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EFFECTIVE SCHOOL MANAGEMENT
(d) A significant amount of time was
spent on secondary issues or
unimportant detail.
(e) Personal goals weighed more heavily than group objectives.
2.
System
(a) A logical procedure or method of approach was agreed and adhered to
unless deliberately changed; the meeting ran smoothly.
(b) The meeting was overorganized or rigid; following ‘proper procedures’
was more important than dealing effectively with the issues.
(c) The meeting was chaotic and undisciplined.
(d) The meeting went round in circles.
(e) Important ideas and information took longer to emerge than they should
have done.
3.
Participation
(a) All members participated actively; everyone contributed and all
contributions received thoughtful attention;
humour was a constructive
element of the meeting.
(b) Several members dominated a group of relatively passive members.
(c) Members tended to interrupt one another; two or more people talked at
once.
(d) Silences fell as members seemed not to know where to go next; initiatives
were lacking.
(e) Frivolity, joking and irrelevant comments crept in.
4.
Relationships
(a) Group members showed confidence in and trust and respect for each
other.
(b) Relationships were formal and guarded.
(c) Members were not open to each other’s ideas; listening was poor.
(d) Cliques or subgroups developed.
(e) Maintaining a spirit of good fellowship and friendliness was more
important than dealing effectively with the issues or problems.
5.
Decisions
(a) Decisions were well considered, based on
facts and reason and reached
by consensus.
(b) Decisions were forced by individuals; not everyone’s point of view
received equal attention.
(c) Decisions were reached by majority vote.
(d) Decisions were compromised rather than fully reasoned out.
(e) Few or no decisions were made; issues were left hanging; it was frequently
not clear whether a decision had been made.
6.
Disputes
(a) Points of disagreement were thrashed out logically until all parties were
satisfied.
MANAGING MEETINGS
7 3
(b) Disagreements were smoothed over;
keeping the peace was more
important than getting the best decision or solution.
(c) ‘Win–lose’ power struggles were fought out; personal victory seemed to
matter more than getting the best solution.
(d) Compromise positions were taken; ‘workable’ solutions were accepted
rather than ‘best’ solutions.
(e) Differences were side-stepped or ignored.
7.
Leadership
(a) There was a sense of shared responsibility for the quality of the meeting;
individuals took leadership initiatives as required.
(b) A leader was agreed at the start and provided leadership initiatives as he
or she saw fit.
(c) Two or more members of the group seemed to be engaged in a battle for
the leadership of the group.
(d) The group’s needs for leadership were not met.
(e) Leadership was overdone; the meeting
was too tightly controlled;
spontaneity and flexibility were lacking.
8.
Use of resources
(a) The group made the best possible use of the resources available
to it (e.g. time, special knowledge, special skills, equipment).
(b) Time available to the group was not used to the best advantage.
(c) Ideas or relevant information emerged too late or failed to
emerge at all.
(d) The group did not make full use of the skills of its members.
(e) The group did not make the best use of the equipment available
(e.g. by failing to capture information on a flipchart).
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EFFECTIVE SCHOOL MANAGEMENT
PEOPLE AS A RESOURCE
In Chapter 13 we shall discuss in some depth the management of resources –
financial, physical and human.
In the educational system, it is human resources
which consume the most investment. In many ways we should treat people
as any other resource, selecting the best for the purpose we wish to accomplish,
and maintaining, improving and adapting the resource as we would a building
or piece of equipment to ensure that it meets our needs. However, there is one
important difference:
people are thinking resources who, whether we like it or
not, will decide jointly with their managers and colleagues on how their time,
energy, knowledge and skill will be used. Indeed, the true human resource is
not the whole person, but his or her efforts which will be jointly managed by
the individual himself or herself and the ‘management’ of the organization in
which he or she works. The final arbiter in the use of a person’s efforts will
always be him or herself, since he or she has
merely contracted to supply
some of his or her services over a given period of time.
Teachers are often shocked at the idea of describing staff as ‘human
resources’, yet on a continuum of attitudes towards employment (Figure 6.1),
where does the average school or college management stand? Do we accept
that in selecting a new member of staff we are working
with the candidate to
find out how his or her skills and personality will blend with the needs of the
school and the existing skill and personality mix? Do we believe that we can
sit as equals with our staff to discuss their performance
and our own
performance in order that both of us can develop as individuals and as
members
of a team, albeit with different roles in the team? Or do we feel that
relationships are such that appraisal of our colleagues will be seen by them as
‘judgement’, and that it would be ‘improper’ for them to pass a view on the
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