Bridging the Divide between Faculty and Administration

James L. Bess is Professor Emeritus at New York University, USA. Jay R. Dee is Associate Professor of Higher Education and Director of the Higher Education Doctoral Program at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, USA.

• ForewordAcknowledgments PrefaceChapter One: Perennial Conflicts between Faculty and AdministrationChapter Two: Paradigm Differences as the Underlying Sources of Conflict between Faculty and Administrators Chapter Three: Communication and Conflict in the AcademyChapter Four: Faculty-Administration Conflict and Institutional Effectiveness Chapter Five: When Time is of the Essence: The Temporal Dimensions of Conflict in the AcademyChapter Six: Enhancing Communication and Collaboration between Faculty and AdministrationChapter Seven: Summary and Conclusions: Toward Improved Understanding, Cooperation, and Effectiveness References

"Bess and Dee have written a thoughtful and thought provoking book to help us think and rethink how we come together as a community. They encourage us to readjust our perspectives, examine our language, and think about what we say, how we say it, and to whom we communicate. This book takes the perspective that supporting administrators and faculty, through understanding and meaning making, can move them toward collaboration and happier endings."—From the foreword by Mari Koerner, Dean of Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College, Arizona State University"In Bridging the Divide between Faculty and Administration, Bess and Dee bring their encyclopedic knowledge of organization theory to an examination of academic governance and decision-making in contemporary higher education. Bess and Dee’s contribution—and it is not a small one—is to reframe the problem of governance in ways that deter us from taking many of the knee-jerk, but largely ineffective, paths, and focus our attention on what the real, underlying sources of our differences are. In doing so, they challenge both faculty and administrators to move beyond our comfort zones. Their book should be an indispensable resource to both administrative and faculty leaders seeking to move their institutions forward in difficult times as well as a resource for training prospective leaders."—Martin J. Finkelstein, Professor of Higher Education, Seton Hall University