The global COVID-19 outbreak has disrupted schooling worldwide. Remote and limited face-to-face school management during the pandemic brought to bear the numerous challenges facing schools and principals throughout the crisis, which, in turn, gave rise to changes in their leadership practices and roles. The professional literature needs conceptual…

Systems theory has been a staple in organizational communication textbooks since the field's inception (Miller, 2015; Poole, 2014). Nevertheless, the authors' classroom experiences have revealed that systems theory may not seem applicable to students due to its complicated nature. While examples and cases can help students make sense of the…

The importance of public education has never been greater as we enter the dawn of a new millennium. Innumerable efforts have been focused on improving public education, but the unfortunate result has been an array of fractured, piecemeal efforts. What is needed is a systemic approach to go from "tweaking" to "transforming"…

Alumni relations and stewardship officers have the makings of a strong partnership. Alumni relations and stewardship can be a natural fit--a perfect match even--according to Mary Jo Chiara of St. Joseph's College (SJC) in New York. Both strive to cultivate long-term relationships with constituents and build increasing levels of engagement and…

Beth Kanter is working hard to get the word out about how best to get the word out. Kanter is CEO of Zoetica, which provides word-of-mouth communication services to nonprofits and socially conscious companies; a decade-long blogger on the topic of social media and nonprofits; and a popular conference speaker and trainer. She is also co-author of…

The organization of a school can best be understood as a loosely coupled set of overlapping systems: the student system concerned with student education and development, the faculty system concerned with maintaining professional standards and effective teaching, the parent system focused on the relationship between the school and the child, and…

The vision of academic and business leaders often sets a pattern for all activities to follow. Organizational objectives, tasks, performance, and uses of resources are needed to obtain and reach current and future society trends influencing organizational goals. This paper identifies 5 steps leaders need to create a systems approach toward…

Ultimately, making financial aid "freshman friendly" also makes financial aid "sophomore friendly," "junior friendly," and "senior friendly." Indiana University has in place an Office of Enrollment Management (OEM) model that includes focused financial aid packaging strategies complemented by unique contact…

Many universities, colleges, and independent schools face the reality of geographically expanding alumni bases, likely combined with constant or decreasing budgets for alumni activities. Well-intentioned colleagues understand the potential power of a geographically diverse alumni network but do not always grasp the time and complexity associated…

Can higher education institutions continue using planning and self-evaluation processes that are decades old without any reform? Several recent monographs urge institutions to embrace continuous improvement processes that engage systematic planning and department self-evaluation across whole campuses, but they do not show institutions how to do…

This book presents a schoolwide model of instructional support designed to make the most of available time, resources, and personnel--one that is also fully compatible with other problem-solving models, such as response to intervention. The authors provide a comprehensive and cohesive framework for linking assessment and intervention. They show…

In dealing with Knowledge Management (KM) literature, we have to diagnose three essential points: first, we have detected a lack of comprehensive theoretical models based on "grand theories", secondly, we have discovered an overemphasis of "good" values, like openness and trust, that help organisations to learn. And thirdly, we have to recognise…

The focus on the achievement gap and growing debate about No Child Left Behind (NCLB) reauthorization have sparked increased recognition that schools alone cannot meet the learning needs of American children. There is growing interest at all levels in identifying non-school supports and opportunities that both complement learning in schools and…

Organized action need not depend on group consensus. Karl Weick's theory argues that only minimal shared understanding is needed and that common ends and shared meanings may be outcomes of organized action, not prerequisites. This paper reveals four communication mechanisms that generate and sustain equifinal meaning (multiple routes to a single…

Offers two illustrations of how newspapers can plan and organize a systems approach to streamline their circulation departments. (RL)