Uh oh, I have a feeling some on here will be a bit upset. Change is bad, no?
New University of Iowa President Bruce Harreld talked of respecting the university’s unique institutional culture but also adapting it to the challenges and opportunities of the future during a television interview Tuesday.
A former business executive who took over as president last week, Harreld has faced a barrage of skepticism from university constituencies and criticism that his background does not qualify him to lead a major research university.
But during his first appearance on Iowa Public Television public affairs program "Iowa Press," Harreld drew on his business background and managerial philosophy to argue that UI must change to remain competitive and successful — even if that means changing things that have long been viewed as strengths.
“My work says that the better an organization is, the more its culture actually replicates what made it so successful in the past,” Harreld said. “They start hiring people like those who made them successful and they start measuring things of the past. And as the world changes around them, they’re almost blinded and blocked by their inability to lift themselves out of that environment.”
As an executive at IBM, Harreld said he was forced to enact changes during a crisis. But even though UI isn’t in crisis — he referred to the university as “a pretty solid institution” — it still must reorient itself to the future.
“You actually need to shift all of the practices, policies, procedures and culture … to be in support of the future, not the past,” he said. “That’s what I’ve been doing all my life, and here we are again.”
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/st...d-calls-changing-university-culture/75543588/
New University of Iowa President Bruce Harreld talked of respecting the university’s unique institutional culture but also adapting it to the challenges and opportunities of the future during a television interview Tuesday.
A former business executive who took over as president last week, Harreld has faced a barrage of skepticism from university constituencies and criticism that his background does not qualify him to lead a major research university.
But during his first appearance on Iowa Public Television public affairs program "Iowa Press," Harreld drew on his business background and managerial philosophy to argue that UI must change to remain competitive and successful — even if that means changing things that have long been viewed as strengths.
“My work says that the better an organization is, the more its culture actually replicates what made it so successful in the past,” Harreld said. “They start hiring people like those who made them successful and they start measuring things of the past. And as the world changes around them, they’re almost blinded and blocked by their inability to lift themselves out of that environment.”
As an executive at IBM, Harreld said he was forced to enact changes during a crisis. But even though UI isn’t in crisis — he referred to the university as “a pretty solid institution” — it still must reorient itself to the future.
“You actually need to shift all of the practices, policies, procedures and culture … to be in support of the future, not the past,” he said. “That’s what I’ve been doing all my life, and here we are again.”
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/st...d-calls-changing-university-culture/75543588/
