The leader of the band: the pivotal role of the academic department head in the pursuit of continuous improvement and innovation in business education

College Student Journal, Sept, 2004 by Randall P. Settoon, David C. Wyld

1. faculty composition and development

2. curriculum content

3. instructional resources

4. student recruitment and placement

5. faculty intellectual contributions.

Goals should be formulated in the area of curriculum content. The process of creating new courses and degree programs should reflect a value-added approach to curriculum revision that emphasizes high quality, assessment, relevance, and responsiveness to graduates and employers' needs. Processes should be in place to ensure effective development, delivery, assessment, and revision of degree programs.

A subset of departmental goals addressing curriculum content are commonly referred to as educational objectives. Accreditation standards require that linkages exist among the mission of the college, degree program educational objectives, course delivery, and assessment. The strategic planning process ensures that these links indeed exist and that they are strong. More specifically, the goals of the department should serve as the basis for each degree program. For each degree program, specific educational objectives that support departmental goals should be specified, and these objectives, in turn, serve as the basis for the development of course syllabi by faculty. Of course, faculty members are free to select teaching styles and testing methods that are appropriate for the course and support specified educational objectives. However, student attainment of educational objectives is a key component of the assessment process.

To ensure that the needs of various stakeholders are being met, each degree program specifies educational objectives for student learning and monitors progress toward those goals. The linkages among the mission of degree program educational objectives, course delivery, and assessment are illustrated in Figure 3.

[FIGURE 3 OMITTED]

As demonstrated in this model, educational objectives should be developed as part of each department's curriculum revision process. Department curriculum committees, composed of department faculty, should review issues regarding course content, prerequisites, and sequencing. They also should evaluate curriculum, based on input from students, businesses and other constituents, as well as assessment plans, developed from degree-program educational objectives. Using these inputs, changes are then proposed when warranted. In most instances, the sequence of approval is through the department head, then to the college curriculum committee (made up of the chairs of all departmental curriculum committees), and then to the dean of the college.

"THE BUCK STOPS HERE!": THE RESOURCE ALLOCATION PROCESS

Departments must manage their resources to ensure that they are sufficient to both achieve mission and program objectives and to sustain efforts to assure continuous improvement. The resource allocation process should be linked to the university's budget hearing process. Normally, the department head requests additional resources (based on the department's plan) from the dean, who, after deliberations with all department heads, prepares the college's request for additional resources. In many universities, the dean presents the college's requests during university budget hearings (see Figure 4).