Suggestions for improving communication and public relations are offered in this guidebook for school office personnel. Because of the high visibility and accessibility of their positions, such staff serve important public relations functions for the school. Chapter 1 examines the public relations role of school office personnel, and chapter 2…

School administrators' uses of subjective understandings and common language to gain and maintain power and predictability in their environments are described. Micropolitical theory, with a focus on language, is utilized to understand administrators' knowledge of the assumptive worlds of their subculture, and how these assumptive worlds constrain…

This paper describes research based on the Effective Schools Project, a collaborative project between the University of Washington and the Seattle School District. The research was undertaken to determine the amount of change that took place in two rural high schools over two years and to analyze the factors that contributed to those changes based…

A survey of faculty and selected administrators of liberal arts colleges was conducted, with the goals of achieving a greater understanding of the academic workplace for faculty in liberal arts colleges and identifying ways in which the vitality, commitment, morale, and productivity of the faculty could be enhanced. A total of 9,204 faculty in 142…

In an attempt to discover management attitudes toward productivity, including management's views about worker attitudes and their motivation, managerial practices and organization, and possible changes to effect improvements in productivity, the United States Chamber of Commerce surveyed a sample of 1,870 top business executives across the country…

The involvement of state agencies in program discontinuance in higher education was studied, based on the responses of 46 agencies. It was found that 32 state agencies were actively involved in recommending, initiating, or enforcing actual discontinuances. The following eight categories of obstacles to program discontinuance were identified: legal…

The context of educational reform within which U.S. higher education has worked in selected Latin American countries is examined, with attention directed to the specific experience of the University of New Mexico. The evolution of the Latin American Programs in Education office (LAPE) in the university setting, the organizational milieu in which…

The University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, a former state teachers college, undertook a major organizational change during the period 1974-1977. The chancellor, new to the position at that time, was faced with two mandates: (1) to "turn around" the institution, then facing retrenchment, and (2) to involve faculty in institutional…

The purpose of this program evaluation was to provide a comprehensive assessment of the effectiveness of the Schools Without Failure (SWF) program. In a study of the SWF program in several schools in a midwestern, metropolitan school district, three sets of variables were measured: student outcomes, classroom characteristics reflecting SWF program…

An independent evaluation report (May 1971) by Educational Coordinates Northwest, this document examines the Oregon Small Schools Program (a Title III project of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act). Three major areas were considered: the extent to which member schools implemented methodological and organizational changes, the established…

The gender dimensions of direct participation in organizational change were examined in a survey of general managers at 32,582 workplaces in the following European countries: Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Responses were received from 5,786 managers (response rate,…

In March 2000, thirteen grants were awarded as part of the Individual Training Account/Eligible Training Provider (ITA/ETP) Demonstration. In summer and fall of 2000, the grant recipients' activities were subjected to an interim evaluation. Site visits were made to each grantee to determine what ITA policies and practices were being formulated,…

A research project studied in depth four organizations using organizational learning approaches to embed continuous learning within actual work processes. The most sustainable benefits, in terms of both individual and organizational needs, tended to result from "action" or "situated" learning that is informal and accrues…

The BEST (Building Exemplary Systems for Training) Initiative was evaluated in meeting the following goals for youth workers: (1) increase and strengthen training opportunities at the local level; (2) help communities develop professional development systems; (3) build local capacity to make training accessible and supported by youth-serving…

This document contains four symposium papers on cultural issues in organizations. "Emotion Management and Organizational Functions: A Study of Action in a Not-for-Profit Organization" (Jamie Callahan Fabian) uses Hochschild's emotion systems theory and Parsons' social systems theory to explain why members of an organization managed their…