Managerialist model of management and leadership

Explore to what extent the managerialist model of management and leadership adopted in England and Wales has influenced management culture in one other country and the impact that this may have on your own management and leadership style.

Introduction

Managerialism has become the predominant ideology in educational management. It has been a stably indispensable ingredient in the policy of government in order to operate public school, in contrast to the traditional bureaucratic ideals, it provide high priority to management and leadership (Pollitt 1993).

Leadership, is a complex social phenomenon, and has been studied and developed over many years. Leadership is a process in which an individual influences the group of individuals to accomplish the common goals and targets. Leadership is born in a organization context, that is to say no organization or group then there can be no leadership. Leadership includes attention to goals, which means leadership has impacts in contexts where everybody is moving toward a goal. So leadership seems like a power relationship existing between leader and followers (Northouse ,2007).

Management is defined realistically in the context of an organization. That is to say that management is a process which enables organizations to set and achieve their objective by planning organizing and controlling their recourses, including gaining motivation from their employees.

Although it is being argued that the application of some managerialist approaches cause problems. In England and Wales, education is overseen by the department for education and department for business, innovation and skills. Almost all state-funded school are maintained schools funded by the government in which the local authority, Ofsted and the TDA are influential partners.

In China Education is a state-run system of public education run by the Ministry of Education. In the basic education, the Chinese government, government established a uniform standard for basic education, to control the national curriculum, the system of enrollment examinations, and teacher qualifications level. Chinese education system is reforming, through studying advanced educational counties and excessive government control is being reduced.

In relation, to this assignment, I want to explore to what extent management and leadership approaches adopted in England, and Wales have influenced management culture in the China and the impact trends on development of management and leadership style. I am particularly interested in exploring to what extent western approaches can be implemented in China. For example, which theories adopted in British might be applied in China and any weaknesses it might have minimized. I will explore what theories exert impact either positively or negatively in management system in British school. Taking it as a higher revelation ,which will give me consideration about my leadership and management styles.

Specifically, through studying managerialism and bureau professionalism, organizational culture, leadership style (trait, style and transformation leadership theory), I will focus on the following:

To explore how managerialism has been introduced to England and Wales and how it has impacted upon education management.

To explore how government policy in China controls education and influences the actions of head teachers and school organizations

Compare what happened in China with what happened in England

The impact of that government controls have on head teachers in china and its implications for my own management style.

Literature review

2.1)Managerialism in English Education

(definition)Managerialism is a set of belief and practices, and it assumes that a better management can solve the various problem existing in public sectors(Pollitt,1993) Although there are different definitions of managerialism, as a fads and buzzwords, it has been given various names including, New public Management, New Managerialism, Entrepreneurial Governance and Neo-Taylorism” (Power 1997 cide in McGrah. 2004)

(Traits)Managerialism is introduced to England education for couple of decades. In fact it has been as a belief that effective leadership and management is considered as the most important element for operating successful schools and colleges (Bush 2004 cited in McGrath). Its traits were summarised by (Bush 2004) as followed: manaerialism , First, it empowers manager right to manage, which is rising the process of management above that which is to be managed. Secondly, it seems like cost centres and devolved budgets to achieve greater financial control. Thirdly, managerialism uses the contracts instead of the high-trust relationship to clear sub-units in order to atomising of large-scale organisation. Fourthly, managerialism use performance assessment to link the individuals’ aim and the objectives of organisation. The last but not least, “a virtual-market environment is created , it promotes competition and transforms students into customers”.

As features of managerialism mentioned before, the better management and leadership have become requirement and a trend. Pollitt ( 1993, p49) stated that “managerilaism is a the acceptable face of new-right thinking concerning the state. It is an ingredient in the ‘pot pouring’ which can attract support beyond the new right itself.”

During the last two decades, Bush (1986, 1995,1999, 2004) also consistently claimed that effective leadership and management play a crucial role for the successful operation of schools and colleges. He (2004,p 2)suggested” successful management requires a clear link between aims, strategy and operational management. In his view there are three aspects should be clear, that is: formal aims, organizational or individual aims and the determination of aims. Gunter (1997) accepted the same conception that managerialism has to emphasise the managerial efficiency rather than the direction at the achievement of educational objectives.

Although the opposition to managerialism has never stopped, the government continually emphasise the effective management and leadership in school, college and universities as the means by which governmental and organisational goals may be achieved (Simkins 1999). However,a fact that managerialism have affected the development of education and society and the trend have shown that it will continue to play an important role in education system.

