"Coupling" is a concept used within education, business, and organizational management literature. Its application to organizational management literature allows researchers to understand how organizations function. This article argues that coupling theory can be applied to advising systems' technical (practice) and authoritative…

Following decades of quality management featuring in higher education settings, questions regarding its implementation, impact and outcomes remain. Indeed, leaving aside anecdotal case studies and value-laden documentaries of best practice, current research still knows very little about the implementation of quality management in teaching and…

Over the last decade, higher education institutions (HEI) implemented Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems and spent millions of dollars in order to improve their strategic planning, implement change management, streamline best business practices, increase productivity and bring competitive advantages. HEI in United Arab Emirates (UAE)…

This qualitative study identified the best practices utilized by community colleges to achieve systemic and cultural agreement in support of the integration of institutional effectiveness measures (key performance indicators) to inform decision making. In addition, the study identifies the relevant motives, organizational structure, and processes…

The use of two management strategies by 14 liberal arts and comprehensive colleges attempting to recover from serious financial decline during 1973-1976 were studied. The adaptive model of strategy, based on resource dependence, involves managing demands in order to satisfy critical-resource providers. The constructive model of strategy, based on…

Part of a special issue on organizational research utilization, this article discusses loose coupling and "garbage can" theories of higher education administration, applies a political anthropological model of "anarchy without chaos" to three episodes in university administration, and concludes that universities are tightly…

An institution with a marketing orientation can (1) recognize shifts in the market and in perceptions of activities of significant markets or competing institutions and (2) respond to them. Institutions with strategic marketing may be better able to predict or influence market shifts and be judged as effective in the areas it prefers. (MSE)

This report presents the theoretical background of the Stanford Project on Academic Governance. It argues academic organizations differ in major respects from more traditional bureaucracies; hence it is necessary to develop a suitable model of decision-making for use in studying academic governance. The characteristics that set academic…

Focusing on theoretical and empirical relations among power variables, faculty job involvement, and college organizational effectiveness, a study found that power behaviors variously affect one's sense of job involvement and overall effectiveness of one's college. Implications for academic administrators' behavior are discussed. (Author/MSE)

Four contingency theories of leadership are explored and contrasted. Predictions of leader types and leader behaviors that would follow from each are counterposed. External functions of the leader and interactions with organizational members who are not subordinates are discussed. (Author/MLW)

A model of strategic adaptation that focuses on how organizations adapt to both conditions of growth and decline is presented. The theoretical structure underlying the model is considered, with attention to organizations, niches, and environments, as well as environmental change and evolving niches. The model attempts to reconcile the perspectives…

Historical perspective on the development of collaborative and adversarial models of participatory governance in community college organization. The collaborative model depends on shared values among its participants, while the adversary model operates by power struggle between groups. The decision on which model to adopt requires self-study…

Outlines the rational model of organizational governance in higher education, and describes conflicts between its assumptions and American Indian values underlying the tribal college mission. Suggests a cultural model of organization as more appropriate for tribal college administration. (SV)

A conceptual model offering four perspectives on organizational life (structural, human resources, political, symbolic) is outlined, and it application to the formal organization of a newly-established urban higher education center is described. Use of the model was found to enhance analysis of problems and understanding of organizational…

Five models of organizational decision-making are described, and a case study of the rational model as seen in the budget process at Stanford University during the 1970s is presented. Several issues are addressed to help administrators who are interested in increasing the organization's rational decision-making. The five models are as follows: the…