This article describes an attempt by a group of Harvard and M.I.T. graduate students to use organization development methods for the first time in a large urban school system. The group concluded that (1) organization development consultants must be aware of the different environment within which large city school systems operate, (2) such an…

This report on the relationship of a complex organization (such as a big-city school system) to its environment critiques the theory and method developed by Paul R. Lawrence and Jay W. Lorsch for analyzing this relationship. To test their approach to organizational analysis, the author conducted a research project in a large urban school system.…

Six major causes of organizational conflict (individual stress, role conflict, power struggles, differentiation, interdependence, and external pressures) are delineated; implications for managing these conflicts using collaboration, bargaining, and power plays are pointed out; a conflict management paradigm pointing out which mode of conflict…

A contingency theory for managing conflicts in organizational settings is proposed. Collaboration, bargaining, and power approaches to conflict management are all appropriate, given certain situations. The situations and the costs and benefits of using a given strategy under varying conditions are discussed. (Author)

Current practices of planning-programing-budgeting systems in educational organizations have been criticized because they impose objectives, emphasize hierarchical control, and foster unproductive climates. A new method, organizational development, makes effective use of human behavior and when used with PPBS could provide an efficient system for…