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The Public Schools of Westchester County New York

 SCHOOL DISTRICT REORGANIZATION: :

012582 A CASE STUDY OF SHIFTING REGIMES Bruce L. Dennis

 ABSTRACT

This study was concerned with the manner in which school district reorganization in a suburban New York State school district was accomplished through a shifting of regimes. As the vehicle through which the management system is coordi­nated, the regime operative in a school district at any given time is determined more by the superintendent than by any other individual. In the district under consideration, the superintendent implemented a major administrative reorganization, switching his own managerial style from a collaborative to an autocratic model.

Research was conducted during two sets of personal interviews with various district personnel--one administered in June of 1980, after the reorganization was announced but before individuals assumed new duties, and the other in the late spring of 1981, after people had functioned in their new jobs for almost a year. In this way, individuals' initial perceptions of the changes could be contrasted with their feelings after living with their new responsibilities.

Despite the negative sentiment initially expressed by administrators, much of it attributed to the superintendent's non-consultative approach, positive outcomes did occur within the district's schools. No evidence of organizational malaise or lack of administrative involvement was substan­tiated by the study, nor was the period of adjustment experienced by newly assigned administrators as significant

factor in the performance of their duties as they thought at first. Both personally and professionally, there were more "winners" than "losers" as a result of the changes.

The study concludes that a shifting of regimes does not doom to failure attendant outcomes, even when the norms of a group's participants are violated. This research should also prompt the reader to analyze the role of the superin­tendent of schools. The results question the extent to which the chief executive officer of a complex system is able to sit in a forum for deciding the organizational structure. Bounded by restraints of confidentiality and Contract, the superintendent must reject the notion that the collaborative style of administration is always appropriate. There are certain contingencies that suggest the adjustment of leadership styles.

Table of Contents

vi

Chapter 1

THE PROBLEM OF THE STUDY

This study was concerned with the manner in which

school district reorganization in a suburban New York State

school district was accomplished through a shifting of

regimes. It is acknowledged that people in an organization

are linked interdependently. This interdependence joins

people and groups together as they attempt to coordinate

their various activities, forming a network.

In his dissertation "Organization and Operation: The

Case of Schools," McCann tells us that

. the active network--i.e., the network that achieves the fundamental coordination for the main work of the organization--defines the boundaries

of the management system, for it consists of all those who are exerting influence on organizational decisions. The prevailing network at any given time can be called a regime.l

Thus, a regime is the vehicle through which a management system is coordinated.     In visualizing the concept of "regime" as it relates to schools, one is apt to conjure visions of a collaborative model. After all, schools by their very nature are collaborative organizations--parents, teachers, students, and administration all working together

¹ Joseph Francis McCann, "Organization and Operation: The Case of Schools" (Doctoral Dissertation, Teachers College, Columbia University, 1980), pp. 57-59.

2

to achieve optimal results. School administrators often pride themselves for this same type of collaborative approach. The very concept of the "management team" emanates from this notion of joint efforts to determine philosophy, direction, approach, and results as they relate to schooling. what administrator, after all, would boast of being autocratic, of denying his management team oppor­tunities for "input" and shared decision making? The fact is that schools, perhaps more than any other institution in society, are conspicuously collaborative in their approaches to leadership. Perhaps this is true because schools, as the transmitters of democratic values in our society, reflect a value system which places a premium on group process and participation. or perhaps it is because school adminis­trators are trained to be consultative in their approaches to leadership.of

The type of regime operative in any given school district is determined more by the superintendent or chief administrator than by any other single individual. The Organizational literature, which is discussed in depth in the subsequent chapter, is replete with evidence that the person in charge determines, most significantly, the style of the organization. So, too, it is this person who often serves as the impetus for change in the organization's philosophy, directions, or even its very structure.

3

When the need for change is shared by the various constituent bodies who are affected by the change, then the process to effect that change is bound to be smoother than when there is divergence of opinion about the very need for change itself. This study dealt with a type of change which, by its very nature, was extremely sensitive--changing the roles and responsibilities of the individuals who manage and operate the organization.

Changes in managerial role are perhaps the most diffi­cult types of adjustments that organizations may be called upon to make. of course, any change is usually accompanied by some degree of anxiety and discomfort for members of the organization. If a school's staff decides to embark upon a different type of curricular approach involving the use of new materials, for example, this is bound to be subject to concerns about the efficacy of the change, the wisdom of the new approach, and the anticipated outcomes for students. Additional concerns might include the need for staff to be retrained to optimize results or simply the fear of the new and unknown. However, if there were a joint decision by the staff to make the change, anxiety would be somewhat reduced as compared with a curricular decision imposed from above and in which the staff had no voice. It is no secret that people who are part of a process are more likely to "buy into" the product. But curricular change is only one type of organizational adjustment and, despite its inherent complexities, instructional change is much less stressful quality of the organization's operations, this was indeed the case upon which this study focused was one in which the superintendent of schools in a 4,000 student suburban school district called Lakeover Central Schools determined that there was a need for a large-scale administrative reorganization of the district's 17 full-time administrators.

