Linking college mission statements to cost containment strategies
International Journal of Educational Management
ISSN: 0951-354X
Article publication date: 7 May 2019
Abstract
Purpose
Leaders at higher education institutions (HEIs) in the USA experience substantial pressure to contain costs while advancing their educational missions. The purpose of this paper is to explore the association between publicly stated academic cost-containment objectives found in HEI’s strategic plans and mission statements, which help to unify stakeholders and link strategy to an organization’s purpose.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper analyzes mission statements and strategic plans of 57 small, private HEIs in the Northeastern USA. HEIs in this sample published strategic plans with an explicit cost-containment goal. Mission statements were analyzed for readability. Thematic analysis was conducted using the balanced scorecard approach. Associations between a stated academic cost containment goal and mission statement themes are presented using logistic regression.
Findings
Mission statements of HEIs focused on academic cost containment are wordier and more varied. They tend not to mention “liberal arts,” a potential signal of a high-quality, high-cost school; less selective schools may be more likely to emphasize academic cost cutting.
Research limitations/implications
This paper contributes to the literature demonstrating mission statements’ role in goal setting. Further, it considers college costs from college administrators’ perspectives. Given the small sample size, future work should expand the sample and use case studies to explore how mission shapes or constrains strategic objectives.
Originality/value
This is the first paper using qualitative and quantitative analysis to explore the association between the mission statements of small HEIs and academic cost containment goals in strategic plans, documents intended to support differentiation in a crowded market.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This paper resulted from a larger project examining cost containment and the educational mission. Our work was funded by a grant from the Davis Educational Foundation and research assistance was partially funded by the Boston University Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP). The Davis Educational Foundation and Boston University UROP provided generous funding but were not involved in designing, conducting, writing, or disseminating research. The authors appreciate feedback received from participants in the Association for Education Finance and Policy (AEFP) poster sessions in 2015 and 2016. The views expressed, and any errors or omissions, can be attributed solely to the authors.
Citation
Simon, J.K., Way, M.M., Polutnik, L. and Albright, J. (2019), "Linking college mission statements to cost containment strategies", International Journal of Educational Management, Vol. 33 No. 4, pp. 792-804. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEM-04-2018-0124
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited