COLLEGIAL MODEL OF EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP
- Dr. V. THANIKACHALAM
CLASSICAL MODELS • Classical models assume that organizations are hierarchical systems in which administrators use rational means to pursue agreed goals. • Heads / CEOs possess authority legitimized by their formal positions within the institutions and are accountable to sponsoring governing councils / state governments for the activities of their institutions.
CLASSICAL MODELS TREAT INSTITUTIONS AS SYSTEMS • Comprise of elements. • Have clear organizational links with each other. • ?
DANGER • Dangers in too great an emphasis on the organization rather than people within the institution.
DEPARTMENTS ARE LOOSE BY COUPLED • Goals are unclear. • Technology is unclear. • Departments are loosely coupled and not networked with the institution itself.
INSTITUTIONAL STRUCTURE • Classical models give prominence to the official structure. • They do not adequately reflect the many informal contacts within the institutions.
FORMAL VISION & GOALS • Have little operational relevance. • They are vague and general. • Many different goals are competing for resources. • Goals emanate from individuals, and group as well as from the leaders of the organization.
MEASUREMENT OF ACHIEVEMENT • Problems in judging the achievement of goals. • Difficulties in measurement. • Do not rely only on examination performance of students.
IS DECISION-MAKING A RATIONAL PROCESS? • No • Organizations staffed by professionals • Professional judgement is based on the expertice of the faculty. • Rational processes conditioned by the rule book.
FORMAL MODEL FOCUS ON THE ORGANIZATION AS AN ENTITY • Ignores or under estimates the contribution of individuals. • Assumes that faculty occupy preordained positions in the structure. • Ignores the individual qualities and experience. • Treats organizations as if they are independent of the people within them. • Grossly simplifies the nature of the reality with which they deal.
GREENFIELD’S COMMENTS • Greatly under estimates individual variables.
POWER DOES NOT RESIDE AT THE APEX OF THE PYRAMID • Heads of the Institutes possess authority by virtue of their position. • Focus on official authority leads to a view of institutional management which is essentially top down. • Professional faculty tend to exhibit signs of tension between the conflicting demands of professionalism and hierarchy.
CLASSICAL MODELS ASSUME THAT • CEOs are appointed on merit. • Authority is vested in them by virtue of their official positions. • Professional organizations have a rather different ethos with expertise distributed widely within the institution.
CONFLICT BETWEEN PROFESSIONALISM AND BUREAUCRACY • Hierarchical model or bureaucratic model does not recognize power of expert professionals. • Authority over teachers may be ambiguous. • Professional faculty claim zones of autonomy based on their specialist expertise.
CLASSICAL APPROACHES ARE BASED ON • The implicit assumption that organizations are relatively stable. • Most of the organizations are made of static structure. • Does not meet the demands of the services. • Unable to cope up with rapid changes.
WHAT IS THE SOLUTION? ?
COLLEGIAL MODEL OF EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP • Emphasizes that authority and decision making should be shared among competent faculty members of the institute.
RANGE OF SHARING • Restricted collegiality - CEO shares authority with HoDs.
• Pure collegiality - CEO shares with all competent faculty
POLICY DETERMINATION • Determine policy and make decisions through a process of discussion leading to consensus. • Authority is shared with the HoDs. • Goals are generated through participation.
HIGHLIGHTS • Most appropriate way to run polytechnics and colleges. • Closely associated with polytechnic effectiveness and improvement. • Regarded as the exemplary models of good practice.
MAJOR FEATURES OF COLLEGIAL MODEL • Strongly normative in orientation. • Management ought to be based on agreement. • Decision-making should be based on democratic principles which will facilitate implementation.
APPLICABILITY OF COLLEGIAL MODEL • Appropriate for polytechnics and colleges which have significant number of professional staff. • Persons possess expert power.
PROFESSIONAL AUTHORITY • Occurs where decisions are made on an individual basis. • Technical education necessarily demands a professional approach. • Lecturers and HoDs require a measure of autonomy in planning and implementing the curriculum.
ASSUMPTIONS • Professionals also have a right to share information and contribute to decision-making process. • Information sharing helps to decision-making. • Decision could be implemented effectively.
