An interview with Marie McDemmond, president of Norfolk State University (Virginia) and the first woman to head a Virginia public university, examines her response to the university's hidden fiscal crisis, her conception of shared leadership, her experience as a woman administrator, controversies over her spending choices, and administrative…

Considers strategies for the implementation of quality improvement in libraries. Highlights include structured quality improvement, especially Total Quality Management; organizational change; customer focus; continuous improvement; data-based decision making; systems thinking; employee involvement in decision making; diffusion of innovation;…

Colleges can avoid getting stuck with obsolescent and inadequate technology if governing boards can distinguish between the essential and the grandiose. This requires being clear about the purposes of the needed technology, being realistic about the outcomes, building full cost into budgets, involving faculty and staff in its use, and taking the…

The development and five-year history of the University of Minnesota's environmental scanning effort, a strategic approach to institutional management, are discussed. Over time, scanning efforts became less theory-based and failed to become institutionalized. Inherent limitations in the organizational structure and culture of educational…

The recent experience of the business school at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville in overcoming structural obstacles to curriculum development is discussed. Drawing on an automobile industry model for organizational change, the school used an interdisciplinary approach to curriculum design and implementation. Characteristics of the…

Discusses library collection development, comparing the good old days of volume counts, Association of Research Libraries (ARL)/Research Libraries Group (RLG) Conspectus, and fund allocation with the present of document delivery, consortia, electronic access to full text journals. Contends that the electronic world is not supplanting the paper…

Explores the need for agreement between universities and their employees concerning their mutual obligations in terms of a regulated work contract, and the creation of separate structures for teaching and research, which by relying on market mechanisms both internal and external to the university, would enable the latter to tackle its educational…

A study investigated the circumstances and views of 16 individuals 8 years after participation in one agency's conversion from a sheltered workshop to an exclusively community employment service. Most participants associated the agency's changeover with long-term, personal benefits, including community employment opportunities, increased income,…

This commentary discusses whether the American Association on Mental Retardation should change its name. It reviews the history of professional terminology regarding individuals with mental retardation and stresses the need for the AAMR to change its name using terms that envision and announce a social purpose for the organization. (Contains…

Uses a content analysis of case studies to explore solutions to the barriers faced by organizations when using distance education. Highlights include technical expertise, support, and infrastructure; administrative structure; organizational change; evaluation and effectiveness; social interaction and quality; student support services; feeling…

A study of 27 employees of an agency that provides services to persons with developmental disabilities investigated using the six-item Guttman scale, based on the Levels of Use framework, for monitoring the adoption and implementation of person-centered planning and other supports-oriented programs. High scores indicated likelihood of…

As individuals contemplate a new worldview of leadership education, they must step back to reflect on what now shapes and constrains leaders in schools. Their understandings of traditional leadership are rooted in organizational theory that is focused on rationality, effectiveness, and efficiency of bureaucratic institutions, defining the…

This paper examines the life history narratives of a group of 12 black and white male and female undergraduate students at a historically white Afrikaans medium university, now undergoing its own transformation in post-apartheid South Africa. Conceptualizations of identity and discourse across four elements of context, setting, situated activity…

The study presented in this article focuses on three questions: (1) What elements of current leadership models appear most salient in guiding large-scale technology implementation efforts? (2) Which factors affecting the change process seem most important to participants in the context of technology change, and how do they describe them? and (3)…

Restorative practices focus on repairing the harm to relationships rather than piling on more punishment for violations. Originally popularized in formal conferences between a victim and offender in the justice system, restorative practices have been extended to educational and treatment settings. This article describes how the adversarial climate…