| The purpose of this study was to gain perspective into the decision-making process of chief student affairs officers (CSAOs) when faced with a decision that has divisional and/or institutional implications. CSAOs have complicated positions as they have direct oversight of a division that provides a wide array of services for students. Additionally, CSAOs have an important role in the administration of the college as a whole, as they often serve on the senior leadership team. Decision-making by CSAOs is valuable to many constituents throughout the university including students, staff, and faculty. Understanding decision-making for CSAOs has become more critical as colleges are increasingly becoming more complex and complicated organizations and are receiving increased scrutiny from an interested public and a skeptical media.;This study was conducted in a qualitative matter with a phenomenological approach. The goal of phenomenology is to gain an understanding of a lived experience. CSAOs implement and facilitate decision-making on daily basis. Eleven interviews were conducted with CSAOs from a range of four-year private or public colleges in New England, with the intent to gather data in order to gain perspective into the decision-making process. After the data was analyzed, four main themes were identified as it pertains to the decision-making process. The four themes identified were: informed decision-making, collaboration with stakeholders, consideration of students, and transparent communication. These findings provided insight into the decision-making process. These findings will be valuable to multiple constituents across higher education. While the application will be broad, one example is that understanding how decisions are made can assist in training and preparing new CSAOs. Simply, the goal of this study was to ultimately gain an understanding of the essence of what a CSAO is dealing with when making institutional and/or divisional decisions. |
