Exploring Entrepreneurialism in Academia
Inna
Gorlova, Ed.D.
Adjunct
Faculty
Leadership
and Counseling Department
Eastern
Michigan University
Globalization
and the rapidly changing market cause universities to seek new and creative
ways to survive and succeed. The term entrepreneurial university is an
ideological umbrella for those higher education institutions that are
attempting to fully participate in the social and economic life of society
(Clark, 2004; Etzkowitz, 2004; Schramm, 2006). The mission of entrepreneurial universities
goes beyond teaching and research. They
actively collaborate with the external organizations as they transfer knowledge
to new or improved programs and services (Etzkowitz, 2004).
A qualitative study was conducted to investigate entrepreneurial transformation at
the academic and non-academic departments of the School of Education at one
Midwestern large public comprehensive university. I sought to better understand the growth of
the programs and services at the units of analysis and how entrepreneurial
concepts such as entrepreneurial behavior, culture, entrepreneurial products,
creativity, innovations, and others play out in the chosen institution. Collected qualitative data were coded and
scanned for common themes.
Fourteen
emergent themes were put into five categories: Entrepreneurial Individuals,
Environmental Factors, Organizational Behaviors, Organizational Outcomes, and
Organizational Systems. Analysis of the emergent themes showed that
they are not equal; some of the themes are more important than the others. The following four themes were found
to be core ones: Diversity of Personal and Professional Expertize and
Experiences, Teamwork and Internal Collaboration, Unique/Innovative Programs
and Services, and Entrepreneurial Achievement Oriented Organizational
Culture. These core themes have closer connections among the other themes and carry the
content to which the data refer more often that to the rest of themes (see the
highlighted themes in the Table below).
Fourteen emergent themes and five main categories
These themes create a “story” that emerged from the data. This story tells that the organizational members with diverse backgrounds, experiences and expertise, come together in different teams and collaborate to achieve common goals. They work across campus and with the partnering organizations in the state, region, nationally, and internationally. They scan environment and conduct research on the best practices at other higher education institutions. During these collaborative processes, they choose ideas for new projects and improvements for their existing programs and services and turn the ideas to innovative organizational outcomes. The innovations are considered as unique novel programs that may be new at the level of departments, School of Education, University, or among other universities. All of the processes at the selected departments contribute to the entrepreneurial culture. This culture should be understood as the lowest level of “cultural iceberg” that represents underlined assumptions and deep believes (Schein, 2004) of the organizational members. This culture is achievement oriented (McClelland, 1961). The individuals compete with each other how far they may go in the market. This culture is supportive to new ideas and involves hard work, determination, and risk-taking.
These four themes are tied in a cycling process because the entrepreneurial organizational culture promotes a lot of restructuring activities at all of the levels within the University. The restructuring leads to frequent change of the positions and responsibilities because the organization seeks fresh input. When the departments hire new faculty or staff, the hiring committee looks in candidates for diverse backgrounds, creativity, curiosity, and proven abilities to go beyond traditional walls in academia.
This
study was an important opportunity for me, as an educational leader, to learn
about the processes that occur in higher education because of global pressures
and about how entrepreneurialism enhances capability of an organization to
succeed in today’s globalizing world.
Questions
for consideration:
How do we, educational
leaders, apply creativity in our everyday work with the students? And how do we
recognize and support creativity and initiatives by our students and/or
colleagues? How often are we willing to go beyond our comfort zones and initiate
and implement projects that would bring people from other disciplinary together
in order to improve teaching-learning? Where entrepreneurialism in academia
starts: in a classroom or at a president office?
References:
Clark, B. R. (2004). Delineating the Character of the Entrepreneurial
University. Higher Education Policy, 17,
355-370.
Etzkowitz, H. (2004). The evolution of the entrepreneurial
university. International Journal of Technology and Globalisation, 1, 64-77.
McClelland, D. C. (1961). The Achieving Society. Princeton, NJ: D.
Van. Nostrand Company, Ltd.
Schein, E.H. (2004). Organizational Culture and Leadership.
3rd Ed. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons
Schramm, C. (2006). The Entrepreneurial imperative: How
America’s economic miracle will reshape the world (and change your life).
New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers
