For the past several decades the role of the superintendent has been that of educational manager. With the advent of educational reform the superintendent's role has changed. Since the 1956 Gross study of the Massachusetts superintendency, it has been unclear how and in what directions the superintendent's role has evolved. This study was designed to clarify the process and substances of this evolution. The primary purposes of this study were to examine the emerging roles and issues of concern for the Massachusetts superintendent. Personal and professional profile data on the superintendency in Massachusetts were reported. This information was generated through the analysis of a survey questionnaire instrument administered to superintendents in Massachusetts and the conducting of in-depth interviews with eight superintendents from separate communities in Massachusetts, followed by interviews of two minority superintendents. These data about the Massachusetts superintendency were then compared and contrasted to state data obtained in the 1956 study. The author examined data obtained from the 1992 Glass national study of the superintendency. The study took place in Massachusetts during 1996. Those serving as “full” school superintendents in Massachusetts, a population of 275 full-time superintendents, participated in the descriptive study which consisted of a 45-item questionnaire. Additionally, eight superintendents in Massachusetts participated in the in-depth interview study, as well as two minority superintendents. General categories of questions from the survey were reflected in the in-depth interviews. The following primary conclusions were drawn. The role of the Massachusetts superintendent is changing to meet current societal impacts on public education. Massachusetts superintendent profiles vary in their personal, professional, educational, and experiential factors. Massachusetts superintendents display an identifiable profile in relation to role expectations and current issues of concern. Massachusetts superintendents reflect an identifiable profile concerning superintendents' perceptions on the impact of education reform. Comparisons can be made between Massachusetts superintendents and superintendents nationally on the issues of minorities, women, and preparations for the office of the superintendent.

This case study illustrates how agency bureaucrats within the Connecticut State Department of Education played a prominent role in crafting a comprehensive education policy agenda, launched by the Education Enhancement Act of 1986. This was an example of bureaucratically-driven state education reform in which leadership, a clearly articulated policy agenda, and a policy making model embedded in the notion of ideas and persuasion were instrumental in establishing, implementing, and sustaining that policy agenda over time. It is out of this case study that a theory of bureaucratic entrepreneurship emerges—that is, when non-elected public managers and professional staff devise successful strategies to persuade legislators and other constituency groups to accept their policy agenda, develop and sustain policy innovations over time, and devise policy instruments that rely on inducements and capacity-building to leverage changes in educational practice at the local school district level. This case study examines bureaucratic entrepreneurship within two contexts. First, a comparison of two state-level education reform attempts is made: the first a successful bureaucratically-driven policy initiative culminating in the Education Enhancement Act (EEA) of 1986 and the second being a largely unsuccessful reform effort launched by the business community in the early 1990s through the Commission on Educational Excellence in Connecticut (CEEC). Second, the development and evolution of Connecticut’s teacher standards initiatives, an outgrowth of the EEA of 1986, is examined to illustrate the prominent features of bureaucratic entrepreneurship, including the exercise of leadership, opportunistic behavior in the face of rapidly changing environmental circumstances, and engagement in “creative subversion” and risk-taking in order to pursue innovative research and development. This study concludes that (1) successful bureaucratically-driven education reform requires strong leadership and technical capacity, (2) bureaucratic entrepreneurship is critical to sustaining policy innovation over time, (3) bureaucratic entrepreneurs can be “grown” by creating a climate within an organization conducive to innovation, learning and group problem-solving and fostering conditions for “team entrepreneurship,” that is, when a collection of individuals combine their efforts to produce innovations, and (4) there is a strong role to be played by state departments of education in shaping educational public policy.

New school accountability policy alters how the state department of education (SDE) and underperforming school interact by creating a direct connection between the two. The "beginning of intervention" is when the SDE and the underperforming school commence their working relationship. Challenges to the development of a relationship include limited capacity at the SDE level and the local educators' perceptions of new school accountability as a deterrent policy. The working relationship is the vehicle for bridging the state's externally imposed and school's internally pre-existing accountability systems; to negotiate the implementation of the policy for the dual purpose of making sense of the policy for the school and the SDE and meeting the end goal of the policy by improving the educational outcomes of the school; and to alter educators' perceptions of new school accountability policy from that of a deterrent and threatening policy to one which is enabling and empowering of local educators. Document analysis, observations, and interviews of Massachusetts state education administrators, local district administrators and underperforming school educators were used to gain an understanding of how the state and local levels perceive one another during intervention. Results from the qualitative study were analyzed using Scheberle's (1997) "Working Relationship Typology" which uses trust and involvement levels as variables to determine the type of working relationship between organizations. Findings indicate that the working relationship between the SDE and the school improves during the beginning of intervention, but remains distant. The surprising finding is that the district is seen as the key lever for improvement by those in the underperforming school and SDE. The existing relationship between the district and school, however, was negative, as the elementary school educators blamed the district for neglecting their schools. Giving the district capacity to facilitate school improvement, the SDE designed a system of early intervention that places a "fixer" (Bardach, 1977) at the district level whose sole purpose is to work with underperforming schools. The findings indicate that this contributed to dramatic improvement in the working relationship between the district and the underperforming school as well as the relationship between the SDE and the district.

