3. Lack of evaluative criteria Committees and Task Forces are often formed
in response to a particular issue, but there is frequently very little discussion about how to evaluate a proposed experiment or innovation. For example, individuals might suggest that general education ought to be overhauled and made more rigorous, but evaluation of these suggestions often is not addressed. Subsequent evaluations about when to address the proposed recommendations and goals are also avoided. Indeed, the processes of decision-making and implementation are so burdensome that trying to get the innovation in place overtakes any sense of whether the suggestions resolved the initial problem or provided the best possible solution. Instead, individuals have opted not for the optimal choice, but rather one that satisfies the needs of broad criteria and/or constituencies.
In arguing that a committee has opted for a satisfactory choice rather than an optimal one, some might assume that I am contradicting the work of Birnbaum (1988) and others (Simon, 1957; March and Simon, 1958) who argue that to “satisfice” is acceptable (Birnbaum, 1988, p. 58). However, I am actually extending their argument by suggesting that at certain points one must determine when an optimal decision is necessary, and at other times a satisfactory decision is sufficient. To be sure, one cannot always make optimal decisions; far too often the organization chooses the path of least resistance and agrees to a decision that is bereft of creativity.
Further, the danger of unclear evaluative measures is twofold. Obviously, the proposed innovation may actually be detrimental or mediocre, so that the problem has not been solved and must be reconsidered at some point in the future. Rather than solve a problem, the institution’s participants have merely spent a great deal of time in discussions that have not demonstrably improved the work of the faculty. Second, as individuals realize that the change did not help anyone, they become cynical about participating in subsequent reform efforts. The result is that the question that was to be answered remains an unsolved riddle, and enthusiasm for solving other conundrums is dampened.
3. Lack of evaluative criteria Committees and Task Forces are often formed
in response to a particular issue, but there is frequently very little discussion about how to evaluate a proposed experiment or innovation. For example, individuals might suggest that general education ought to be overhauled and made more rigorous, but evaluation of these suggestions often is not addressed. Subsequent evaluations about when to address the proposed recommendations and goals are also avoided. Indeed, the processes of decision-making and implementation are so burdensome that trying to get the innovation in place overtakes any sense of whether the suggestions resolved the initial problem or provided the best possible solution. Instead, individuals have opted not for the optimal choice, but rather one that satisfies the needs of broad criteria and/or constituencies.
In arguing that a committee has opted for a satisfactory choice rather than an optimal one, some might assume that I am contradicting the work of Birnbaum (1988) and others (Simon, 1957; March and Simon, 1958) who argue that to “satisfice” is acceptable (Birnbaum, 1988, p. 58). However, I am actually extending their argument by suggesting that at certain points one must determine when an optimal decision is necessary, and at other times a satisfactory decision is sufficient. To be sure, one cannot always make optimal decisions; far too often the organization chooses the path of least resistance and agrees to a decision that is bereft of creativity.
Further, the danger of unclear evaluative measures is twofold. Obviously, the proposed innovation may actually be detrimental or mediocre, so that the problem has not been solved and must be reconsidered at some point in the future. Rather than solve a problem, the institution’s participants have merely spent a great deal of time in discussions that have not demonstrably improved the work of the faculty. Second, as individuals realize that the change did not help anyone, they become cynical about participating in subsequent reform efforts. The result is that the question that was to be answered remains an unsolved riddle, and enthusiasm for solving other conundrums is dampened.
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