Integration of technology into institutional strategies
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This study was commissioned to assess current awareness, practice and issues relating to the integration of technology into institutional strategies in UK higher education.
Executive Summary
JISC and the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education (LFHE) wished to identify actions that they might take to encourage and support higher education leaders and senior managers to engage more with the strategic technology agenda, both within their own institutions and across the sector.
The research
A representative sample of managers and academics from 28 HEIs across the UK was interviewed. The sample included members of SMT, planning officers and Heads of the IS/IT service and Governors. A selection of individuals in the sector and executives from commercial and public sector organisations was also interviewed. We noted a discernible difference in perceptions between those who see the institution as a business driven from the top to achieve outcomes in line with its mission in a competitive marketplace and those who see it primarily as a community of scholars.
The core question of the study asks how and why senior leaders do or do not integrate technology into their institutional strategies. We looked at how corporate strategy is developed, shared and implemented in order to identify both where and how a consideration of ICT is brought to bear upon strategy and the success of the process. This uncovered the perspectives of the various roles in the sample.
Findings
We concluded that managers who combine a deep understanding of technology with senior management experience remain uncommon in the sector. We found that most institutions rely upon collaboration between a number of different individuals with complementary skills to deliver effective insight into the actual and potential contribution of technology to the overall strategic aims of the organisation.
We produced two fundamental models of core strategic process to provide a framework for meaningful description and analysis of the key issues. These we called the integrated and disjoint models. In the integrated model, the main strategy development process stimulates and drives a parallel process of development of separate substrategies for major functional areas and academic units to support and deliver the institutional strategy. In the disjoint model, while the overall strategy informs thinking within the organisation and sets the boundaries, a combination of budgetary autonomy and academic independence allows local strategies to emerge, sometimes in complex ways.
The interviews revealed the disjoint model to be more common, even in institutions which seemed relatively managerial in their language and expectations.
We saw that technology could play a role at three levels in strategic planning: transformational when it is used to recast the institution in a different form; as a strategic enabler when it is needed to implement the strategic goals set by management; or as an operational enabler when its role is to support the core activities of the institution. We found little evidence or consideration of its transformational worth and only some evidence of its use as a strategic enabler. Most common was its use as an operational enabler.
The organisation of roles and responsibilities for the strategic exploitation of technology emerged as an issue of great importance. In particular, the notion of a senior manager with responsibility for technology strategy emerged in discussion around the role of Chief Information Officer (CIO). This has proved successful in the private sector and has been adopted by a number of innovative leaders in the sector both here and abroad. The establishment of such a role on the SMT yields significant benefit, but it is possible that similar levels of benefit might be achieved by effective organisation of information and communications immediately below.
We concluded that generally there are significant shortcomings in the capability of senior management teams in HEIs to identify and exploit the full strategic potential of technology.
Recommendations
Only a minority of institutions are giving effective consideration to technology as either a strategic or transformational enabler in their strategic planning and by not doing so they can miss opportunities.
We make the following recommendations:
Recommendation 1
The Leadership Foundation for Higher Education should ensure that, within its activities, effort is directed to challenging members of Senior Management Teams to consider whether or not their chosen strategy development processes satisfactorily incorporate consideration of the strategic role of technology.
Issues which the Leadership Foundation should address in its activities include:
- the roles of technology: transformational; strategically enabling; operationally enabling
- the fit between strategic practice and organisation and culture of the institution
- the creation of appropriate training and development opportunities in the strategic management of technology for non-technical Governors, leaders and managers, whether this be by extending the scope of current programmes or devising free-standing programmes or publications
Recommendation 2
The Leadership Foundation for Higher Education should ensure that, within its activities, Chief Executive Officers and members of governing bodies are challenged to consider whether the distribution of membership of Senior Management Teams and governing bodies enable these groups to be sufficiently technology literate. By a technology literate team, we mean one which has at least one member with the understanding of what technology can and cannot deliver and who has the capacity to inform the team on these matters.
Issues which the Leadership Foundation should address include:
- optimal management structures to integrate consideration of technology into corporate strategy, including those where there is expertise on SMT and those where this is not the case
- the nature and effectiveness of the arrangements for governance of the strategy for technology
Recommendation 3
The Leadership Foundation for Higher Education should ensure that, within its activities, effort is directed to assisting the HE sector to develop Chief Information Officers within its own ranks and to develop ICT support staff who are business focused.
Issues which the Leadership Foundation should address here include:
- identifying the key functions and responsibilities of a CIO in the strategy for technology
- establishing the training and development requirements of the CIO role
- exploring the viability of activities such as training to meet these needs
Recommendation 4
We recommend the JISC to use its expertise and good offices in collaborating with the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education to deliver recommendations 1, 2 and 3. It should consider whether its current portfolio of activities needs modification better to facilitate such support of the Leadership Foundation.
In support of this we note:
- The scope and scale of JISC's activities and events give it an unrivalled understanding of the technologies used in Higher Education and excellent contacts with those involved in its strategic and operational management
- The JISC's current activities place little weight on administrative computing and on the management of technology. Both of these are critical to the success of technology within HE and these areas could usefully be developed within the JISC portfolio through effective collaboration with the LFHE
- The JISC should consider the extent to which the membership of its committees reflects the needs of HE administrative computing and the management of technology within HE
Recommendation 5
The JISC should consider providing a future awareness service for Higher Education Chief Executive Officers and Senior Management Teams, which addresses ICT matters for technology non-literate senior managers
In support of this we note that:
- Acquiring the right level of understanding about technology can be difficult
- JISC’s TechWatch service is in a position to provide helpful information
- Such information should be suitable for the technologically non literate
Recommendation 6
We recommend that the JISC and the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education work with UCISA to increase the level of external support provided to Heads of ICT departments and to Chief Information Officers, so that they may better address the business issues.
In support of this we note:
- There is clear evidence of a communication gap between ICT support staff and senior managers
- The leadership of HEI departments can be a lonely occupation. A support network for Heads of ICT service departments which is forward looking could facilitate basic better use of technology
- UCISA's involvement with the sector is excellent. This involvement should be complementary to, rather than competitive with, that of the Leadership Foundation and the JISC