Institutional Culture and Structure
Institutional Culture and Structure
Institutional Culture and Structure
The institutional culture and structured is one of those “monolithic” things that student affairs professional work to understand during the job search. It’s true, these two things can often be very challenging to explore and understand. But, if you have a plan and put in some practice, you can turn what is often a big challenge into an even bigger asset.
What is the institutional culture and structure? How is it defined? How can everyday student affairs professionals interpret the institutional culture and structure and use it to their advantage during an interview?
This article will review what the institutional culture and structure is from the job seeker’s perspective. This article also includes the big view that encompasses the entire institution as well as how it informs institutional culture and structure. Culture and structure are also reviewed in depth along with key insights on how to use both to your advantage as a student affairs job seeker.
What is institutional culture and structure?
Understanding an institution’s culture and structure is like having a super power. Formulate your responses with these two aspects in mind, and it’s as if you’ll be reading your interviewers’ minds. That’s why it’s important to spend a significant amount of time preparing and researching these two areas.
In addition, you’ll consider both of them under the “big view” of the institution when preparing your briefing book. This article will examine these three areas as part of your briefing book. This briefing bbook sections includes the “big view;” the institutional structure; and the institutional culture.
The Big View, Culture, and Structure
The big view takes into account major published sources like Wikipedia, the institutional website, US News & World Report, and its Carnegie classification. Culture takes into account inside views on what it’s like to work and attend the institution. Insiders can often provide some valuable information that isn’t normally available on publicly published sources. To gain this information, you’ll utilize websites like Niche and Glassdoor. You’ll also turn to the institution’s mission and vision statements to round out your knowledge of the institution’s culture.
Understanding institutional structure involves examining how all of these different elements of the institution and culture fit together into the organization. This includes a review of the specific student affairs mission statement, office mission statement (if applicable), and organizational chart.
Culture
Culture is something that’s only fully understood after having worked at the college for a considerable amount of time.
Unfortunately, you don’t have that much experience yet. So that means you’ll have to rely on more dynamic sources.
Here’s where you can lean on websites like Glassdoor and Niche. Both provide an area where employees and students alike can provide some insight and information in the form of reviews. Glassdoor can also provide some good insider information on what the interview process is like for the institution. Issues and talking points that are brought up by students are addressed in Niche reviews.
You should also review the institution’s mission and/or vision statement. These statements are most frequently referred to when determining direction and guidance for the institution’s strategic goals and activities. These two statements are gold mines for determining the keywords to use in your response language to the interviewer’s questions.
Using language in your responses similar to the research you’ve done on the institution is helpful.
By carefully choosing your words you will be able to more closely align what they’re looking for with your background and abilities. The closer you can come to what is indicated in these two statements, the better.
Structure
Next, you’ll review the structure of the institution. This is a more tactical approach to reviewing the entire college or university. Here, you’ll focus more on the division of student affairs, your specific office, and potential new colleagues.
When researching an institution’s structure, review the student affairs mission and/or vision statement to determine where priorities and focus lie. You can get even more granular with your approach to the office’s mission statement. This is a good source of information on how your specific office integrates the institution’s and the division’s mission statement.
Finally, you should review the organizational chart for the institution, division of student affairs, and your office to determine who your colleagues would be, who your supervisors would be, and who the staff members are. Understanding these power dynamics is key to determining how authority is structured in the organization.
Places that influence the institutional structure:
-Student Affairs Mission Statement
-Office Mission Statement
-Institutional Organizational Chart
-Institutional Mission Statement
Takeaways
This article reviewed what the institutional culture and structured are from the student affairs job search perspective. This article also included a review of the “big view” of the institution and how that informs both your interpretation of its culture and structure. Culture and structure were then reviewed in depth along with key insights on how to use both to your advantage during your interview process.
I hope that you found this article useful! If you need some additional help on your student affairs job search, then check out the eBook The Student Affairs Job Search: A Comprehensive Guide available here.
Happy searching,
References
Colleges and Organizational Structure of Universities - Governing Boards, The President, Faculty, Administration and Staff, Students, Future Prospects. (n.d.). Retrieved January 6, 2020, from https://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/1859/Colleges-Universities-Organizational-Structure.html.
Eng, D. (2019, July 1). On Campus Interview - Job Hakr: Student Affairs Job Search. Retrieved January 6, 2020, from https://www.jobhakr.com/blog-1/2019/6/26/4-steps-to-navigating-the-on-campus-student-affairs-interview.
Mission and Vision Definition. (2015, May 18). Retrieved January 6, 2020, from https://www.edglossary.org/mission-and-vision/.
Cite this Article
Eng, D. (2020, January 14). Institutional Culture and Structure. Retrieved MONTH DATE, YEAR, from https://www.jobhakr.com/blog-1/2020/1/14/institutional-culture-and-structure
Internal Ref: JHKR6J017HOI2