2.2 Leadership theories in common use in England schools

Undoubtedly, managerialism needs high quality management or leadership and policy maker have placed great emphasis on the good leadership. So the model of leadership has been promoting. Although there is no unified definition of leadership at present, clearly, it is different with the management. Yukl(2002) and Northhouse (2007) described that leadership is an influenced process where individual influences a group or organization through his or her action and motivation. Bush(2004) clarified it used by three dimension to define the leadership which is a basis for develop a working definition. That is, “leadership as influence”, “leadership and values” , and “leadership and vision” .

Because the significance of effective leadership has been increasingly acknowledged, researchers never stop to study and analyse leadership theories. In consequence, there are many leadership theories according to different concerns the style approach emphasized on and various social context. However, in England, every leader has their own leadership style which very often can be analysed using trait, style and transformational leadership.

Trait theory is one of most important theories. It originated in the 19th century, is based on the Great Man theory of leadership. The Great man theory believes that a successful leader should have certain innate characteristics that make them special and concentrate on their success. Trait theory developed the Great man theory and emphasise on the identification and analysis of the superior qualities of leaders. This theory concentrate on the personality which are innate traits that leader requires. (Power 1997 cide in McGrah. 2004)

As a theory, the traits leaders should be held have been studied since its birth. Although no one has been able to provide the definitive list of traits which are different between leaders and non-leaders, there are seven traits that have been considered important over the years. That is: self-confidence, intelligence, helicopter effect, persistence, integrity, motivation and responsibility, which emphasis on what qualities a leader should have is useful. (Power 1997 cide in McGrah. 2004)

For the reason that trait theory is still important at present, two strengths should be mentioned. The greatest one is that it is very easy to understand, people likely think about what their leaders is and what their leaders should be like. Another great function of trait theory is that trait theory can be used to identify potential leadership candidate as a first sieve. These strengths also effect following new theories, but as a theory, the greatest weaknesses are also constrict its development. The greatest weakness is that the definitive list of traits has been argued. That is to say, if a new list is identified the recognized leader should be in dilemma, because they likely do not have all the traits specified. (Power 1997 cide in McGrah. 2004)

Compared with trait theory that focus on the personality, style theory concerned with the behaviour. Northouse (2007) comment that In common, there are two general kinds of behaviour should be considered. One is task aids goal achievement and other is relational assists interpersonal support. Style theory seeks a way to help leader to effectively combine these two behaviours. As a theory, the greatest strength is that it established the idea that the leader’s style is composed of two major components- task and relationship, more importantly, the key to good readership is finding the right balance, which changes the focus of research to what leaders do and how they act while it provides leaders with an insight into how others see them. However there are three doubts about this theory. First, how does style of leadership impacts on performance and attitude of staff. Secondly, whether is there a style that is effective in all situations? Thirdly, it does not take account of the context or situation in which leadership is exercised. (Northouse 2007)

Currently, the Transformation Leadership theory (TL) has become popularised in the educational leadership field. Transformation Leadership theory focuses on values, ethics standards and long-term goals. A connection leaders create is characterized, it is to raise the level of motivation and morality in both the leader and followers. Caldwell and Spinks (1992) commended that transformation leadership theory is crucial for self-manage schools. As opposite to them, Bennett et al(2003) argued that because this theory put too much on the top leader as a “heroic” figure and encourage manipulation of followers, it gave rise to overemphasis on conception of distributed leadership. Similarly, Bush(2004) discussed that transformational model is popular in the literature but the contemporary policy climate cannot provide enough condition for its growth, because “the English system increasingly requires school leaders to adhere to government prescriptions which affect aims, curriculum, content and pedagogy as well as values”(Bush 2004,p78). As a same opinion, Bottery (2001) gave a the same view that “the more centralized , more directed, and more controlled educational system that has dramatically reduced the possibility of realising a genuinely transformational education and leadership.” However, transformational leadership theory is consistent with the collegial model in which a challenge should be faced is that leaders and staffs have shared values and common interests.

2.3) government control of education in China.

Whenever, just like most countries, education is a Long-Term Priority in China, it has never been ignored by Chinese government Since the founding of New China, the Chinese government has always attached great importance to education, It is establishing the world’s largest education system.(Basic Education in China(2010)). The Ministry of Education (2009) stated that in the last 3 decades of reform and opening up, “China has been unremitting efforts to explore a path of educational development with Chinese characteristics”.

It is well-known that education system is controlled by central government. Centrol government was in charge of basic education and high education before the market economy replaced the planning economy in 1985. That is to say, the curriculum and leaders and teachers management were all administrated by government. Accordingly, the leadership and management in school were driven by government and its policy at that time.

