How Colleges Work: The Cybernetics of Academic Organization and Leadership (Jossey Bass Higher and Adult Education Series) |  | Author: Robert Birnbaum
Publisher: Jossey-Bass
List Price: $38.00
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Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 68945
Media: Paperback
Pages: 280
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6 x 0.6
ISBN: 155542354X
Dewey Decimal Number: 371
EAN: 9781555423544
ASIN: 155542354X
Publication Date: July 29, 1991
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
One of the best theoretical and applied analyses of university academic organization and leadership in print. This book is significant because it is not only thoughtfully developed and based on careful reading of the extensive literature on leadership and governance, but it is also deliberately intAnded to enable the author to bridge the gap between theories of organization, on one hand, and practical application, on the other.
?Journal of Higher Education
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| Customer Reviews:
 How Colleges Work August 7, 2008
William J. Carrozzella
Excellent overview of the various different college structures. Author worked hard to create analogies for how college systems were linked, but after getting into middle and later chapters the anlogies made some sense. A good introduction to, as the title says, how colleges work.
The basics of organizational structures June 24, 2008
James D. Patterson (southeastern california)
The author provides a thorough discussion of the four basic organizational structures in higher education. What I found most helpful is that he also provides strategies to help academic leaders be efficient and successful in each of the organizational structures described.
 Review on How colleges work March 2, 2008
Tilahun Gidey Gebremeskal (Tampere, Finland)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book is one of the most interesting books I have read. it is written persuasively and in a clear language. That it uses hypothetical cases also makes readers clearly see what is happening on the ground practically.
Enriching and must book for CEOs October 3, 2000
ZAZA SIAMASHVILI (Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia)
5 out of 12 found this review helpful
I would grade this book as the 10 star must book for every CEO and would reccommend to eveyone who is genuinely interested in the business of higher education administration. The author deals with many types of power and this is, to my opinion, one of the brightest and essential parts of the book. I generally admire Dr. Birnbaum and enjoy reading his books very much. It is a great privilege and opportunity that AMAZON has this book and one can get the book. The other brights sides of this book have been reviewed and thouroughly studied by many professionals. The book has been in great demand at the universities where the highed EdAdmin is studied.
A General Theory for Higher Ed. Administration September 30, 2000
15 out of 15 found this review helpful
A highly theoretical text; Birnbaum takes the reader through a well-planned out dissection of the common systems and "loops of interaction" in a college or university setting. He mainly focuses on the division of power between administrators and faculty, and gives frameworks for how these groups may interact with each other, or within their group. Birnbaum shows the reader 5 fictional samples of institutions of higher education: collegial institutions, bureaucratic institutions, political institutions, and anarchical institutions. In his final section of the text, Birnbaum gives his idea of the ideal institution: the cybernetic institution, which encompasses characteristics of the four other types. I was a little disappointed that Birnbaum did not manage to tie up all the loose ends or to present a solid recommendation about how to create positive change in an institution of higher education. His theories of open and closed systems, dual control, and tight vs. weak coupling, however, are very insightful and well thought-out. A good basic framework.
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