Effective School Management

Signs of inappropriate use of solicitous behaviour
To a subordinate. Contrary to the expectations of many ‘solicitous’ managers,
most people are not motivated by flattery or a style which overlooks
infringements.  ‘If the boss does not care about my results, why should I
bother?’ Hence there may be slackness and low task motivation.
To an equal. A colleague who always agrees with you on the surface (but
may undermine you in your absence) loses your respect!
PASSIVE/POLITICAL ORIENTATION
While passive/political behaviour may sometimes be appropriate, an orientation
which is directed neither towards results nor towards relationships is unlikely
to be of much real value to an organization or school except in the accom-

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THE MANAGER AS A LEADER
2 1
plishment of purely manual tasks under strict supervision. Remember, of
course, that it may be the school ‘culture’ or managerial behaviour which has
produced this orientation!
Behind many a ‘nine-to-four’ schoolteacher is a history of being frustrated
or overlooked. Some of these individuals show surprising enthusiasm and
ability outside school as leading members of local societies or even
councillors. What went wrong?
STYLE AND THE SCHOOL MANAGER
On any day we will see a rich variety of behaviour exhibited by our professional
colleagues, our pupils, the administrative and ancillary staff and other people
with whom we come into contact. In each situation the basic style orientation
of the individual will be modified to a greater or lesser extent, deliberately or
unthinkingly, in response to the situation with which he or she finds him or
herself confronted.
Experience over the years helps us to learn to respond more effectively to
many of the situations with which we are faced – to control our instinctive
reactions so as better to achieve a desired result. However, there are certain
behavioural patterns which we may never try unless we make a deliberate
effort. Furthermore, we may become locked into assumptions about the way
in which others will react.
An understanding of management style should reopen the options, cause
us to challenge our assumptions and consequent behaviour and, as a result,
make us more effective leaders.
PERSONAL APPLICATIONS
(1) Think about your colleagues and try to classify them according to their
dominant management style. What back-up style(s) does each of them have?
(2) What do you believe to be your own dominant and back-up styles? Ask your
colleagues for their views.
DISCUSSION TOPIC
To what extent is it desirable to modify our management style? What are
the dangers and how do we overcome them?
CATEGORIES OF LEADERSHIP
There are two main categories or models of leadership – transformational
and transactional – but other epithets have also been used, such as invitational,
distributed and charismatic. Transformational leadership is about the ability
of an individual to envisage some new social condition and to communicate
this vision to followers (Stoll and Fink, 1996). Sergiovanni (1996) adds to this
definition a moral dimension, connected with the meaning of work and life in

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EFFECTIVE SCHOOL MANAGEMENT
general. Transactional leadership is based on the exchange relationships
between the leader and the follower (Leithwood, 1995).
 Invitational leadership focuses on the humanistic side of education,
mediated through interpersonal interaction, institutional policies and
practices and values such as optimism, respect, trust and care (Stoll and Fink,
1996).
 Distributed leadership is characterized by widespread delegation of
responsibility, encouraging leadership behaviour to emerge from below as
well as above; any individual will take the lead for a limited time and/or
within a limited specialist field. Its success depends, as always, on ability to
relate approach and information to the issue and to the other group
members, and also on a culture in which it is encouraged and accepted by the
appointed leader. By contrast, charismatic leadership focuses strongly on the
personality of the person at the top of the organization.
 In so far as effective school leadership will ultimately be tested by its
ability to prepare teachers to meet the challenges of change, which may
impact on the organization anywhere, heads would do well to practise
transformational leadership themselves, while seeking to distribute
transactional leadership to all levels in their school organization.
STANDARDS FOR MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP
As part of a government initiative, national occupational standards of
competence for managers were introduced in 1992 and national vocational
qualifications based on them were made available to school heads by the then
College of Preceptors (now Teachers). During 2002–3 these standards were
reviewed to take account of the emergence of leadership as a key aspect of
competence and to incorporate best practice from other countries. This work,
carried out first by the Council for Excellence in Management and Leadership
(www.managementandleadershipcouncil.org) and subsequently by the
Management Standards Centre (www.management-standards.org), has
resulted in a number of ‘maps’ which show the relationship between
management and leadership functions, as well as descriptions of the functions,
to be used as a basis for a qualifications framework. Figure 1 in the Preface is
an example of such a map. The upper items are in the ‘leadership’ category,
whereas the remaining items describe the functions of operational
management. Some ‘fine-tuning’ may be needed to make the map fit school
management; nevertheless, this approach to describing the functions of heads
and the knowledge, skills, personal qualities and styles that they employ is to
be commended.
Despite its title, this book’s authors have always regarded leadership as an
indispensable part of management, and we do not think it helpful to create an
impermeable boundary. For those who prefer to differentiate, however, West-
Burnham (1977) sums it up succinctly (Figure 2.3).

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THE MANAGER AS A LEADER
2 3
PERSONAL APPLIC ATION
Think about how you do your job. In relation to what your school requires of you,
have you got the balance right between leadership and management? To which functions
in Figure 1 (see the Preface) do you need to give more attention?
CHARACTERISTICS OF HEADTEACHERS AND DEPUTY
HEADTEACHERS
Under the auspices of the National College of School Leadership, Hay
McBer have researched the characteristics of high-performing school
leaders in different settings. They identified the following characteristics
each of which they have defined in some detail (see www.ncsl.org.uk/
index.cfm?pagelD=haycompletechar).
• Analytical thinking
• Challenge and support
• Confidence
• Developing potential
• Drive for improvement
• Holding people accountable
• Impact and influence
• Information seeking
• Initiative
• Integrity
• Personal convictions
• Respect for others
• Strategic thinking
• Teamworking
• Transformational leadership
• Understanding the environment
• Understanding others.
Hay McBer stress that these characteristics may be combined and applied in
different ways according to the setting and the individual.  It is not a case of
‘one size fits all’.
LEADING is concerned with:
• vision
• strategic issues
• transformation
• ends
• people
• doing the right things
MANAGING is concerned with:
• implementation
• operational issues
• transaction
• means
• systems
• doing things right