Leadership and Organization: The Case of Biology at Berkeley

Abstract

This is one of Martin Trow's best-known and most frequently quoted publications, which he followed up over the next two decades with essays on university leadership and presidents, two of which are reproduced in the chapters that follow. He continued to expand and rework this essay, adding valuable detail and updating developments at Berkeley, but I have selected the shorter, original one since it had more punch and clearer lines of argument. ... This essay had a major impact on the literature on university leadership. Some observers have shared Trow's view that while the academic department may still be useful for administrative purposes, it ha s become increasingly irrelevant and even a hindrance in the creation of new knowledge. in the past decade or so, however, others such as Burton Clark, Frans van Vught, Sheila Slaughter, and Gary Rhoades on the entrepreneurial university have shown that, in some contexts, presidents can achieve substantial change.