The name of the district being studied has been changed to protect the confidentiality of information from and about the administrators in the district who were willing to share their most honest and intimate thoughts about this process.

In addition, the names of the individual administrators have been altered.

     In March of 1980 Superintendent of Schools James Barker published the following memorandum to the faculties of the district's three elementary schools, the middle school, and high school.

Dear Faculty:

I am recommending changes in our administrative staffing to better use the particular strengths of administrators, to focus greater administrative efforts on assisting the staff in the improvement of instruction and to provide needed change for administrators who have been in the same assign­ments for many years. Where possible, I have reduced administrative costs where there were alternatives resulting in no reduction of needed services.

Conclusions and Recommendations of the Study

Before dealing with the conclusions which may be drawn and the implications emanating from this study, it is important to recognize some of the limitations of this research. Inherent in the very nature of the case study approach is the possible danger which exists if individuals over-generalize the applicability of a given case to other situations. In its proper context a case study permits the reader to examine the way in which a given situation was dealt with by a given group of individuals. It would be wrong to assume that similar outcomes will occur in situa­tions which, on the surface, might appear to be quite similar. Apart from the major factor that different indi­viduals and systems have identities which preclude the replication of results, there is no way that the chain of events occurring in one system could be made to recur in another. A second limitation which must be acknowledged is the inability of the researcher to verify the veracity of the interviewees. To some extent, it was possible to determine when certain individuals were being less than totally truthful, but in most instances this was simply impossible.

Even when two individuals provided the interviewer with two very different accounts of a given event, it was not possible to assume that either was being deliberately untruthful. It should be noted, in defense of the process undertaken, that individuals appeared to speak freely, espe­cially once they were assured that their responses would be kept confidential and their identities concealed. In addi­tion, because the interviewer was, himself, a colleague of those being questioned and an individual who was held in generally high regard by the interviewees, there was no reason to suspect that the responses recorded were not the truth as each individual understood it.

Conclusions

It is fair to conclude from this research that a shifting of regime does not doom to failure attendant out­comes. Even when the norms of a group's participants are violated, as was the case in this instance, individuals, especially those who retain pride in themselves as profes­sionals, possess enormous resiliency.

This research should also prompt the reader to analyze the role of the superintendent of schools. As the chief executive officer for a complex system, to what extent is he able to sit in a forum as a procedure for deciding on the directions the organization should take? Bounded as Barker was by restraints of confidentiality on the one hand and incompetence on the other, one must wonder if he had

132

any choice but to "act in isolation." The notion that the collaborative style of administration is always appropriate is not a useful concept for administrators. There are certain contingencies that mandate the adjustment of leader ship style based on particular circumstances. Perhaps, in fact, change in regime is an issue that precludes public collaboration when certain constraints are present.

A final conclusion of this study relates directly to the case study method employed. Although it is not always apparent at the onset of research, a unique aspect of case

study methodology is the extent to which it lends itself to redefinition and re-emergence. Specifically in this case, the researcher, functioning as a participant observer, saw change in his own understanding of what was meant by terms such as "abandonment" and "management team" concept. Case study methodology requires that early notions are regarded as tentative, subject to investigation and additional analysis. Throughout the research process, one must continue to ask whether particular concepts are useful and proceed to view critically both the questions which are asked and the responses that are offered. The process is, truly, an emerging one.

Recommendations

It is recommended that those examining this research acknowledge the absence of public collaboration and the apparent use of an autocratic decision-making mode adopted by James Barker as one possible way of achieving movement in a system which appears to be growing stagnant. While this approach certainly will not work in all instances and is obviously accompanied by problems in its implementation, one should not discard the approach merely because it differs so markedly from that which is more typically recommended in the literature on organizational change. While this research provides no basis for endorsing Barker's methods or infers that his approach is superior to any other, it is hoped that this study will provide for others who are interested in organizational change a framework around which to examine the ways in which organizational responsibilities are shifted.

It is also recommended that anyone thinking about implementing a change in individuals' organizational respon­sibilities should give serious thought to creating a support system which will help people to succeed in their new roles. The organization owes to its participants an evaluation process which is honest and thorough and people who are not performing up to standard must be helped to improve their performance. In the case of Travis, for example, Barker felt that he had not received adequate supervision and assistance from Rodman, his principal. If this were the case, someone, probably the superintendent or his designee, must take a twofold approach. First, effort must be expended to make Rodman a more astute and thorough evaluator and, in the interim, someone must step in to provide Travis with supportive evaluation which identifies his strengths and sets forth remedies for his weaknesses. It is a failure of the system if Travis still feels he is fighting a noble cause and is persistent in his refusal to acknowledge his own limitations. Furthermore, Travis is placed in a posi­tion in which he is not a member of either regime as a cooperative, committed participant. For an organization t be truly successful, it must seek to gain the commitment and dedication of all individuals, to the extent to which that is possible.

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