This book describes the history, structure and institutions of open and distance education in six countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, the UK and the US. It discusses how open and distance education is evolving in a digital age to reflect the needs and circumstances of national higher education systems in these countries, and explores…

Describes features of Bliss Bibliographic Classification (BC2) that make it thesaurus-compatible and a source for thesaurus compilers: facet analysis, terminology source, thesaural relationship source, and updating ease. Problems with using BC2 as a thesaurus source are also considered, and two thesauri based on BC2 are described. (MBR)

One in a series of discussion papers intended to promote exploration of issues related to volunteer motivation, recruitment, and development around the world, this report suggests that any country starting an intercultural exchange program may face problems similar to those encountered in Jamacia. The national director of an organization that…

Compared to children matched for mental or chronological age, 12 autistic children (ages 10-17) showed frontal lobe processing problems on neuropsychological tests. Subjects made more errors on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test and the Milner Maze and took longer to complete the maze but copied a complex figure as accurately and speedily as…

After criticising the prevalent assumption of organizational theory that organizational behavior is based on common typological forms, this paper proposes a political analysis of schools as organizations as a practical theory general enough to be useful to practitioners. The first section reviews the basic elements of comparative structural…

To examine the relationships between the external environment in which a high school exists and the internal structure of the school, a study compared selected resource variables in Connecticut communities and the internal organizational characteristics of the 25 high schools in those communities. The literature suggests external environmental…

A review of the literature on attribution theory suggests that attributional templates may be similar to balanced structures, in that they are cognitive constructs that have an organizing influence on thought processes and exert a similar organizational influence on the memory for social information. Therefore, the three basic attributional…

The attributional perspective on leadership, which suggests the social construction of organizational realities attributes to leadership the activities and outcomes of organizations, was supported by the results of three archival studies and a series of experimental studies. Tables, figures, and 64 references are provided. (DCS)

This essay reviews major trends in methodological and theoretical approaches to the study of organizations since the mid-sixties and espouses the political analysis of organizations, a position representing a middle ground between comparative structuralism and the loosely coupled systems approach. This position emphasizes micropolitics as well as…

Describes how operations on local inverted files are to be modified in order to use them in distributed information retrieval systems based on thesauri. The presented rules may be viewed as the logical approach in implementing a distributed retrieval system consisting of n local retrieval systems. (Author/MBR)

Examines members' identification with their subunit using a sample of 185 elementary school principals' perceptions of (1) the availability of resources, (1) the existence of organization-level planning, and (3) the frequency of controversy about resource allocations. Appended are 34 references. (MLF)

Organizations frequently pursue legitimacy through a variety of substantive and symbolic practices. However, legitimacy is a social judgment that is ultimately accorded the organization by its constituents. Analysis suggests that attempts to increase legitimacy may trigger a series of vicious circles that ultimately decrease legitimacy. (90…

This paper is a progress report of the first phase of a project which essentially seeks to replicate previous studies using the successful/unsuccessful design in an attempt to: (1) corroborate the surface/deep structure conclusion which has become an essential component of an understanding of problem-solving; (2) examine more closely the nature of…

Cautions that, taken to its logical extreme, economic theory ignores the importance of implementation, implies lack of choice in organization decision making, and makes the organization a nonentity. Outlines the fundamental differences between behavioral and economic approaches to business policy. (63 references) (MLF)

Tests for and identifies populations within a family of electronics industries. Data include 669 United States and 144 Japanese electronics firms. Demonstrates the relevance of a general organizational classification for explaining how different natural selection processes affect different populations. (75 references) (MLF)