1.4 Theories of educational management  (Page 6/29)

Dressler’s (2001) review of leadership in Charter schools in the United States shows the significance ofmanagerial leadership:“Traditionally, the principal”s role has been clearly focused on management responsibilities”(p. 175). Managerial leadership is focused on managing existing activitiessuccessfully rather than visioning a better future for the school.

The limitations of formal models

The various formal models pervade much of the literature on educational management.

They are normative approaches in that they present ideas about how people in organizations ought to behave.Levacic et al (1999) argue that these assumptions underpin the educational reforms of the 1990s, notably in England:

A major development in educational management in the last decade has been much greater emphasis on definingeffective leadership by individuals in management posts in terms of the effectiveness of their organisation, which is increasinglyjudged in relation to measurable outcomes for students . . . This is argued to require a rational-technicist approach to thestructuring of decision-making. (p. 15)

There are five specific weaknesses associated with formal models:

1.It may be unrealistic to characterize schools and colleges as goal-oriented organizations. It is oftendifficult to ascertain the goals of educational institutions. Formal objectives may have little operational relevance becausethey are often vague and general, because there may be many different goals competing for resources, and because goals mayemanate from individuals and groups as well as from the leaders of the organisation.

Even where the purposes of schools and colleges have been clarified, there are further problems in judgingwhether objectives have been achieved. Policy-makers and practitioners often rely on examination performance to assessschools but this is only one dimension of the educational process.

2.The portrayal of decision-making as a rational process is fraught with difficulties. The belief thatmanagerial action is preceded by a process of evaluation of alternatives and a considered choice of the most appropriate optionis rarely substantiated. Much human behaviour is irrational and this inevitably influences the nature of decision-making ineducation. Weick (1976, p. 1), for example,asserts that rational practice is the exception rather than the norm.

3.Formal models focus on the organization as an entity and ignore or underestimate the contribution ofindividuals. They assume that people occupy preordained positions in the structure and that their behaviour reflects theirorganizational positions rather than their individual qualities and experience. Greenfield (1973)has been particularly critical of thisview (see the discussion of subjective models, below). Samier (2002, p. 40) adopts a similar approach, expressing concern“about the role technical rationality plays in crippling the personalityof the bureaucrat, reducing him [sic] to a cog in amachine.”

4.A central assumption of formal models is that power resides at the apex of the pyramid. Principals possessauthority by virtue of their positions as the appointed leaders of their institutions. This focus on official authority leads to aview of institutional management which is essentially top down. Policy is laid down by senior managers and implemented by staff lower down the hierarchy. Their acceptance of managerial decisionsis regarded as unproblematic.