Theory and Practice of Educational Administration - Assignment Example

?Educational Administration: Theory and Practice Table of Contents Introduction 3 What is Management 3 Leadership 4 Effectiveness of Leader 5 Effectiveness of Administrator 7 Administrator vs. Leader in Complex Organisation 8 Challenges in Complex Organisation 9 Conclusion 11 References 12 Introduction A complex organisation can be identified as an organisation working on a wide range of levels for the achievement of the goals of the organisation. It can be mentioned that organisations in the current day context calls for pace in order to stand competitive. For the purpose of becoming successful and to remain competitive in the market place, the complex organisations require attaining significant competitive advantages. Organisations of this type tend to receive hyper-competition. By the term hyper-competition the extent of likeness between the two players can be comprehended (Brandeis University, 2008). The main focus of this paper is to comprehend complex organisations and to identify the effectiveness of administrator in comparison to leaders in such sort of organisations. What is Management Management, from an organisational perspective, can be identified as the procedure through which things can get done with the assistance of the people in the organisation. The hard works are planned and directed and the resources are employed and organized for the purpose of achievement of the objective. Within the overall idea of management, the role of the administration needs to be identified. For executing the plans and the decisions on a continuous basis there is requirement of the specific administrative activities that can be assigned to the administrators (Lunenburg & Ornstein, 2011). It is worthy of stating that the meaning of the term, ‘organisation’ centres on features associated with traditional bureaucratic structures. An organisation is developed when a group of people is brought together with shared values and are directed towards the attainment of a common set of objectives. An organisation is found to be directing the activities by means of authority relationships where the interaction among the superiors and subordinates takes place. When such type of relationship is taken into consideration, it can be observed that authority runs from top to bottom. In case of bureaucratic organisations, a hierarchy is formed thus leading to division of labour and clarification of the authority relationships (Denhardt, 2010). Leadership It can be stated that leadership is not similar to that of remaining in the place of the authority. Being the person in charge of the company is relatively easier in comparison to being the leader. The person in charge of the company tends to act as an administrator more than that of the leader. The administrator is considered to be a bureaucrat on both the government as well as business sectors. He/she is the person responsible for keeping the records and is also responsible for constantly watching if the things are done as per the rules. Administration may not be as exciting topic as leadership, but it is considered to be one of the most significant aspects of business management in the present context. It is a well known fact that the success of any organisation is greatly dependent upon the extent to which the organisations are administrated. Manager in any complex organisation is considered to be an administrator; however, their job responsibilities tend to be more than only administrating. Therefore, a few skills within an administrator of complex organisation are quite necessary in order to perform the job responsibilities with efficiency (Mills, 2005). It has been observed that every educational centre employs a professional who is well equipped with the necessary experiences and skills. It is because of such experiences that the person is capable of achieving administrative positions. The hurdles in the teaching career that the administrator has to face also play a crucial role in developing his/her potentials and become an effective teacher, counsellor. It is worth mentioning that educational administrators need to have the necessary knowledge for leading an education centre such as schools and colleges (Teachnology, 2011). Effectiveness of Leader It has been identified that very little acknowledgment has been paid towards the role of leadership in the context of educational administration. The experiment carried out in American education has made the public recognize the capability of good educational initiatives for the purpose of changing the course of proceedings in a democracy that leads to better and more progressive world. With the involvement of the educational sectors in the political, economic as well as social affairs, it is quite apparent that the administrative role may not only take into consideration the formalized and legal authority. However, it tries to present and innate faith in the dissemination of the democratic procedure by means of maintenance of the strong scheme of public education. Thus, the administrative work in educational sector is getting complex day by day. One of the problems that the management faces is related to the way the administrator perceives the goals and objectives of a significant number of individuals. In order to analyze such situations, it becomes significant to take into account the chief elements of the functions of educational leaders in terms of the setting, the person, the administrative process, the job and the organisation. It is significant for the generalized as well as the specialized practitioners to comprehend the process of continuous evaluation of the political, psychological as well as social factors entering into the area of the decision making process. With the rise in the barriers of communication in the complex organisation it becomes difficult for the management to