Predictors of Technical and Administrative Innovation In Professional Communication Education At Institutions of Higher Education
By
Lee B. Becker, C. Ann Hollifield, Wilson Lowery, and Tudor Vlad
Abstract
Educational institutions that provide journalism and mass communication education around the world are being required to adapt and innovate as the labor markets to which they are linked face disruption. This paper examines a single educational system, that of the United States, to try to understand innovation and offers a theoretical model that can be used more generally. The data suggest that, contrary to previous research from other settings, organizational complexity in U.S. journalism and mass communication programs is related to decreased administrative innovation. In keeping with previous research, strong professional ties were negatively related to administrative innovation in JMC programs. In keeping with theories of institutionalism, large-scale curricular reform seems to be a slow and difficult process within journalism and mass communication, even in the face of a rapidly changing external environment.
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