The Operation of Academic Departments

An organizational model of academic departments is developed, showing that departments consist of several coexistent structures. Commonly, curricular decisions are made democratically (i.e., by the “collegium”) and professional matters such as tenure are reserved to the senior ranks (an “oligarchy”). The organizational mode for administrative (i.e., implementive) tasks is a division of labor among peers, which varies from minimal to extensive with the degree to which the departmental members engage in service, teaching and/or research activities requiring coordination.

The implications of distortions in one structure induced by the threat or use of power in another, and the implications of issues which fall neither in one area nor another but in the intersection between them, are noted.