Date of Award
6-2026
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education (EdD)
Department
Executive Leadership
First Supervisor
Dr. Angela Clark-Taylor
Second Supervisor
Dr. James Ver Steeg
Abstract
Strategic planning is an important framework for community colleges to prioritize educational outcomes with institutional mission and vision statements. Research from the past 10 years shows that plans are created, yet implementation is often lacking. Though workforce development is viewed as to updating curriculum and training needs for in-demand industry skills, limited empirical evidence demonstrates commitment to workforce development programs, nor any devotion to workforce strategic planning.
The purpose of this study was to learn what strategies community college leadership is utilizing to implement, assess, and evaluate their strategic plans for prioritizing sustainable noncredit workforce education and training. Guided by the stakeholder theory (Freeman, 1984; Parmar et al., 2010), a review of the leadership perspective and level of stakeholder inclusion was included to answer the question: How does public community college leadership balance the priorities of stakeholders and be fiscally responsible for workforce development programming?
A qualitative, descriptive, multi-case study approach was used with semi-structured interviews with community college internal and external stakeholder leaders to explore the field of practice on strategic planning for workforce development in community colleges. Four community colleges with common criteria were selected for this study. An in-depth exploration of each case, followed by cross-case analysis identified the themes of the workforce system, barriers, partnerships, data, and sustainability of workforce structure plans. Rapid change in labor market needs, grant funding, and changes in federal funding guidelines require continuous stakeholder engagement and annual workforce strategic framework planning in community colleges.
Recommended Citation
Wakefield, Jennifer Gilbert, "Stakeholder Engagement in Workforce Strategic Planning: A Multi-Case Study of Community Colleges" (2026). Education Doctoral. Paper 648.
https://fisherpub.sjf.edu/education_etd/648
Please note that the Recommended Citation provides general citation information and may not be appropriate for your discipline. To receive help in creating a citation based on your discipline, please visit http://libguides.sjfc.edu/citations.