Reviews recent objections to Total Quality Management (TQM), suggesting that the reported implementation problems are a product of inadequate leadership rather than defects in the model. Indicates that compatibility between organizational culture and the tenets of TQM must exist to avoid such implementation problems. (27 citations). (MAB)

Provides a review of the total quality management movement and process, and advocates applying it to higher education as a solution to current problems. Customer emphasis, continuous improvement, developing human resources, and using tools for process development are described; and examples from specific academic institutions are included.…

Educational administration has been shaped by the metaphor of organization. From organizational and management theory, and from economics, the parent of organizational theory, educational administration has borrowed definitions of quality, productivity, and efficiency; strategies to achieve them; and theories of human nature and motivation.…

This essay discusses changes in higher education management over the last several decades, focusing on the "mystiques" of the 1990s, total quality management (TQM) and diversity. It notes that since the 1950s, higher education has witnessed many fads in institutional management, from management by technique to management by style to management by…

This monograph analyzes the philosophical foundations of research into the administration of educational organizations. The first part reviews past debates about the philosophical foundations of research in educational administration, focusing on three contending schools of thought: the empiricists, the phenomenologists, and the critical…

This volume is part of a series of monographs from Australia devoted to outlining an alternative approach, based on neo-Marxist concepts, to educational administration. Beginning with a discussion of the contested relationship between the individual and the state, the politics of administration is set within the debate over liberalism, Marxism and…

Adults who work in Montessori schools often experience loneliness, stress, and burnout. Evidence suggests that the way an organization is managed has considerable impact on the mental health of the people who work in it. It is important to recognize that leadership and managerial roles differ. The head of a school, as leader, moves the…

Causes for optimism in attitudes about education include the growing maturity of educators about the inter-connectedness of things, the increasing realization of the revolution in fairness that presently permeates the society, and a growing impatience with laxity in education. Schools are striving for educational equity, improved inservice teacher…

A fundamental distinction is drawn between competence and excellence in schooling. Competence refers to meeting predetermined objective standards; excellence is multidimensional, holistic, and readily perceived, though not easily defined. Accordingly, five "forces" of educational leadership are presented as preconditions for educational…

This article summarizes the School Management Model discussed in the author's book, "Improving School Performance." Effective communication, staff evaluation, and performance information are presented as keys to building teamwork and upgrading performance. Teacher merit pay is analyzed in light of the model. (MJL)

Conditions of administrative practice in 1959 are summarized and influences shaping the transformation of schools and administrators' roles since then examined. The thesis is that basic assumptions of practice have been revised and that present administrators must be more political and advocative while functioning under more stress. (MJL)

Management development and training is a vehicle to help make higher education management more professional by working with institutions' own managers on institutional problems. An integrated, systematic program for management development created by the Higher Education Management Institute and the Exxon Education Foundation is recommended. (MSE)

Instances from case studies of comprehensive schools in the United Kingdom show that cultural influences restrict possibilities of "rational" action by educational leaders. This article warns against business theory and concludes that we need to know more about how people in schools make choices. (Author/TE)

This essay examines the administration of public multi-campus universities, focusing in particular on central administration and the State University of New York (SUNY) system and on responses to the need for fiscal austerity. Before treatment of the main topic begins, the essay offers a look at five reasons for the suspicion and resentment that…

Special education is experiencing the effects of educational reform. Examples include rethinking of service delivery, collaborative versus authoritarian leadership, teambuilding and inclusionary practices replace exclusionary practices, and diversity issues. These changes are creating ethical and moral dilemmas for school administrators. In…