Systems analysis of schools of allied health using Leavitt's Organizational Model: a meta-analysis.

Schools of allied health are relative newcomers to the formal academic setting. Consequently, these new academic units are particularly vulnerable to external threats to survival as they struggle to achieve acceptance by faculty and administrators in the traditional disciplines. This paper describes an application of Leavitt's Organizational Model for systems analysis of schools of allied health. A meta-analysis of studies reported in the Journal of Allied Health was conducted to provide administrative insight for the model's dimensions of task, structure, technology, and people. The model is helpful in organizing information and predicting effects of intervention strategies when any single dimension is changed. By viewing schools of allied health from a holistic perspective, deans and chair persons can anticipate the effect of change on variables (dimensions) other than those being manipulated and weight intervention strategies before their adoption.