Open AccessThe Nature of Policy-Making in Universities
Author(s) -
William H. Taylor
Publication year - 1983
Publication title -
canadian journal of higher education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2293-6602
pISSN - 0316-1218
DOI - 10.47678/cjhe.v13i1.182882
Subject(s) - conceptualization , bureaucracy , variety (cybernetics) , policy making , politics , set (abstract data type) , policy analysis , process (computing) , public administration , political science , phenomenon , sociology , positive economics , public relations , economics , epistemology , computer science , law , philosophy , artificial intelligence , programming language , operating system
Policy-making in universities has been characterized in a variety of ways. The bureaucratic, collegial, political, and organized anarchy models have all been proposed as descriptions of the process. Although each of these models is useful in the study of university policy-making, they fail to provide a complete explanation of the phenomenon. An alternate approach to the conceptualization and analysis of policy-making is proposed and applied to a recent case at The University of Calgary. The proposed model describes policy-making as a set of "policymaking systems" each of which is temporary in nature and develops in response to an identifiable stress in the institutional environment.