In order for these findings to be helpful to other higher education institutions, it is critical to know how The California University successfully works to build the next generation of leaders. Therefore, the first research question asked was: In what ways does The California University (CU) work to build the next generation of leaders? After reviewing the data, three overarching themes emerged as senior leadership support, retaining talent, and mentoring.
Senior Leadership Support
Three senior student affairs leaders were purposefully selected as participants. For this study, the term senior student affairs leader is defined as someone holding the title of Associate Vice President and above. In meeting with senior student affairs leaders from The California University, a primary area of interest was examining why human and financial resources were invested toward talent management programming. This comes into question more than ever in higher education during difficult economic times that are affecting the budgets of most institutions, particularly the public ones. In their responses, the senior leaders believed …show more content…
While each participant’s interpretation of the vision varied to some degree, they all mentioned that there was an important focus primarily on providing an environment that advances the lives and careers of the students. In the view of one participant, “If we want our students to achieve success, we as administrators, faculty, and professional staff need to reflect the diverse demographics of our student population.” Another participant stressed the importance of communicating future possibilities to prevent limiting the potential of high performing employees. In his view, the ability to remain competitive to attract and retain students rests on having racially and ethnically diverse talented leaders throughout the
Senior Leadership Support
Three senior student affairs leaders were purposefully selected as participants. For this study, the term senior student affairs leader is defined as someone holding the title of Associate Vice President and above. In meeting with senior student affairs leaders from The California University, a primary area of interest was examining why human and financial resources were invested toward talent management programming. This comes into question more than ever in higher education during difficult economic times that are affecting the budgets of most institutions, particularly the public ones. In their responses, the senior leaders believed …show more content…
While each participant’s interpretation of the vision varied to some degree, they all mentioned that there was an important focus primarily on providing an environment that advances the lives and careers of the students. In the view of one participant, “If we want our students to achieve success, we as administrators, faculty, and professional staff need to reflect the diverse demographics of our student population.” Another participant stressed the importance of communicating future possibilities to prevent limiting the potential of high performing employees. In his view, the ability to remain competitive to attract and retain students rests on having racially and ethnically diverse talented leaders throughout the