Workplace inclusion is a hot topic, defined as an organizational environment where everyone can reach his or her full potential. Much has been written over the last decade or so and themes of various annual conferences across the country have emphasized the need for socially conscious museums. Creating inclusive work environments and work…

The emphasis on competitiveness and the knowledge-based economy in European policymaking has resulted in a heightened focus on monitoring and steering the science system, particularly through metric-based instruments. Policymakers' general aims of fostering excellent research and breakthroughs are shared by researchers as well; however, below the…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to revive interest in the question, never definitively answered, which Stephen Watson raised in the title of his 2000 paper, "Why is it that management academics rarely advise on their own institutions?" It is argued that finding the answer to the question would not only be interesting in and of…

In this article, we analyse the implementation and change of a specific school reform in Germany using the example of external school evaluation in Lower Saxony: the school inspection. We investigate how and why a newly implemented reform is itself subject to reform shortly afterwards. We begin with a historical background of German school reforms…

This piece critically follows David Bakhurst's 2009 article "Reflections on Activity Theory" in light of recent developments in the field. It sketches three directions for further research. First, it examines his identification of "two strands" of activity theory (AT)--the philosophical, which he associates with E.V. Ilyenkov…

Background/Context: The traditional literature on the history of higher education in the United States focuses on linear explanations of the inexorable growth of the size, mission, and importance of colleges and universities. That approach ignores or minimizes a recurrent strain of discontent with the higher education sector, especially from…

Instructional leadership efforts are complicated when leaders and teachers do not share areas of expertise. Leaders work to bridge this divide through a number of approaches, such as collaboration with specialist personnel and the development of leadership content knowledge (LCK). The purpose of this study was to explore the organizational factors…

A common theme of school reform efforts over the past many decades is the difficulty of spurring substantive improvements in teachers' underlying practice in spite of structural or organizational changes (Mehta, 2013; Tyack & Tobin, 1994). But organizational theorists have noted that this quality of schools--though frustrating for reformers…

The purpose of this study was to investigate participant involvement in community wind bands through the lens of organizational theory to inform the music education profession about community wind bands as an "expressive" voluntary association with potential for lifelong participation. Twenty-eight informants were drawn from three…

A growing body of work regarding teacher learning and implementation of reform has pointed to the significant role organizational contexts play in shaping teachers' engagement with reform and their implementation decisions. Within science education, the adoption of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and standards reflective of the…

This conceptual paper serves to create a model of creativity and innovation at different organizational levels. It draws on John Holland's Theory of Vocational Choice (1973) as the basis for its structure by incorporating the six different personality types from his theory: conventional, enterprising, realistic, social, investigative, and…

Purpose: It has recently been suggested that the learning organisation (LO) is dead (Pedler, 2013). The authors make the case here that it is still alive. This paper provides a brief history of LO and organisational learning, follows this with some survey findings, a discussion and an exploration of some related contemporary issues and concludes…

Educational institutions are places of affective intensity, and feelings and how they are expressed have significant implications for organising in those settings. However, research into role of affect in organising in schools and colleges has only recently caught the attention of education researchers. Consequently, affect does not have the…

A textbook activity on symbols was intended as thought provoking but instead elicited a confrontational reaction by one student which left Dr. Jackson and the university searching for a response. When the topic spread through the channels within the university, matters got worse. This disguised case examines the lesson, conflict, and aftermath…

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…