This book is essential reading for anyone involved in ascertaining or influencing institutional performance. This is a rare work that not only provides specific points of focus but also provides frameworks for balanced measurement.

Framing where the academy needs to go in terms of eight challenges, this book is decidedly about the future in terms of what can and should be improved. This is a refreshing contrast to many better known books by more famous authors that we have not included on our recommended list because they present only vision and little substance.

The author is a distinguished professor of communication and organizational psychology and executive director of the Center for Organizational Development and Leadership at Rutgers University. As a developer of the Excellence in Higher Education (EHE) assessment model, a higher education version of the infamous Baldrige quality framework, he is a hands-on practitioner in higher education change.

The book is organized as a series of chapters on the eight challenges with case example narratives at the end of each from guest authors. As a result it is a long and detailed read (about 400 pages) and packed with examples to get your thoughts going on what might work in your own situation. At the core of the book are the assessment and measurement frameworks: Baldrige, EHE, and AQIP (The North Central Association of Colleges and Schools Academic Quality Improvement Program).

The most compelling areas of challenge in the book are understanding the needs of workplaces, becoming more effective learning organizations, and recognizing that everyone in the institution is a teacher. The first goes right to the heart of how to make higher education more of a positive impact on our society by combining academic ideals with the realities of life after college. The second requires higher education institutions to become model organizations that can lead society in organizational theory and practice. The third calls for a true cooperation among all aspects of the institution in serving students so that they will become the citizens we want them to.

The least compelling challenge in the book is devoting more attention and resources to leadership. This is not because this is not a substantial challenge, but rather because the corporate model is held out as the shining light. The problem with the corporate model is that virtually all corporations have become so short-term oriented in the last 10 years that they no longer are something to aspire to. In fact, higher education, with its longer time horizons should be establishing new and better models than corporations.

The book illuminates the need to expand the vision beyond academic excellence to include service and operational excellence. The inclusion of the assessment and measurement frameworks provide the much needed process examples that tie the vision to the challenge of creating pervasive and sustainable improvements. This book will help those higher education institutions that are motivated to do so evolve out of what some scholars have noted is the pervasive institutional isomorphism and laissez-faire approach to organizational development in the academy.