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A few business schools are planning to merge with other professional schools on campus to create new programs and strengths. Others are detaching themselves from previous partners. local business community. Many deans have plans to rein- vigorate their advisory boards over the next few years and involve the members more significantly in the school's strategic planning activities. s Involving student and faculty in regional economic development. Many schools are operating in areas that have experienced declining employment in the past decades. As schools and communities work together to achieve specific goals, the local economic outlook could improve greatly—and schoolsmight see enhanced business enrollments. Restructuring the School To support all the upcoming changes they foresee, many deans are anticipating widespread structural overhauls. About 13 percent are planning mergers, governance changes, staff reorganizations, and redefinitions of institu- tional relationships. As mentioned previously, a few business schools are plan- ning to merge with other professional schools on campus to create new programs and strengths. Others are detaching themselves from previous partners. For instance, two deans plan to separate the information technology program from the business school, while another plans to absorb the IT faculty. A number of respondents are beginning extensive collaborations with engineering schools on campus. Restructuring will take place at other levels as well. For instance, deans plan to revamp governance policies and revi- talize their business advisory councils. They also will make administrative changes to expand staff support in develop- ment and career services. In a move that could have sweeping consequences, many respondents will be seeking greater autonomy from their par- ent universities in the years ahead. Twenty-two percent of respondents indicated that some of their greatest job pres- sures arise out of their relationships with their central institu- tions. Issues include political concerns over paying market rates for business school faculty, tensions over fund raising, conflicts overmissions and objectives, and uncertainties about new presidents and provosts. In terms of mission conflicts, some deans are fighting to retain enough of the funds generated by their programs to rein- vest in the school. Others find themselves trying to focus on accreditation and overall quality, while central administration either doesn't care about professional education or wants only to increase the school'sMBA ranking.Many deans believe that achieving more autonomy would enable them to pour more energy and resources into programs and concerns that they consider critical for the long-term success of the school. BizEd MAY/JUNE 2005 51 One Step at a Time While business school deans are facing a great deal of change in the coming years,most of themexpect those changes to be incremental. Still, if enough incremental changes accumulate, the result could be a business school landscape that, by 2008, is completely transformed. Some of the changes in the offing may well have far-reach- ing effects. The shifting emphasis from full-time MBAs to other forms of graduate and executive education appears to be part of a long-term trend. So does the drop in state funding levels for higher education, which means the need for private funding will only increase. The growing number of business schools around the world will continue to make the market competitive for both faculty and students. Thus, some of today's toughest challenges are likely to remain theirmost dif- ficult challenges in the years to come. What's even more certain is that the rate of change will continue to accelerate.New choices will present themselves to business school deans, and new strategies will need to be devised. Alfred North Whitehead once said, "The art of progress is to preserve order amid change and to preserve change amid order." That sounds like a perfect description of the role of a business school dean in the next three years—and most likely for decades to come. s z Jim Fairbank is assistant professor of management at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College. Joe Labianca is assistant professor of organiza- tion and management at Emory University's Goizueta Business School in Atlanta, Georgia. Dan LeClair is vice president and chief knowledge officer at AACSB International. Kim Rahn and Kristina Jones also contributed to data analysis.