Campus Ecologist

Volume 7, Number 4, 1989

ENVIRONMENTAL SCANNING: A TOOL FOR CAMPUS ECOLOGISTS

BY James H. Banning

Environmental scanning is a concept that has emerged from strategic planning literature. Aguilar (1967), pioneer in development of the concept, used the environmental scanning to denote the systematic collection of information external to an organization. Its two purposes are: to organize the information flowing into an organization and to provide the organization with early warnings of changing environmental conditions that could impact the organization .

An Early Warning System

That environmental scanning is an ''early warning" process for organizations is emphasized by Brown and Weiner (1985) who define environmental scanning as a "kind of radar" for organizations. According to them, environmental scanning helps to detect new and changing conditions.

Environmental Scanning and Strategic Planning

Morrison's (1987, 1985) work has been a key to translating and applying the concepts of strategic planning and the process of environmental scanning to higher education. He defines environmental scanning as a "...structure to identify and evaluate trends, events, and emerging issues of import to the institution.'' Stoffels (1988) adds a dynamic quality to the concept by noting that "Environmental scanning is a methodology for coping with external social, economic and technical issues that may be difficult to observe or predict but that cannot be ignored and will not go away . . ."

The strategic and futuristic aspects of environmental scanning are captured by Hayden (1986). She defines environmental scanning as "analyzing trends in those external factors that affect a company's performance in order to make ASSUMPTIONS and FORECASTS about the future." Results of the environmental scanning process i.e., collecting information from a variety of sources focusing on trends, events, and issues that could impact an organization typically result in the building of "scenarios." These stories pose alternative futures for the organization based on assumptions and forecasts generated by the environmental scanning process (Bryson, 1988). By exploring key concepts of environmental scanning, the potential usefulness of the process for college and university campuses becomes apparent.

Key Concepts of Environmental Scanning

The key concepts of environmental scanning can be highlighted by asking the following questions: What information do you scan? What methods are available? How can the scanning process be organized and used?

Answering these questions from a college and university housing perspective will not only allow for the presentation of the concepts, hut also show their applicability to the campus environment.

What information do you scan?

Determining what information to scan is an extremely important process. You scan information sources related to the mission of the organization: the purpose and goals of the organization indicate where to look for information. Then, once the sources have been identified. the question focuses on what types of information are important .

Morrison's (1987) classification scheme is helpful in answering questions concerning types of information. He suggests that the scanner look for trends, events, and emerging issues. A trend is a series of social, technological economic, or political characteristics that can be measured or estimated over time. colleges and universities might be interested in the number of high school graduates who attend college from the institution's various regional recruitment areas. An event is defined as a discrete, confirmable occurrence which makes the future different from the past. The building of a new 2-year institution near the campus, or a major change in state policy regarding student financial aid could be such an event. Morrisonss emerging issue refers to a potential controversy arising out of a trend or event and which may require a response. Concern over increased campus racial incidents is an example of an emerging issue.

What methods are available?

Stoffels (1988) suggests four different scanning methods. First, scanning can be implemented at an informal observational level. At this level a scanner would at a very informal level be alert to information about the external environment that might have an impact on the housing organization. This information might be obtained from a conference or an item in a journal or newspaper related to higher education.

At a second level, conditioned observation, a scanner might begin to seek further information regarding an issue that emerged during the informal scanning process. For example, the informal observation may turn up the trend that more and more young people attending colleges and universities are seeking a full range of on campus recreational opportunities. The scanner might wish to pursue other sources of information that would confirm or fail to confirm the trend. If confirmed and if the probability appeared high that this trend might impact the campus, then a third level of scanning might be undertaken: informal search.

At the level of informal search, the scanner seeks specific information related to the trend. The following questions might be a part of an informal search. Are these potential students seeking indoor or outdoor recreational opportunity. Are they looking for "open play" or "organized play."

Finally Stoffels suggests the formal search. This calls for establishing a formal search methodology focused at specific information. A designated staff member or a special committee is given a search assignment and an appropriate budget. For example, a scanning committee could design a methodology to tap several national databases relevant to the issue.

How Do You Organize and Use the Scanning Process?

Environmental scanning systems range from simple to very complex. A beginning system for a university could be as simple as assigning several staff members in a planning office to review and abstract information from journals, magazines, and newsletters focusing on college student issues. Information generated by the scanners may be shared in staff meetings or campus newsletters. The sharing and discussing of the information may lead to change in organizational policy.

A more complex scanning system might include a network of scanners each performing informal as well as directed scanning in areas dictated by specific goals and objectives of a mission statement. Information from various sources may be sent to organizational committees to review potential impact on the organization. This scanning information can be used to build a series of scenarios for discussion and consideration. The information flow within this more complex structure can be accomplished by a series of hard copy forms or a more innovative system involving an interactive database. Scanners in the organization can input data regarding trends, events, and emerging issues; other members of the process can add information and implications for the organization campus managers can access the system to obtain information and to ask additional questions of the scanners. Whatever form the environmental scanning organization takes, the final important task is to provide information to facilitate strategic decisions of the organization (Stoffels, 1988).

(References can be found on back page: Resource References: Environmental Scanning)

RENEW FOR 1990 Using the Ecosystem Design Process as a Planning Process

Stage One: (Steps one and two of the ecosystem design process)