Social network dynamics of quality enhancement initiatives in the community college setting: Strategic choice and emergent change

This study used social network analysis to examine the strategic and emergent dynamics of externally mandated quality enhancement initiatives in the community college setting. The theoretical context for this study relies on complex adaptive systems theory to anticipate that when institutions confront new demands from their external environment, they will employ emergent and/or strategic approaches to adaptation. Three community colleges in the Southeast were selected as research sites. Each of these colleges was at a different point in implementing a quality enhancement initiative as part of the decennial reaffirmation of accreditation cycle with their regional accrediting agency. Social network analysis was conducted using an own-tie survey instrument. An own-tie survey was generated for each research site based on a roster of individuals who had formal involvement with their college's quality enhancement initiative in the previous year. Data collected from the own-tie surveys were analyzed using the UCINET program (Borgatti, Everett, & Freeman, 2002) for three complete network measures (network density, core-periphery, and external-internal index) and three individual network measures (total connections, eigenvector centrality, and boundary spanner). These measures were then used to identify three informants representing diverse network positions from each research site for semi-structured interviews (Daly & Finnigan, 2010). These interviews asked informants to describe the network dynamics they perceived for their quality enhancement initiatives as well as the extent to which these dynamics were strategic or emergent in nature. This study's findings suggest that quality enhancement initiatives are characterized by primarily strategic dynamics. A likely explanation for this is the data collection and assessment emphasis typical of externally mandated quality enhancement initiatives. Theoretical, methodological, and practical implications of this study's findings are also discussed.