This chapter of "The Best of the Best of ERIC," Volume 2, contains 16 summaries of documents and journal articles on improving school climate, all of which are indexed in either "Resources in Education" or "Current Index to Journals in Education." The materials included deal with various aspects of this topic, such as…

An exercise is presented that is designed as a training aid for junior administrative and/or academic staff in their first 6 years of service in universities. It is intended to help participants think about management principles in general while trying out their own ideas for solving the specific problems outlined. It will also permit individuals…

The reconciliation of federal purposes (to bring change to those who do and those who don't welcome it) with a user-driven system (a system that maximizes user self-determination) is the basic paradox analyzed in this speech. One of the principles of organizational development is that unless the individual's perceived self-interest can be engaged,…

This paper reexamines the concept of organizational maintenance and argues that the common assumption of an inverse relation between maintenance and the sensitivity of organizations to client needs is not valid. A logical analysis suggests that maintenance should lead to a greater sensitivity to environmental forces that control important…

A guide for agencies in setting up new employee development programs or a tool for assessing existing ones, the paper presents an eight-step process for organizational training. Step 1 commences with the identification and ranking of learning needs, or conducting a needs assessment. Step 2, selection of learning objectives, includes a job analysis…

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…

As academic libraries increase in size and become more complex, their organization tends to become more bureaucratic in nature and resistant to change. This paper describes a range of both internal and external strategies which have been used to introduce constructive change into the management of academic libraries in North America and the major…

Research into the process of educational change has centered largely around the diffusion concept--the spread or permeation of an innovation from system to system or from school to school throughout a particular state or number of states. It is as if many teachers and administrators have understood the purpose of educational change to be the…

Differentiated staffing has emphasized development of teacher leadership roles, the importance of shared decision making in schools, and the constructive ways in which paid instructional aides and volunteer aides can support the professional teaching staff. Eighteen annotated bibliographic citations concerning the various aspects of differentiated…

This study attempted to examine the organizational structures of elementary schools in terms of complexity, centralization, formalization, stratification, and job satisfaction; and to analyze the relationship of these variables to the adaptiveness of elementary schools. More specifically, it compared the Multiunit School-Elementary (MUS-E) type of…

A preliminary review of the literature indicates that previous research undertaken to identify communication competencies by those in business produced a wide range of findings. The studies may be placed in one or more of the following categories: geographically limited in population, limited solely to business executives, or concerned only with…

The response of black colleges and universities in the area of community development are discussed in relation to management and organization development, telecommunication, human resource development, educational innovations, and environmental services. Management and organization development encompasses small business development, public service…

A meta-goal of organization development is that of helping participants establish appreciation for and skill in using objective data about themselves. The prominent method for soliciting and sharing such data has been survey feedback. An Organizational Development (OD) consultant should have at least three skills in order to use survey feedback…

The authors apply a model of tribal behavior ("Cargo Cultism") to explain practices of modern college faculties regarding the rejection of collective bargaining as a means to attainment of personal "goods" and the disdaining and destruction of alternative types of residency requirements for degrees that might produce greater institutional "goods."…

The Vice President for Personnel Services, Ohio State University, contends that affirmative action is an expression of, and an ingredient of, thoughtful and progressive personnel administration. (Editor/JT)