What makes an excellent University department? LO23077

rbacal@escape.ca
Sun, 31 Oct 1999 23:36:14 -0600

Replying to LO23039 --

On 27 Oct 99, at 12:29, Eugene Taurman wrote:

> I do believe that attitude
> which drives behavior is caused by management. That would be true for
> professors just as it is for production or office workers. The system of
> management is most likely at the root of the problem not the individual
> professors. So look at the way you manage if you do not like attitude.
> That is a complex process and very hard to do but it is the only way to
> impact attitude.

I think it's a bigger thing, Eugene. It isn't so much the system of
management at a specific "place", but the culture that exists in academe
across the board.

Perhaps more importantly, it may not be appropriate to think of
universities MANAGING their academic staff...at least not in the
universities of merit I am familiar with. There may be an administrative
structure or process, but beyond that, I don't think there is a lot of
managing going on.. it's not part of the academic culture.

Besides, managing academics is like trying to make pigs fly.

Robert Bacal, Performance management resources (books,lists,articles) at http://performance-appraisal.8m.com

-- 

rbacal@escape.ca

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