Editorial
Article Type: Editorial From: International Journal of Educational Management, Volume 28, Issue 2.
Welcome to this issue of IJEM which contains a variety of international contributions with authors from Italy, Ireland, Scotland, Malaysia, Norway, Estonia,Canada, Hong Kong, India and Korea. I doubt if there has ever been a greater geographical spread of writers in this journal and long may it continue. The first paper is submitted by Tomasso Agasisti et al. of the Politecnico di Milano School of Management/CEUR Foundation, Bologna. The paper suggests a methodology to calculate efficiency scores for a sample of Italian primary and middle schools. The main aim is to relate these measures of efficiency to a set of “external” factors that can affect school performance, such as the average socio-economic background of their students and their location in an urban/non-urban setting. After presenting this analysis the paper proposes a procedure to calculate “adjusted” efficiency measures – which take in the role of external variables – in order to assess the “pure” management efficiency of each school, and so avoid confusing the institution's performance with the aspects related to its background.
In the second paper, Linda Dowling-Hetherington of University College Dublin, has written on “The changing demands of academic life in Ireland”, the author states that the consequences of institutional change for faculty is an under researched aspect of the higher education sector in Ireland. The research involved intervention with managers/academics over a five-year period. The research provides evidence of an increasing focus on more explicit research output requirements, the growth of routine administration and teaching and learning compliance requirements and the greater intensification of work and working hours.
The third paper is from Stephen Carter and Amy Yeo of Heriot Watt University Edinburgh and TAR College Kuala Lumpur, respectively. Much has been written in the last 40 years on the efficacy of “competing” based human resources as a critical differentiator of human performance. To be an effective leader, manager, professional or even a student, the ability to use knowledge and make things happen is a “competence”. In a world obsessed by targets and performance, competencies are becoming increasingly important. What differentiates outstanding/average performances are three competencies – cognitive, emotional intelligence and social intelligence. The study focuses primarily on the search for differences between UK and Malaysian students in scores for social and emotional competencies.
Next is a presentation from Anders Ortenblad of the University of Nordland, Norway and Riina Koris of the Estonian Business School, Tallinn. The authors write on the concept of a learning organisation idea and its relevance to higher educational institutions. They examine the relevance of four different types of the learning organisation idea to higher education institutions from three stakeholder perspectives – the managerial, the employee and the societal.
The fifth submission is from Stephanie Chitpin of the University of Ottawa and is entitled “Principals and the professional learning community: learning to mobilise knowledge”. The study uses the Objective Knowledge Growth Framework (OKGF) in the development and maintenance of a network called the Canadian Principal Learning Network (CPLN) to assist Principals in advancing their knowledge and skills in the area of decision making. First, the paper presents the evolution of the CPLN web site as well as workshops relevant to the use of OKGF, and recounts challenges faced in creating a resource tailored specific needs of participating principals and how such challenges were overcome collaboratively. Finally the paper describes the OKGF as a reflective framework based on the critical rationalism of Karl Popper and how principals, engaging and interacting in an online learning community using OKGF informed their decision-making process.
Philip Hallinger of the Hong Kong Institute of Education provides an interesting title “Riding the tiger of World University rankings in East Asia: Where are we heading?” In this paper the dilemma of staying in or out of the rankings system is explored,specifically to – examine the emergent global emphasis on world university ranking as a driver of change in higher education;to discuss how the world university rankings are impacting East Asian universities; to assess the consequences for higher education in the region; and to explore options for leading east Asian universities in a more meaningful direction.
Ishfaq Ahmed and colleagues of the University of the Punjab, India, and the Universiti Teknologi, Malaysia have collaborated on a study of perceived support in teachers’ responsiveness and students’ outcomes within a public sector university in Pakistan. The study was conducted using teachers and students in ten faculties from the largest public sector university in Pakistan. Applying the social exchange theory at the institution the research endeavoured to find out the impact of organisational support on teachers’ responsive behaviour and ultimately outcomes of responsiveness in the form of students’ satisfaction and academic performance.
The final paper is from William Leonard of SolBridge International School of Business, Korea. The paper links high finance and national crises with the impact upon higher education. In the absence of helpful research pointing to solutions to the fiscal situations a number of proactive measures are suggested in the paper which should help dampen the impact of any future crises.
Brian Roberts
