This study developed and validated a conceptual framework to explore the link between faculty receptivity and resistance to innovation and change, and organizational effectiveness. The study also sought to clearly delineate the difference between receptivity, which is defined as an internal or cognitive orientation toward change, and resistance, which is defined as an external or behavioral orientation toward change. Three self-report questionnaires were developed and three others adapted to produce indices that measured: faculty receptivity and resistance to change, faculty self and organizational efficacy, faculty decision-making deprivation, perceived organizational effectiveness, and higher education departmental effectiveness. Study respondents were 799 faculty and 79 academic unit heads at 53 public Carnegie I research universities. Across all measures the study found that established, older, tenured male faculty tended to be most resistant to change, although it also found that the level of receptivity and/or resistance was innovation-specific. The study also found a correlation between faculty decision-making deprivation and faculty perceptions of organizational effectiveness. Two tables provide regression data; and an appendix contains definitions of the study variables. (Contains 40 references.) (CH)