After 1985, educational system was no longer compatible with the prevailing economic system and social needs, there was a transition happened in the highly centralized administrative system of education.(Su 2004). National Conference on Education implemented policy “The reforms were intended to expand their management and decision-making powers”, this policy gave administrators the necessary encouragement and authority to ensure smooth progress in educational reform. Lee (2006)gave a clear explanation that the local governments were given some administrative powers. The basic education was mainly the responsibility of local governments. In higher education and vocational education, colleges and universities were more independent decisions-making power. Furthermore, the investment system underwent a gradual change under which the state made unified development plans and provided budgetary appropriations for education.

The second great changes taken place in Chinese education in 1993 after the speech of the making one’s rounds austral Deng Xiaoping is published. Education Law of the People’s Republic of China states that “the Ministry of Education is responsible for formulating guiding principles for education, establishing regulations, planning the progress of educational projects with expanded administrative scope and power and it is co-ordinating the educational programs of different departments, and standardization educational reforms”. In short, The Ministry of Education is highest power of education in China.

Management and leadership approaches used in China

Due to a fact that some managerialism in china is borrowed from westerns, so some parallels can be drawn between the Chinese case and its Western counterparts in terms of the public management including educational management. For example, Devolution of educational management from the central to the local level was the means chosen to improve the education system. Devolution refers to the transfer of authority to an autonomous unit that can act independently, or a unit that can act without first asking permission. (Bray, 1999)

Lee and Lo( 2001 )agreed with the ideas from Massey (1993), Ferlie (1996) and continued to claim that “In the west, the theme of reinventing government is ideologically embedded in the current of the new right. It promoted the three “Es” (efficiency, effectiveness, and economy) in the public management, and advocates profit, property rights and markets to substitute for the mechanisms of power in the restructuring of public administration”.

“In the Chinese context, the remaking of public maintaining to the role of top policy makers, the assessment of the state capacity, the dilemma between the state hierarchy and market mechanisms and the controversy of property rights. During the reform ear, the top Chinese policy makers have been trying to gain not only a realistic policy making role for the party-state at the macro level, but also feasible approaches in the remaking of public management at the micro levels”.

Compare between in china and uk

Despite a fact that critique to government control has existed, government control in education system has placed in differently level in Britain and China. China is country whose educational system is ran by state, before 1985, the government controlled over the education system since 1949, that is to say the Chinese government is the most powerful to manage education through all educational policies made by Chinese Communist Party. For instance, government monitored implementation of its policies at all educational institutions by its party committees. Almost every head teacher and senior management is member of Chinese communist party. The orientation of educational institution guided by policies made central government. Notably, there was a change happened in the national conference on education in 1985, the establishment of the ministry of education symbolised some coordination of education. Although State Council (central government) still played the central role in the administration of education and the new ministry of education is in charge of all organisations, the decentralisation to constituent educational bureaus and local governments, as a rudiment, has established, which had power in different level to establish curriculum and admissions policies. Education law of the people’s republic of China (Article 14) state that:

The State Council and all local People’s government at different levels shall supervise and manage the educational work according to the principle of management by different levels and division of labour with individual responsibility.

Secondary and lower education shall be managed by the local People’s government under the leadership of the State Council.

Higher education shall be managed by the State Council and the People’s government of province, autonomous region or municipality directly under the central government.

By contrast, in England and Wales, “the school leaderships are reduced to implement the policies and values of government and its agencies” (Bush 2004.p 4). “The government is very appreciative of school leadership who continue to give their time and energy to the voluntary work of serving on school governing bodies.()

Although governments have the constitutional power to impose their will but successful innovations require the commitment of those who have to implement these chances in the England and Wales (Bush 2004.p 4). He explained if the teachers and leaders believe the policies are not suitable for teaching and learning, which should give to rise to lack of passion and enthusiasm to implement an initiative. Therefore, government should appreciate school to have visionary leadership as long as the visions and values of school are closed with government imperatives.

Bush argued that what extent the leadership is able to modify government policy depends on school-level values and vision. Similarly, Furlong (2002) claimed that professionals have been status of teachers because of increased government control of education. That is to say, in England and Wales, professionalism is allowed to exist only by the grace of central government due to the central monitoring of teacher performance. (Bush, 2004 p5)

Governing bodies and individual governors should also review their effectiveness and carry out self evaluation of their own skills and evaluate the skill set possessed by the governing body as a whole so that any skills gaps can be met. Governors should also receive defined information to enable them to challenge and hold the school leadership team to account

(Reflection- to what extent could that trait, style and transformational leadership used in china (500-750)

Based on a fact, leadership theory , mostly, is copy from western leadership theory, so there are three phases. They are: trait, style and transformational leadership theory. Exactly, trait theory is the oldest theory either in western or in china, this theory is not solely copy of the Great Man theory, but it is based on Great Man theory, summarized the common traits of successful leaders. It is way it currently, is still useful. One reason is that it provide a ideal for us to look for a leader. On the other hand, want-to-be leaders can use it to identify their basic personality that they need to work on if they want to be considered a leader. In china, if you want to work as a leader in educational institution, the basic qualities as first sieve should be required, they are as followed:

Intelligence: leaders should have professional knowledge and be intellect to deal with issues and problems.