COLLEGIAL APPROACH Manifested through systems of committees. •The decision-making process inside committees is to be egalitarian with influence dependent more on specific expertise than on official position. •Decisions are to be reached by consensus or compromise rather than acquiescence to the views of C.E.O.
COLLEGIAL MANAGEMENT • Formation of various decisionmaking groups. -
Academic Council Industry-Institute-Interaction Cell Consultancy Cell Continuing Education Cell Student Services Cell.
FACULTY REPRESENTATION • In the committees. • Democratic element. • Brings success in implementation.
ESSENCE OF COLLEGIALITY • Informal consultations with faculty do not constitute collegiality. • The essense of collegiality is participation in decision-making. • Authority is to be shared with faculty. • Formal representation confers the right to participate in defined areas of policy. • Informal consultation is at the sole discretion of the leader who is under no obligation to act on the advice received.
ETHICAL DIMENSIONS OF COLLEGIALITY • Consensual decision-making rests in part on the ethical dimensions of collegiality. • Do not exclude faculty in the decisions which affect their professional activities. • Imposing decisions on faculty is considered morally repugnant and in consistent with the notion of consent.
MORAL AGREEMENT • Exercise of authority is based on the presence of consent on the part of those subject to its jurisdiction. • The consent of the obligated is necessary for authority to assume moral status.
GOALS • Members are agreeing on goals (Assumption). • Faculty have a shared view of the purpose of the institution (Belief). • A guide to activity. • A source of legitimacy. • A means of measuring success.
ROLE OF FACULTY • Should have compatible ideals. • Agree on the goals generated. • Aim for a whole institute.
ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE • Views of organizational structure in an objective fact which has a clear meaning for all members. • Concerns the relationship between different elements of the structure. • Assumes structures to be lateral or horizontal with faculty having an equal right to determine policy and influence decisions.
EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT • Characterize decision-making as a participative process. • C.E.O. is invariably held responsible for the policies of the institute. • Tend to overlook the possibility of conflict between internal participative processes and external accountability.
LIMITATION OF COLLEGIAL MODELS • Strongly normative that they tend to obscure rather than portray reality. • Often confuses descriptive and normative enterprises. • Decision-making tend to be slow and cumbersome. • Decision should be made by agreement where possible rather than by resorting to a voting process.
CONFLICT • The collegial model fails to deal adequately with the problem of conflict. • Neglects the prolonged battles that precede consensus. • Consensus actually represents the prevalence of one group over another. • Participative element rests on the authority of expertice passed by professional faculty but this rarely trumps the positional authority of official leaders.
PARTICIPATION VS ACCOUNTABILITY • Participation represents that internal dimension of democracy. • Accountability may be thought as the external aspect of democracy.
C.E.O. • C.E.O. need to be genuinely brave to lend power to a democratic forum which may make decision with which the HoDs may not themselves agree.
ATTITUDES OF C.E.O. • The effectiveness of a collegial system depends in part on the attitudes of C.E.O.s. • If they actively support participation then it may succeed. • If they display apathy or hostility, it seems certain to fail. • Collegiality is not inherent in the system.
CONTRIVED COLLEGIALITY • Administratively regulated rather than spontaneous. • Compulsory rather than discretionary. • Geared to the implementation of the mandates of government. • Fixed in time and place. • Designed to have predictable outcomes.
IS COLLEGIALITY AN UNATTAINABLE IDEAL? • No • Collegial models are highly normative and idealistic. • The most appropriate means of managing educational institutions. • Faculty expertise justifies that involvement in the decision-making process. • Innovation depends on the participative approaches are a necessary antidote to the rigid hierarchical assumptions of the formal models. • Expert faculty support for change is more likely to
TRANSFER TO THE FIELD • Bringing excellence to curriculum and instruction. • Bringing excellence to services to the field. • Developing human capital for the industrial development. • Collegiality is essential for growth and development of technician institutions.
HOW? • • • • • • • •
Encourage participation of the faculty. Delegate authority. Participate in decision-making. Develop goals. Prepare collaborative implementation plan. Monitor the implementation. Bring improvement. Bureaucracy does not provide approaches to bring excellence.
GOOD LUCK TO YOU ALL !