This paper presents an empirical analysis of the Ontario-led strategic mandate agreement (SMA) planning exercise. Focusing on the self-generated strategic mandates of five universities (McMaster, Ottawa, Queen's, Toronto, and Western), we asked how universities responded to this exercise of strategic visioning? The answer to this question is…

The author criticizes as inadequate the study of educational organizations based on theories that do not analyze schools themselves and proposes the development of organizational models of schools. The argument builds on Kenneth Boulding's typology of knowledge, which offers neutral middle ground in the debate between phenomenological and…

This paper argues for the sustained study of the organizational nature of schools, which should be conducted through a search for good theories. It outlines what such theories would look like and what might reasonably be expected of them. The essay argues that there now is broader recognition of the organizational characteristics and conundrums…

Rather than concentrating on similarities, it would seem far more profitable to search for ways in which schools are unlike other organizations or the models we have of these. It was suggested that we need to begin building images of schools that are congruent with their reality. This paper attempts the first stage in the task by identifying major…

The workings of schools have not received the attention due them in the study of educational administration. We need to generate new "images" or models of school organization that are more congruent with reality. These models need to be refined through expression and discussion and selected and changed through scientific methodology.…

The author's dissertation, summarized in this presentation, was primarily concerned with the question, "Are public schools like Max Weber's conceptualization of bureaucracy?" From a survey of the literature discussing the nature of organizations, a taxonomy of organizational facets was used, first, to identify and classify the features…

Focusing on the problem of authority, an analysis of the theories of Max Weber, James D. Thompson, and Elliott Jaques forms the basis for this proposal for improved organizational effectiveness in public schools. Basic assumptions are that modern organizations are established and operated under rational principles and subject to rational analysis,…