ABSTRACT
More than one author has used the above quote by Cohen and March to poke fun at institutions of higher education. Colorful metaphors and tongue in cheek phrases aptly describe the organizations that many have found confusing. Th ough playful, Cohen and March put their fi nger on essential elements of modern higher education institutions. Th ese organizations are paradoxical: familiar yet hard to describe, unpredictable though at times oddly rational, rooted in the past yet optimistically gazing into the future, traditional though educating many to anticipate change.
