Educators have recently become more willing to realign the educational system. One approach is restructuring, which can take many forms. This study looks at three districts that restructured teaching, two with career ladders and one with shared governance. The reforms took two directions--professional and bureaucratic--which had important…

Discrepancies between actual and desirable organizational cultures, with a focus on the implications for improving administrator training, are examined in this report. The desirable characteristics of a productive school culture are determined and compared with the perceptions of Australian and U.S. staff. A mailed survey of 587 practitioners in…

Much of the story of illiteracy is about the powerless, and reporting on it can focus on who lacks power and why. However, much of the untold story about illiteracy is about people with power who are choosing not to wield it--educators, economists, elected officials, presidential candidates, corporate leaders, publishers, and the literate public…

The condition of the academic profession today is examined with a focus on the teaching and research functions in the academy. The diverse settings in which academics work are considered in three parts: (1) the foundations of the academic profession (the evolution of institutions; the elaboration of disciplines; and the open system); (2) the…

Although spouse abuse is a common occurrence it rarely results in prosecution; among the reasons for the low prosecution rate is the disproportionate degree of power in the marital relationship. To look at instances of spouse abuse in black and white families, and to examine the distribution of decision making influence in these homes, 366…

Even though the first citizens of the United States were skeptical about singular authority, the Constitution gave the president independent authority and strong powers. But as chief executive, he would be responsible to the people for the exercise of those powers. The modern presidency is a product of 200 years of growth and experience, yet much…

Student brinkmanship in residence halls, resident assistant (RA) leadership, and residence social climate are discussed. In "brinking" the system, students challenge authority in ways that provide scant grounds for the institution to apply punishment. The study looks at relationships between: the RA's leadership behavior and student…

Employees who "blow the whistle" on their company because they believe it is engaged in practices that are illegal, immoral, or harmful to the public, often face grave consequences for their actions, including demotion, harassment, forced resignation, or termination. The case of Allan McDonald and Roger Boisjoly, engineers who blew the…

Mechanic's (1962) conceptual model of power of lower participants was empirically tested, with a focus on the relationship between chairpersons and departmental secretaries of academic units. Power was defined as the ability of a person to have access to and control over information and individuals. A questionnaire was developed that covered the…

Perceived influences of biology and English department heads were investigated using a discriminant analysis test of Biglan's model. Attention was directed to the influence of discipline versus the structural variables of department size, type of institution, and highest degree awarded. Questionnaires completed by 586 heads of biology and English…

A general theory of bargaining that is applicable to all types of bargaining situations and that provides a framework for analyzing the stages of the bargaining process is presented. Bargaining theory is critiqued with special attention directed to theories of Zeuthen, Hicks, Pen, and Chamberlain. The proposed framework in bargaining power is…

Uniting research on parental control techniques with studies examining adolescents' perceptions of conjugal and parental power, this study investigates adolescent perceptions of parental persuasive communication. One hundred ninety adolescents from two small midwestern high schools were asked to complete a questionnaire. The first four sections of…

A longitudinal study of the relative influence of wives and husbands in deciding whether a wife should work was conducted in Seattle, Washington. A sample of 378 married couples of similar socioeconomic status (SES) was interviewed in 1977, and of these, 349 couples were interviewed a year later. The husbands' perceptions of the relative influence…

The relationship between the congruence, strength, and type of organizational culture and organizational effectiveness was studied, based on questionnaire responses by 3,406 administrators, faculty department heads, and trustees from 334 colleges and universities. Respondents rated the extent to which certain characteristics were present at their…

Students have learned social and political responses to the power structure of the schools. A critical self-study by schools is one kind of democratic reaction to the challenge students are offering. (DW)