This paper develops a new, broader, and more realistic lens to study (lacking) linkages between government policy and school practices. Drawing on recent work in organization theory, we advance notions on cluster of organization routines and the logic of complementarities underlying organizational change. This lens allows looking at how schools do…

Community colleges are challenged with creating and sustaining student success organizational change. Institutional-level student success reform efforts are needed to combat the unacceptably low student completion rates, but colleges often struggle to initiate and maintain organizational reforms. After many years of reform efforts, researchers…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the merger of two distinct higher education institutions. The change process was studied from the perspective of multiple stakeholders, and its major outcomes were evaluated in terms of various dimensions of success. Design/methodology/approach: The study uses a qualitative research design. For the…

Two separate school districts--a city one and a county one--operated independently in Durham, North Carolina, until the early 1990s. The two districts merged relatively late compared to other North Carolina cities, such as Raleigh and Charlotte. In Durham, residents in both the county and city systems vehemently opposed the merger until the county…

Over the past decade, universities in Ireland have been implementing large-scale institutional change designed to better prepare them for the multitude of pressures they face. Changes have been taking place, for example, in approaches to institutional management and leadership practices and in decision-making structures. However, despite the rapid…

The paper aims to identify views of school principals and teachers about organizational change process at primary public schools in Turkey as regards content, context, process and outcomes dimensions. The paper employs a qualitative study internalizing phenomenological approach. Criterion sampling strategy is used to get an in-depth understanding…

Despite the popularity of planned change efforts, the failure rates of implementation are as high as 50 to 70 percent (Lewis & Seibold, 1998). While these efforts are affected by technical issues, the organizations' approach to change, structure, technological capabilities, and organizational culture and communication practices are…

Virtual work environments (VWEs) have been used in the private sector for more than a decade, but the United States Marine Corps (USMC), as a whole, has not yet taken advantage of associated benefits. The USMC construct parallels the bureaucratic organizational culture and uses an antiquated information technology (IT) infrastructure. During an…

The article analyses how steering and organisation of German and Norwegian universities have developed after both countries with Humboldtian university traditions introduced New Public Management-inspired governance reforms during the first decade of the 21st century. The article outlines different organisation ideals and values involved in…

Considers issues involved in the change process within organizational culture. Highlights include adopting an appropriate management style; evaluation of performance; aspects of change; implications of change for people management; degrees of change; resistance to change; and an example of planning and implementing a new information technology…

Explores why learning communities have become so pervasive in higher education and the challenges faced by the learning communities movement, including challenges of student learning and faculty development, diversity, institutional change, and purpose. (EV)

This paper describes the challenges and benefits of an action-research project with a Nashville-based nonprofit human service organization. In our view, outmoded human service organizations are in serious need of innovation to promote psychological and physical wellness, prevention of social problems, empowerment, and social justice. This project…

This paper describes the development and implementation of a collaborative, interdisciplinary curriculum program, the Quest program. Implemented at a suburban New England high school, the program was loosely based on the tenets of the Coalition of Essential Schools. Ethnographical methodology included document analysis, participant observation,…

Over the last 2 decades, education in Ontario, Canada, has undergone several changes, including an increased emphasis on process skills and the learning process itself. This paper presents findings of a study that examined the role of the secondary school department head in the change process, particularly in curriculum implementation, staff…

Researchers who view schools as cultural organizations have tended to assume that they are monocultural entities. This paper presents a view of complex secondary schools as multicultural organizations. It discusses findings of a year-long study that examined the professional culture within two high schools in Washington State as each attempted to…