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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 Literature Review Return to TOP Theoretical Framework An extensive amount of literature has contributed to the background of the SMI, particularly over the past decade or two. Although my dissertation focuses on the interaction between Organizational Culture and Change respecting the Initiative, fundamental and related concepts ranging from School- (or Site-) Based Management, the Local Management of Schools (LMS), to Effective Schools should be included in order to draw a more comprehensive, two-dimensional picture of the SMI. The following sections describe briefly these building blocks and illustrate their relationship to each other in order to construct a working theoretical framework. School Management Initiative Local research effort related to the SMI is hitherto extremely scarce. Andrew K. C. Wong (1991, 1992, 1993) and Cheng Yin-cheong (1992)'s works have almost made up the whole inventory. Among the first to respond locally to the SMI, Andrew K. C. Wong differentiates the SMI from all other piecemeal programmes (e.g. remedial teaching, school-based curriculum and using Chinese as the teaching medium) as 'a more comprehensive approach in tackling the [many educational] problems', and comments that the SMI 'is a timely issue and is worthy of promotion in Hong Kong' (Wong, 1991: 27, 29, 32). However, that Hong Kong schools are measured against the 'yardstick' of effective schools elsewhere and judged as ineffective is somewhat unfair and inconsistent to the literature available, and is quite silly strategically (Wong, 1992) especially when the oversimplified logic of achieving Effective School status through School-Based Management held by the EMB and ED is already being questioned by literature abroad (Wong, 1993). Cheng Yin-cheong's preliminary study of the SMI concerning responses of key actors (i.e. supervisors, principals and teachers) in schools employs a questionnaire survey involving more than 200 schools and over 1,000 teachers. His findings support, by and large, a so-called moderately positive response initially. (Cheng, 1992) However, that the survey was done in February 1992, only six months after the official introduction of Phase I of the SMI, confines those responses from non-SMI schools to be solely document-led and excludes it from reflecting empirically upon actual implementation undertaken by participating schools. School-Based Management Although the SMI attributes its source to Caldwell and Spinks' Self-Managing School, it is theoretically indebted to the wealth of literature that has been contributed to the notion of School-Based Management over the last ten years. In her Synthesis of Research on School-Based Management, David gives a comprehensive review of the popular reform which 'has a chameleon-like appearance' and defines School-Based Management as school-level autonomy plus participatory decision-making. (David, 1989) James W. Guthrie hails School-Based Management as The Next Needed Reform and argues that the school should logically be the primary decision-making unit since the classroom, on the one hand, is not sufficiently independent to be considered a management base, while on the other hand, parents and pupils seldom give their allegiance to a district-wide educational system. (Guthrie, 1986) Hans N. Weiler's 1990 Marxist interpretation of decentralization poses comparatively more reflective thoughts of the notion. In his Comparative Perspectives on Educational Decentralization: An Exercise in Contradiction, he argues that sharing of power is, in the first place, incompatible with the modern state which reproduces existing unequal social relations through education. Weiler attests that decentralization is potentially a strategy for conflict management as well as a means of compensatory legitimation. (Weiler, 1990) Strategically, Karin M. Lindquist and John J. Mauriel (1989) raise doubts about translating School-Based Management theory to practice. They warn against implementing School-Based Management by top-down legislation which could only bring about 'compliance without commitment'; on the contrary, they remark, educational deregulation such as open enrolment which allows parents to choose would eventually compels the schools to change from bottom-up. Larry E. Sackney and Dennis J. Dibski (1994) question the connection between School-Based Management and School Effectiveness, saying that 'evidence does not substantiate such a claim'. They point out that schools do not look different simply because of School-Based Management, unless more attention is focused on instructional instead of managerial improvement and the organizational culture is transformed accordingly. Local Management of Schools Since the SMI put forward by the Education and Manpower Branch and the Education