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VOLUME XIV, NUMBER 1

INNOVATION ABSTRACTS

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Quality Teamwork: New Faculty Orientation

Last year Elizabethtown Community College experienced
the largest influx of new instructors in its history; 20 percent
of the full-time faculty for fall 1990 were new employees. A
quality circle, created by the academic dean, centered on the
problem of how to effectively orient and assimilate the large
group of incoming new faculty.

After two hours, the group of busy bees, buzzing about
how to orient new faculty, had collectively gathered enough
nectar to make a good pot of honey. The quality circle “buzz
groups” followed a six-step problem-solving process mod-
eled on methods used by Japanese workforce teams to
continually improve quality manufacturing processes:

. Identify the problem.
. Brainstorm solutions.
Analyze solutions.
Choose solutions by consensus.
Make a plan and implement.

6. Check back to assess solutions.
Because the focus was on implementing changes, whining
and finger-pointing were replaced by constructive generation
of creative ideas accepted through consensus of the whole
group.

Plans were made for a collaborative orientation program,
and individuals generously volunteered to work on specific
parts of the agenda. It was fascinating to observe how much
cooperation emerged from a process that empowered a
group of individuals to function as a team. Members of the
quality circle felt they owned the problem, as well as their
proposed solutions, so that nothing was referred to another
committee or department.

Much of the scheduling and coordinating of activities for
the expanded orientation was completed by a faculty
member who was being replaced (leaving the college because
of her husband's military transfer), but who felt so strongly
about making a contribution that she continued to work on
the project even after her contract with the college had ended.
Many other faculty and staff members donated large
amounts of time and energy to the project, all of this activity
falling outside any officially assigned college duties.

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The result of this quality circle teamwork was a compre-
hensive orientation program presented for new faculty

during the first two weeks in August and just prior to the
start of fall classes. Teamwork was stressed in the delivery as
well as in the planning of the program. Orientation “bud-
dies” acted as initial guides for each new faculty member; to
better mesh personalities and interests, first-year mentors
would be chosen later. The first orientation day provided
time in the morning for new faculty to get keys, move into
their offices, and meet their hallmates. In the afternoon, the
college president and academic dean welcomed the new
faculty; then individuals escorted small groups of them
around campus, showing them the ropes, and introduang
them to others at the college.

For the remainder of the first week and much of the
second, new faculty attended seminar-style classes with
topics presented by faculty members, counselors, librarians,
division chairs, deans, support staff, and coordinators. Class
sessions ranged from pragmatic instructions on filling out
college forms to loftier discussions of teaching philosophies
and testing pedagogies. New faculty were given opportuni-
ties to learn and ask questions about college mission and
goals, service area characteristics, college credit and noncredit
programs, typical student profiles, classroom policies and
procedures, faculty rights and responsibilities, academic
rights of students, syllabus and test construction, textbook
selection, campus teaching /learning resources, counscling
services, faculty evaluation methods, employee benefits, etc.
Participants soon coined their own name for the training
program: “ECC 101.”

A number of social activities and icebreakers were
included to help new faculty feel part of the college commu-
nity. A “syllabi and salads” welcoming potluck luncheon
gave all college employees a chance to meet and entertain the
new instructors. A trivia scavenger hunt—similar to the one
at San Diego City College as described in Innovation Abstracts
(Volume XII, Number 17)—prompted new faculty to meet
and discover hobbies and special interests of their colleagues.
Example: What faculty member in the business management
division collects baseball cards?

The high point of these social activities was a daylong tour
of five counties in the college’s service area. We borrowed a
city school bus and driver, packed box lunches for a picnic at
a local historic site, visited off-campus sites, traveled 200 miles
of back country roads, and listened to a wealth of local
anecdotes and tales colorfully narrated by our enthusiastic

 

 

THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR STAFF AND ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT (NISOD)
Community College Leadership Program, Department of Educational Administration

College of Education, The University of Texas at Austin, EDB 348, Austin, Texas 78712

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