Managing the Learning University

by Chris Duke

Overview

This book debunks prevailing modern management theories and fashions as applied to higher education. At the same time it provides practical guidance for a clear and easily understood set of principles as to how universities and colleges can be re-energized and their staff mobilized to be effective in meeting the growing and changing needs of the global knowledge society. It is anchored in knowledge of management and organizational theory and in the literature about higher education, which is critiqued from a clear theoretical perspective based on and tested through long experience of university management and leadership.

Chris Duke offers challenging advice for managers in tertiary and higher education - from self-managing knowledge workers who may feel themselves to be the new academic proletariat, to institutional heads, some of whose attempts to manage using strategic planning, management-by-objectives and other techniques seriously unravel because they fail to benefit from the talents and networks which make up the rich 'underlife' of the institution. Loss of institutional memory and failure to tap tacit know-how and mobilize commitment through genuine consultation and shared participatory management inhibits organizational learning and generates apathy - or drives staff dedication and creativity into oppositional channels.

Managing the Learning University indicates how higher education institutions can link and network their internal energies with external opportunities and partners to be successful and dynamic learning organizations. It points the way to enabling an enterprising and valued university to thrive in hard times, and to be a community where it is actually a pleasure to work.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780335207657
Publisher:	Open University Press
Publication date:	05/01/2002
Series:	SRHE and Open University Press Imprint Series
Product dimensions:	6.04(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.53(d)

Table of Contents

Introduction: who manages what?

Changing universities
Managing and people in post-modern times
Managing what abiding university?
Managing through cooperation
Managing the academic enterprise
Managing people and resources
Managing communication and using information technology
Is the learning university manageable?
References
Index

Editorial Reviews

With a long background in tertiary education in Britain, Australia, and New Zealand, Duke offers his insights to people who manage universities at any level<-->or at least, he says, who try and are paid to do so. The project refused to conform to his ideas of a textbook or recipe check-list, so much of the information is embedded in the context that nourishes it. His topics include changing universities, people in postmodern times, cooperation, the academic enterprise, communication and using information technology, and whether the learning university is in fact manageable. The US distribution is by Taylor and Francis. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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