Action research can play an important role in institutional research endeavors to improve the quality of organizational performance in higher education. This article outlines how the action research perspective informed a research design that integrated fragmented and isolated student success initiatives at a large urban two-year institution where…

Previously, improving counselor wellness focused on helping counselors cope with stressful environments. More recently, research has begun to emphasize healthy work environments. This article makes suggestions for organizations to enhance wellness in mental health practice and schools by changing policies, increasing professional identification,…

A study of the science research activities in China's institutions of higher learning in recent years indicates that there is a major connection between the current instances of corruption in scientific research at colleges and universities and the evaluations system for scientific research implemented at many of the colleges and universities.…

Purpose: Trade unions, like many other membership-based social movement organisations, are confronted by the challenge of growth and revitalisation. Declining membership numbers, an increasingly restrictive legislative framework, and dramatic changes in modes of employment have combined to challenge many unions to rethink the way they work. In…

The organizational-development approach argues that major educational innovations require changes in the culture of the school or college. This book demonstrates how strategies based on organizational development (OD) can bring about constructive organizational change in work settings. OD is based on the following assumptions: (1) Groups differ…

Chaos theory, dissipative structures analysis, and complexity theory have all been used in various branches of the sciences to examine patterns of change in complex systems. This paper considers how educational theory and research can benefit from changes in scientific fields as diverse as quantum mechanics, fluid dynamics, geology, and economics…

This book offers a set of stories in which corporate executives demonstrate the folly and futility of their own business practices. In the stories, 12 executives are trying to escape from a hell of their own making. The tales provide insights into the management woes with which people at all levels deal on a daily basis. Topics include: the…

The National Center for the Accelerated Schools Project at Stanford University has recognized that district-level change is necessary if changes at accelerated schools are to gain permanence and become widespread. The Center has therefore initiated a research and development project to design a set of models on which districts can reconstitute…

This paper examines and analyzes a Human Services reform initiative in West Virginia and shows how various components responded to the reform particularly in identity construction. The analysis used an immunological metaphor within a Foucauldian understanding of power and knowledge. The study gathered data through participant and observer…

In the early 1980s, a series of research studies reported that American schools had failed to produce literate and numerate graduates. This shortcoming was linked to the nation's declining economic position in the world marketplace, which led to a widespread, intensive school-restructuring movement. Drawing on multiple perspectives, the purpose of…

This three-part sourcebook identifies school restructuring initiatives with a national scope and presents comprehensive information about them. Part 1 identifies and describes national restructuring programs (e.g., Coalition of Essential Schools, Learning Tomorrow, Success for All). Each program description provides an overview of the program as…

Skills required for developing staff evaluation models are closely linked to skills required for staff development. Leading a vital, growing, innovative, dynamic school system requires risk-taking, stretching, painful, exhilarating change. This change is accomplished through staff development. Real staff development is not confined to one or two…

This document consists largely of paper versions of the transparencies used by the author to give his conference paper on Total Quality Management (TQM) in the college and university setting. An introduction lists a series of definitional phrases, a list of what TQM is not, and 11 fundamental principles describing what TQM is. The three major…

The loosely coupled organizational approach is evaluated in this paper. This essay evaluates this line of research by focussing on an analysis of schools, which are usually considered to be the epitome of loosely structured organizations. It is argued that distinguishing the mode and degree of organizational coupling and control depends on where,…

This paper chronicles the organizational life of two high schools in the northeastern United States as they responded to the national impetus for change. The study used a methodology employing ethnographic field study methods including field notes, interviews, and artifact collection and analysis. Riverside High pursued a locally initiated change…