Self-confidence: it is quite different between leaders and their followers. No matter how hard the leaders confront with challenges, leaders should be confident to tackle them, it is not fake it but positive to seek effective way due to a believe you can deal with them.

Helicopter effect and motivation: China is a country whose thought is more collective, as a leader, she or he should be able to encourage everyone’s aim to be same with organization. leaders need to motivate not only themselves but also staff.

Persistence: as good quality, the leader must have it. As leaders in education, they should meet challenges, obstacles and results that are not expected. Never giving up and keeping forward are ever objectives.

Integrity: helicopter effect come from respect and trust and integrity is foot of respect and trust.

Responsibility: leaders should put responsibility before accountability.

As time goes by, the trait theory has not content to leadership needs, style theory,as supplement, is used at educational system. China is a country who requires good relationship. The style theory provides a way to find the right balance for task and relationship. Task aids goal achievement while relational assists interpersonal support.

With popularity of transformational leadership theory in western, this theory is permeating to China. It is part of the new leadership paradigm that give more attention to the charismatic and effective elements of leadership. It meet the needs of today’s work groups who want to be inspired and empowered to succeed in times of uncertainty, because this theory focus on the intrinsic motivates and follower’s development. It provide easier way for leaders to combine the aim of organization and individuals targets. It is more humanism, and it consider emotions, values, ethics, standards and long-term goals and includes assessing followers motives, satisfying their needs and treating as full human beings. That is why this theory is broad researched and applied in China.

These three theories have their own strengths and weaknesses, how to exert their advantages and avoid their disadvantages is strategy and tactic.

Conclusion :500sieve

three most important things you have learn

In conclusion, therefore, it can be seen that despite widespread opposition to managerialism, like everything in the world, there are two sides, the dark side of managerialism is overstate. managerialism has become a dominant ideology in educational management either in England and Wales or in China. It is a production of development of society. Notably, as we can see, the application of managerialist approach can cause some problem. However, managerialism emphasizes on manager’s right to manage. It is typified by a set of practice including the assumptions, techniques, ideas and behaviours, so the practice of management is raised above importance of the function being managed. So the introduction of manageriamlism led to a greater emphasis being place on management and leadership as these skills were necessary to meet the new requirements. According managerialism, government needs the good management and leadership to control education. However, the government policy cannot be changed by leaderships who develop alternative approaches based on school-level. In other words, governments in England and Wales have the constitutional power to impose their will but successful innovations require the commitment of those who have to implement these changes; while in China, central government control and management at different level, on the one hand, kept stable of educational development; on the other hand, it led to limitation of innovation.

Management and leadership

As a predominant ideology in educational management, managerialism needs the effective management and leadership that also are required by governmenal and organizational goals. Management is of mind. It is important. As a science, it is concerned with now and here, which means manager need to do things right; while leadership is concerned with future, as a art, leadership is sole and heart, it need to do right things. So management and leadership, in most time, could not be divided.

Indeed, leadership theories have provide a dramatically different view of the driving forces behind leadership. As is mentioned before that in England the trait, style and transformational leadership are very often analysed by most leaders even if they have their own leadership style. During the process of development of leadership theory, the researchers and leaders have been looking for the best way to obtain the sense and avoid their weakness. This is why some good strengths of old theory (traits and style theory) are still important for today. With the development of leadership theory, the new theories always fit requirement of age in order to fit effective management and leadership.

Areas of weakness in what you have done

I have done my best to show in this essay that management and leadership in educational system in England and Wales and China. Because the aims of education are more diffuse and contested. As is known that aims are tied up with peoples values and beliefs. So management and leadership in education should be different with other public areas. In addition, because of the differences of context and tradition in different countries, management and leadership in China and England are in different way, although it is in very subtle, implicit ways. The analysis and discussion have been showen, some of these were somewhat out of date. although it is not clear which leadership style is the best for England and China, at least, the strengths and weakness mentioned before are meaningful for further research. if it is merely reflecting the way for me to see my own leadership style.

However, in the long run, negative effect of managerialiam and leadership theories should be attractive my eyes. As we know that things will change, but only slowly. research in these areas is important, the eventual solution would identify the better way to manage schools, colleges and universities – in other words, a greater respect for aims of education to look for a fittest management method.

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