The practice and profession of institutional research and the Association for Institutional Research, which emerged in the 1950s and grew and consolidated in the 1970s in response to the changing concerns of higher education, face fragmentation and uncertainty in the 1980s. (Author/MLW)

Understanding the climate and culture of the campus is essential to improving organizational effectiveness. Institutional researchers will be influenced increasingly by research in this area, by improving their awareness, defining important dimensions of the institutional culture, establishing benchmarks for future reference, actively undertaking…

Based on a national survey of college administrators' (n=3,333) views of planning, this study investigated the relationship between having a chief planning officer to coordinate planning functions and perceptions of and attitudes toward campus planning. Results suggest the presence of a planner increased perceptions of more rational and…

The implications of the new environmental realities of postsecondary education governance/management and telematics for institutional research as a practice and profession challenge the Association for Institutional Research to take a more proactive leadership strategy. (Author/MLW)

Using a theoretical model of institutional culture, organizational climate, and faculty motivation, a study examined how faculty (n=1,123) and administrators (n=381) in 10 colleges differed in their perceptions, whether differences were affected by institution type, and to what extent faculty and administrators had different implicit models of…