Implementation Plan
Since the visit of the review committee, the department has undertaken a variety of initiatives aimed at improving
departmental and program performance, including:
- a reduction in the number of credits in the Hons. Business Administration program from 42 to 40 credits
- hiring a new bilingual professor in Accounting
- the establishment of an elective review committee, which has improved the selection, quantity, and prerequisite
- requirements of our management electives, increased diversity and inclusion content, and proposed new electivesfor the future.
- the establishment of an academic management research seminar series to bring greater attention across campus into emerging research issues and raise research interest within the department. Topics have included mental health/PTSD, ethics and culture in the US Army, gender and ethnic diversity, military-civilian transition, transgressor reintegration, engagement in extreme contexts, ethical leadership in practice, military-civilian relations, and sexual misconduct in the military.
- the establishment of a “Meet the Generals” research seminar series to assist faculty and students across campus to better understand management practice within the Canadian military context. Topics this year have included military accounting practice and strategic management issues in relation to the Covid pandemic.
- we have undertaken a review of library requirements and are reviewing the relevance of existing RMC library holdings for our department
- holding monthly departmental meetings to discuss the progress of the department, entertain new ideas and research initiatives, make program recommendations, build unity and collegiality, and bring greater transparency to the department’s decision-making.
- the development of a bilingual Certificate in Accounting program, with the first serial commencing in Sep 2022.
- the development of a new bilingual Non-Commissioned Member training program. An initial trial serial will commence in Sep 2022 with 24 students, with the first official serial set to commence in May 2023.
- successfully transferring in-class course offerings online during Covid, with all courses completed successfully.
- successfully attracting new students to the department and increasing our number of enrollments.
| Recommendation | Proposed Follow-up and Resource Implications | Responsibility for Leading the Follow-Up |
Timeline for Addressing Recommendation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. The Committee finds the curriculum reflects the current state of the discipline, but the small number of faculty limits the number of electives which can be taught. |
Done. The Dept continues to add business electives. Recent faculty hires have allowed us to increase the variety and number of elective offerings. These courses include AAF/BAE464, AAF/BAE 414, AAF 434/BAE434, AAF424/BAE424, AAF404/BAE404. Electives, however, are constrained by the need to ensure all students complete the Arts Core curriculum as part of their RMC education, wherein all military officers must complete a liberal arts and science core curriculum during their undergraduate degree program. A second constraint is that the dept seeks program efficiencies, which preclude elective offerings where student demand is insufficient (i.e. less than 3 student in French and 5 students in English) |
Dept Head, in conjunction with the Dean of Social Science and Humanities and the Curriculum Review Committee will review situation on annual basis. | We will continue to monitor the situation as part of our annual review. |
| 6. The Committee feels that more human, physical and financial resources are needed, |
|
Dept Head |
Complete – human and physical resources. Financial resources will continue to be monitored. |
| 7. The Committee believes more faculty are needed. |
With the recent hires and the reduction in Hons program course credit from 42 to 40, we believe no additional faculty are required at this time in the Dept of Mgmt. The dept is encouraged to continue applying AACSB standards for assessing types of faculty and to seek accreditation. |
Dept Head |
Hiring is completed. AACSB |
| 13. The Committee believes more library resources are needed. The loss of subscriptions has significantly reduced access to the academic literature. | The Mgmt dept will determine a list of those additional journals that are required and ensure they are sourced by the library. | Library rep to liaise with faculty members and the library. | An updated list of management journal requests has been provided to the library, and a formal review of existing library holdings is underway at this time. |
| 14. The Committee believes that CIS provides a low level of support. | Interruptions of LMS that affect our students will be reported in order to ensure improved service in the future. | Dept Head | Annual monitoring as part of cyclical review. |
| 15. The Writing Centre has seen a dramatic reduction in resources over the last 5 years. The Committee believes the Writing Centre is a valuable resource for the BA Program and its services effect the academic quality of our programs. | The standing up of the College Success Centre has both the RMC Writing Centre and the Math Assistance Centre available to students. In peak periods of demand – around final exams – both centres have been been run with extended hours. A permanent Director of the Writing Centre was hired in 2021. The business model of the centre is a combination of contract support, volunteer support and faculty workload assignment | Dept Head | Completed. |
