Linkages between Organizations.

An adult evening education program called SPHERE (Spokane Higher Education Regional Enrichment), which is a consortium of seven private and public institutions of higher learning, illustrates much on the subject of external communication linkage as it applies to schools. External and internal communications problems between member schools are faced daily by the individual directors of continuing education and the director of the independent coordinating agency. SPHERE objectives are (1) to develop and test four selected evening and weekend BA/BS degree programs, (2) to develop and implement an inter-institutional administrative system suited to the degree programs selected, (3) to gather information more clearly defining future academic interests of out-of-school adults and employers, and (4) to clarify inter-institutional criteria for academic quality. The director's responsibilities include coordinating and communicating between schools on course offerings, class scheduling, course tranfer equivalency, etc.; publicizing the program; recruiting and counseling students; conducting surveys to develop new course offerings; monitoring progress of students; and developing future grant proposals. Four types of horizontal communication function on a daily basis: task coordination, problem solving, information sharing, and conflict resolution. Success of the effort is attributed to such communication activities as keeping up with school contacts, keeping accurate and open flow of information operating between schools, dispelling rumors, providing feedback, explaining the mutuality of program benefits, and clarifying and refining purpose and service for all involved. (JT)