Effective School Management

Environmental mapping
No organization exists in total isolation: it can only thrive if it interacts
dynamically with its environment. Environments are never static and have
proved for schools, as for industry, remarkably turbulent in recent years; this
necessitates a process of continual adaptation to the changing demands of the
environment if the organization is to survive. Those managing change,
therefore, have to cultivate an outward-looking mentality (see Chapter 9).
The more complex and turbulent the environment, the more important it is
that those who run the organization should perceive what is going on ‘out
there’ and understand the problems and opportunities it presents. A change
in government, further developments in the National Curriculum and
continuing pressures for vocational orientation are obvious factors to take
into account in recording where the system is now (at the time of writing):
there may well be other factors round the corner to recognize in building the
scenarios.
Pressures emanate from different sectors of the total environment, so it is
helpful to map these various sectors or ‘domains’ and identify the main
demands, or changes in demand, stemming from each of them. Figure 17.2 is