1.4 Theories of educational management  (Page 24/29)

Values and action

The cultural model is a valuable addition to our understanding of organizations. The recognition that school andcollege development needs to be preceded by attitudinal change is salutary, and consistent with the maxim that teachers must feel“ownership”of change if it is to be implemented effectively.“Since organization ultimately resides in the heads of the people involved, effective organizational change always implies culturalchange”(Morgan, 1997, p. 150).

Cultural models also provide a focus for organizational action, a dimension that is largely absent from thesubjective perspective. Leaders may adopt a moral approach and focus on influencing values so that they become closer to, if notidentical with, their own beliefs. In this way, they hope to achieve widespread support for or“ownership”of new policies. By working through this informal domain, rather than imposing changethrough positional authority or political processes, heads and principals are more likely to gain support for innovation. Anappreciation of organizational culture is an important element in the leadership and management of schools and colleges.

Conclusion

Comparing the management models

The six management models discussed in this chapter represent different ways of looking at educationalinstitutions. Each screen offers valuable insights into the nature of management in education but none provides a complete picture.The six approaches are all valid analyses but their relevance varies according to the context. Each event, situation or problemmay be understood by using one or more of these models but no organization can be explained by using only a single approach.There is no single perspective capable of presenting a total framework for our understanding of educational institutions.“The search for an all-encompassing model is simplistic, for no onemodel can delineate the intricacies of decision processes in complex organizations such as universities and colleges”(Baldridge et al, 1978, p. 28).

The formal models dominated the early stages of theory development in educational management. Formal structure,rational decision-making and“top-down”leadership were regarded as the central concepts of effective management and attention wasgiven to refining these processes to increase efficiency. Since the 1970s, however, there has been a gradual realization that formalmodels are“at best partial and at worst grossly deficient”(Chapman, 1993, p. 215).

The other five models featured in this volume all developed in response to the perceived weaknesses of what wasthen regarded as“conventional theory.”They have demonstrated the limitations of the formal models and put in place alternativeconceptualizations of school management. While these more recent models are all valid, they are just as partial as the dominantperspective their advocates seek to replace. There is more theory and, by exploring different dimensions of management, its totalexplanatory power is greater than that provided by any single model.