| 16. It is not clear from the Self Report what services the VPR/DGS provides. The reduction in faculty research output in recent years maybe partly due to a reduction in resources to this office. | In order to strengthen RMC’s research portfolio, the office of VPR/DGS has been split into separate VPR and DGS positions. | Dept Head | Completed. |
| 17. The first recommendation under “Faculty and Staff”, calls for the hiring of bilingual faculty. The External Review Committee supports this recommendation. | Unilingual faculty members are hired by exception only and there have been no such hires in Management (or its previous incarnations) in 25 years. | Dept Head | Completed. |
| 18. The second recommendation calls for hiring processes to be initiated earlier to allow for time for approvals, particularly for hiring that will replace retirements. The External Review Committee supports this recommendation. | A Memorandum of Understanding exists between Treasury Board and the Faculty Association which allows the hiring process to be sequenced in such a way as to have the start date of the new member coincide with the retirement of the incumbent. Non-indeterminate hiring and inventory-based hiring will be used in circumstances where hire scheduling does not coincide with planned and unexpected faculty retirements.The first recommendation under “Resources and Administration” requests more funding for research activities. | Dept Head | Completed. |
|
19. The first recommendation under “Resources and Administration” requests more funding for research activities. |
There are three actions that have taken place: (i) Separation of the VPR research function as a separate entity to promote; (ii) Creation of the Research Bursary Fund to support special research requirements of faculty; (iii) Baselining the CDARP program. | Dept Head | Completed. |
| 20.The second recommendation under “Resources and Administration” calls for larger classrooms to handle larger class sizes. | Currently, sufficiently large classroom sizes are available. Classroom assignments lie outside the scope of the department. Class sizes must consider the availability of supporting infrastructure. However, COVID has also brought opportunities for online learning through Moodle and Zoom, resulting in less of a reliance on classroom engagement. | Dept Head | Completed. |
| 21.The Committee calls for a review to determine future office space requirements. | The department currently has sufficient office space due to COVID, as many faculty continue to work from home. Office space, including shared space, however, will need to be re-visited in light of anticipated faculty hires. |
Dept Head Dept Admin Assistant |
Ongoing. A review of the office has been conducted and the necessary office spaces, furnishings, and IT resources have been allocated. However, there is still a need for two more offices within the department. |
| 22. Some courses could be replaced with more meaningful and useful courses for students in the Arts Faculty and in the BA Program in particular. | In 2020, the College Core Curriculum Committee evaluated those courses that are core to RMC’s UG program. Minor adjustments were made – none of which affected the Management Program. | Dept Head | Completed. |
| 23. RMC should examine remedies for students that are unable to take the two electives they want due to scheduling difficulties. |
Since the ERC, preregistration has been implemented, which allows identification of student demand for particular subject areas prior to the establishment of the timetable. |
Curriculum Committee representative |
Completed. |
| 24. This Committee recommends that renewed, strong efforts be made to increase the resources and funding to all of RMC and to the BA Program in particular. | See #6 | See #6 | See #6 |
| 25. Concerning the “marriage of convenience” between the Management Department and the Economics Department, the Committee therefore recommends cost-benefit consideration of the current merger against the alternative of two separate departments. It is recommended that this discussion involve all members of the Management & Economics Department, along with the appropriate representatives of the senior administration. | The Economics discipline has since opted to join the Political Science dept. This structural change has been completed. | Dean of Social Sciences and Humanities | Completed. |
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26. The 2015-16 Self-Study Report indicates that faculty were especially concerned with the:
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Many of these “fiduciary” administrative responsibilities continue to reside outside departmental control, and to a great extent, resource allocation lies beyond the boundaries of RMC. Resources will continue to be judiciously dispersed to maximize RMC’s mandates. |
Dept Head, in cooperation with the Dean of Social Science and Humanities | Ongoing. |