The General Principles of Strategic School Management and Institutions of Higher Learning 2nd Edition

By Adrian Bauleni

This book on "The General Principles of School Management and Institutions of Higher Learning is a high-profile text which has been described as a masterpiece in the field of educational Management by the three evaluators of the manuscript and those who have accessed and made use of the book particularly the Universities and Colleges of Education. As a result, there has been sustainable demand for the book after the two thousand copies were sold out sometime back. This is a clear manifestation of how unique the book has been as was described by the three evaluators in that regard. The book has therefore, made a remarkable contribution toward improved service delivery in schools and institutions of higher learning. There is no shadow of doubt therefore, that given an opportunity to study the contents of the text, the outcome in providing management development skills, if properly assimilated would be incredibly phenomenal for efficient running of the learning institutions. "Further the author as a high-profile personality in society, has authored several books on a variety of disciplines inclusive of the professional articles on general management philosophy which have contributed toward management thought and practice within the purview of the wider spectrum of the subject matter".

• Language: English
• Publisher: Covenant Books, Inc.
• Release date: Mar 11, 2019
• ISBN: 9781643005867

Book preview

Foreword

Most countries in the world suffer from a dearth of books on education in general and the management of educational institutions in particular. As an educationist, it is a great pleasure for me to have been accorded the opportunity and privilege of writing a foreword to this important and innovative textbook on educational management and administration.

In the recent past, most educational systems in various countries particularly the underdeveloped world have undergone a number of policy reviews and formulations aimed at delivering high quality education to its students and other stakeholders. However, whether or not the policies can deliver the high quality of education intended is and will depend upon their being effectively implemented. Central to the implementation process of educational programs and policies is the effective management of education and educational institutions be they at the primary, secondary, or tertiary levels. This is where this book comes in for these are the matters with which it concerns itself.

As a former secondary school teacher and manager of educational and other institutions, the author is fully aware that to be of any use, management must be a practical profession. It is the author’s view, however, that meaningful training in management must be under-pinned by theoretical knowledge as it relates to it. To this end, the author systematically with simplicity and clarity uses ideas, concepts, and principles as tools for the understanding of various aspects of educational management in institutions of learning.

The book creatively and comprehensively covers most of the subject matter involved in the management of learning institutions and other institutions outside the education system per se. Among other subject matter areas are the management of learning institutions, institutional budget preparation and control, the character and professional competence in management responsibilities and the critical analysis of institutional change.

This book can be used in self-study or as a class text. It is undoubtedly of significant use to students in colleges of education and other management training institutions, curriculum developers in management studies, practicing teachers, and head teachers as well as other managers in government and private educational institutions.

This book is an important addition to the literature on education and educational management, which will prove valuable to educationists wherever they are in the world.

Finally, the author, Adrian Bauleni, who is a reputable management consultant, must be highly commended for his efforts to write such a useful and timely textbook and his overall contribution toward educational management development. I am sure this book will inspire many more people and scholars of management alike to explore further into the field of institutional management and administration for quality delivery of education and other services in various institutions of learning in the developing world and beyond.

—Professor Lyson P. Tembo

Formerly Director of Research and Graduate Studies, Director, Educational Research Bureau of the University of Zambia, Diplomat and currently Director of Diplomatic Studies under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Zambia.

Acknowledgments

I would like to take the opportunity first and foremost to pay special tribute to Mr. Sam Molotsi who used to be Deputy Chief Inspector of Schools at the Ministry of Education in Zambia in mid-’70s. Later, he became Chief Inspector of Schools and subsequently Deputy Chairman of the Teaching Service Commission. He identified potential in me to pursue a Post Graduate Diploma in Educational Management and Administration at Moray House College of Higher Education in Scotland. It was, therefore, the beginning of my developing interest in management concepts and programs with focus on learning institutions. This was by virtue of my background as a former secondary school teacher and subsequently Education Officer.

May I also express gratitude to several professional colleagues who, through association over a period of time, had inspired me to develop interest in the area of general institutional management and administration. Those include the late Thatcher V. Malwa, David Butale, Nasilele Mbeti, and Naboth Ngulube respectively. They were all high profile consultants that I had closely worked with in the execution of various programs and projects and were all no more at the time of writing this book.

