Building an Informing Business School: A Case Study of USF's Muma College of Business

Abstract As the complexity of a system grows, the challenge of informing the stakeholders of that system grows correspondingly. Nowhere is that challenge more daunting than in business education, where globalization, technological innovation, and increasingly complicated regulations continuously transform the business environment facing graduates and practitioners. Informing science theory proposes that different levels of complexity require different channels if effective informing is to be achieved. The paper first examines how two important sources of complexity--the diversity of clients and the ruggedness of the business landscape--are changing, and how these changes demand vastly more interactive informing channels if impact is to be achieved. Using an exploratory case study methodology, it then takes a detailed look at how one institution--the University of South Florida's Muma College of Business--has introduced a variety of new channels, many of which enable informing flows without necessarily directing them, to adapt to these environmental changes. It then considers both outcomes related to these individual informing channels and college-wide outcomes related to a broad and deep mosaic of informing flows. Finally, it considers the question of the resources required to support these new channels and the relationship between resource acquisition and channel introduction. The proposed framework for looking at business school informing channels can be applied by administrators, faculty members, and key stakeholders in understanding, evaluating, and planning programs and activities supporting informing in a complex environment. Ultimately, the informing business school framework may also provide a means for communicating impact to business school accrediting agencies (such as AACSB). Keywords: informing science, informing system, internships, externships, business education, case studies, research, channel, complexity, rugged landscape, business school, impact. Introduction Informing is central to the mission of virtually every educational institution. Recently, however, serious questions are being raised with respect to the impact that higher education is having on its stakeholders (Gill, 2010). In the U.S., high student loan default rates, failure of many students--particularly disadvantaged students--to graduate, the growth in the number of administrators, and the production of expensive research that appears to serve no useful purpose are all symptomatic of these concerns. Nowhere are these concerns more apparent than in today's business schools. Accrediting agencies, such as AACSB International, have made impact a top priority in ongoing accreditations (AACSB, 2008, 2015). Institutions must justify their impact on all their key stakeholders: their students, the community of research scholars, and the community of practice. Failure to demonstrate effective informing of even one of these stakeholder communities could lead to probationary status that could endanger the institution's reputation and even its long term survival. The stakes are high, and institutions must adapt their informing activities both to maximize their effectiveness and to ensure that evidence of their effectiveness is acquired. From an informing science perspective, the challenge of achieving measurable impact is heightened by the changing nature of the environment being experienced by stakeholders. Of particular importance is the underlying complexity of that environment. It has been argued elsewhere (e.g., Gill, 2010) that the business landscape is growing increasingly complex. While environmental complexity has many sources, some of the most important drivers include the following: 1. Globalization: Serves to increase the number of participants, their diversity, and the degree of interdependence between them, as demonstrated by the emergence of elaborate global supply chains. …