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The School as a
Social System
Elements of Theory:
Concepts
Generalizations
Assumptions
Purposes of Theory:
Provide an explanation of how things generally work.
Guide research
Guide practice
Hypotheses:
Conjectural statements that explain relationships.
Use to test theories.
Guide research
Scientific Knowledge:
Propositions supported by systematic research.
Assumptions
Concepts And Concepts
Generalizations
Principles
Human Relations (The Beginning) Contemporary Natural System (Human Resources View)
Mary Parker Follett •Survival--organizations are more than instruments for goal
Taylor antagonist and attainment; they are social groups that adapt and survive.
human relations advocate •Individuals are more important than the structure.
•Needs motivate performance more than role demands .
Hawthorne Studies •Specialization can promote boredom and frustration.
•Illumination Studies--three studies •Formalization produces rigidity and rule fixation.
•Elton Mayo--more studies(1927-32) •Informal Norms not formal rules are critical to performance.
•Hawthorne Effect •Hierarchy is ineffective because it usually neglects talent.
•Span of Control is dysfunctional because it fosters close and
Informal Organization authoritarian supervision.
•Norms •Informal Communication is more efficient and open than
•Grapevine formal communication.
•Informal leaders •Informal Organization--informal structures are more
•Cliques important than formal ones just as informal leaders are more
influential than formal ones. The informal organization is the
Informal Norms key to effectiveness.
“No squealing”
“No rate busting”
“No chiseling”
“Be a regular guy”
Contingency Theory
Effectiveness is contingent upon matching There is no one best way to organize, motivate,
the situation with the appropriate technique. decide, lead, or communicate-- “it depends.”
Environment
Inputs Outputs
Throughput
People [Transformation] Performance
Materials Products
Finances Services
Feedback
Individual: the individual is a key unit in any social system; regardless of position,
people bring with them individual needs, beliefs, and a cognitive
understandings of the job.
Transformation Process
Structural System
(Bureaucratic Expectations)
Individual System
(Cognition and Motivation)
Individual System
(Cognition and Motivation)
Discrepancy between
Actual and Expected
Performance
R P
W. K. Hoy © 2003, 2008, 2011
Practical Imperatives
1. Seek and test good explanations in your administrative practice:
Be both reflective and guided by evidence.
2. Be prepared for both rational and irrational behavior in schools:
Both abound.
3. Cultivate informal relations to solve formal problems:
The informal organization is a source of ingenious ideas.
4. Use multiple perspectives to frame school challenges:
Framing the problem is often the key to its solution.
5. Engage informal leaders in problem solving:
Cooperation between the formal and the informal is a key to success.
6. Be politically astute as you represent the school and its students:
Politics is a fact of school life.
7. Encourage both stability and spontaneity as appropriate:
Both are essential to good schools.
8. Be responsive to the community: The school is an open system.
9. Cultivate expertise as the basis for solving problems:
Knowledge should be the basis of decision making.
10. Harness administration to the facilitation of sound teaching and learning:
Teaching and learning is what schools are about.
W. K. Hoy © 2003, 2008, 2011