EDUCATION PRACTICE AND INNOVATION
ISSN(Print): 2372-3092 ISSN(Online): 2372-3106
VOLUME 1, NUMBER 2, JUNE 2014
EDUCATION PRACTICE AND INNOVATION
Management and Organizational
Characteristics of Educational Institutions
Gabriella Keczer*
Duna 6. Szeged, Hungary.
*Corresponding author: [email protected]
Abstract:
Schools, universities and other institutions of education and training are different from manufacturing organizations in two senses. They are providing services and their core activity is
educating. Their peculiarities deriving from these two characteristics determine they way of
management and organizational structure. First the special aspects that should be taken into
consideration when structuring and managing an educational organization are discussed in
this paper, then we turn our attention to higher education institutions. Their management and
organizational characteristics are analyzed in the frame of Mintzberg’s model.
Keywords:
Educational Organizations; Leadership; Management; Professional Services; universities; Structuring Organizations
1. INTRODUCTION
Schools, universities, institutions of adult education and professional training are different from
organizations manufacturing public goods in two senses. They are providing services and their core
activity is educating. Their peculiarities deriving from these two characteristics determine they way of
management as well.
2. MANAGEMENT OF SERVICES
Education is a service, therefore to understand the management of educational organizations one has to
be aware of the specialties of the management of services. The most adequate definition of service is: ”A
service is an activity or performance one offers to another · · · Performance is intangible and it does not
entail the ownership of the resources of the production. Service is a business activity that creates value
and provides advantages to the customer · · · by accomplishing the change the client wished.” [1].
Education is a professional service, because it is labor-intensive, interaction and client-orientation
is significant. And it is a mutual service, because it is not possible without the active cooperation of
the client. In the management of services the priority is the quality perceived by the client. Thus, the
principles of the management of services are the following [2].
a) Profit is created by the quality perceived by the client, so the business objective is not external
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Management and Organizational Characteristics of Educational Institutions
efficiency, productivity or the economies of scale (in fact, large output – too many students – can
be a drawback), but total efficiency. It is internal efficiency and external efficiency – including for
example customer relations. Due to this, control in services should not focus only on financial results,
but has to take other aspects of organizational success into consideration. The so called Balanced
Scorecard reflects this attitude. Balanced Scorecard is a performance measurement tool developed in
1992 by PlaceNameplaceHarvard PlaceNameBusiness PlaceTypeSchool professor Robert S. Kaplan and
management consultant David P. Norton. Kaplan and Norton’s research led them to believe that traditional
financial measures like return on investment, could not provide an accurate picture of a company’s
performance. Balanced Scorecard complements the financial measures with operational measures on
customer satisfaction, internal processes and the organization’s innovation and improvement activities.
These operational measures are the drivers of future financial performance [3].
b) Decision points in the organization have to be close to the client-organization interfaces. Front
staff dealing directly with the clients (administrators, teachers) must have the authority to make prompt
decisions. Thus, decentralized organizational structures fit better to service providers than centralized
ones. Centralization and decentralization pertain to the hierarchical level at which decisions are made.
Decentralization means that the decision authority is pushed downward from the top to lower levels of the
organization.
c) Organizational culture must focus on total efficiency and must show flexibility in order to mobilize
resources for supporting customer relations. Organizational culture evolves on the norms, values, beliefs,
behavior patterns of the people. Organizational success based on customer satisfaction must be in the
focus of all these in the case of service providers.
d) Quality and performance are less standardized than in industrial organizations, because individual
customers need individual solutions. Thus, working by guidelines is better than by rigid directives.
Consequently, taking responsibility and making decisions on the part of the employees is more important
than strictly obeying to the protocols. It influences the proper leadership style as well. The extent of
employee participation and empowerment is the crucial issue in many major leadership models. Kurt
Lewin identified three different styles of leadership: autocratic, democratic and laissez-faire. Autocratic
style leaves little authority to employees, while democratic involves members in decision-making and
laissez-faire leaves almost everything to them [4]. Rensis Likert distinguishes autocratic, consultative
and participative styles of leadership based on the degree to which people are involved in the decisionmaking. Tannenbaum and Schmidt separated five styles of leadership depending on the involvement and
freedom of employees: telling, selling, consulting, sharing and delegating. Democratic, participative,
delegation-based leadership is proper in educational organizations where employees are highly educated
professionals.
e) The basis of performance appraisal and compensation must be the satisfaction of the clients.
Performance appraisal is the process of observing and evaluating an employee’s performance, recording the
assessment and providing feedback to the employee. It plays a major role in accomplishing organizational
goals such as satisfied clients. The term compensation refers to monetary payments and goods and
commodities used in lieu of money to reward employees. Pay-for-performance, also called merit-pay or
incentive system ties at least part of the compensation to employee effort and performance. Thus, it is
more suitable to acknowledge and foster good customer relations than payment based exclusively on the
job (like in public schools or universities).
