This book considers various facets of academic culture, discusses how to study it, how to analyze it, and how to improve it in order to move colleges and universities aggressively into the future while maintaining core academic values. This book presents updated versions of eight key articles on organizational culture in higher education.

William G. Tierney is University Professor and Wilbur-Kieffer Professor of Higher Education and Director of the Center for Higher Education Policy Analysis at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. He has conducted research on colleges and universities for twenty years, the results of which have appeared in numerous journal articles, book chapters and books. His most recent book is Trust and the Public Good: Examining the Cultural Conditions of Academic Work.

1. The Strange Case of Organization Culture; PART ONE. DEFINING ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE 2. Facts and Constructs. Defining Reality in Higher Education Organizations; 3. Organizational Culture in Higher Education. Defining the Essentials; PART TWO. EXAMINING ACADEMIC LIFE 4. Academic Work and Institutional Culture. Constructing Knowledge; 5. An Anthropological Analysis of Student Participation in College; 6. Organizational Socialization in Higher Education; 7. Models of Minority College Going and Retention. Cultural Integrity Versus Cultural Suicide; 8. A Cultural Perspective on Communication and Governance; PART THREE. THE ROAD AHEAD 9. A Cultural Analysis of Shared Governance. The Challenges Ahead; Index.