Management Strategy, the CEO′s Cognitive Style and Organizational Growth/Decline: A Framework for Understanding Enrolment Change in Private Colleges

Develops a model which links organizational growth and decline to competitive strategy, the strategy‐making process and the personal characteristics of the chief executive officer. The model was empirically tested for private liberal art colleges where the size of the student enrolment is a dominant factor for the vitality of the institution. The major findings of the study are: enrolment growth is associated with focused strategy, the CEO innovative style,differentiation and assertive strategy‐making process; and the major discriminating factors between institutions experiencing enrolment growth and institutions experiencing enrolment decline are focused strategy and the CEO innovator cognitive style. Discusses and examines the policy implications of the study.