| The focus of my dissertation study was an organization-wide continuous improvement initiative at Ocean County College in New Jersey. This inquiry concentrated on eliminating a fragmented approach to providing academic advising services by the academic affairs and student affairs divisions. My aim was to plan, implement, and analyze an academic advising initiative that strengthened a learning-centered educational environment.; The narrative depicts my application of the Dolence and Norris (1995) four-stage methodology. These four stages are: realign, redesign, redefine, and reengineer. With the priority of realignment to transform the approach to providing educational services, the Vice President of Academic Affairs and I co-chaired an Academic Advising Task Force. Our overall objective was to strive to create a seamless academic advising process. The redesign stage of the Dolence and Norris process obliges organizations to establish support mechanisms facilitating transition. During this stage, faculty and administrators collaborated on improving the academic advising process. By redefining roles and responsibilities within academic advising, constituents applied the redefine stage of the Dolence and Norris change process. This approach facilitated the deconstructing and reconstructing of assumptions relating to: (a) the role of faculty advisor, (b) current and future faculty advisor responsibilities, and (c) the use of technology within the academic advising process. The Academic Advising Task Force reengineered the faculty advisor and student advisee assignment process, employing the reengineer stage.; Outcomes realized during the change process were the result of intentional and purposeful interventions by the Academic Advising Task Force. One significant outcome involved creation of a six-module academic advising professional development program, building academic advising capacity. Another outcome was the development of an OCC Academic Advising Plan, including an academic advising professional development workshop timetable for faculty, administrators, adjuncts, and academic advising staff.; A mixed methods approach was utilized to address research questions within this action research study. Quantitative data from faculty and administrator academic advising survey results were supplemented with qualitative data from open-ended questions contained within the survey. My documentation illustrates that I have begun to observe improvement in organizational focus and coherence among academic and student affairs regarding the academic advising process. |