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EDUCATION PRACTICE AND INNOVATION
3. MANAGEMENT OF EDUCATION
Education management has become an independent discipline due to a new approach: management
training can improve the efficiency and quality of educational organizations. There is a debate whether
the management of educational organizations differs from that of other types of organizations. There
are two approaches. One considers the management of educational organizations as one field of general
management, the other regards it as an individual discipline.
- Theory of common principles: Management has general principles appropriate in every organization.
- Theory of special case: The management of educational organizations is special enough to train their
leaders specifically.
Seven features can be listed that make the management of educational organizations definitely different
from that of others’ [5]:
a) Defining the objectives in educational organizations is more difficult than in business enterprises.
Non-profit educational organizations do not have the clear objectives of the commercial organizations:
maximizing output and profit. Plus, they are expected to develop individual skills, while they should
educate people to meet the norms of the society. In for-profit educational organizations educational
objectives may confront with business objectives.
b) It is difficult to tell whether education has attained its objectives or not. Success cannot be measured
in financial terms: sales, profit or dividend.
c) The fact that ’the student’ is in the center of an educational organization causes some difficulties.
Students can be regarded as clients, but also as the raw material of production. But students are different
from industrial raw materials. They cannot be processed, and teaching and learning are based on personal
relationships, they are loaded with individual characteristics and the result is impossible to predict. This
human volatility makes the evaluation of performance even more complex.
d) Teachers also have characteristics that cause difficulties for management. Leaders and teachers of
schools have common education, professional roots, values, experiences. Plus, teachers demand a certain
amount of autonomy in the teaching process, and it is difficult to define or to control their relationship
with the students.
e) The agent-client relationship of teacher and student is different from that of other agents and clients.
Student-clients have only limited opportunity to choose their teacher-agents. And satisfying students’
expectations does not always serve their true interests.
f) External actors strongly influence the decisions of educational organizations. And in large organizations the different training programs, locations and semesters are all decision points. These two factors
make decision-making and allocation of responsibility difficult.
g) Many top and middle managers in educational organizations do not have enough time to deal with
leadership issues. They often have lectures and other education-related tasks. So their time spent on
managing the organization is limited and it has serious consequences.
When appreciating the extent an educational organization differs from a typical business organization
we can rely on Carlson’s categories (1975). He describes domesticated and savage organizations. If
pupils are automatically sent to the local school the institution is a domesticated organization. The society
it serves protects it from the negative factors of the environment. Thus, it does not have to fight for its
survival. Like a domesticated animal it is fed and cared for, its existence is guaranteed. Although it has to
compete for its resources its funding is not connected to the quality of its services. Savage organizations
on the other hand are permanently fighting for survival. Their existence is not guaranteed, they may close
down any time. Their funding depends on the quality of their services and there is no guarantee for new
clients.
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Management and Organizational Characteristics of Educational Institutions
4.
ORGANIZATIONAL AND MANAGEMENT CHARACTERISTICS OF
HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS
There are a large number of models available for the typology of universities as organizations. Henry
Mintzberg identified five types of organizations on the basis of their crucial structural characteristics:
simple structure, machine bureaucracy, professional bureaucracy, adhocracy and divisional structure [6].
Most public universities including Hungarian ones adhere to the professional bureaucracy type by and
large. It has several advantages but it also limits a more effective operation. The professional bureaucratic
features of the public universities are the following.
1. The most important part of a university is its operating core, the departments and institutes
comprising the staff of academics. In all Middle-European post-communist countries such
as country-regionHungary, country-regionRomania, the PlaceNameCzech PlaceTypeRepublic,
country-regionSlovakia and placecountry-regionPoland the power is still in the hands of the faculty.
The main decision-making body of the university is the senate with the representatives of the
professors and the students.
2. As a typical feature one should mention the relatively large size and weight of the support staff
(including various administrative offices and other non-training organizational units) running
separately from the operating core. In Hungarian universities administrative and functional units
operate on different terms: differing regulations concerning wages and promotion, opening hours,
financing. The support staff with its parallel hierarchic structure, differing culture, norms, values
and rules of operation is often involved in conflicts with the training units. These conflicts often
surface in complex projects that involve both faculty and administration. Bringing these two
subsystems closer to each other would be crucial to a service provider university.
3. The various operating units deal exclusively with their own clients (students). In Hungarian
universities the cooperation between the different departments of the same faculty is not always
smooth and depends on the willingness of the heads and the members.
4. The primary coordinating mechanism that ensures the appropriate operation of a university is the
standardized skills and knowledge of its employees. Quality in higher education is assured by
the fact that each instructor has acquired the necessary skills. These skills are determined in the
application requirements for a job. They are specified outside the university with little space for
action left for the university within the legal framework. In placecountry-regionHungary university
employees have the legal status of ‘civil servant’ with detailed job requirements set by the laws of
civil service and higher education. These requirements are rather inflexible. They are not adapted
to local needs and fail to respond to the constantly changing challenges in a flexible way. In
placecountry-regionHungary the job requirements for an instructor in higher education are the same
regardless of the type of the institution (community college or research university). Furthermore,
these professional requirements relate only to the moment of awarding a job or a degree. Thus, they
fail to foster continuous development. In placecountry-regionHungary performance appraisal of
faculty is not wide-spread.
