I have been following this thread with great interest, naturally, being a
community college instructor and administrator. My dissertation was on
community colleges as learning organizations. I do think that educational
environments share many of the same problems that plague corporate ones,
but I also think that universities (or any institutions of higher
education) have many characteristics that set them apart. That there are
troubled universities is not surprising; we are in the midst of another
cycle of change -- revolution, if you will -- in higher ed, and change is
always troublesome for organizations that have changed relatively little
in hundreds of years. It is also difficult for educators, professionals
who operate within bureaucracies -- there is a tension between those two
characteristics, and not always a healthy tension.
Some books that talk about the culture of higher ed that I have found
informative are:
William H. Bergquist. (1992) The Four Cultures of the Academy. San
Francisco: Jossey-Bass
Corwin, R. G. (1969). "Professional Persons in Public Organizations." In F.
D. Carver & T. J. Sergiovanni (eds). Organizations and Human Behavior. (pp.
212-227) New York: McGraw Hill.
Cornesky, R. A., et. al. (1992) Using Deming to Improve Quality in Colleges
and Universities (6 ed.) Madison, WI: Magna Publications.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0912150130/learningorg
Deal, T. E. & Kennedy, A. A. (1982) Corporate Cultures: The Rites and
Rituals of Corporate Live. Rading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0201102870/learningorg
Freedman, M., et. al. (1979). Academic Culture and Faculty Development.
Berkeley: Montaigne Press.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0917430026/
Gaff, J. G. (1976). Toward FAculty Renewal. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass
Kuh, G. D. & Whitt, E. J. (1988). The Invisible Tapestry: Culture in
American Colleges and Universities. Washington, D.C.: George Washington
University.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0913317454/learningorg
Perkins, J. A. (ed) (1973) The University as an Organization. New York:
McGraw Hill.
Peterson, MW., Dill, D. Mets, L. & associates. (1997) Planning and
Management for a Changing Environment: A Handbook on Redesigning
Postsecondary Institutions. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0787908495/learningorg
Scileppi, J. A. (1988) A Systems View of Education: A Model for Change
(rev. ed.) Lanhanm, MD: University Press of America
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0819138541/learningorg
Rowley, D.J., Lujan, H. D., & Dolence, M. G. (1997) Strategic change in
colleges and universities: Planning to Survive and Prosper. San Francisco:
Jossey-Bass
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0787903485/learningorg
O'Banion, Terry. (1997) A Learning College for the 21st Century. Phoenix:
Oryx Press.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1573561134/learningorg
--[Host's Note: For this longer list of books, I've taken the liberty of inserting a line with an Amazon link after each of the references. These, as usual, are presented in association with Amazon.com
Thanks, Harriet, for the reference list!
..Rick]
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>