Date of Conferral

2016

Degree

Doctor of Business Administration (D.B.A.)

School

Management

Advisor

Arthur Q. Tyler

Abstract

California community college leaders are looking for strategies to sustain facilities and maintenance operations because the governor only approved the allocation of $87.5 million in the 2014-2015 Budget Act for facilities maintenance operations. Guided by the change and strategy theories, the purpose of this multicase study was to explore the strategies that a select group of college leaders have used to sustain or improve their facilities maintenance operations. The data collection process included a review of college planning documents and semistructured interviews with 10 senior administrators from 3 large California community colleges who have used strategies to address sustaining or improving their facilities maintenance operations. Saldana coding and an inductive analysis process were used to identify themes. Triangulation was employed to increase the trustworthiness of interpretations. The analysis revealed the central role of planning as the strategy leaders should employ to improve institutional success. Funding was an additional theme leaders regarded as the issue that most often undermined planning and effective maintenance operations. All participants acknowledged the need for the integration of planning and funding to create institutional success. These findings suggest that community college leaders who use planning, funding strategies, maintenance strategies, and who empower people to sustain facility and maintenance operations can improve the teaching-learning environment. When community college leaders transform the teaching-learning environment, they enable student success. Student success increases the earning power of students that contributes to social change by expanding the tax-base and creating greater economic development.

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