Further, my tribute goes to some colleagues at the University of Zambia, School of Education, for their inspiration, namely: Mr. J. Msango, who later became Dean of the School of education; Professor G. Lungwangwa, formerly Lecturer/Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of Zambia and later Minister of Education in the Zambian Government; the late Professor Martin M. Kamwengo, Senior Lecturer; the late Charles Subulwa, formerly Assistant Dean and Lecturer in the Department of Educational Administration and Policy Studies; the late Vincent Mako Tembo, Lecturer in the Department of Educational Administration and Policy Studies and formerly Deputy Chief Inspector of Schools and fellow external consultants who together prepared and flagged off the special human resources development program for the managers of basic schools in Zambia. The external consultants including myself comprised of Mr. Fredrich C. Mbulwe, Mr. Rogers S. Zulu, Mrs. S.A.T. Masaninga, and Mrs. Bernadette M. Ndhlovu. They are all educationists of long standing and most of them had served in various senior capacities in the Ministry of Education, Zambia.

Finally, my thanks go to all my immediate family members for their encouragement and keen interest to see to it that the book was finalized at the earliest convenience. And, of course, not forgetting all those who provided logistical services and made it possible to embark on the second edition of the book. It would not have been possible without their personal involvement and dedication.

I thank you all.

Adrian Bauleni

Preface

The book was written on the basis of the desire by most Ministries of Education in the world in collaboration with Donor Agencies to enhance the managerial capacity of school managers and other administrators in order to effectively run the learning institutions. This was a deviation from the past trend where head teachers were appointed to run schools without the necessary training in management responsibilities. The text, therefore, attempts to provide a simplified version of management concepts, theories, and principles that can assist the target group handle varying situations in the discharge of their responsibilities as school managers with confidence and analytical dispensation.

The focus is predominantly on management concepts, theories, and principles with a negligible component of administrative aspects, which are inherent and a major characteristic in most of the books that are authored on institutional management and administration. There has been a tendency by most authors to basically define the roles, operational systems, and procedures of various major players in the learning institutions. Such books on Administration have greater inclination toward highlighting the routine undertakings in learning institutions with scanty theoretical component on the institutional management process. This book, therefore, is a deviation from the traditional approach and has attempted to use the pure philosophy of management concepts in learning institutions as they apply in a typical modern corporate setting.

The main thrust of this book is to provide solid managerial background for institutional managers to assimilate for the purpose of approaching administrative issues with efficiency and effectiveness. It is, therefore, synonymous with the process of building a strong foundation before constructing the rest of the actual structure of a house. It is hoped that the target group of this book will find it useful by developing a clear perception of its contents for subsequent application to real situations in their responsibilities as school managers.

Further, the text has been described as a unique masterpiece in the field of educational management books by the specialist evaluators of books/manuscripts who were commissioned under the auspices of the Curriculum Development Centre of the Ministry of Education in Zambia.

The book can also be of great use as reference material to a cross section of managers in non-learning institutions such as industries, health, and other sectors of the economy for undoubtedly enhanced professional appeal in general management. The principles, concepts, and theories are basically the same. They only differ in application according to unfolding and varying operational circumstances of the respective learning institutions.

Background

The Ministry of Education in Zambia, and probably like many other ministries in other countries that are responsible for providing academic and tertiary education, was going through a major corporate change process that involved restructuring and decentralization of the administrative and management systems. The school managers or head teachers in a decentralized education system were expected to face additional demands and challenges. Therefore, effective and efficient management of human and material resources in institutions of learning particularly schools was critical to the success of a decentralized system in terms of delivery of quality education. The foregoing had culminated in the formulation of a special capacity building program, which was referred to as Human Resources Development for School Managers. It was spearheaded by the Ministry of Education Human Resources Capacity Building Team (HRCBT). The program was intended to equip the school administrators with essential necessary skills and attitudes for them to face the new challenges that lay ahead.

The program was developed out of information collected through questionnaires completed by 390 school managers of basic and high secondary schools at several skills audit workshops held in various provinces in the country. The program content corresponded with the respondents’ felt skills and competence gaps as analyzed from the questionnaires. Associated competence headings were grouped under six corresponding modules which were as follows: Professional Development, Professional Values, Education Policy Management, Management of Human Resources, Management of Academic programs, Monitoring and Evaluation. The contents in this book have embraced most of the specified topics that cut across all the six modules. Hence, the title of the book, The General Principles of Strategic School Management and Institutions of Higher Learning. The focus is on improved management perception of concepts, theories, and principles as they would relate to the learning institutions.

