Critical Action Learning (CAL) is undertaken with an awareness of the persistent tension in organisations between the desire to learn and defences against learning. Attempts to learn in organisations are inevitably bound up with the specific emotional and political context that organisations create, as well as the impact that this has on the…

The authors write that the longer they study and work in organizations, the more they discover power to be one of the central issues which researchers and students must understand. Researchers who ignore power run the risk of spurious, irrelevant findings. Students who assume administrative positions without a proper understanding of power and how…

Terms such as "leader", "manager", "teacher" and "student" prevail in most schools and, accordingly, school hierarchies are viewed as rational ways of organizing teachers and their work that institutionalize authority. We are deeply concerned that the term "teacher leadership" has crept into…

Principals and administrators need to demonstrate management authority and leadership behavior. Discusses the strengths and weaknesses of different styles and how different leadership styles affect organizational climate. Includes a figure. (MD)

Discussions of learning in practice and in workplaces have been carried out within the various theories of learning. More recent discussions have unveiled the complexity inherent in learning in workplaces by acknowledging the presence of power relations in practice. However, the discussions fall short of an analysis on another more paramount power…

Conceptions of politics and myths of campus politics are explored, the organizational context for the politics of curriculum development are examined, the dynamics of "pork barrel" curriculum development (i.e., driven by self-interest) are outlined, and criticisms of this process are considered. (MSE)

One way universities have served society since the Middle Ages is by providing an environment giving students and faculty freedom to explore new ideas without fear of retribution. Properly used, conflict can be the catalyst for advancing wisdom. However, the university is at risk when rational discourse is replaced by conflict as the means of…

Describes some experiences of a female associate dean in a university faculty within the framework of a typology of power to reveal its changing nature. The typology contains five components of power: power over others; structural factors; power through others (facilitative power); power with others (empowerment); and personal power. (Author/MSE)

Describes power structure of corporations functioning under Theory W in which single leaders, in partnership with trusted followers, achieve corporate success. Basis of this industrial structure is attributed to social and developmental structures of prehistoric man and city states. Dimensions of W, X, Y, and Z theories are discussed. (MBR)

Longitudinal survey research permits examination of the influence profiles of free-standing faculty senates and coexisting senates and faculty unions on U.S. college campuses. The forces prompting flow of power away from faculty deliberative bodies are discussed and the future of senates in hard times is examined. (MSE)

Within academic health centers there exists a well-established "pecking order" influencing daily life and reflecting fundamental relationships between medicine, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, and allied health. Relationships between individual professionals and between schools within a center are examined for clues to possible change. (MSE)

A changing society makes new demands on leaders and on the organizations they design and manage. Recent social science research has clarified some of the relationships among power, power-sharing, and effective leadership and has indicated that power attached to a wide variety of organizational positions can enhance the organization's productive…

Purpose: This paper seeks to surface less positive aspects of communities of practice (CoPs), regardless of emergent or organisationally managed, grounded in political-power interactions. Examples are provided from the authors' experiences of a research-based CoP within UK higher education. Design/methodology/approach: The paper is primarily…

Issues concerning whether to centralize or decentralize decision-making are addressed, with applications for colleges. Centralization/decentralization (C/D) must be analyzed with reference to a particular decision. Three components of C/D are locus of authority, breadth of participation, and relative contribution by the decision-maker's staff. C/D…

Changes in a Home Economics curriculum at Lehman College of the City University of New York from 1979-1988 are examined, and a line of inquiry first reported in 1983 is continued. A secondary, feminist analysis of the earlier data, combined with the current data, discloses the extent to which the patriarchal academy will go to attack the…