Course Title: Organizational Theories In Higher Education

        Instructor Professor Pat McDonough
       Institution UCLA
Office Number 310.206.2120
E-mail address mcdonough@gseis.ucla.edu



An analysis of the structure and function of American postsecondary education, emphasizing and comparing characteristics of different types of institutions and systems. We will use organizational theories to analyze American postsecondary education looking at collegiate structure, decisionmaking, leadership, culture, and change by examining colleges and universities as entities with links to wider environments. Each week's presentations and readings will offer broad perspectives from organizational theory and descriptive analyses of specific educational institutions or problems. 

       Week

	 1.	Overview of the Study of Educational Organizations Week

	 2.	Organizational Theories Week 

	 3.	Institutional Analyses Week

	 4.	Organizational Structure Week

	 5.	Organizations and Their Environments Week

	 6.	Organizational Decision Making Week 

	 7.	Organizational Culture Week

	 8.	Leadership Week

	 9. 	Organizational Change and Development

Week 2. Organizational Theories

Required Readings
- Chaffee, Ellen. 1987. "Organizational Concepts Underlying Governance and Administration." in Peterson and Mets, Key Resources on Higher Education Governance, Management, and Leadership: A Guide to the Literature. Pp. 21-27.

- Morgan, Gareth. 1986. Images of Organizations. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications. Pp. 39-76.

- Peterson, Marvin W. 1985, March. "Emerging Developments in Postsecondary Organization Theory and Research: Fragmentation or Integration." Educational Researcher, Vol.14. Pp. 5-12

- Scott, W. Richard. 1987. "The Subject Is Organizations." Organizations: Rational, Natural, and Open Systems. Pp. 1-27.

Resource Readings
- Gortner, Harold, Julianne Mahler and Jeanne Bell Nicholson. "Varieties of Organization Research and Theory." Organization Theory: A Public Perspective. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks Cole. Pp. 1-11.

- Gross, Edward. 1974. Changes in University Organization, 1964-1971.

- Perkins, James. A. The University as an Organization. NY: McGraw-Hill, pp. 3-14.

- Tierney, William G. 1987. "Facts and Constructs: Defining Reality in Higher Education Organizations." Review of Higher Education, Vol. 11, No. 1, pp. 61-73.

Week 3. Institutional Analyses

Required Readings
- Perrow, Charles. 1972 (1986, 3rd Ed.). "The Institutional School." Complex Organizations: A Critical Essay. NY: Random House. Pp. 157-177.

- Brint , Stephen and Karabel, Jerome. "Institutional Origins and Transformation: The Case of the American Community Colleges." in Powell and DiMaggio The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analyses. Pp. 337-360

Resource Readings
- Meyer, John and Brian Rowan. 1977. "Institutionalized Organizations: Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony." American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 83, No. 2, Pp. 340-363.

Week 4. Organizational Structure

Required Readings
- Meyer, John and Brian Rowan. 1978. "The Structure of Educational Organizations." in Organizational Environments: Ritual and Rationality. John Meyer and W. Richard Scott, with the assistance of Brian Rowan and Terrence E. Deal, Beverly Hills: Sage Publications. Pp. 71-96.

- Weick, Karl. 1976. "Educational Organizations as Loosely Coupled Systems." Administrative Science Quarterly. Vol. 21, pp. 1-19.

Resource Readings
- Pfeffer, Jeffrey and Nancy Langton. 1988, December. "Wage Inequality and the Organization of Work: The Case of the Academic Department." Administrative Science Quarterly. Vol. 33, No. 4. Pp. 588-606.

- W. Richard Scott and John Meyer. "The Organization of Societal Sectors." in Organizational Environments: Ritual and Rationality. John Meyer and W. Richard Scott, with the assistance of Brian Rowan and Terrence E. Deal, Beverly Hills: Sage Publications.

Week 5. Organizations and Their Environments

Required Readings
- Cameron, Kim and Mary Tschirart. "Postindustrial Environments and Organizational Effectiveness in Colleges and Universities." Journal of Higher Education, Vol. 63, No. 1, (January/February, 1992). Pp. 87-108.

- Perrow, Charles. 1972 (1986, 3rd Ed.) "The Environment." Complex Organizations: A Critical Essay. NY: Random House. Pp. 192-200, 208-218.

- W. Richard Scott. "The Organization of Environments: Network, Cultural, and Historical Elements." In Organizational Environments: Ritual and Rationality. John Meyer and W. Richard Scott, with the assistance of Brian Rowan and Terrence E. Deal. Beverly Hills: Sage Publications. Pp. 155-174.

