University Life Cycle

Consider your school, how do you know that the life cycle was developed specifically for the university. How do we know it meets our needs?

Every organization have establish a life cycle to follow in order to manage and supervise every transactions its organization processes. Let us consider our own, the University of Southeastern Philippines. The organizational life cycle would be the life cycle of an organization from birth level to the termination. There are many stages that should be consider in administering the University itself. At the foundation of effective management for any organization is the fundamental truth that all

organizations, like any living organisms, have a lifecycle and undergo very predictable and repetitive patterns of behavior as they grow and develop. At each new stage of development an organization is faced with a unique set of challenges. How well or poorly management addresses these challenges, and leads a healthy transition from one stage to the next, has a significant impact on the success or failure of their organization. Organizations go through different phases of growth. The first challenge for leaders who wish to grow their organizations is to understand what phase of the organizational life cycle one is in.

Different experts will argue on how many phases there are, but there is elegance in using something easy to remember. Many are saying that the organizational life cycle is divided into phases. From Startup. (or Birth), Growth, Decline. When in decline, an organization will either undergo renewal or death. Each of these phases present different management and leadership challenges that one must deal with.

As Henry ford says, “Getting ready is secret to success”. Basically our University have set plans to start the organization, not just to establish foundation but also through the phase of making the organization grow. These is the stage where an organization should expects to see revenues climb, new services and products developed, more employees hired and so on. We could also see the decline phase as part of the organizational cycle. This is sometimes encountered when there is a transformation development involve in the University’s processes. One example would be the sudden change of the Enrollment Information System used by the University. Because we can never assure that all will easily adopt we this unexpected decision of the Administration. The involve people have the tendency to resist with this transformations. So in result, the new products will not boost because of the less support given by the people. Fortunately, the University is doing good with the newly Student Registration Management Information System (SRMIS) and in the stage of satisfying the customers’ needs.

We can say that any organization could not have decide to follow any life cycle without any basis or guide to success. Below is the Vision and Mission of the University of Southeastern Philippines.

Vision

By becoming a premier university in the ASEAN Region, the USEP shall be a center of excellence and development, responsive and adaptive to fast-changing environments. USEP shall also be known as the leading university in the country that fosters innovation and applies knowledge to create value towards social, economic, and technological developments.

From the presented Vision of the University, it’s obvious that the Administration have been working out to achieve its dream for the betterment and improvement of the University. As it aims to be a premier University in the ASEAN Region, the University is now developing and building up proper procedures that could made University of Southeastern Philippines to be the top of all. Also, this could serve as a foundation of establishing a sanctuary of excellence and development toward our Region. With all the different events and projects the University have been pursuing and implementing, I think they have given every people involve in its organization a reason to cooperate and believe that they are really doing all these things for the sake of the University.

The following are just the living evidences to ensure that the University of Southeastern Philippines will become the home of quality and improvement across all nations.

USeP-DOST AFNR PROJECT

Accelerated Teacher Education Program

Comprehensive Irrigation Research & Development Umbrella Program

Continuing Professional Development

Expanded Tertiary Education Equivalency and Accreditaion Program

Institute of Languages

Knowledge for Development Center in Davao

Lifelong Study Center

Mindanao E-Learning Space

Mindanao Center for Policy & Development Studies

Mindanao Center for Technical Education & Staff Development

Mt. Malindang Biodiversity Research Programme

Pamulaan Center for Indigenous Peoples Education

Southern Mindanao Agriculture & Resources Research & Development Consortium

Teacher Training Center for Mindanao

University Guidance and Testing Office

World Bank - Knowledge for Development Center

Zonal Computerization Center Eastern Mindanao

These University’s Centers are in strive to serve its people in the way that all will be satisfied. These will enhance the capability of the institution through curricular program innovations, facilities and manpower upgrading, and enterprise development projects that provide students with adequate training and education. Through this institutional capability enhancement project, the University will contribute its share in enhancing the demand by raising the quality of graduates with industry-desired skills, competencies and attitudes as workers and leaders in the competitive labor market and the progressive entrepreneurial world.

