I am guilty of resorting to this kind of speaking and writing at times. But I am trying to be aware of it, to avoid it myself, and to help others to be aware and avoid it.
Here is how it starts:
Long ago, in a galaxy far, far away, there were no strategic plans. Then, in the 1950s, large companies began with a process called “long-term planning”; by the 1970s, the energy crisis pushed many organizations to look for planning systems that would prepare them better for volatile political and economic environments. By 1983, the year in which George Keller published his Academic Strategy: The Management Revolution in Higher Education, colleges were assimilated into adopting principles similar to corporate and government organizations.
I used the passive voice just now because, like the formal processes of accreditation and assessment, strategic planning has often felt to the faculty like just another instrument of corporate culture’s hostile takeover of academe. Professors found strategic planning desirable enough as a rational tool for the systematic and intentional advancement of their cherished educational goals. ...
Interested? Here's the LINK to the full Chronicle of Higher Education piece.
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