Macro-administration refers to the theory and practice in the administration of transinstitutional and trans-societal organizations. These are organizations which extend authority and control over multiple units within society. There are three directions which future research may take in the systematic study of macro-administration in American higher education. These are sub-paradigms derived from other sources, but all of which may be applied to higher education. First, the federation sub-paradigm is based upon the political analogue in which a government of the federation and a set of governments of the member units both rule over the same territory and people, with each retaining some autonomy. These can take the form of a "periphalized" or a "centralized" federation. The second is the sub-paradigm on policy and administrative practice. This would be translated into studies comparing the conceptual behavior of man with the cultural behavior of man within an administrative framework. In the third, the empirical history sub-paradigm, the mathematical formulae suggested by Mason Haire are fitted to institutional growth patterns. Two of the sub-paradigms have a direct relationship in prior use in the real world of research, and the policy administration sub-paradigm is rooted in a firm, logical substantive framework. (DS)