A framework for planning and control of the education organization

Abstract

Education logistics concerns the integral planning and control (P&C) of education related activities in education organizations, encompassing activities such as scheduling, facility management, staffing, performance management, curriculum development, and ICT management. It has a significant impact on the overall effectiveness and efficiency of the organization. The use of P&C needs to transcend the overtone of finance and aim for the much broader meaning of integral coordination or the organization. This paper introduces a new framework for education organizations to design, optimize, and govern their education logistics and its developments. It introduces hierarchical layers of P&C in a similar way as existing theoretical P&C frameworks for other sectors such as industry and healthcare, and distinguishes different process areas within these layers. We demonstrate that the current dominant way of P&C in education is falling short in numerous aspects, thereby impeding both innovation and the effective and efficient implementation of emerging educational paradigms. Our framework for smart education organizations counters current P&C deficiencies by closing existing coordination gaps between directive-, primary-, and support processes. Currently, these process areas in higher education organizations are often functionally dispersed through lack of horizontal alignment. Our framework defines and integrates levels of control for different process areas, thereby integrating and aligning decision making in the organization.