Colleges and universities are best understood as networks of departments working together to fulfill a mission of education, innovation, and community partnership. To better understand how these large and complex institutions function, scholars can apply organizational and strategic planning concepts made familiar by business management. This book follows that model and explores the new and emerging ways by which organizational theories address major contemporary concerns in higher education.

The contributors to this volume are both influenced and inspired by the pioneering work of Marvin Peterson and his four-decade career researching higher education organization. Comprising a serious reexamination of the field, the essays review past and current thinking, address the field’s core theoretical traditions, and pursue exciting new lines of inquiry, including the organizational dynamics of diversity and social movement organizations.

Ideal for courses in administration and theory, this book reinvigorates the study of higher education as an organization and encourages scholars to rediscover the value of organizational principles in all areas of higher education research.

Contributors: Michael N. Bastedo, University of Michigan; Patricia J. Gumport, Stanford University; James C. Hearn, University of Georgia; Adrianna Kezar, University of Southern California; Jason Lane, State University of New York at Albany; Simon Marginson, University of Melbourne; Michael K. McLendon, Vanderbilt University; Anna Neumann, Columbia University; Brian Pusser, University of Virginia; Fabio Rojas, Indiana University; Daryl G. Smith, Claremont Graduate University; William G. Tierney, University of Southern California; and the late J. Douglas Toma, University of Georgia