ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the participation of the higher levels of academic management in the personnel process. It illustrates that there are no significant differences in this respect between departments rated "among the first five in the country" by their chairmen and all other departments, except that the high-ranking departments report somewhat more participation by the whole department. Nevertheless, conflict tends to be organized. There are factions in all faculties, and at least some of the factions are the same everywhere. Most of these fundamental divisions are likely to be represented in any good-sized department. What is of concern is that there is always an ample supply of standing issues around which personal conflict can crystallize. An academic department is an organized group, and its personnel can be formally arranged by rank and by salary within rank, starting from the top. The chapter also presents a that embodies a departmental view of academic government.
