UMI/ProQuest URL

 

http://80-wwwlib.umi.com/dissertations/fullcit/3006957

PUBLICATION NUMBER

 

AAT 3006957

TITLE

 

Higher education organizational systems: A comparative perspective

AUTHOR

 

Breen, Patricia A

DEGREE

 

PhD

SCHOOL

 

FIELDING GRADUATE INSTITUTE

DATE

 

2001

PAGES

 

149

ADVISER

 

Veroff, Jody

ISBN

 

0-493-16202-X

SOURCE

 

DAI-A 62/02, p. 480, Aug 2001

SUBJECT

 

EDUCATION, HIGHER (0745); EDUCATION, ADMINISTRATION (0514)

 

ABSTRACT

 

Higher education organizations in the United States are competing for students, for dollars and for reputations. Some consider their adoption of practices that have contributed to the success of business organizations as one solution. It is not clear whether or how such alternative practices will impact an organizational system or its components. This study compares the perspectives of faculty from 2 differently organized universities. One is a nonprofit university organized in the more traditional collegial model with tenure, faculty governance and autonomy and the other is a for-profit university organized as a business in which faculty were “employees at will” without such conditions. Through a nondirective, qualitative interview, faculty perceptions about their teaching, themselves and their organizations were developed and analyzed for both unique and common themes using a dramaturgical frame. Regardless of the organizational context, faculty in both universities held similar views about their teaching. Interactions with students were the most satisfying and fulfilling aspects of their work. Student learning provided the source and measure of their achievement. They grew and developed as teachers in the same ways. They felt free to address the needs of their students. An essential and common condition appeared to be their belief in the teaching mission of their universities. The organizations held both similar and different meanings for faculty in several regards. However, faculty relationships with students were more important to them than their relationship with their university.