Birth and survival: An analysis of the establishment and development of the Principals' Center at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education, 1981-1986

The Principals' Center was founded in October of 1981 at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education in response to powerful institution and societal forces. It is a school-college collaboration concerned primarily with the professional growth and development of principals. This study involved an organizational analysis of the Center's early stages and subsequent development over a five-year period.;The Center was found to have passed through six stages of organizational development: before-the-beginning, preplanning, planning, legitimation, implementation, and institutionalization; and it encountered many of the same critical issues from year to year.;From its earliest beginnings, the Center inherited the conflictive aspects of membership. Although it was originally intended to be a Center for various school leaders, the governing body responsible for shaping its foundation was composed predominantly of principals. There remains no teachers or parents on the Advisory Board.;Programming was a reoccurring issue for the Center. One of the main problems had been that of determining how an Advisory Board composed of eighteen principals could address the needs of about 500 members.;Research was through an elite sampling of those reputed to be critical to the Center's creation and later development. In-depth interviews were conducted with Center Advisory Board members, administrators, and staff, and Harvard Graduate School of Education faculty, administrators, staff, and students.;Staffing problems have plagued the Center since its inception--inadequate numbers and the lack of a full-time, core staff.;The issue of governance has primarily focused on questions of ownership and authority. There are unclear expectations as to the role of the Advisory Board and the Center has curtailed the Board's purview to focus on programming that runs counter to the original intent of the Board's By-Laws.;Finally, funding has been unstable and early financial arrangements with the School were unsuitable to the needs of the Center.;Despite these problems, the Center has evolved to become an integral part of the Harvard Graduate School of Education. A study of the organizational life cycle of the Principals' Center yields a richly detailed and dynamic portrait of one organization's birth and survival.