5. There is a strong division of labour and job specialization at the universities which is a consequence
of the activity involved: teaching different disciplines. However, professors should not work in
separation from their peers, and the fact that they often do so decreases the efficiency of teaching
and research. As there are several specialists working within the same discipline but in different
units in a university there is an evident need to cooperate. Nevertheless the chance to capitalize
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EDUCATION PRACTICE AND INNOVATION
on synergy offered by mutual work has been recognized only rarely. What is typical instead is
professional jealousy and adherence to ones ”ivory tower”.
6. Decentralization is also a natural phenomenon in universities. But decentralized organizations are
only capable of working efficiently if they could adopt a common strategy which represents the
long-term interests of the organization as a whole and the decentralized units are willing to set their
particular interests aside and act for the common goal. This is not the case in most of the Hungarian
universities. The main decision-making body is the senate consisting of the representatives of the
faculties. Thus the particular interests of the faculties are more prominent in the strategic decisions
than the overall interest of the university.
7. Power is essentially tied to expertise. An administrative manager can maintain power only if he is a
qualified member in the professional field concerned: He is either directly elected by the academic
staff or the position is awarded upon their approval. In Hungarian universities administrative
managers (e.g. financial director, attorney general, functional unit heads) are elected by the senate.
Lack of strong managerial control over an instructor’s work is one of the basic features of higher
education. It naturally has its positive sides as direct control makes creative work very difficult to
accomplish. Yet the lack of performance criteria and assessment entails abnormalities of operation
and is, in my opinion, the reason for the obvious absence of motivation in the case of some members
of the academic staff.
8. The organization of a university is bureaucratic in character. In other words its typical features
include formalization and standardization of the relevant procedures, associated with a high level
of control. It is a necessity to ensure appropriate quality in mass higher education. Neither the
current volume of activities, nor the size and articulated structure of the organization allow an
organic architecture. Nevertheless typical disadvantages of a bureaucratic system must also be
taken into consideration, for example a lower level of innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship.
Formalization is antagonistic to the spirit of education and research.
9. Universities can be characterized by an informal yet standardized attitude. The academic staff
assumes a standard behaviour owing to the fact that they get socialized into academic culture when
they are admitted to the university. Therefore they acquire the standards of behaviour by the time
they start their academic career.
Mintzberg considers professional bureaucracy an ideal organizational setting in a complicated yet stable
environment. But contemporary Hungarian universities operate in a complicated environment changing
dynamically and constantly. According to Mintzberg adhocracy is the ideal type of organization in a
complicated and dynamic environment. Thus, universities should adopt some features of adhocracies to
be more efficient in a changing environment.
A related objective may include the stronger coordination of the work performed by the support staff
and to connect it more closely to the operating core. Flexibility in the structure and organizational
architecture is also to be increased. In addition to a flexible structure there is a clear need for flexibility,
speed, creativity, entrepreneurship in decision-making. Scopes of decision-making competence should
be revised. Making decisions by those who have the competence (expertise and due consideration of
the long-term interests of the organization) and making them responsible for the consequences of such
decisions could be a guiding principle. Entrepreneurship of the top management is to be strengthened.
Because of the drop in the number of students it is important to explore new markets (adult training,
foreign students) and a stronger cooperation with industry and local society is necessary. These all need
an entrepreneurial attitude on behalf of the institutions.
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Management and Organizational Characteristics of Educational Institutions
5. CONCLUSIONS
In most of the countries there are basically three types of educational organizations: public institutions
(schools and public higher education institutions, regional training centers), commercial organizations
(such as limited liability company, incorporated company), non-profit organizations (e.g. foundations).
Public institutions and nonprofits are closer to domesticated organizations in Carlson’s model and
commercial organizations are the savage ones, but education systems have recently shifted toward
being savage. Nowadays not only market-oriented commercial organizations compete for clients and
funds. Non-profit and public institutions also have to find alternative funding. Their existence also
depends on how attractive they are for the clients. Hence, we think that the management of educational
organizations should apply theories and practices of the business world taking into consideration all the
special characteristics deriving from being the providers of a special service: education. Because the
introduction of too much market mechanism into educational organizations will make them conform to
the present situation but not provide any real vigor for progress in society. This is very true for public
universities as well, these professional bureaucracies should take on some progressive features of the
more flexible adhocracies while protecting the academic values.
References
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[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
C. Lovelock and L. Wright, “Principle of service marketing and management,” 1999.
B. Heidrich, “Szolgáltatásmenedzsment,” Budapest, Human Telex Consulting, 2006.
J. Gough, Encyclopedia of Management. Gale Cengage Learning, 2009.
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T. Bush, “A menedzsment fontossága az oktatásban,” Balázs Éva (szerk.): Oktatásmenedzsment.
OKKER Kiadó, Budapest, 2009.
[6] H. Mintzberg, “The structuring of organizations: A synthesis of the research,” University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign’s Academy for Entrepreneurial Leadership Historical Research Reference in
Entrepreneurship, 1979.
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