Dean's Role in Change: the case of professional accreditation reform of American collegiate business education

Abstract

This multiple case study investigated the perceptions of the business school dean's role in implementing the new American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) accreditation standards and factors supporting or constraining that role. Deans, management and marketing department chairs, and faculty were interviewed at four accredited comprehensive universities in the spring of 1996. The results of this study indicate that deans can facilitate faculty involvement in accreditation change but only to a limited extent. This study revealed that a variety of roles and actors exist, and that they are influenced by both disciplinary community and local institutional restrictions and expectations. The overlapping structures of the institution spread the loci of control among institutional standards, business school standards, and disciplinary and individual faculty expectations and may constrain the dean's leadership role and ability to facilitate faculty involvement in educational reform.