Organization Development for an Engaged Campus: Assessing Narratives and Architecture to Direct Future Change

At the intersection of the fields of engagement and organization development lie the strategies, structures, and processes of community-engaged praxis. This qualitative inquiry focused on the experiences of community engagement professionals at an urban, state-related research university. This study provided an understanding of the activities that contribute to the institutionalization of engagement through the lens of the architectural approach. The architectural approach addresses the key aspects of organization development, including the institutional conditions, design, and infrastructure that interconnect and integrate with narratives across different levels of the university as a system. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the institution’s engaged architecture through semistructured interviews, surveys, and artifact analysis. The qualitative practices aligned with the premises and practices of dialogic organization development. Findings include narratives that emphasize the importance of relationships, the values of the engagement profession, conflict management as a key tool, and the challenges found in disconnects from the strategies or architecture that clarify and support institutional community engagement architecture. These narratives intersect with critical context and institutional praxis that suggests a future organizational change model that institutionalizes community engagement through open-ended inquiry and artifacts that advance key aspects of the practitioner experience.