Reaction Paper on Special Topics and Related Issues - the Applicability of Institutional Goals to the University Organization

REACTION PAPER ON SPECIAL TOPICS AND RELATED ISSUES:

“THE APPLICABILITY OF INSTITUTIONAL GOALS TO THE UNIVERSITY ORGANIZATION”

The article is an epitome of the disagreement between expectations and reality. The author has often described the institutional goals as not often attained due to various reasons that will be stated later on in this paper.  While it is true that every University has a vision and mission and therefore has goals as intermediate desired outcomes in attaining the long term vision, more often than not, these goals merely stay on paper.  Moreover, it was emphasized that the existence of the University is always based on its goals and objectives, meaning the University is guided by a statement of goals that would eventually define its existence.  With this in mind, how should University goals now be regarded? What would be the significance of the goals to the existence of the University?  According to Patterson (2001), in the planning stage of any organization, goals would provide the backbone, thus it shall be the basis for directing where the organization will go and how it will get there.  Perhaps any University that exist has a clear statement of goals and objectives, usually formulated by the top management, the main problem is, will the workers (comprised of teaching and non-teaching staff) help in the attainment of the goals set by top management?  Patterson (2001) has mentioned that deviations from the goals may be brought about by poor motivation and misperceived goals which are often exemplified in many Universities and companies where workers have different goals as their University, that is, their main goal is more of providing merely for their own needs.  While this perspective is understandable especially in the Philippine setting, it is still noteworthy that workers may still work for a common goal while still providing for their own.  The problems of poor management and inadequate resourcing (Patterson, 2016) also contribute to goal deviations.  For some people in top management, the goals that they come up with are often described by themselves as rational, efficient and effective (Patterson, 2001), but as was pointed out by Morgan (1985) as cited by Patterson (2001), rationality is often based on the perspective of the one viewing it and thus is based on their own interests which may not be considered rational by the workers or even lower management people.  This shows the conflicts in terms of goals set by top management and the goals that the workers would like to attain. Another problem according to Patterson (2001) is the multiple but conflicting missions which may be seen perhaps in very large Universities.  While most business corporations have a single mission and that is profit, for Universities, this is not achieved since most Universities have other mission statements and especially for non-profit Universities, this definitely does not apply.  

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