CENTRAL ADMINISTRATION AND UNIVERSITY AUT ONOMY - THE CASE OF SUNY

Based on a study of New York state's university system (SUNY), this an alysis focuses on the way a supervising authority manages heterogeneou s teaching establishments. SUNY has successfully developed minimal coo peration thanks to both the managerial norms that campus directors hel ped draw up and the numerous exchanges of information between function al services. This university system is exemplary: its organization is based on the autonomy of actors, partnerships and formalized consultat ions. Despite recent tensions within SUNY, studying this system sheds light on the possibility of combining strong coordination with flexibl e management in formal, decentralized organizations.