The expansion of big data and analytics has led to the diffusion of institutional research functions across campus departments. In this new environment, IR professionals expect to lead and coordinate various institutional analyses. This article presents a four-quadrant framework to facilitate the dynamics between data analysis and decision-making.

As institutions seek to shift into more advanced analytics and data-based decision-support, many institutional research offices face the challenge of meeting the office's current demands while taking on more intricate and specialized work to support decision-making. Given the great need organizations have for information that supports real-time…

This chapter describes efforts to gather and utilize qualitative data to maximize contextual knowledge at one university. The examples provided focus on how academic departments use qualitative evidence to enhance their students' success as well as how qualitative evidence supports the institution's broader strategic planning goals.

The growing literature on academic departments and their chairmen is evaluated from both a theoretical and a research perspective. Issues deserving greater attention are identified, and specific research is proposed to assess the viability of the departmental structure. (LBH)

Variations in the role behaviors of chairmen are examined within the context of Biglan's model and suggestions are offered to enhance the selection, development, and evaluation of these academic administrators. (LBH)

Management information needs vary as a function of departmental complexity, goals, and services. A model is proposed to enable institutional researchers to serve better the distinctive information needs of academic departments and their chairmen. (LBH)

A former department chairman briefly critiques the salient issues addressed in preceding articles. Specific insights into the concept of power in academic departments and the style of departmental management are provided, based upon his experiences as a chairman. (LBH)

To help college and university administrators become more conscious of the legal implications of their actions, this article explores the emerging legal constraints on the management of academic departments and the administrative roles of their chairmen. (LBH)

A model from the occupational sociology literature is used to examine how the interactions of the environmental characteristics of academic departments and the personal characteristics of chairmen are related to the job satisfaction and career intentions of chairmen. (LBH)

Analysis of responses of 36 academic departments in a research university to a newly-implemented program review process after its first 6-year cycle, and to the 236 specific recommendations emerging from it indicated departments were most likely to act on recommendations if action was explicitly assigned and that most department chairs felt the…

Departments are the basic organizational units of academic institutions, and their power contributes to growing pressure for accountability. Their role in resource allocation determinations is examined. (Editor/LBH)

Effective management and sound education require the development of sophisticated departmental budget models and processes. Efficient methods of resource allocation compatible with institutional organization, goals, and needs have not yet been put into effect. (Editor/LBH)

Procedures permit grouping departments on variables that provide an equitable basis for departmental funding. The series of steps is outlined whereby the financial significance of various process and role variables can be determined. (Editor/LBH)

Each institution has an existing planning style, and new approaches to academic planning must take into account institutionalized planning practices. Four planning styles are examined: needs assessment, program data, retrenchment and reallocation, and economic incentives. (Author/MLW)

The instructional service component of academic departments is explored due to concern for the development of a budgetary plan that accounts both for the inherent differences in disciplines and the concomitant instructional methodologies affecting input and output properties and for operational differences among departments. (LBH)