Administration can be defined as getting the work of an enterprise done; good administration constitutes a disciplined effort to keep the enterprise operating effectively, at top form. Four concepts characterize the structure of American higher education: diversity, equalitarianism, local control, and mixed state and private enterprise; some of these qualities are uniquely American, and some may be used as models for higher education in other nations. Policy-making in American higher education has three central tendencies: (1) participation of several distinct groups (lay trustees, professoriate, students, and alumni) in governance; (2) the diversified membership of boards of trustees, as compared with the historical clergy board; and (3) the influence of teachers in defining teaching and research policy. There are six central concepts in the operational control of American higher education: (1) administration as an ordered plan for performing the organization's work; (2) a stabled organization is required; (3) authority and lines of authority must be established; (4) authority involves willing cooperation; (5) an administrator must be an able and persuasive communicator of ideas and sentiments; and (6) able and persuasive communication is the primary factor in good administration. What American educators have learned from these tendencies and concepts may be useful to educators in other countries, specifically in Japan. (Author/MSE)