The typology of organizational effectiveness in Australian higher education

Predicting a taxonomy of organisational effectiveness in U.K. higher educational institutions

“…This most recent second round of mergers and amalgamations in Australia's higher educational history has caused incredible turmoil in this early stage of transition. Some argue this will at best take a very long time to achieve (Goedegebuure et al 1993) while others maintain that in many cases it simply may never effectively consummate to produce outcomes of university standard in the international arena (Lysons 1993).…”

“…Finally, the replication study, conducted one year later, was highly consistent both in terms of dimensional reliability and discriminant validity (Lysons 1993). This represented a sustained pattern of domains of activity for each group coinciding with their life cycle stages.…”

Diversity in Australian higher education?

“…The theoretical basis of this study is first, that the dimensions proven to be reliable through replication (Lysons, 1993) demonstrate consistent discriminant validity in terms of the four groups hypothesised (Lysons, 1990b). Secondly, that the nature of these dimensions, their discriminant functions and the intuitive meaningfulness of the groupings strongly suggest quite distinctive organisational cultures (Lysons, 1990b).…”

“…A taxonomy consisting of four groups of institutions was convincingly empirically established to have existed in Australian higher education prior to the Dawkins reforms (Lysons, 1990a,;1993). That research program fleshed out the domains of each type of organisation known to exist as the result of the historical development of higher education in Australia (Karmel, 1989) and revealed potentially useful theory explaining the quite different management processes existing in each logical group.…”

“…This article explores the relationships between these data on transitional management issues and the management effectiveness taxonomy derived from survey research prior to the demise of the binary system and the recent amalgamations (Lysons, 1990b;1993), and draws some tentative conclusions regarding the further development of the Australian higher education system with respect to the roles of the former CAEs and the established universities.…”