Agency theory has long been studied in the corporate setting and used to explain perfor- mance in management and in boards of directors. However, little has been done to extend this research into the area of not-for-profits. Using data collected from member institu- tions of the Council of Independent Colleges, relationships between boards of trustees and presidential demography and institutional performance were examined. Data were ana- lyzed using panel regression with a separate panel for each year's data and for each of the responding schools. Using revenue and gift income as dependent variables, it was found that increases in the size, average tenure, and level of business executive background on a board led to subsequent increases in performance for the institution. Diversity of the board had mixed results, whereas presidential tenure improved performance. These find- ings partially support the hypotheses and extend the explanatory reach of agency theory into the not-for-profit sector.

Agency Theory in the Not-for-Profit Sector: Its Role at Independent Colleges

Higher Education and State Governments: Renewed Partnership Cooperation or Competition

The ability of trustees to make independent judgments in the best interests of the university is a fundamental characteristic of an effective governing board. Trustee independence is increasingly threatened, however, as the university becomes more deeply embedded in government, industry, networks, and the professions. This topic is investigated through analysis of qualitative interviews, focus group observations, and informant-produced documents from 59 public university presidents. It is argued that threats to trustee independence are produced primarily through a process of moral seduction that allows trustees to engage in self-interested decision making while maintaining an ethical self-concept. The article then provides a conceptual model to frame our understanding of how important social actors seek to capture and co-opt boards of trustees to serve external interests and describes how the institutional mechanism of moral seduction creates important policy considerations.

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Conflicts, Commitments, and Cliques in the University: Moral Seduction as a Threat to Trustee Independence.

Although the authority for hiring a community college president resides with the board of trustees, few studies have directly explored trustees’ perceptions of the desired qualifications for presid...

Trustees' Perceptions of the Desired Qualifications for the next Generation of Community College Presidents.

Approximately a decade ago, in contemporaneous but independent articles, T. R. McConnell (1963) and Algo Henderson (1963), directors of the Centers for the Study of Higher Education at the University of California and the University of Michigan, respectively, decried the paucity of research or conceptual knowledge about the organization and administration of higher education. The lack of research-based knowledge about these critical societal organizations was certainly not a tribute to their being paragons of organizational effectiveness, as those familiar with educational life can attest. More likely, it was due to the complex nature of these organizations and their supposed internal resistance to being studied, as well as to the lack of interest on the part of researchers and funding agencies in undertaking research on them. The intervening years have witnessed campus disruptions and violence, growing student and faculty militancy, increasing public distrust of higher education, an end to continuously expanding enrollments and increasing financial support, and more pressure for open access. As higher education has become an explosive and controversial issue, it has been concomitantly the focus of a tremendous volume of published material: research-based and opinion articles, conceptual analyses, and polemics. The purpose of this review is to sift the deluge of research, quasi research, and proclaimed research from students, faculty, and administrators and from scholars in varied disciplines in order to delineate the present state of research on the organization and administration of higher education with a broadly defined sociological or social-psychological perspective. Specifically, this chapter seeks (1) to highlight some of the theoretical or conceptual bases upon

8: Organization and Administration in Higher Education: Sociological and Social-Psychological Perspectives

The Trusteeship of Colleges and Universities

(1969). The College Trustee—Past, Present, and Future. The Journal of Higher Education: Vol. 40, No. 6, pp. 430-442.

Morton A. Rauh

Papers

The Trusteeship of Colleges and Universities

The College Trustee—Past, Present, and Future