Core vs. Context by Ronan S. Estoque, MA (July, 2005)

Recently, I have read a book entitled "Living on the Fault Line" authored by Geoffrey A. Moore. It was basically a usual garden-variety management book- but what caught my attention however was his discussion of "what is core" and "what is context".

Accordingly, core was defined as the prime reason for being while the rest are context.

Applied in an academic model, core for a teaching institution is instruction, the rest of other activities are of secondary consideration and are thus considered context.

The concept of what is "core" differs from one person to another. A "core" for a security director of course would be the protection of the school, employees and students, a "core" for a research director would be the production of researches for the institution, a "core" for a HR person would be the hiring, firing and training of personnel while for a faculty, the "core" would be teaching.

Though there is nothing wrong with being pre-occupied with research, community outreach program, academic linkages, security, marketing and other multivariate personnel requirements, it is always better to identify what is "core" and what is "context". Because sooner or later, there will be a conflict between a core demand and a demand of context. Whether one would attend to instruction or to a marketing demand or security requirements, a core differs from one individual to another. And sometimes, instruction (teaching), which is the prime reason that one is in the academe, is sacrificed to attend to the demands of context.

What would an academic unit achieve when it is good in research, marketing, community outreach, industry linkages, HR practices and even security matters and yet fails miserably in instruction?

There is an adage that says "no one could serve two masters at the same time", such - I suppose is applicable here. In a car, there must be only one steering wheel; an additional steering wheel would be disastrous for it will pull the car in another direction. Maybe, a better board performance is in the horizon if there are few distractions and we could buckle down to what is core and focus on it...