School management

SCHOOL MANAGEMENT

Role of a school manager as a change catalyst

Supporting and resisting forces

Change

• Change is the movement of an organization away from its present state Toward some desired future state to increase its effectiveness.

Cont…The role of the school manager is both intense and

diverse. The only Constant in the school manager’s ever increasing responsibilities is that of change –change In the physical environmentchange in the curriculumchange in faculty and staffChange in the student bodyunexpected change

The School manager must be the primary catalyst in order for the change to be positive.

Supporting forces

Manager should keep in view following aspects for building support for change because employees’ support is the key to bring successful change in an organization.

Relate to the vision.Establish a clear vision for the change process. Paint a picture

of where the organization will end up and the anticipated outcomes. So that they can support the change

Expect personal gain.When employees are clear about the benefits the change

brings to them as individuals they will support change, nothing is more important to an individual employee than to know the positive impact on their own career or job.

Cont…

Stimulating Employee ReadinessChange is more likely to be accepted if the people affected by

it recognize a need for it before it occurs. Manager should spend extra time and energy working with the supervisory staff to ensure that they understand and support the changes.

Communication and Education Communication is essential in gaining support for change. Manager should provide as much information as possible, to as many employees as possible, about the change.

Participation A fundamental way to build support for change is through participation. Employees want to involve and participates from the beginning to protect themselves from changes surprises.

Resisting forces

• Forces for change are a frequent feature of school life. It is also expected that Change will be resisted, at least to some extent by both school management and staff.

• There is a Human tendency to resist change In order to cope with this problem, school manager must understand why People resist change.

why People resist change

• Most people resist change because they truly don’t understand why they are being asked to change. Therefore, we must answer their question:

Why is the change necessary? Does the change make sense in the short-term or

is this a long-term plan?How will this benefit the individual employee?How big is the change?

Causes for resisting change

Uncertainty

Concern over Personal Loss

Group Resistance

Dependence

Trust in Administration

Awareness of Weaknesses in the Proposed Change

• Uncertainty Teachers may resist change because they are worried about how their work and Lives will be affected by the proposed change

• Concern over Personal Loss Appropriate change should benefit school as a whole, but for some staff members, the cost of change in terms of lost power, salary, quality of Work or other benefits will not be sufficiently offset by the rewards of change.

• Group Resistance Groups establish norms of behavior and performance that are communicated to the Members. If school manager initiate changes that are viewed as threatening to the staffs’ Norms, they are likely to meet with resistance.

• Dependence Dependency on others can lead to resistance to change. Staff members who are highly dependent on their leader for feedback on their performance will probably not adopt any new methods or strategies unless how the proposed changes will improve the staff member’s performance.

• Trust in Administration Schools vary to a large extent in the degree to which organization members trust the manager. If a change is proposed when trust is low, a natural first reaction is to resist it.

• Awareness of Weaknesses in the Proposed Change

Organization members may resist change because they are aware of potential problems in the proposed change. If staff express their reasons for resistance to the manager clearly along with adequate evidence, this form of resistance can be beneficial to the school.

Overcoming resistance to change• Change is also resisted because of the poor way

in which change is managed! For example, a failure by management responsible for the change to:

Explain the need for changeProvide informationConsult, negotiate and offer support and trainingInvolve people in the processBuild trust and sense of securityBuild employee relations

Benefits of resistance

Employee resistance to change can actually help prevent bad ideas from being implemented.

It can also help prevent good ideas from getting implemented badly

This expected resistance will make us stop and think.

Resistance to change forces us to justify to our employees why we are changing.

Resistance to change is a good thing, and it’s something that should not be feared. It

should be embraced.