The EDUCAUSE Guide to Technology, Leadership and Culture

The EDUCAUSE Guide to Technology, Leadership and Culture

At EDUCAUSE, we are committed to enabling sustained growth in organizations and culture, both internally as an association and for you, our community of technology professionals. An organization and culture that values and respects the unique contributions of all individuals is vital to the success of the association and the community we serve. Long-term and lasting progress will require time, sustained effort, and the cumulative impact of incremental and individual actions.

For EDUCAUSE and higher education, the value of organization and culture is manifest in at least three interrelated dimensions:

  • Teams with diverse viewpoints outperform teams with members of similar backgrounds.

  • IT and academic technology organizations often do not reflect the constituents their institutions serve.

  • Academic success depends on educational environments that are welcoming to all students, from all backgrounds.

We recognize that people and organizations have different kinds of organizational culture, that they will take different approaches to cultivating culture, and that they will move at different speeds.

The resources on this page include action steps to put the organizational culture principles into practice, as well as learning and engagement opportunities to deepen your understanding and continue your journey.

An Invitation to Advance Your Journey

Acknowledging that organizational culture is critical for higher education institutions and their students, faculty, and staff to thrive is the first step, but how do you get started? Where can you apply your time and energy to build and maintain momentum?

The steps below include discrete activities that can guide and sustain your personal journey to create a more positive and productive work environment, as well as that of your organization. The activities are organized into three starting points—Explore, Engage, and Transform—allowing you to tailor your approach based on your circumstances.

  • Explore: Exploring a new topic is a good way to better understand it. These activities offer a proactive beginning to organizational cultural awareness.

  • Engage: Once you understand something new, it's time to get involved. These action items help you form and build relationships and will vary depending on your journey and comfort level.

  • Transform: This step moves from participation to immersive involvement for sustainable change.

Use the steps to become more aware of and involved in exemplary organizational culture, moving from commitment to action.

The Steps: From Commitment to Action

Explore

  • Explore sites and frameworks such as this EDUCAUSE guide and library topic.

  • Subscribe to newsletters such as Better Allies and Reimagined.

  • Subscribe to organizational culturally-related EDUCAUSE Community Groups such as Women in IT, IT Diversity in IT, IT Accessibility, and APA, as well as others including Women in Cybersecurity.

  • Read articles, listen to podcasts, watch videos and more on the EDUCAUSE Review Organization and Culture Channel.

  • Continue your education by consuming resources recommended by our community or recommending new books or resources to your colleagues.

Engage

  • Connect with related campus or system offices about available resources.

  • Host and/or discuss topics related to organizational culture during your division/unit meetings.

  • Invite speakers from a variety of backgrounds to speak with your team.

  • Complete training opportunities offered at your institution.

Transform

  • Create a way to share organizational culture stories or references with staff (e.g., newsletters, social media, Slack channel).

  • Include organizational culture efforts in the IT annual report.

  • Create a Committee to develop efforts that can be measured and shared.

  • Update or create new procedures, policies, and actions that include specific steps to achieving a more inclusive workforce such as hiring rubric or job descriptions and job posting(s).

Explore

  • Explore the EDUCAUSE Inclusive Hiring Kit for tips and resources.

  • Learn how the way job descriptions are written influences who applies.

  • Learn how job descriptions can help applicants feel welcome in the organization (retention).

  • Update institutional communications (e.g., websites, documents, social media) to promote a better organizational culture.

Engage

  • Use co-chair model for hiring committees.

  • Ensure hiring committee members represent diverse perspectives and have received training in good hiring practices.

  • Partner with campus employee resource groups (ERGs) (retention) to understand and help navigate their challenges. Be cautious to not create additional unpaid work for ERG group members.

Transform

  • Partner with HR to create inclusive hiring practices such as creating a hiring rubric and screening process, and conduct a post-search review for improvement.

  • Ensure that members have a variety of opportunities to build networks, are provided resources and time for professional development, and are engaging in conversations with their supervisors about their career development and professional paths.

Explore

  • Review the EDUCAUSE workforce studies.

  • Review the CUPA-HR workforce resources.

Engage

  • Engage in higher-education-IT-adjacent associations such as CUPA-HR or NACUBO.

  • Partner with the NADOHE.

  • Engage with institutional libraries and data custodians to keep this data updated.

Transform

  • Serve on professional boards and/or committees to influence the visibility of organizational culture within our organizations and the profession.

  • Regularly publish demographic technology workforce data in annual reports or in strategic plans.

Explore

Engage

  • Partner with the institutional research office on data that is used to support compliance and reporting efforts.

  • Support an institutional dashboard related to organizational culture.

Transform

  • Facilitate internship opportunities with regional workforce development offices.

  • Fund and hire a position dedicated to planning, strategy, organizational change, and implementation required to make progress in workplace culture change.

Explore

  • Review which existing STEM curricular programs are active at your institution.

Engage

  • Collaborate with STEM departments to create internships and employment opportunities for engagement with IT.

  • Support and elevate research computing and data roles as distinct and highly-valued career paths (partner with CaRCC).

Transform

  • Partner with academic departments in co-creating curriculum to expand opportunities and eliminate the barriers for students from underrepresented populations interested in computer science, data sciences, and other technology-related fields. Including executive, online, and continuing education.

  • Collaborate with local high schools and other institutions to offer workshops in STEM fields, as has been done at the Information Technology Academy at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Explore

  • Review the leadership and culture landscape in your profession (e.g., professional organizations, STEM advocates, affinity groups, student associations, accessibility organizations).

Engage

  • Volunteer and meet with groups at your institution with similar goals and interests.

  • Get support or partner with senior administrators on national initiatives and projects advocating for better organizational culture.

  • Form advocacy networks.

Transform

Illustration of two stick figures assembling a puzzle 

Advance Your Hiring Strategies

Before, during, and after the recruitment process, leaders play a crucial role in ensuring that the workforce reflects the broader community and includes individuals from all backgrounds. In the EDUCAUSE Inclusive Hiring Kit, we take you through the practices you can implement in recruiting, screening and interviewing, hiring and onboarding, retention, and measuring and highlighting success.

Inclusive Language Guide

EDUCAUSE is committed to starting and sustaining a dialogue about the ways in which we can uncover and understand the harm that language can cause and to developing a common set of guidelines to help us use language inclusively. We have developed an official style guide for inclusive language that we welcome the community to use.

A Special Thank You

We'd like to thank the members of the EDUCAUSE Technology, Leadership and Culture Committee and the founding members of the 2018 Task Force who helped develop this content and continue to serve as the voice of the EDUCAUSE membership on TLC matters.

Share Your Feedback

The EDUCAUSE TLC Advisory Committee welcomes your feedback! If you have resources, comments, or suggestions to share with our community, please contact us.