Pedagogy

Managing to Improve Productivity

There are many ways to measure and define productivity. Websters Dictionary defines it as the quality or state of being productive (Websters-Dictionary, 2009). This meaning may be sufficient for the general acceptation of the public but taking a look at productivity in the perspective of management would make it much deeper and complicated. In most cases, managing to improve the productivity of the workers or employees is a big challenge that the employers must undertake and overcome for the furtherance and success of the business. Productivity is not only confined to businesses and large industries, it may also be experienced by educational institutions and others who are willing to explore the boundaries of success.

In the book entitled Leader to Leader, author Peter Drucker discussed the challenges being faced by the employers nowadays because of the earlier retirement of the workers. According to him, if the numerous number of early retirement continues, the industry will be completely bankrupt. The continuance of the present trend of retirement rate will bring about 3.3 people in the labor for for every corresponding retired person. Employers can no longer expect a large ratio of adults in the labor force because the country already has the highest recorded proportion in the history. Statistics show that based on an average work life span of approximately twenty five years only about one hundred years ago, the world now is in dire need to keep the people working for about fifty years in order to maintain the growing economy and to provide enough means to support themselves (Drucker, 2007).

Managing for productivity is an act that is not exclusive solely to the business industry, it may likewise be applied in managing the centralization of multi-campuses. The relationship between the higher education and the state is considered as a complicated and dynamic one. As such, a restructuring of this relationship is necessary to be more productive and successful. Educational institutions on higher education which consists of several campuses must structure itself in a strategic way in order to attain the maximum return from its resources. Many people can learn from several articles printed by the Hanover Research Council when it comes to approaching the education from a managerial perspective in order to maximize all possible resources. As a general rule, schools are non-profit institutions and as such they are exempted from paying taxes. This does not necessarily mean that they are not allowed to finds ways of managing productivity because these tax-exempt institutions like colleges and universities may own and control a subsidiary corporation without endangering its tax-exempt status (The Hanover Research Council, 2006).

A deep perusal of the approach of the educational institutions about restructuring and improving the overall functions and managements of higher education will lead one to appreciate the practicality of the situations especially nowadays when almost everybody is looking for opportunities for investment and savings. The belief that educational institutions and other schools must only be concerned with teaching is but a common misconception.

According to the I.R.S., there are ways of arranging non-profit and profit institutions  in order to maximize the benefits through affiliation and centralization. The researcher agrees on the implementation of a multi-campus structure on a financial and accounting perspective for the management of productivity. Not many people know that the higher education in the United States are educated in colleges and universities belonging to systems. Being a member of an Affiliation of institutions on higher education (IHE) would be a great way of conserving resources (The Hanover Research Council, 2006). There are many universities and colleges all over United States that are involved in the practice of centralization. For instance, Saint Johns University and the College of Saint Benedict located in St. Cloud, Minnesota are classic examples of the success of centralization of functions. For all intents and purposes, these schools function as one and the same institution by sharing admissions, registrar and other different functions. The faculty members of one college may also teach in the other one. Br. Dietrich T. Reinhart, the president of Saint Johns testified that if Saint Benedict was not around, they would have considered being coed as early as 1960s or 70s but as a result of the affiliation, they are a much better college than they would have been had they chose to stand alone in their operations. Based on the experience of these schools, I would have to say that keeping an open mind is important for the success of any institution or business. One other ingredient that everybody must consider would be the courage of accepting the change and taking the risk because if these institutions were too afraid to merge and be affiliated with each other, they would not experience the advantage that they now have (The Hanover Research Council, 2006).

In improving ones productivity, many aspects must be taken into consideration and efficiency initiatives are one of them. Some universities took the initiative to employ different devices for the furtherance of their productivity and effectiveness. One example of the display of such initiative can be seen from the programs of Pennsylvania State University (PSU). They created a Cost Savings Task Force in order to encourage ideas for cost savings and revenue enhancement strategies and these measures taken by them resulted in the reduction their planned tuition fee increase by 3.8 which is roughly 350 tuition fee saving for every student (The Hanover Research Council, 2007). This plan illustrated that productivity does not only involve finding ways to increase revenue, it also involves the seeking of alternatives in reducing expenses and costs.

Studying the different methods created by the educational institutions may serve as an inspiration to everybody that despite the economic problems and other issues that hamper progress, there are still ways to turn a situation around. Managing towards the improvement of productivity is a constant challenge that everybody must work hard to overcome because the success of one industry may serve as a network that can be imitated by others to improve their own productivity as well. If all other industries would mimic what these educational institutions  did and if only they would take the risk and consider the steps accomplished by the schools illustrated in the reports, this would create a chain reaction of productivity that everybody can benefit from.