System-level consultation or organizational development in schools is an area in great need of theoretical models and definitions. The three articles in this special issue provide a unique learning opportunity not only for consultation across borders but also for consultation within the same nation. In my commentary, I limit my remarks to a few…

Following a landmark organisational change event within the University of Western Sydney, when the university ceased operating as a federation of four distinct, inter-related elements and merged to become a single entity, four foundation College Managers made a strategic decision to form an alliance. This alliance significantly enhanced the…

The goals of organization development in higher education are to improve the quality of work life for faculty and staff and to improve the effectiveness of the institution in facilitating student development and learning. (Author)

The authors argue that organizational development (OD) has evolved as one response to the need for strategies and approaches to planned change. The "stream analysis" approach presented here can be used to understand and plan the change process. This approach can facilitate insight into the state of the change process, before and after…

Considers the elements of organizational effectiveness, the relationships between ends and means, and the nature of inputs necessary to the organization's survival. Presents hypotheses for industrial, educational, and military organizational planning processes and training technology, and suggests changing planning focus from inputs to outcomes.…

The purpose of this article is to demonstrate that structural and behavioral changes are not mutually exclusive, but rather complementary. It discusses origins of the behavioral-structural controversy, major behavioral symptoms of structural problems, advantages of structural interventions, reluctance to utilize structural interventions, and…

A model of organizational analysis and renewal specifically designed for community colleges was developed to take into account internal functioning as well as the demands of external constituencies. The model is based on three elements: differentiation, referring both to the division of labor and the attitudes and subcultures that result from that…

Working with the Philadelphia-based Institute of Interactive Management, several teams at Jackson Community College (JCC), in Michigan, set out in 1994 to learn and apply an interactive design methodology to selected college subsystems. Interactive design begins with understanding problems faced by the system as a whole, which in the case of JCC…

As part of a symposium intended to present a conceptual framework for networking and to discuss the implications of network usage for education research and practice, this paper presents a review of the leading change strategies and poses a definition of education change network. Education change network is defined as a linkage structure that has…

Universities are characterized by the independence of faculty, the strong hold of academic disciplines, the limited but real power of academic administrators, and unbounded institutional aspirations. Foundations feature the desire to effect change, but within practical limits. The interplay between these two sets of actors highlight the importance…

Describes a change program developed for a small manufacturing firm to enable management to cope with organizational change and development. Intervention methods included data collection, anonymous questionnaires, a confrontation meeting, and introduction of change technologies using the organizational analysis approach. Benefits and problems…

Under current societal conditions in which the environment and the economy are neither stable nor permissive, homeostatic organizations are in extreme danger of being modified, controlled, or extinguished by outside forces. It is no longer a question whether management change should take place in order to keep organization renewal processes at…

Current federal hiring problems result in processes that do not meet the needs of (1) agencies in achieving their missions, (2) managers in filling positions, and (3) applicants for a timely, efficient, transparent, and merit-based process. Federal human resources directors from the 24 major federal departments and agencies found time-to-hire a…