The Human Resource Development Programme (HRDP) was coordinated by the University of Zambia (UNZA), Department of Educational Administration and Policy Studies of the School of Education. It was flagged off in January 2003 with an initial intake of over six hundred managers of basic schools that combined both primary and junior secondary sectors. The participants were drawn from two provinces of the country. The remaining seven provinces out of nine were supposed to be covered later in the series. Over 4,300 School Managers of Higher secondary schools throughout the country were also supposed to benefit in phase II of the program.

The program was to be funded under the Basic Education Sub Sector Investment Programme (BESSIP), which started in 1998 with focus on the provision of basic education for all. However, the HRDP was later aborted under the circumstances that the Ministry of Education has not been able to explain to date. In other words, the remaining seven provinces at the time were not covered as originally planned unless otherwise.

Finally, it may also be important to state as an integral part of the background that the idea to expose various categories of administrators of institutions of learning was conceived much earlier than the late 1990s under the auspices of the World Bank. It comprised a management development component, which was referred to as Education Management Training (EMT) project and had used the Commonwealth Secretariat materials for the program execution. The project had targeted school inspectors, education officers, and a number of them went through the mill. The objective of the project was to improve the quality of institutional management as an important aspect in the process of providing quality education. It has, therefore, become part of the global evolutionary process to apply management concepts and principles that are used in a typical corporate set up to schools and other learning institutions.

The training team for the HRDP consisted of ten consultants—five from outside the university and the other five from the Department of Educational Administration and Policy Studies of the School of Education (UNZA). I was one of the resource persons drawn from outside the University of Zambia and had specialized in designing and implementing various management development programs coupled with immense experience as Director of Human Resources in the parastatal sector.

Chapter 1

Introduction to the Management of Learning Institutions

Learning Objectives

After studying this chapter, managers of learning institutions should be able to:

Analyze and develop a clear perception of what is acquired in any learning process either by way of reading books on management or through exposure to specific training interventions.

Apply appropriately what is acquired in the learning process to the management of learning institutions.

Realize and understand the shortcomings in general managerial responsibility and how they relate to school and other institutions of learning.

Chapter Outline

The purpose of any learning process at any given time

Relating what is acquired in a learning process to school or institutional management

Summary

General review questions

The Purpose of Learning Process

The purpose of learning is generally to improve performance through the mastery of the art involved in a particular undertaking. What is acquired, therefore, usually constitutes the following components:

Knowledge: This aspect involves facts of life, principles, theories, procedures, methods, ideas, etc., of any subject matter be it management, history, computer sciences, carpentry, or mechanics.

Skills: This component involves the ability to perform a task effectively using the acquired knowledge in a particular trade e.g. driving of a motor vehicle, repairing or manufacturing of all types of furniture, lecturing or teaching a particular subject, supervising the running of a learning institution etc. In other words, it is the translation of knowledge into reality.

Technique: This is the process of applying knowledge and skill in dynamic circumstances or changing situations. It is a fact that the circumstances that prevail in the process of carrying out any task are never constantly the same. For example, when driving a motor vehicle, one meets varying circumstances such as potholes, depressions, negotiating bends, sudden road crossing of animals, or human beings etc. It is incumbent upon the driver to exercise care and technique to avoid possible accidents as a result of the unforeseen situations and circumstances.

Attitude: This is a state of mind, which is usually influenced by external factors or considerations such as traditional norms, religious beliefs, vengeance, annoyance, etc. It is the engine of the human body, which dictates one’s ultimate behavior either positively or negatively. The learning exposure provides orientations toward developing an attitude that would look at issues objectively and fairly. It calls for a balanced thinking on the general approach to issues in life.

Experience: This is acquired through doing the job repeatedly and not in classroom situations as such. It sometimes involves the application of knowledge (theory) to real situations by carrying out something practically.

Good value judgment: This involves the ability to analyze the implications of one’s actions in handling diverse issues e.g., distinguishing between either bad or good or wrong and right in the decision making process. There is need for intelligence in order to exercise proper value judgment. It is, therefore, synonymous with the exercise of technique in carrying out a particular task.

