Page 55 - Azerbaijan State University of Economics

Sh. Bayramov: Continuing to build a “global penn state”

It clearly shows that for a separate college it is not difficult to decide on global
perspectives, and to hire a staff member to implement the relevant activities.
According to my personal communications to some staff members, I may argue that,
these are very difficult and more time-intensive for UOGP.
The fifth function argues that a breakdown in one element of a loosely coupled
system does not affect other elements of the organization (Weick, 1976, p. 7). It
means if a problem (decrease of international students, lack of funds for study
abroad, disagreement on extension of existing student exchange agreement with
foreign partner institution, etc.) occurred in one of the colleges it does not negatively
influence the central office and other colleges. However, I have to mention a
dysfunction component also, by referring to Weick‘s (1976) statement: ―A loosely
coupled system can isolate its trouble spots and prevent the trouble from spreading,
but it should be difficult for the loosely coupled system to repair the defective
element.‖ (p. 7). I will argue that it will be very difficult, expensive, and time-
prohibitive for an individual college to solve a problem and to recover on its own
without direct support from the central administration.
Global affairs within a college or campus is implemented as an integral part of
educational, research, and administrative management process in that particular
college and campus. In other words, the international program offices within Penn
State‘s colleges and campuses are much more academic-related and their activities
include more active participation of students, faculty, and staff. In contrast, the
UOGP is just a service unit that has no direct academic content, and it focuses on
providing administrative support as a common umbrella for overall global affairs.
This approach makes it a bit difficult to coordinate all global affairs in the university
level. This argument is completely supported by Weick (1976) who believes that it
takes time and money to coordinate people in a loosely coupled system (p. 8).
Administrators responsible for international programs offices in colleges report
directly to college deans or campus chancellors. It is logical as those programs are
directly financed mainly by college dean or campus chancellor. In other words, there
is a tightly coupling system within colleges and campuses.
There is no regulation or mandatory mechanism for a direct reporting from
colleges and campuses to UOGP or Vice Provost for Global Programs. Plus,
different colleges are not well connected or not well mutually informed. Sometimes,
it is difficult to produce university statistics on issues like study abroad, incoming
and outgoing scholars, joint research collaborations, and other partnerships. In this
regard, UOGP is currently working on a new centralized data-base system (to be
launched in November 2016) that will serve as a forum between central and
decentral administration on global affairs.

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