Openness and decision making in the search for a university provost

This article chronicles a year‐long investigation into one university's search for a provost. Utilizing a communication approach to organizational decision making, we identify key elements in the search and selection process and explore them from multiple perspectives. Specifically, we employ Martin's (1992) typology of approaches to organisational culture to highlight three narrative views of the process as integrated, differentiated, and fragmented. We conclude that search committee members use differing interpretations as rhetorical resources for performing arguments to various audiences. State “sunshine laws” and assumptions about rationality and social hierarchy were elements of a broader “cultural nexus” of influences on the decision process.