comprehend the feeling and attitude of the individuals who are actively involved in serving the organisation with their self-motivated energy and force (Williams, 1983). With the revolutionalization of the modern education system, the management tries to base its approach upon a framework which may have the capability to resist change and can also emphasize upon the quality control. The approach is prepared taking into consideration the recognition of the likely advantage of an educational system upon the social and economic life of the people. It is worth mentioning that such a directional transformation has connotations for the strategy implemented by the educational leader who faces the novel and difficult task as an administrator. In such type of complex situations, the educational administration survives, since it attaches itself with the prevailing recognizable institution like schools and school system. It tries to engage itself with the work of the organisation’s policy making tasks, maintenance-oriented responsibilities, and management-directed functions. It becomes difficult for the educational leader to survive professionally if the school demonstrates itself only as an agency that takes actions and fulfil the promises (Williams, 1983). It is the duty of the administrator to be held responsible for the results based on the attainment of the objectives and needs to manage the timing of the educational institute. It is to be remembered that the management makes effort to drive out the impersonal views of the administrator that is headed towards the members of the organisation. It is also the duty of the leader in the complex organisations to be committed and therefore identify the several contexts that creates problem for the human-being both on an individual as well as group basis. It has been noticed that the administrator plays a significant role in keeping the organisation lively and supple as well (Williams, 1983). Effectiveness of Administrator It is the duty of the school administrator to evaluate the complex business context correctly. Thus, he/she must have adequate knowledge regarding how much pressure can be exerted upon the sub-ordinates and when it can be done. The point to be remembered is that in case of complex business organisations it becomes vital for the people in charge to attend the leadership tasks along with the managerial tasks. The organisation that has achieved greater success might not have leaders running in one direction and the managers in another direction. For instance, it is the duty of the school principal to run the school as element of social and political context performing the duties of both administrator and leader. The main task of the administrator performing the leadership skills is to assist the organisation to develop a shared vision. It further leads to the creation of the mission statement as well as the goals of the organisation. With the sharing of the vision, the goals of the organisation can be achieved by the development of the structures and the processes. When the administrator is practicing his roles, he/she needs to operate in the moral-ethical framework. It is because an administrator is supposed to maintain creative status-quo by the preservation of the policies and the procedures of the organisation. When they act as a leader, they are responsible for alteration of the policies, goals and procedures in light of the internal or external issues faced by the organisation. It has been identified that the successful leader who takes risk and is more focused upon the goals will try to stress upon the goal achievement as well as competency (Gamage, 2006). One of the significant tasks of the school administrator is to take care of the total functioning of the school. One of the key components in the process of administration is the people of the organisation. One of the major responsibilities of the administrator is to identify the human resources required in the organisation and the manner in which the organisational objectives can be achieved by directing, motivating and controlling the resources. This view of administration is applicable at any kind of social and complex organisation be it a business enterprise, a government bureau or a school (Aquino, 1999). Administrator vs. Leader in Complex Organisation According to Sergiovanni, administration can be identified as the procedure of working with others for the objective of accomplishing the goals of the educational centre effectively. It is in this context that the administrator is responsible for carrying out the process effectively. When the views of the administrative theorists are taken into consideration, it is observed that the main role and function of the administration are planning, controlling organizing and leading. Leadership can be defined as the practice of high-level theoretical skills and determination which can be identified as envisioning of the missions, preparation of the strategies, inspiring people and the alteration of the culture. The main difference between the administrator and the leader is that leaders project new structures as well as procedures for the purpose of achievement of the objectives, whereas the administrator, instead of commencing the new structures and processes tries to make use of the already existing ones (Brennen, n.d.). Challenges in Complex Organisation With the emergence of the complex systems, the main challenge for the organisations is to continue developing efficient operations and adjustment with the changing business environment. It is often found that leaders manage the conflicts that erupt in maintaining the short-term and long-term objectives of the organisation. They are also observed managing the challenges related to the exploration and utilization of resources. It can be mentioned that the leadership and the actions of the leaders are interconnected with the adaptive