Responding to Administrative Dysfunction: Repertoires of Strategies Across Higher Education Institutions

DiMaggio and Powell’s 1983 article on institutional isomorphism described several mechanisms explaining why organizations within a given field tend to resemble each other in their goals, strategies, and structures. The American higher educational system presents an interesting setting to observe coercive, mimetic, and normative forms of isomorphism, as the actors in these organizations (especially administrators) often rise through the ranks and move across institutions. While isomorphism can be readily observed for the structure of an organization, can the same be said for the practices that occur within them? With a particular focus on administrative dysfunction within higher education—especially when occupants of administrative roles are not fulfilling their stated responsibilities or following the rules of an organization—is it possible to detect patterns in the repertoire of strategies used to address these issues? Where do individuals learn such strategies? This analysis provides a micro-institutional insight into the processes by which organizational actors may counter administrative dysfunctions to achieve particular goals. Relying on confidential explanations of such situations from members of U.S. colleges and universities, the author explores how the individuals within these institutions have responded to breakdowns in official processes and how they learned these strategies. Organizational dysfunctions provide institutional actors with unanticipated forms of agency to pursue their own interests. While some appear to be acts of organizational deviance, others seem to even more closely adhere to some of the principles described in Max Weber’s ideal type of bureaucratic structures.