Strategic Responses to Conditions of Decline

Most predictions about the future of colleges and universities as organizations include conditions of decline. While the severity and precise nature of the decline is unknown, almost everyone agrees that we are facing an era of cutback [17, 52]. These predictions do not all claim that institutions of higher education will decline. But the characteristics of the environment in which colleges and universities exist-enrollment trends, financial exigencies, federal policy changes, unexpected disaster, and so on-are creating conditions of decline that require a new set of administrative and organizational responses. Some institutions may respond by becoming smaller, some by going out of business, or some by consolidating or merging. Others may get bigger, change emphasis, or become entrepreneurial. The conditions of decline do not dictate what organizations must do, but they create a situation where some response is necessary. The management of conditions of decline, therefore, has become a major requirement of managers and administrators in institutions of higher education.