Experienced librarian and coach Ruth Metz outlines a focused and results-oriented plan for achieving the best results from staff members through a coaching style of management. Real-world examples and coaching scenarios specific to library work will help librarians: (1) Be both a coach and a player by learning the terminology and techniques; (2)…

This article presents an interview with two effective spokespeople, notable school librarian Sara Kelly Johns and retired public library administrator Molly Raphael, who compete to be American Library Association (ALA) president. One of them will be elected president of ALA for a year's term beginning in July 2011. Each candidate comes from a…

Purpose: This paper seeks to understand whether significant senior management and structural changes within an Australian university is the result of learning or other influences and how these explain the impact of change on the careers of two individuals within the organisation. Design/methodology/approach: The organisation and the changes are…

Purpose: The purpose of this research paper is to explore the learning process associated with international mergers and acquisitions (M&A) integration strategies. Design/methodology/approach: The paper employs a comparative case study methodology, utilising qualitative data through in-depth interviews with top management responsible for…

Unbundling is the process of deconstructing established structures and routines and reassembling them in new ways. It can occur as structural unbundling, which concerns the physical structures and delivery systems of schooling, or as content unbundling, which concerns the scope and sequence of what is learned.

Reformers hope that by unbundling schools--taking apart the current structures and routines and putting them together in new ways--we can create better schools. But there is no guarantee that it would improve schools in three areas that we know matter: coherence and infrastructure, the instructional core, and political accountability. However,…

This paper focuses on assessing possible levers in the hands of a university's top management team for inducing or managing change when faced with environmental drives. The topic is discussed after analysing change in a university over a 20-year period. The case study underlines the opportunities and difficulties of linking external environmental…

A training department revamp is a huge, but not impossible, undertaking, and a chore that may be inevitable every now and then. Taking the plunge and deciding to rebuild one's training structure can offer a sizable return on investment to one's senior executives, and a more effective learning strategy for employees. The tricky part is ensuring the…

The development of a "sustainability agenda" in higher education (HEFCE 2009) is, it seems to the author, a classical example of supercomplexity in action. In this article, the author argues that the challenge for universities in responding as organisations to the demands of sustainability--which must, in the end, mean reducing fossil…

For the past two years, superintendents and school boards have directed school budget managers to "contain costs" wherever possible, to remove the wants and needs from their budget requests, and to focus on the essentials. Given the condition of the federal and state economies, this request is understandable. In Missouri, legislators…

Community college leaders serve as linchpins for framing meaning on campus. The current pressures on institutions (given declining financial resources, demands for accountability, changing faculty ranks, and societal need for new knowledge) require presidents to juggle multiple priorities while presenting a cohesive message to campus constituents.…

This is the second brief in a series, "Building a Post-Care Service System in Child Welfare: Lessons Learned from the Frontlines of Implementation Science in Catawba County." This brief describes how implementation science principles informed technical assistance strategies used in Catawba County to support the full and effective use of…

An effective innovation system requires productive interactions between all its parts. Within Australia there is a view that business-university interactions are suboptimal. Government has set a target for doubling the interactions between business and publicly funded researchers by 2020; and the Group of Eight has a strategic priority to build…

This dissertation explores and explains the organizational responses of Mexican public state universities to an ambitious incentive-based policy created by the federal government in 2001: "The Integral Program for Institutional Strengthening" ("PIFI"). Drawing upon literature on organizational-environmental relationships and on…

Scope and Method of Study: This study used a qualitative, case study methodology. The purpose was to identify key factors in the transition of the University Center at Tulsa to Oklahoma State University-Tulsa. Findings and Conclusions: An inductive analysis approach to the data collected assisted with the explanation of the evolution of the…