This multi-case study examines the Performance funding (PF) policies in four Midwestern states to explore how PF metrics and weights address racial diversity in higher education. Performance funding policies in Illinois, Kansas, Ohio, and Minnesota were examined using both document analysis and semi-structured interviews with state level actors…

Governing multi-level education systems requires governance models that balance responsiveness to local diversity with the ability to ensure national objectives. This delicate equilibrium is difficult to achieve given the complexity of many education systems. Countries are therefore increasingly looking for examples of good practice and models of…

Identifying the assumptions of the dominant, functionalist paradigm in considerations of educational administration as inadequate, this study proposes an alternative paradigm: a politics of schooling that can both describe administration and organization and contribute to the development of leadership as praxis. Criteria for an adequate theory of…

Essential features of the absolute bureaucracy and the organic structure are outlined and related to intrinsic requirements for the provision of complex services such as teaching and counselling. The two organizational patterns are examined in terms of influence relationships, plasticity, and administrators' assumptions. (TE)

As more women enter the managerial ranks, organizations are finding it necessary to address the possibility of gender bias in managerial performance ratings. To investigate the existence of gender bias in managerial performance ratings as they relate to problem-solving strategies, 197 college students (46 percent female) and 127 managers (of those…

Previous management research supports the view that comprehensive planning and participative decision-making are important factors in reducing community opposition to educational policies. To investigate the possibility that neither of these strategies necessarily has this effect, a survey was undertaken of 53 school districts that had experienced…

A 3-year research project was conducted to compare the conflict management behavior of school superintendents and city managers, both of whom are professionally trained experts held accountable to lay legislatures. Chapter 1, "Professionalism and Responsiveness," addresses the inherent tension, in a democracy, between elected officials'…