The governing structure of Harvard University is reviewed, and the findings include the following: (1) Harvard's present administrative and governance structure utilize corporate techniques of management that allow the president to diffuse administrative tasks without diffusing power--the difficulty of locating responsibility in the decentralized…

This document discusses the desirability of creating a synergistic business/education relationship. The most pressing problems of urban education and education reform are not conceptual or analytic, but managerial. Dysfunctional public education will affect business in the future because the products of the education system will enter the work…

During the past two decades, community colleges have vigorously pursued the expansion of mission and clientele. However, resulting increases in student numbers, services, and facilities have not been matched by additional local, state, and federal revenues. This tension between continuing expansion and available resources, along with increased…

The increasing use of test results as a mechanism of educational reform is diminishing local control of schools and changing the curriculum to train students to pass tests rather than to educate students. (MLF)

Survey research establishes that beardedness correlates with many desired outcomes and supports that a minimal level of beardedness be set as a prerequisite for high school graduation. Research problems of concept clarification, domain-definition, instrument development, and standard setting methods are discussed. The political considerations of…

The Japanese theory of participatory management is seen as thriving on American campuses under the rubrics of shared governance and collegiality. Participatory management, quality control circles, lifetime employment, superordinate goals, and interdependent leadership are discussed. More commerce between academic administrators and corporate…

Few administrators fail to become leaders because they lack technical skills. The problem is lack of people skills and inability to exercise good judgment. Administrators can minimize failure by valuing honesty, objectivity, delegation, and feedback and by respecting chain of command and the limitations of power. Other potential pitfalls are…

The essential elements of school board governance involve four dimensions: (1) setting the vision for what the community wants the public school program to be; (2) ensuring that districts have a solid staff infrastructure to achieve the vision; (3) setting standards; and (4) advocating for schools. (MLF)

College and university administrators can apply lessons learned from corporate management to expected financial pressures of the 1990s. Problems requiring strong leadership include unclear expectations of staff; weak measurement systems; accelerating change; and the strangling effects of excessive administrative processes. (DB)

The author lampoons twenty-first-century academic priorities. Using a fictional campus facing state-mandated budget reductions, the author parodies a system that retains high-salaried administrative and public relations positions, special-interest majors, athletic programs and junior/ad-hoc faculty, while relinquishing admissions staff, library…

This essay considers recent implications of "new public management" (NPM) strategies for the universities of Germany. It argues that NPM poses a threat to the traditional values of the academic profession, and asks what the universities should do to restore public trust in their methods and management.

In the United States, the relationship between state governments and public colleges and universities is being redefined with new notions of autonomy and accountability, and with funding policies that are highly market-driven (often referred to as "privatisation") as the centrepieces. Situations and institutional strategies unthinkable…

Team building and delegation are two of the most important tools available to division chairs or academic officers for increasing productivity and allowing employees to grow, but they are both often misunderstood, misused, or unused. Teams are small groups with the authority and technical, interpersonal, and managerial skills to carry out…

This essay formulates some recommendations for educational administrator preparation programs and predicts the course of their future development. While the case of medical practice as a paradigm for the practice of educational administration is found only generally useful, the clinical analogy yields the suggestion that educational leader…

The study of educational administration should continue its trend toward a qualitative interpretation of reality and abandon the positivistic, scientific approach of the last 25 years. Herbert Simon's work in 1945 set the field upon the path of accepting the assumptions of positivistic thought as the limits of scientific inquiry in administration,…