Causes, processes, and effects of academic reorganization at public master’s universities in the United States

There is a wide-spread perception that universities reorganise their academic units frequently, although there is little beyond anecdote to support this. Similarly, the literature contains some speculation about what affects the success of such efforts, but there is almost no data to support various views. This study assesses the perceptions of academic reorganisations using survey responses from mid-level university administrators, deans and department heads. Relying on a random sample of administrators from Carnegie master’s institutions, we examine their perceptions of reorganisation success, as well as the processes and factors that influence reorganisation. Ultimately, we model dependent variables such as overall satisfaction with the process and perceptions of its benefits of reorganisation in order to explore associations between the nature of the reorganisation, the presence of planning, the role of institutional politics, and individual and institutional level control variables and these variables.