Management and Leadership Paper on Parent Teacher Organization - Assignment Example

Running head: management and leadership. Management and Leadership Paper In Parent-Teacher Organizations Institution: Date: Abstract While management’s function in an organization is to facilitate execution of actions with appropriate control and scrutiny, leadership determines achievement of desired goals set by the management and success of the organization. From a parent-teacher organization perspective, this paper elaborates on application of management principles in its arena and the roles and responsibilities of management and leadership of the organization. It further extends into explaining the purpose of PTO and its impact on the intended purpose through strategic approaches. In addition, influencing factors on PTO, from a globalization perspective, have been elucidated. Management and Leadership in Parent-Teacher Organizations Although education is a different domain of life compared to business, healthcare or infrastructure, yet it is an essential part of one’s life. The industrial revolution is said to have brought immense change in educational system in the United States and has left its insightful impact on administration and execution of educational system. Referring to educational institutions or schools as organizations, the parent-teacher organizations (PTO) or parent-teacher associations (PTA) are the informal or formal groups formed by parents and teachers of an educational institution or locality aimed at providing the best education and learning to their students. The growing appreciation of the fact that all aspects of value education and school improvement including tough set of courses, teaching and promoting active learning, rigorous assessments, and effective school management and classroom organization can be more successful with effective involvement of families and communities, through the PTO/PTAs. Research has proven that PTOs help in better liaison between parents and teachers with respect to students’ academic performance, social behavior, responses to environment and needs, psychological behavior and attitudes (Bundy, 1998). Waddock (1995; p.11) compares methodical approaches adopted in school management with that of Taylor’s scientific management principles based on the assembly line, stating ‘under this design, students or workers could perform tedious, repetitive tasks, that required little real thought, but did demand the ability to follow orders, be disciplined, and tolerate boredom.’ Taylorism or scientific management, in totality, involved modifications in aspects related to the way work was distributed, planning and organizing work, types of skills possessed by employees, measuring and rewarding performance, standardization of best suitable methods of working and defining the role of each employee, group, function and/or unit. All these practices aligned to the widespread organizational goals meant to achieve better efficiency, control, distribution of work and quantifiable results; thus, referred to as scientific management (McGrath & Spear, 1991). Parent-Teacher Organizations in America are said to be a result of the 1994 Congress Goals 2000, ‘Educate America,’ which included other goals in addition to specifically oriented teacher development and parent partnership activities at a national level. This was introduced with an intention to force communities to voluntarily join and develop locally based means of implementation (Waddock, 1995). Management of school or educational institution functions should ideally involve socialization of the school atmosphere by voluntary pupil participation through organization of committees of pupils, parents and teachers. The school atmosphere includes school infrastructure and facilities related to reading, playing, learning, health and hygienic requirements; the actual teaching and learning processes; and, helping pupils grow and develop to be responsible citizens of the society. Achievement of these goals depends on various factors such as funds, talented and dedicated teachers, proactive involvement of parents, appropriate discipline and learning structure for the pupils. Facilitating coherence and collaboration among teachers, students, parents, and the State and local administrative bodies constitute the core functions of PTO management. Illback and Zins (1995; p.217) had stated, ‘organizing and implementing an organizational change program in an educational setting is a complex endeavor, requiring considerable knowledge of organizational functioning, systematic forethought, and coordinated efforts on a number of issues. There is much evidence to suggest that organizational change is a process that evolves slowly.’ As the PTOs are informal in nature by virtue of their structure, they are formed on the basis of relationships and people liaise with each other with an emotional connect; and are formed on the basis of common interests. Hence, the leaders who actively help in achieving the organizational/educational objectives act, not with power, but with opportunities afforded by their role. The leadership is involved in facilitating the co-creation and positioning of a unique purpose or objective. The leaders are responsible for making the right strategic choices in order to achieve the goals with active dialogue between the parents, teachers, and the community (Gobillot, 2007). These organizations / associations formed at the local level, intend to bring about an overall development and improvement in education. The educational system is formed by the State boards and the local school boards at the State and community levels respectively. The State boards are primarily responsible for setting state educational policies for all the local school districts within their domain, providing funds, framing policies of poverty versus other taxes, making textbooks, appointing teachers etc. The community local boards are involved in delivery of educational services, framing local school policies and procedures, staffing and other service execution. The third entity is formed by the parents and teachers’ association, taking up the role of advisory or governing bodies, directly influencing the school policies, programs, and procedures. This system enables active parent involvement in their children’s educational system, by partnering with their schools or institutions. Planning and execution in workplace strictly according to the scientific management principles followed by Taylor have provided significant results in enhancing educational levels. The managers and/or administrators are usually responsible for goal setting and defining objectives to achieve these goals. They are also responsible for quality control by means of performance measurement through appropriate methods and control measures in place. With the involvement of parents and teachers in this organizational structure, managers and/or administrators work in consensus with these two groups, thereby enhancing their loyalty and commitment to achieving the goals (McGrath & Spear, 1991). Leaders, who have been voluntarily elected by the people, have much more responsibility than mere execution of tasks or guiding others. They are expected to engage employees/committee members with the goal through meaning and align the tasks to the real objectives. For this, leaders will have to be in constant dialogue with each of the committee members, involve everyone into the activity or task, and work patiently and meticulously with all members. These can be accomplished by a systematic, methodical and well-organized working and constant follow-up on commitments and initiatives (Gobillot, 2007). Interestingly, whatever management practices and principles have been followed and proposed, a need for their enhancement has always been in demand. Specifically referring to educational sector, as quoted by McGrath and Spear (1991; p.66), ‘colleges are not social machines producing educational products, nor are teachers and administrators social engineers. Curricula are not neutral instruments for producing changes in students, nor are schools staffed by fully self-conscious and rational actors.’ With increasing effects of globalization, such as cultural and social transformations, enhanced scope of improvement in science and technology, increased sophistication in medical help and issues, drastic reduction in available time, increasing costs and expenditure, area of focus for educationalists is also rapidly spreading, thereby causing a need for rapidly changing goals and objectives in order to meet the educational requirements/demands at an international level. These impacts of globalization may also attract government policies, funding and other regulations like taxes etc and cause increased interdependence between nations. Hence, the PTO/PTAs have to be dynamic in nature and should be able to function from different perspectives. This will be possible if the leaders of these PTO/PTAs are able to understand business, political and cultural environments worldwide and able to envisage their impact on educational systems and people’s overall demands and behavior (Northouse, 2009). In turn, the PTOs can help in providing training and awareness to the parents in how to advocate before government agencies for better programs and higher achievement (Molland, 2007). One of the spheres that leaders of the PTO should aim at is co-creation of meaning through employee engagement and aligning this objective with the organizational objectives, aimed at creating a healthy organizational culture. Two strategic approaches to achieve this objective can be an all-encompassing personal development agenda and secondly, through performance measurement system. Adopting McGrath and Spear’s suggestion (1991) that the personal development agenda should ensure education to be oriented towards students’ personal, moral, and social growth, with the cultivation of their unique identities. This can be achieved through extracurricular activities such as creative writing, debates, group discussions, cultural activities, dramatics, sports, etc. Conducting these activities within the PTOs and schools/colleges, will help students and members of PTO learn from each other, foster teambuilding, and gain a platform to showcase their talents and surface creativity and innovation. Also, these activities will free them from the monotonous grind of academic curricula and/or routine work. Secondly, fair and just performance measurement for students, teachers and also the members of PTO can be highly encouraging. Halachmi’s (2002a) extensive analysis on performance measurement clearly indicates the need for performance measurement in order to achieve the goals; and, it in turn establishes targets aligned to organizational goals and expectations; makes evaluation stable and valid; identifies early warnings of improvement requirements; verifies effectiveness of corrective actions; compares performance of peer organizations and departments; recognises outstanding performance; achieves sustainable improvement; and, promotes ongoing organization-wide evaluation and improvement. As stated by Khera (2002; 241) ‘knowledge helps us to reach our destination-provided we know what the destination is.’ This statement is particularly true for organizations to achieve their goals, which can be accomplished in a strategic manner with the help of measurable objectives. These measurable objectives form the metrics that guide organizations and their people to track their purposes through determining the strengths and areas of development. These metrics form a source of direction, dedication, determination, discipline and deadline (Khera, 2002). In conclusion, the entire discussion may be summarized with emphasis on application of management principles in educational sector through PTO, factors and roles driving the PTO, unavoidable challenges that need to be tackled, and the overall impact of purpose of PTO on the future of the society and its people. Adoption of scientific management principles in the field of education has been evidenced since the beginning of this century; however, family involvement in students’ learning is reported to have strengthened the education process and contributed to the betterment of society to a large extent. The parent-teacher organizations concept was started in America, and is now being followed in many countries over the world. The changing educational needs and complexities, with a profound impact of globalization, pose a serious challenge to the educational setups and necessitate the need to identify ways and means through different tools, strategies, and programs. PTO is one such program aimed at tackling these challenges besides enhancing educational contribution towards student learning. In order for the PTO to yield desired results, management and leadership have to act in a coherent and congruent manner with the environmental demands. Achievement of organizational goals depends on various internal factors such as goal-setting, employees and leadership, management and structure, motivational levels, organizational culture; and external factors such as environment, market, governing rules and regulations, politics etc. Adhering to and meeting the demands of all these factors requires a systematic and methodical approach along with appropriate monitoring and controlling measures, which can be achieved through strategic planning and management. The two main factors responsible for the success of these approaches are people and objectives. People have to be rightly motivated to perform; and objectives have to be strategically aligned with the organizational goals; hence, these factors depend on leadership and management of the organization. References Books: Gobillot, E. (2007). The Connected Leader: Creating agile organizations for people, performance and profit. London: Kogan Page Khera, S. (2002). You Can Win: a step by step tool for top achievers. New Delhi: MacMillan Publishers. McGrath, D and Spear, M.B. (1991).The academic crisis of the community college. New York: SUNY Press. http://books.google.co.in/books?id=eiyJL7z0nAgC&pg=PA60&dq=Taylorism+scientific+management+in+education#v=onepage&q=Taylorism%20scientific%20management%20in%20education&f=false Molland, J. (2007).Straight Talk About Schools Today: Understand the System and Help Your Child Succeed. U.S.A: Free Spirit Publishing. http://books.google.co.in/books?id=-7AsThhcL5MC&pg=PA85&dq=parent+teacher+organization#v=onepage&q=parent%20teacher%20organization&f=false Northouse, P.G. (2009).Leadership: Theory and Practice. Edition 5. California: SAGE. http://books.google.co.in/books?id=SOjzvJfSPycC&pg=PT351&dq=leadership+and+globalization#v=onepage&q=leadership%20and%20globalization&f=false Waddock, S.A. (1995)..Not by schools alone: sharing responsibility for Americas education reform. U.S.A: Greenwood Publishing Group. http://books.google.co.in/books?id=IWj0yNxQftgC&pg=PA103&dq=organization+and+management+of+school+PTO+PTA&lr=#v=onepage&q=&f=false Journals and Articles: Bundy, C.G. (1998). Parental involvement and its impact on student performance in the primary grades. School Psychology. Rowan University Thesis. Accessed November 12, 2009 from http://www.rowan.edu/library/rowan_theses/RU1998/0010PARE.pdf Halachmi, A. (2005).Performance measurement and performance management. Emerald Group Publishing. International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management. Vol: 54. No.7. p.502-516 Illback, R.J and Zins, J.E. (1995). Organizational Interventions in Educational Settings. Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation, Vol. 6. pp: 217-236. http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst;jsessionid=K9wfhMhTjKpJ7MpJJQCQSdFwXvFhTRD1C80v3HcyTPrhnTTvVxsQ!-1226680035!1161961412?docId=77038958 Read More