Structure of Domination,Organizational Culture and the Facilitation of Feelings in the Partnership

Creating partnerships between school districts and universities are seen as a way to attain educational renewal. One such partnership exists between the BYU College of Education and the public schools in Central Utah. Following the naturalistic inquiry technique, this study attempted to evaluate the partnership participants' feelings and the extent to which the organization affected those feelings. The study showed that there is an undue need for control of others by members of the Governing Board of the Partnership, manifested in a structure of domination, at the cost of positive feelings and the mutual goodwill of partners. Besides being incongruent with partnership philosophy, this controlling behavior has created a sense of lack of care by the organization. The article suggests ways to resolve this problem.