How Colleges Work: The Cybernetics of Academic Organization and Leadership

I was assigned this book for a class in organizational theory for higher education. When I first saw the age of the book I was at first skeptical that it might not be applicable to the higher ed environment in 2011. I was wrong! Birnbaum's book was well written and I found that his ideas are just as applicable, and more importantly still useful, today. I highly recommend it as a starting point for understanding "how colleges work."

Excellent overview of the various different college structures. Author worked hard to create analogies for how college systems were linked, but after getting into middle and later chapters the anlogies made some sense. A good introduction to, as the title says, how colleges work.

This book was required for a course that I took. I didn't particularly like the use of made up scenarios and schools that made up much of the second half of the text. I think that there are good theories included in the first half and wish the whole book would have been in that style. Some people might like the theoretical application, but for me I would have preferred real examples of different schools to showcase the application of various theories.

Articulate and concise explanation of academia - much of which remains true despite several decades separating current colleges from the time in which Birnbaum wrote this work. Highly recommended reading for anyone interested in working as an academic administrator!

I used to in my class of master.

really good book needed it for class, it came on time, had no damage not much writing if any at all. helped me get done what I needed to get done.

Excellent

Awesome book!