often and mostly on a voluntary basis. The participants perceived academic and student affairs collaboration occurred because of the need to perform daily operations, the need to meet accountability outcomes, and because the members of both divisions are committed to the success of the students. The participants perceived the existing barriers that prevent them from collaborating on student success included the relationship between academic and student affairs professionals perceived as mostly adversarial/strenuous/divided or no relationship at all; the college is not an environment that fosters academic and student affairs collaboration; and the college’s organizational structure is in a state of transformation. The participants identified a lack of communication, unclear roles and responsibilities, and a bureaucratic organizational structure as barriers to academic and student affairs collaboration. The participants perceived the college’s organizational structure as more of an inhibitor than a supporter of academic and student affairs collaborations.
The results of this study lead to several implications for higher education practice, including the genuineness of the college’s collaboration philosophy gets lost when implemented into practice; academic and student affairs collaborations are hindered by a lack of communication, unclear roles and responsibilities of the stakeholders; and a bureaucratic organizational structure with a division of labor inhibits academic and student affairs collaboration which leads to fragmented services to students.
The results of this study lead to several recommendations for higher education practice. The first recommendation is community colleges must make academic and student affairs collaboration a part of the college’s core values. The second recommendation is community colleges must recognize the need to create collaborative partnerships between the academic and student affairs divisions that provide a seamless connection between in-and out-side of classroom experiences to promote student success. The third recommendation is community colleges must implement organizational structures that support academic and student affairs collaborations between the two divisions.