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The Connected Organization
Serves the Common Good
The connected organization sees its role as serving society. Throughout the Criteria, the Commission signals the importance of linkages between member organizations and the broader society. Criteria call on member organizations to state—in mission, vision, and values documents—the ways they mean to serve their constituents. Criterion One, Mission and Integrity, is clear that even the most distinctive organization still must understand that it serves the greater society.
Serves Constituents
The test of every good statement of intent is actual performance. While Criteria Three, Student Learning and Effective Teaching, and Four, Acquisition, Discovery, and Application of Knowledge, focus primarily on internal constituencies, Criterion Five, Engagement and Service, requires an accredited organization to address the multiple connections between it and the broader society. Engagement is not a synonym for service; engagement suggests a two-way relationship through which the organization is open to learning from those it wishes to serve. Strong mutual understanding is necessary for the many services that an accredited organization may choose to provide to be effective.
Creates a Culture of Service
A connected organization creates and supports a culture of service. A variety of programs and volunteer and community service activities may be available for engaging students, faculty, staff, and administrators. Increasingly, organizations have sought to integrate community service into the learning opportunities they provide, expecting students and faculty to define the learning that occurred through participation in mentored activities in the community. In the very way it interacts with local, regional, state, and national organizations and issues, the organization models service for its constituencies.
Collaborates
A connected organization deals effectively with seemingly competing imperatives: protecting the integrity of the organization while engaging in partnerships and collaborations that challenge some concepts of autonomy. An accredited organization must be responsible for everything that uses its name, but it also must build dependable bridges to other institutions and organizations that provide education. A connected organization understands its role in helping students create seamless learning pathways through and among these institutions and organizations. This is as true for pathways between high schools and colleges as for pathways between colleges and graduate programs. It is true for pathways from nationally accredited organizations as well as from organizations accredited by other regional associations. Increasingly, connected organizations work to diminish unnecessary educational barriers to people from other countries.
Engages in Healthy Internal Communication
Other kinds of connections are also vital to the well-being of an accredited organization. The connected organization shows that it understands that the health of connections within its community is key to its success. Effective governance and administrative structures, for example, connect multiple internal constituents in shared efforts to fulfill the organization’s mission. Criterion One, Mission and Integrity, calls for an institution to evaluate the health and effectiveness of these connections. Criterion Two, Preparing for the Future, identifies a major challenge to healthy internal connections, the alignment of all levels of planning with the organization’s mission.
Source: Handbook on Accreditation http://www.ncahlc.org/download/Handbook03.pdf - The Higher Learning Commission, a commission of the North Central Association
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