Opportunities Faced by Leaders, Society and Organizations

¶ … Opportunities Faced by Leaders, Society and Organizations

Problems and opportunities facing leaders, communities and organization are always a cause of debate in the society. They can arise in many different ways and exist in many forms and society finds it's our way of meeting these challenges and responding to such opportunities. The articles chosen for this paper focus primarily on the issue of rising tuition costs and it's impact on college enrollment and this topic is chosen because it affects leaders, communities and organizations alike.

The first article in this connection is written by Donald Heller. The article explains how rising costs impact enrollment in colleges and universities. The author found that all things being equal, rising tuition costs will lead to lower enrollment. A decline in enrollment is however a subjective issue dependent on some other factors including type of institution. For example it has been found the community college enrollment tends to be more price responsive than university enrollment because percentage of lower income groups tends to be lower in institutions of higher education especially four-year universities.

Leaders and policy makers are constantly studying the possible changes of tuition fees and their subsequent effect on enrollment. Thus this issue is not only being faced by communities but also leaders and organizations. When studying this issue, it's important for policy makers to understand that price alone doesn't determine future enrollment trends. Other factors tend to play a more significant role in the decision to enroll. These factors include "the student's academic aptitude and achievement; course-taking patterns in high school and earlier grades; the role of parents, siblings, peers, and others in promoting college as a post-high school option; proximity of postsecondary education institutions; and economic conditions such as the state of the local economy and labor markets." (p.10)

The determination of factors however is a challenging exercise. It is very difficult to predict how enrollment would react to price changes because of so many other influences on the final decision to enroll. It is a challenge for policy makers to accurately predict the response because there have been instances when even the rise in tuition cost did not negatively affect enrollment instead they kept rising. However in the link between tuition costs and enrollment, we cannot ignore the role played by financial aid. It has been noticed that among lower income groups, financial aid plays the biggest role in their enrollment decision.

Another related though slightly different problem is addressed by Dickson and Pender in their article "Do In-State Tuition Benefits Affect the Enrollment of Non-Citizens?" This issue is connected with in-state tuition benefits offered to non-citizens and how their enrollment is affected by in-state tuition implementation. In 2001, Texas announced its decision to offer in state tuition benefits to non-citizens who had studied in Texas for last three years. Following this example, ten other states declared the same benefits for their non-citizen students. This move was however challenged by some quarters that felt that this was in violation of the rights of U.S. citizens who lived in other states and thus couldn't be extended the offer of in-state tuition benefits.

The article concluded that enrollment among non-citizens students had risen with this move that offered in-state tuition benefits. However among Hispanic students, it was noticed that they chose mostly the institutions that already had a large Hispanic student body, and ignored other state flagship universities. Private institutions were also more likely to find no significant increase in enrollment compared to public universities that already offer slightly lower tuition costs.

When studying these issues in the light of servant leadership, we see that the solution lies in taking in consideration the rights of all the stakeholders first. In the case of tuition-enrollment link, a servant (leader) must first take into account the stakeholders i.e. The students, the educators, the organizations in that order. Students who wish to study must not be denied a chance simply due to cost. Any in-state tuition benefits that tend to improve enrollment must be considered a positive move. Similarly any action that results in higher enrollment should generally be considered beneficial to the students and must be endorsed by policy makers.

Transformational leader would proceed with a higher vision in mind. He would want to bring in changes that would improve the general condition of the stakeholders and transform the society in the process. He would see higher enrollment as a sign of progress in the right direction and would hence support any move that tends to attracts more students to institutions of higher education.

Similarly situational leader would adjust his or her strategy and leadership style according to the situation at hand. The new theories see leader not as a fixed person but someone who is flexible and fluent in his approach. Such a person changes and adjusts his style according to the situation he is facing. In the case of tuition-enrollment, a situational leadership would assess the recent data and research on the subject to see if a link is present and how it can be used to improve enrollment and provide further tuition relaxation to students who wish to study further.