Resource Readings
- W. Richard Scott. 1987 "Boundary Setting and Boundary Spanning." in Organizations: Rational, Natural, and Open Systems. Pp.170-209.

Week 6. Organizational Decision-Making

Required Readings
- Gumport, Patricia. 1991. "The Research Imperative." in Wm. Tierney, Culture and Ideology in Higher Education: A Critical Perspective. Prager

- Morgan, Gareth. 1986. Images of Organizations. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications. Pp. 80-95, 148-185.

- Schmidtlein, Frank A. 1987. "Administrative Structures and Decisionmaking Processes." in Peterson and Mets, Key Resources on Higher Education Governance, Management, and Leadership: A Guide to the Literature. Pp. 139-148.

Resource Readings
- Gortner, Harold, Julianne Mahler and Jeanne Bell Nicholson. "Organizational Decision Making." in Gortner, Mahler and Nicholson, Organization Theory: A Public Perspective. Pp. 244-275.

Week 7. Culture

Required Readings
- Clark, Burton. 1972, June. "The Organizational Saga in Higher Education." Administrative Science Quarterly. Vol. 17. Pp.178-184.

- Dill, David R. 1982. "The Management of Academic Culture: Notes on the Management of Meaning and Social Integration." Higher Education, No. 11 (1982): 303-320.

- Morgan, Gareth. 1986. Images of Organizations. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications. Pp. 111-114, 120-140.

- Tierney, William G. 1988. "Organizational Culture: Defining the Essentials." Journal of Higher Education, Vol. 59, No. 1, pp. 2-21.

Resource Readings
- Kempner, Ken. 1990. "Faculty Culture in the Community College: Facilitating or Hindering Learning?" Review of Higher Education,Vol 13, No. 2, pp. 215-235.

- Kolman, Eileen and Don Hossler. 1987. "The Influence of Institutional Culture on Presidential Selection." Review of Higher Education, Vol 10, No. 4, pp. 319-332.

- Masland, Andrew. 1985 "Organizational Culture in the Study of Higher Education." Review of Higher Education Vol.8, No. 2, pp. 157-168.

- Moran, E. Thomas and J. Fredericks Volkwein. "Examining Organizational Climate in Institutions of Higher Education." Research in Higher Education. Vol. 28, No. 4, pp. 367-383.

- Tierney, William G. 1991. "Academic Work and Institutional Culture: Constructing Knowledge." Review of Higher Education,Vol. 14, No. 2, pp. 199-216.

Week 8. Leadership and Management

Required Readings
- Cohen, Michael and James March. 1973. Leadership and Ambiguity: The American College President. NY: McGraw-Hill Book Co. Pp. 1-5, 29-40, 81-91, 195-229

- Kauffman, Joseph. 1987. "The College and University President." in Peterson and Mets, Key Resources on Higher Education Governance, Management, and Leadership: A Guide to the Literature. Pp. 441-447.

Resource Readings
- Bensimon, Estela, Neumann, Anna and Birnbaum, Robert. 1989. The "L" Word in Higher Education: Making Sense of Leadership. ERIC-ASHE Report.

Thomas, Alan Berkeley. 1988, September. "Does Leadership Make a Difference to Organizational Performance." Administrative Science Quarterly. Vol. 33, No. 3. Pp. 388-400.

Week 9. Organizational Change and Development

Required Readings
- Cameron, Kim S. "Organizational Adaptation and Higher Education." Journal of Higher Education, Vol. 5, No. 2 (March/April1984):122-144.

- DiMaggio, Paul and Powell, Walter. 1983, April. "The Iron Cage Revisited: Institutional Isomorphism and Collective Rationality in Organizational Fields." American Sociological Review, Vol. 48. Pp.147-160.

Resource Readings
- Covaleski and Dirsmith. 1988, December. "An Institutional Persepctive on the Rise, Social Transformation, and Fall of a University Budget Category." Administrative Science Quarterly. Vol. 33, No. 4. Pp. 562-587.

- Galaskiewicz, Joseph and Stanley Wasserman. 1988, September. "Mimetic and Normative Processes Within an Organizational Field: An Empirical Test." Administrative Science Quarterly. Vol. 33, No. 3. Pp. 454-479.

- Gortner, Harold, Julianne Mahler and Jeanne Bell Nicholson. "Organization Change and Development." Chpt. 10, pp. 390-419, in Gortner, Mahler and Nicholson, Organization Theory: A Public Perspective.

- Karabel, Jerome. 1984. "Status Group Struggles, Organizational Interests, and the Limits of Institutional Autonomy: The Transformation of Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, 1918-1940."


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