There are also programs that envisions to mainstream not only the graduates but also the teachers which is the Accelerated Teacher Education Program (ATEP). ATEP builds on the existing knowledge and skills in Islamic education and teaching experience in the Madrasah of madaris teachers. It evaluates and accredits prior learning and experience of the Asatidz, and allows them to upgrade their professional qualification while maintaining their teaching job in the public school or pilot private madaris.

Let us admit that because of the fast-changing of our environment, our University is in the stage of becoming a responsive and adoptive organization to all these transformations.

One program that is being implemented now is the Lifelong Study Center (LSC). The institutionalization of a Lifelong Study Center (LSC) is a policy response to change and globalization. In the present knowledge-based economy that characterizes the world, it is meant to sustain economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion in this part of the country. Lifelong learning, which is the characteristic of the LSC, is considered not only central to competitiveness and employability; it is also central to social inclusion, active citizenship and personal development.

Lifelong learning encompasses learning for personal, civic and social purposes as well as for employment-related purposes. It takes place in a variety of environments in and outside the formal education and training systems. It implies raising investments in people and knowledge; promoting the acquisition of basic skills, including digital literacy; and broadening opportunities for innovative, more flexible forms of learning. It transforms formal education and training systems in order to break down barriers between different forms of learning. It connotes a shift in our thinking of the fundamental organizational unit of education from the SCHOOL to the LEARNER.

Mission

USeP shall produce world-class graduates and relevant research and extension through quality education and sustainable resource management.

Particularly, USEP is committed to:

• Provide quality education for students to grow in knowledge, promote their well-rounded development, and make them globally competitive in the world of work;

• Engage in high impact research, not only for knowledge’s sake, but also for its practical benefits to society; and,

• Promote entrepreneurship and industry collaboration.

Based on the presented Vision and Mission, we could see that our University is really aspiring for a better organization in the future not only in Mindanao but also in the whole Philippines and of course globally.

Leading an organization through lifecycle transitions is not easy, or obvious. The same methods

that produce success in one stage can create failure in the next. Fundamental changes in leadership and management are all required, with an approach that delicately balances the amount of control and flexibility needed for each stage. Leaders who fail to understand what is needed (and not needed) can inhibit the development of their companies or plunge them into premature aging. The challenges that every organization must overcome at each stage of development first manifest themselves as problems that arise from the growth and success of the company and from external changes in markets, competitors, technology and the general business and political environment.

Thus, any organization cannot avoid the problems will be arising throughout its years of service. Problems are normal and desirable. Problems are the natural result of change. The only place on the lifecycle of an organization where there are no problems is the place where there is no change, which is Death. Your reward for successfully resolving the problems that confront you today, is a set of new problems tomorrow that will be larger and more complex. If your organization faces a high rate of change in your markets, technology or industry, your challenge is magnified. The faster the rate of change, the faster problems appear and grow.

That is why the University’s Administration is not only working alone, but as a whole team. Thus, making the University as a leading university in the country that promotes modernization and applies knowledge to create value towards social, economic, and technological developments.

You can drive your organization faster when you know the road ahead. Most of the issues you face are common to all organizations. There is no need for you to reinvent the wheel.

Organizations go through different life-cycles just like people do. Over time, they develop a certain kind of wisdom that sees them through many of the challenges in life and work. The University have gone to various planning stage, testing and later on the level of maintaining all the things that they have developed. Not all plans would result to success, so the University in certain times have to evaluate itself also. Because of this they learn to plan and to use a certain amount of discipline to carry through on those plans. They learn to manage themselves. To survive well into the future, organizations and programs must be able to do this, as well.

Since we can see changes from all the products that our University has offer to us for the past years, I think these have proved that the University truly follow a life cycle as a guide for its Vision and Mission. I guess, from this time on, the University have that understanding that gives them a sense of perspective and helps them to decide how to respond to decisions and problems in the workplace that they will be encountering in the future. And all the programs and projects that have been implemented had gone to a cycle of methodologies in order to reach its goal towards success.

References:

http://managementhelp.org/org_thry/org_cycl.htm

http://managementhelp.org/grow_biz/grow_biz.htm#anchor581127

http://www.usep.edu.ph