1. Chapter 1: Development of Administrative Theory
Pages 20-26
Educational Administration Concepts and Practices 6 th
Edition by Fred C. Lunenburg & Allan C. Ornstein
ANTWUAN STINSON
ILP 510: Foundations of Instructional Leadership
ALABAMA STATE UNIVERSITY

2. Schools as open systems
All schools are open systems, although the degree of
interaction with the external environment may vary.
According to this theory schools constantly interact
with their external environment.
In contrast, closed systems theory views schools as
sufficiently independent to solve most of their
problems through internal forces, without taking
into account forces in the external environment.

3. What is a system?
A system can be defined as an interrelated set of
elements functioning as an operating unit.
NCLB (NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND) is a good
example of an open system.
 States began to focus their policy on standards, accountability,
and the improvement of student achievement
 Statewide assessment systems were implemented
 The waiver rewards schools that serve majority white students
while is more punitive toward school districts serving low-
income students of color.
 Links: Side Effects of NCLB, Waivers

4. Open Systems Model
Five basic elements
Inputs
Transformation process
Outputs Environment
Organization
Feedback Inputs Transformation Outputs
Process
The Environment

5. Inputs
Systems such as schools receive four kinds of inputs
from the environment: human financial, physical,
and information resources
 1. Human resources include personnel
 2. Financial resources are the capital used by the school/school
district to finance both ongoing and long-term operations.
 3. Physical resources include supplies, materials, facilities, and
equipment.
 4. Information resources are knowledge, curricula, data, and
other kinds of information utilized by the school/school
district.

6. Transformation Process
Work of some kind is done in the system to produce
output.
The system adds value added to the work in process.
This transformation process includes the internal
operation of the school/school district and its system
of operational management.
Activities performed by school administrators and
other personnel within the organization’s structure
will affect the school district’s output.

7. Outputs
 In school organizations, outputs are the attainment of the
goals or objectives of the school district and are represented
by the products, results, outcomes, or accomplishments of the
system.
 Outputs usually include one or more of the following:
 1. student achievement
 2. teacher performance
 3. growth levels of students and teachers
 4. student drop out rates
 5. employee turnover
 6. student and employee absenteeism
 7. employee management relations
 8. School community relations
 9. Student attitudes toward school
 10. Employee job satisfaction

8. Feedback
Outputs provide feedback data to the system
Feedback is crucial to the success of the school
operation.
Negative feedback, for example, can be used to
correct deficiencies in the transformation process or
the inputs or both, which in turn will have an effect
on the school’s future outputs.

9. Environment
 The environment surrounding the school/school district
includes the social, political and economic forces that impinge
the organization.
 The environment in the open systems model takes on added
significance today in a climate of policy accountability.
 The social, political, and economic contexts in which school
administrators work are marked by pressures at the local,
state, and federal levels.
 Thus, school administrators today find it necessary to manage
and develop “internal” operations while concurrently
monitoring the environment and anticipating and responding
to “external” demand.
 Organizational Climate, e.g. the day-to-day experience

10. The Learning Organization
Learning organization is a strategic commitment to
capture and share learning in the organization for the
benefit of individuals, teams, and the organizations.
Allows opportunity for growth from colleagues.
The more defined the structures, systems, and culture are
in an organization the less impact sub-cultures and the
personalities of individuals will have on day-to-day
operations
Peter Senge-Professor at MIT, his best seller The Fifth
Discipline where he identifies systems thinking as the
pivotal lever in the learning and change process

11. Youtube Video Google Glasses 1, 2

12. Senge’s five principles of Learning Organizations
Systems Thinking A conceptual framework that sees all parts as interrelated and
affecting each other
Personal Mastery A Process of personal commitment to vision, excellence, and
lifelong learning
Shared Vision Sharing an image of the future envisioned together
Team Learning The process of learning collectively the idea that two brains
are smarter than one
Mental Models Deeply ingrained assumptions that that influence personal
and organizational views and behaviors.
These five disciplines work together to create the learning
organization (where people continually expand their capacity
to create the results they truly desire, where expansive
patterns of thinking are nurtured, collective aspiration is set
free, people learn how to learn together.

