The mere word "bureaucracy" brings to mind images of endless lines, piles of paperwork, and frustrating battles over rules and red tape. But some bureaucracies are clearly more efficient and responsive than others. Why? In "Teaching, Tasks, and Trust", distinguished political scientists John Brehm and Scott Gates show that a good part of the…

Schools must have the capacity to change. School administrators must be able to find a balance in distributing administrative authority in schools. In an effort to evoke meaningful change within the organization of secondary school structures, administrators must be advocates of change and support their staff members by decentralizing key roles by…

Worth and Asp (1995) identified four characteristic roles that are likely to be engaged by higher education fund-raisers: salesperson, catalyst, manager, and leader. In this study, a questionnaire was designed to elicit the level of importance that development officers, place in each of the four roles. One hundred and seventy-nine randomly…

With the increasing number of Latina and Latino students in California schools, the need was clear for a mentoring program that not only increased the growth rate, but also supported the retention rate of Latina and Latino school superintendents and educational leaders. Such leaders are most often perceived by Latina and Latino students as…

To obtain the views of practitioners on the importance of statements found in administrative job descriptions, a 73-item questionnaire was sent to 340 school administrators in Georgia. Of those, 207 administrators responded. The questionnaire dealt with the tasks, functions, and responsibilities of administrators and supervisors found in job…

Mary Berry, the new provost at the University of Maryland, discusses her problems and future prospects as being one of the highest ranking black women academics in the U.S. (Author/PG)

Presents a personalized account of the difficulties administrators of English departments face in maintaining an effective department and still balancing the budget. (RB)

Selection of new chairmen is organized into 5 steps. Chairmen are evaluated according to procedures outlined by the academic vice-president. The guidelines presented are adapted for the use of the school of arts and science and can be augmented by an analysis of the chairmen's perceptions of his position. (Editor/PG)

Educational administrators' concern with planning and time management results from the fragmentation of their daily activities, which research has documented, and their consequent search for order and control. Time is important because its scarcity affects productivity and its use has social-psychological effects on staffs' perceptions of…

At this workshop, opinions were expressed on the value of certain attributes of a president, such as: his personal qualities of self-esteem, intelligence, patience, and idealism; his role as an example to school and community; his integrity and human warmth; his interest in young people; an ability to work hard under pressure without loss of…

The Campus Governance Project investigated the nature and significance of the governance processes on 17 institutionally diverse colleges and universities in order to find commonalities across and within institutions. A pre-interview questionnaire was designed to elicit perceived problems at the institution and names of people seen as good sources…

The Getzels and Guba social systems model was used to develop hypotheses for obtaining knowledge concerning: 1) "real" leadership behavior of department chairmen as described by themselves and faculty; 2) "ideal" leadership behavior of chairmen as described by themselves, deans, and faculty; and 3) responsibility, authority and…

In order to play a proper role in the making of sound academic policy, the Board of Trustees must begin by taking itself seriously, and the first place for that is the choice of its members. It is essential that some members of the Board should be present or recent members of the professional academic community--teachers, research workers,…

This paper, the second in a series, enumerates and analyzes the duties of the community college department/division chairman and makes observations on the evolving role of the chairman from a quasi-administrative officer to a ministerial functionary. It looks at the relationship of the chairman to the dean of instruction who is his immediate…