conflicts in the current day context. It becomes significant for the organisation to measure the efficacy of the leaders in context of complex business organisations (Hazy, 2006). There are studies that pinpoint the ineffectiveness of leaders in case of complex organisations. For instance, it has been observed that at the micro level, complex leaders are capable of enhancing productivity. However, analysing in the micro level, these leaders are observed to be less effective than the administrators to enhance the overall organisational productivity. This implies that leaders are unable of controlling the future because in complex business organisations it is the unpredictable internal dynamics that identifies the future actions. At micro level, the leaders are supposed to influence the networks and generate an environment in order to form aggregates and meta-aggregates through which innovation can be fostered and the information can be distributed evenly in the organisation that may lead to success of the organisation. According to the complexity theories, it is well known that leaders are incapable of forecasting the future behaviour of organisational assemblies (Marion & Uhl-Bien, 2001). Conclusion In complex business organisations, the administrator tends to play a significant role and emerges as the facilitator when faced with more complex problems in comparison to the challenges faced by the leaders of the organisation. Notably, an administrator has an influence in making the optimum utilization of resources of the organisation and thus assists in the achievement of the organisational goals. However, it can be argued that effective leadership can assist in enabling complex behaviour which is quite challenging to be attained through administration following the traditional pathway. Although leaders may impact the systems directly getting involved in the determination of how to dictate future organisational contexts, it is significant for the leaders to comprehend the fact that success as well as failure of the actions of the leaders depend upon the capacity of their organisation. The leaders need to fit with the requirement of the complex business organisation and try to foster innovation and competition in their work culture (Marion & Uhl-Bien, 2001). References Aquino, G.V., (1999). Educational Administration: Theory and Practice. Philippines: Rex Bookstore, Inc. Brandeis University, (2008). How Does Complex Organisation Arise? Measuring Complexity. Retrieved Online on October 21, 2011 from http://pages.cs.brandeis.edu/~pablo/thesis/html/node8.html Brennen, A. M., (No Date). Leadership versus Administration. Educational Administration and Supervision. Retrieved Online on October 21, 2011 from http://www.soencouragement.org/leadership-vs-administration.htm Denhardt, R. B., (2010). Theories of Public Organisation. United Kingdom: Cengage Learning. Gamage, D. T., (2006). Professional Development for Leaders and Managers of Self-Governing Schools. United Kingdom: Springer. Hazy, J. K., (2006). Measuring Leadership Effectiveness in Complex Socio- Technical Systems. Computers and Information Science. Vol: 8, Iss: 3, Pp: 58-77. Lunenburg, F. C. & Ornstein, A. C., (2011). Educational Administration: Concepts and Practise. United Kingdom: Cengage Learning. Marion, R. & Uhl-Bien, M., (2001). Leadership in Complex Organisation. Problems with Leadership Studies. Retrieved Online on October 21, 2011 from http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1012&context=managementfacpub&sei-redir=1&referer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.co.in%2Furl%3Fsa%3Dt%26rct%3Dj%26q%3Dineffectiveness%2520of%2520leader%2520in%2520complex%2520organisation%26source%3Dweb%26cd%3D1%26ved%3D0CCsQFjAA%26url%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fdigitalcommons.unl.edu%252Fcgi%252Fviewcontent.cgi%253Farticle%253D1012%2526context%253Dmanagementfacpub%26ei%3DUgGhTvfbH4TmrAeFl5DmAg%26usg%3DAFQjCNFtGf5aABv0-SqyHZ8-_li_-4OXMw#search=%22ineffectiveness%20leader%20complex%20organisation%22 Mills, D. Q., (2005). Leadership How to lead, How to Live. The Importance of Leadership. Retrieved Online on October 21, 2011 from http://www.mindedgepress.com/PDFs/htlhtl.pdf Teachnology, (2011). Organisations for Educational Administrator Advocacy. Educational Administrators. Retrieved Online on October 21, 2011 from http://www.teach-nology.com/edleadership/organisations/ Williams, S. W., (1983). School Administrator: Leadership and Interactions. New York: Ardent Media. Bibliography English, F. W., (2011). The SAGE Handbook of Educational Leadership: Advances in Theory, Research, and Practice. United States: SAGE. Mitchell, D. E., (2006). New Foundations for Knowledge in Educational Administration, Policy, and Politics: Science and Sensationalism. United Kingdom: Routledge. OECD, (2009). Leading To Learn: School Leadership and Management Styles. Chapter 6. Retrieved Online on October 21, 2011 from http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/32/7/43541674.pdf Phillips, J. A., (2001). Manager-Administrator to Instructional Leader: Shift in the Role of School Principal. People Learn. Retrieved Online on October 21, 2011 from http://peoplelearn.homestead.com/principainstructleader.htm Ricketts, K. G., (2006). Leadership vs. Management. Leadership Behaviour. Retrieved Online on October 21, 2011 from http://www.ca.uky.edu/agc/pubs/elk1/elk1103/elk1103.pdf Samier, E. A. & Stanley, A., (2008). Political Approaches to Educational Administration and Leadership. United Kingdom: Routledge. Smith, J., (1989). Critical Perspectives on Educational Leadership. United Kingdom: Routledge. Sharma, S. L., (2009). Educational Management: A Unified Approach to Education. India: Global India Publications. Young, M. D., (2009). Handbook of Research on the Education of School Leaders. United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis. Read More