The Relating of What Is Acquired in a Learning Process to School or Institutional Management

The following is the analysis:

Knowledge: For successful institutional management, the managers must develop a thorough understanding and appreciation of all aspects involved such as improved human relations at place of work, taking quality decisions, providing effective leadership and communication skills, effective planning and monitoring, staff placement and motivation, procedural rules and systems, general human resources management, managerial accountability, conflict resolutions etc. If your general management knowledge is limited as managers of learning institutions, the chances of succeeding in running the institutions become doubtful from all angles of probabilities. It is like trying to drive a car without knowing components such as the steering wheel, brake system, gear lever, acceleration system, etc. The likely consequence of trying to do what you are not conversant with would be a disaster arising from the confusion and lack of thorough knowledge of a particular undertaking.

Skill: This aspect involves exercising efficiency, effectiveness, and accurate reflection into practical reality emanating from proper and adequate knowledge on management. A skill can be distorted if one tries to apply management knowledge, which is scanty and half baked. Hence, it would be highly unlikely to strike accuracy in the process of using a skill to perform any responsibility or function with doubtful knowledge in management concepts, theories, and principles.

Technique: This involves accurate and critical assessment or analysis of various management situations that arise in the institutions before charting any course of action. It is synonymous with driving a motor vehicle on a particular road where the circumstances are not the same. One would be required to negotiate corners, potholes, avoid careless drivers, and animals crossing the road recklessly. All these will pose diverse circumstances, which have to be handled appropriately by making expeditious judgment of the situations in order to avert possible tragedies in the process.

Attitude: This aspect requires objectivity and positive manner in which management issues are handled by the managers of learning institutions. The actions must be devoid of subjectivity i.e. the principle of calling a spade a spade must prevail all the time. If you distort or twist the authentic circumstances surrounding a management problem to accommodate your own or one’s biased stance then, you are bound to project an unfavorable image of yourself in the eyes of your staff. Furthermore, you are likely to meet formidable resistance, which will make life difficult for yourself.

Experience: This aspect involves developing a keen interest in approach to issues of management as managers of learning institutions. There is need to exert efforts by consistently exercising what it means to be a school manager. A book titled Strategy Formulation and Implementation, 3rd Edition, by Arthur A. Thomson Jr. and A. J. Strickland III clearly states that management is an action oriented activity. It requires doing in order to achieve proficiency. Managers succeed or fail not so much because of what they know but because of what they are able to do or are not able to do. In this regard, therefore, a person cannot expect to succeed as a school manager and become a professional simply by studying excellent books on management. She/he has to practice and then ultimately gain mastery through experience. One has to accept the position as a school manager and not to merely tolerate oneself without genuine acceptance of the leadership role that you are expected to provide in the learning institution.

Good value judgment: This is similar to technique. It involves the correct analysis of the surrounding circumstances and the implications of the decisions taken in any course of action. As will be discussed in the other chapter, the quality of decisions that the managers of learning institutions make will reflect the efficient manner in which the institution will be run. It is important to exercise good value judgment in various management situations. A good example is when one is driving toward a T junction, which dictates turning either right or left. However, if the value judgment is wrong, the vehicle would go straight into a ditch or where there is no road at all.

Summary

All the above analyzed aspects of what is acquired in any learning process are fundamental to the balanced development of managers of learning institutions. They constitute the cornerstone for successful management of learning institutions. They should all be embraced in the process of studying the contents of this book on school management. The concepts, principles, and theories that you will come across and their application to real management circumstances will depend entirely on how the individual school managers will adapt themselves. This chapter is the springboard and the important basis of the subsequent chapters in the book. There is need, therefore, to grasp this introductory chapter in order to appreciate and achieve the desired professional character of the target group who are the managers of learning institutions.

General Review Questions

Describe briefly what is acquired in any learning process.

What would you say about the attitude in relation to other factors that are acquired in the learning process?

What would be your comments regarding this chapter as an introduction to subsequent chapters of the book?

What is meant by describing management as an action oriented activity as quoted in a book titled Strategy Formulation and Implementation, 3rd Edition by Arthur A. Thomson Jr. and A. J. Strickland III?

How is your value judgment regarding the diverse managerial situations that arise in the process of running a learning institution?

Chapter 2

The General Management Functions in Learning Institutions

Learning Objectives

After studying the chapter, school managers should be able to:

Develop a clear perception of what is involved in management functions at institutional level.

Understand the four basic functions of management and their application in the discharge of managerial responsibilities in learning institutions.

Know and realize the disadvantage of too much inclination toward operating rather than managing an institution.

Distinguish between managing and operating as school managers.

Analyze and understand the implication of the factors that influence inclination toward operating among the school managers.

Chapter Outline

Introduction

The meaning