13. Senge argues in Schools that Learn that teachers,
administrators, and stakeholders must learn how to
build their own capacity, develop the capacity to
learn. He argues that schools can be re-created by
embracing the principles of the learning
organization.

14. Senge also believe that children are deficient and
schools should fix them, that learning is strictly and
intellectual enterprise, that everyone should learn in
the same way, that classroom learning is distinctly
different from that occurring outside of school, and
that some kids are smart, while others are not.
Schools are run by specialists that maintain control,
that knowledge inherently fragmented, that schools
teach some kind of objective truth, and that learning
is primarily individualistic and competition
accelerates learning.

15. Karen Watkins and Victoria Marsick developed
Seven Action Imperatives of a Learning Organization
 Create Continuous Learning Opportunities.
 Promote Inquiry and Dialogue
 Encourage Collaboration and Team Learning
 Create Systems to Capture and Share Learning
 Empower People toward a Collective Vision
 Connect the Organization to Its Environment
 Provide Strategic Leadership for Learning

16. Seven Action Imperatives of a Learning Organization
Create Continuous Learning Learning is ongoing, strategically used,
Opportunities and grows out of work itself
Promote Inquiry and Dialogue A culture in which people ask questions
freely, are willing address difficult
issues.
Encourage Collaboration and Team Focuses on the spirit of collaboration
Learning and the skills that promote teams.
Groups are formed but are not used
effectively
Create Systems to Capture and Technology-based strategies that are
Share Learning used for this purpose capture ideas
across dispersed teams and divisions

17. Seven Action Imperatives of a Learning Organization
Empower People toward a Collective The degree of alignment throughout the
Vision organization around the vision, and the
degree of participation in creating and
implementing the vision
Connect the Organization to Its Schools must function at both global and
Environment local levels; by using benchmarks of other
schools and using technology to enable
people in schools to move beyond their
walls
Provide Strategic Leadership for Leaders who model learning are key to the
Learning learning organization. They think
strategically about how to move the
organization

18. Pros and Cons Debate: Training School Leaders
Argument Pro Argument Con
Organizational theory is generic It would be a dangerous mistake to
borrow management theory wholesale
Most organizational theory taught in ed Many aspects of management theory do
leadership programs was generated not apply in ed settings. It takes several
from industrial structure years to adapt management theory into
ed admin settings
Business and school leaders need to Relationships between industry and
work more closely to improve collegial educators are no more important than
relationships parents, colleges, and civic agencies.
Management training is current and Management training is behavior and
tested. Industry has invested heavily in outcome-driven but does not consider
the development of management- the social and psychological needs of
training programs, the teachers
Management trainers understand Management trainers understand
organizational theory well and can profit-driven organizations but do not
teach adult learners in all types of understand the norms values of
organizations to apply theory to settings educators.

19. Summary
Systems theory is usually discussed in terms of
inputs, a transformation process, outputs, feedback,
and environment.
In this section the learning organization concept has
received much attention since the publication of
Peter Senge’s book. Senge provides five interacting
principles that constitute a learning organization:
systems thinking, personal mastery, shared vision,
team learning, and mental models.

20. Key Terms
Theory X and Theory Y (Douglas
Scientific method
McGregor)
Classical organizational theory
Hypothesis
Hawthorne studies (Elton Mayo)
Meta-analysis
Scientific management
Contingency theories
(Frederick Taylor)
Fusion process (E. Wright Situational leadership theory
Bakke) (Hersey and Blanchard)
Transformational leadership
Nomothetic dimension
(Bernard Bass)
Idiographic dimension Systems 1-4 (Rensis Likert)
Need hierachy (Maslow) Open systems theory
Managerial grid (Robert Blake Hygiene factors (Frederick
& Jane Mouton) Herzberg)

21. Key Terms
Positivism: is a view of knowledge as objective, absolutely
true, and independent of other conditions such as time,
circumstances, societies, cultures, communities, and
geography
Open System Theory: schools constantly interact with
their external environment
Learning Organization: is a strategic commitment to
capture and share learning in the organization for the
benefit of individuals, teams, and the organization

22. Discussion Questions
How can open systems theory be used to diagnose
problems in school operation?
How can the learning organization be used to
achieve school success?
Why do you think so much pressure is placed on the
administrator to improve schools?

23. Discussion