Developing Occupational Programs: A Case Study of Community Colleges

A progressively more technological and competitive employment environment in today’s world economy requires employees to have a firm understanding of critical technical skills to build on when they arrive at the workplace. This study examines how differences in the environmental conditions and organizational factors facing four community colleges contributed to the development of occupational and technical education programs.

This study was driven by one primary research question: What environmental conditions and organizational factors influence the nature of the strategic response in the form of technical education program development within community colleges? To answer this question, a qualitative study of both stakeholders in higher education (which included individuals at four community colleges in the state of Arkansas) and individuals at the Arkansas Department of Higher Education was conducted. The institutions selected represented the widest possible range of organizations.

A conceptual framework was developed that included previous research on normative, regulative, and cultural-cognitive environments and organizational response processes. The framework served as a guide to identify how external conditions in these processes influence the nature of the development of occupational and technical education programs at community colleges in Arkansas.