Department undoubtedly borrows much from the Local Management of Schools (LMS) which has been fully fledged in the United Kingdom, the experience of the latter will probably be invaluable to the implementation of the SMI. In recent years, many began to rethink and analyze the theory and practice based on the implementation of the LMS in the UK. Priscilla Wohlstetter and Allan Odden suggest in their Rethinking (1992) that the strategy 'ought to be implemented along with curriculum and instruction reforms if the goal is to increase school productivity' (Wohlstetter and Odden, 1992: 546). Jane Broadbent et al (1992) also question the implementation of LMS from both the theoretical and empirical perspectives. With a research covering four schools over two and a half years, they observe the formation of the 'task group' whose function is to absorb and cope with any change brought forward by the LMS and prevent the 'disease' from spreading to the rest of the school so as to preserve the original 'educational values'. Effective Schools Although Andrew K. C. Wong (1992) as well as Larry E. Sackney and Dennis J. Dibski (1994) cast doubt about the causal relationship between School-Based Management and Effective Schools, the latter is hailed by the Education and Manpower Branch and the Education Department (1991) as the destination of their reform. As a matter of fact, Larry Cuban (1983, 1984) has long warned those who are indulged with transforming the frog into a prince. That schools are oriented toward sheer test scores and nothing else would eventually increase uniformity, especially regarding curriculum, and narrow the educational agenda while those with high test scores would simply escape the obligation to improve. Change Stepping into the 90's, 'Change' has become the fad and has taken up uncountable management seminars like a hurricane. Most recently, Robert H. Schaffer and Harvey A. Thomson (1993) as well as Peter S. DeLisi (1993) looked at change strategy-wise on the profit-making edge and suggest invaluable insight. Schaffer and Thomson (1993) liken the impact of most change programmes on operational and financial results to that of the ceremonial rain dance: they 'sound good, look good, and allow managers to feel good - but in fact contribute little or nothing' (Schaffer and Thomson, 1993: 80). They argue that results-driven programmes sharply focused on specific goals lead directly towards measurable, short-term results with relatively little investment. DeLisi (1993) 'believe[s] that . . . organizational culture . . . is the primary driver of . . . organizational change' (DeLisi, 1993: 84-85). Distilling the lessons from the Yir Yoront, an Australian aboriginal tribe and the steel axe, DeLisi sees three major challenges of the 1990s, namely, empowering people, building teamwork, and developing shared values. Michael Fullan (1985) was undoubtedly among the first to shed light on the meaning of educational change. Deliberately attempting change is acknowledged as a 'complex, dilemma-ridden, technical, sociopolitical process', 'not an event' (Fullan, 1985: 391, 392). While looking at the Human Face of Reform, Robert Evans (1993) remarks that 'change raises hope . . . but it also stir fear'. These multi-realities of change imply that resistance is inevitable even to the best planned change. (Evans, 1993: 20) To Nona A. Prestine and Chuck Bowen (1993), 'change is both a noun and a verb' (Prestine and Bowen, 1993: 316). Using the four benchmarks established by the Illinois Coalition of Essential Schools, (namely substantial agreement, observable change, all-school participation, and systematic leadership), they assess the substance of change. These benchmarks of change are later employed by the researcher, too, to describe qualitatively the implementation of the SMI. Organizational Culture Terrence Deal and Allen Kennedy (1982)'s Corporate Cultures, along with Thomas Peters and Robert H. Waterman (1982)'s In Search of Excellence and William G. Ouchi (1981)'s Theory Z turned the term 'Organizational Culture' into a hit. Since then, the concept of culture has been defined and analyzed with other organizational elements, the latest being change. Even Michael G. Fullan (1992) has recently abandoned the 'relatively short-lived' instructional leaders and warns against the 'visions that blind' and turned to collaborative work culture. He argues that the principals' role has changed into one of learning and leading through collaboration. By diagnosing the organizational cultures of the schools studied using the Deal and Kennedy's parameters, the researcher is looking forward to drawing the conclusion that the implementation of the SMI depends heavily upon (changing) the existing culture of the participating school. Home : Introduction | Next : Methodology and Data Collection | 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. |