No description available.

Tenure can affect administrative continuity and proper governance in cities that employ the council-manager form of government, as most public policy proposals originate with the city manager. Literature regarding low tenure in medium and large communities is relatively well explored; however, little is known about the relationship between length of service and leadership style among small municipalities. Using Hersey and Blanchard's theory of situational leadership as a theoretical framework and the Leadership Behavioral Analysis IIRTM Self (LBAIIRTM Self) as an instrument, this study looked at managers' leadership flexibility and effectiveness and whether selection of an appropriate leadership approach impacts length of service in the city manager role. An additional questionnaire was used to determine gender, educational level, the racial homogeneity of the community served, and tenure. A random sample of 350 city managers of small municipalities were surveyed by mail and 25 percent of the surveys were returned (n = 90). Data were analyzed using Pearson product moment correlations and t-tests. Findings indicate that there are no statistically significant relationships between any of these variables, including tenure, and a manager's leadership flexibility and effectiveness, suggesting that leadership ability and tenure are not related. These findings are not consistent with the academic literature regarding public leadership. This study contributes to social change by providing city managers and other municipal leaders with more nuanced information about tenure and leadership and can be used by city managers and city councils in making policy decisions, including decisions about appointment to the city manager position.

Reproduction de : Thèse de doctorat : Psychologie des organisations : Metz : 2004. / Titre provenant de l'écran-titre. Notes bibliographiques.

The study's objective is to examine the implementation of the Upward Mobility Program (UM) in the Atlanta Regional Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and other selected federal agencies. It is the writer's view that the spirit of the program is an admirable one since it attempts to qualitatively improve the skills and elevate lower GS grade employees to higher grades. In its analysis of the implementation of UM the study discovers important gaps between the promise and performance of the program. Management's commitment to the program varies from agency to agency. Employees participation in the program is low, largely because of insufficient knowledge about the program and general inactivity in some agencies. OPM, where the writer was interned, exhibited ineffective implementation and therefore few employees actually benefit from UM. Knowledge about OPM's ineffective Upward Mobility Program was obtained through participant observation and interviewing relevant employees. Information on the other agencies discussed in the study was obtained from secondary data.

The objective of this thesis is to present a rational plan of procedures designed to facilitate operation at the Fulton County Juvenile Court in the event of civil unrest, causing an influx of juveniles. Additionally, discussions have been presented to illustrate the need for this type of plan at the Fulton County Juvenile Court. During civil disorder, the Fulton County Juvenile Court increases the probability of reducing its effectiveness and efficiency without a plan which directs court personnel regarding who will do what, when, where, and for how long. In processing juveniles in a manner which underscores the seriousness of act they commit, legislated time-limits must also be observed lest the rights of juveniles be abridged. As the Wayne County Juvenile Court of Detroit, Michigan experienced with its plan during civil unrest, the following were invaluable: (1) a prior determination of what or who will declare an emergency, and, (2) outlined communication, detention, intake, judicial, security, and general procedures. This plan for the Fulton County Juvenile Court has the same inclusions. The primary sources of information included The Anatomy of a Riot by James H. Lincoln, Task Force studies on civil disorders and observations of juvenile court procedures by the writer. Other data was gathered from interviews and a juvenile court plan of Los Angeles, California.

<p> Expatriates of U.S.-based MNCs (Americans) on overseas assignment face unique adjustment and job-performance issues that have affected employer operations, resulting in financial loss and low morale. The specific problem was the poor adjustment of Americans in Russia, due to type of job, type of position, and prior-international experience. The purpose of this quantitative causal-comparative study was to examine whether differences existed in the process of adjustment of Americans in Russia based on job-specific attributes. The quantitative study featured a causal-comparative design. The sampling frame included the estimated 4,000 Americans working for US-based MNCs, members of the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia (ACCR). ACCR&rsquo;s membership-list was used to gather a simple random sample of 197 through an anonymous online survey, a pre-validated 5-point Likert scale based on the Peltokorpi-Cultural Adjustment (2008) scale. Results for a one-way ANOVA showed no significant difference for employee adjustment based on type of job or position, and a significant difference was found for prior-international experience (p&lt;.05). Recommendations for practice included (a) encouragement of U.S.-based MNCs that do business in Russia to incorporate the finding of this study, and (b) for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to create programs to assist member firms to develop a knowledge base and recruitment practices for better adjustment of Americans in Russia. Recommendations for future research included (a) a causal-comparative study to evaluate pre-assignment training as a moderating factor to explain differences in adjustment for employees with different types of job and positions, and (b) a quasi-experimental study to further assess interactions among the current study variables as to the influence on Americans' adjustment.</p>

This paper gives an analysis of the causes of the high level of vacancies in the various housing projects of the Atlanta Housing Authority. Problems related to overall management, repairs, maintenance and leasing process are seen as factors contributing to the vacancies. Recommendations are offered to correct the problems. Included among the recommendations is a complete revamping of the process by which prospective tenants ascend to eligibility for choosing or rejecting available units.