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The School Management Initiative (SMI), whose uniqueness differentiates itself from all other piece-meal programmes ever introduced into the local educational scene, could be viewed as an educational
change. That the implementation of change requires more attention to culture than structure is so often
neglected that numerous change efforts hitherto tried, both local and abroad, have either failed or been
distorted. This research tries to examine the interaction between organizational culture and change in
the implementation of the SMI. By drawing on two apparently extreme cases, the researcher hopes to
provide the practitioners of the SMI with an ethnographically informed dissertation whose 'thick'
qualitative data might shed light on the implementation process strategy-wise.
Introduction | Literature Review | Methodology and Data Collection | Data Display and Analysis | Discussion and Conclusion | References Introduction Return to TOP Contextual background to the enquiry A Public Sector Reform proposal was circulated within the government for internal consultation in 1989. This document proposed a comprehensive change in financial and management strategies and procedures of the administration. It was this new orientation that the Education and Manpower Branch (EMB) and the Education Department (ED) followed suit and, in their booklet published in March 1991, The School Management Initiative: Setting the Framework for Quality in Hong Kong Schools, criticized the 'largest public service in dollar terms' as 'less effective than they might be'. and attributed the ineffectiveness to 'inadequate management structures and processes, poorly defined roles and responsibilities, the absence or inadequacy of performance measures, an emphasis on detailed controls, rather than frameworks of responsibility and accountability, and an emphasis on cost control at the margin, rather than cost effectiveness and value for money' (EMB and ED, 1991: 9). As a result, proposals were set out 'to define clearly the roles of sponsors, managers, supervisors and principals and consequently to ensure greater effectiveness and accountability, to provide for greater participation of teachers, parents and alumni in school decision-making and management, to encourage more systematic planning and evaluation of schools' programme of activities and reporting their performance, and to give schools more flexibility in the use of resources in meeting their defined individual needs' (ED, 1992: i). Identification of the Problem Empirically speaking, initial response of the SMI was not that favourable. Comments published in local newspapers concerning the SMI during the first two years were generally more inclined to the critical side. The number of aided secondary schools that joined the Phase II of the SMI speaks well for the prevailing sentiment. On top of that, instructional guidelines regarding the implementation of the SMI were mostly concerned with black and white trivialities, solid suggestions on how School-Based Management and Change could be implemented, on the other hand, were not provided. These two reciprocally interactive factors might eventually lead to the unsuccessful implementation of the SMI. Drawing from extensive literature on School-Based Management and Change abroad, the researcher identifies that the implementation of change is closely related to organizational culture. Many recent articles on change have suggested that successful change should orient towards changing organizational culture. Taking this a step further, the researcher hypothesizes that the results of change hitherto have indeed been determined by schools' own existing cultures. Delving into two cases of the implementation of the SMI, this project tries to examine the relationship between organizational culture and change, and to find out if the former is really having such a significant effect on the latter. Next : Literature Review | References * This is a shortened, ready-to-publish version of my M.Ed. dissertation completed at the University of Hong Kong in 1994. Return to TOP This dissertation was last updated on December 25, 2001 and made available at http://www.anthonyng.com/dissertation Copyright © 1994-2001 Anthony NG All rights reserved. |