Executive Summary

The report will focus on identifying school development factors which influence strategic
objective of a selected school in Maldives. This report would help to find out what exists in the
school development process and what are the factors that the management should focus and build
upon. What is the potential to impact of strengths and eagerness of behaving towards work as a
middle level manager in the school? Furthermore, report explain the propelling force that
explains differences in intensity of behavior in in the school development process. Throughout
this report it will discuss what is school development process, importance of school development
process. On the other hand it will critically debate on the role of the middle level manager in the
school. Also this report will elaborate on theories with relevant to the context such as
motivational theories, Maslows hierarchy of needs and Herzberg two factor theory will be
discussed in detail. Nevertheless it will also discuss deathly on some other productive factors
which influence productivity of the selected school. Finally report explains people and resource
management of the school as a middle level manager
Introduction

This report talks about school development and its practical implication towards its development.
Usually as school want the best pupils to them, School have to provide the best quality of
education that would encounters the demands gradually and substantially changing education
environment. When it comes to the school education sector change is a biggest challenge.
Economic challenges social challenges and technological challenges would create pressure and
expectation towards teachers. Therefore teacher have to play a biggest role in this context. To
encounter the challenges in school development required some proactive and ethical approach to
manage and meet the requirements. School development is highly complex process which has
much complicated process and it should have some long term vision, School development should
involve a countless deal of planning on the other hand school development need some systematic
approaches towards planning to deal with complexity.

The school education system all around the globe experienced a proliferation of development on
the structure, culture and total system. In recent past decades, the pace and extent of total school
education system has motivated towards much of a whole-school development and school
planning. In this development planning there is a big role for middle managers. They act as an
intermediate between top managers and grass root level subordinates and students. The middle
managers role should be a motivated role, Also they have to adopt to certain theories of
motivation Maslows hierarchy of needs and Herzberg two factor theory and in a school.
employees and people who involved in the development process are not motivated only getting
a fair pay but also by valuing peoples attitudes that are attached with their attitudes ().
Nevertheless it will also discuss deathly on financial motivational factors and non-financial
motivational factors which influence school development in the long run. Therefore middle
managers have to look after all these aspects in a school development process in order to heading
towards success ().

Therefore, this report elaborate the total school development process and middle level managers
challenges towards the journey.
School Development

School development can be defined as an approach that transform the level of school from one
state to another state for the betterment of the school, This development can be based on
enhancing the students learning activities, strategic plans to enhance the future educational and
job opportunity scopes of the students (). On the other hand Trimmer, (-) stated that school
development can be defined as a policy and procedure that helps school improvement, and also
which would emphasize more towards school syllabus on the other words more concentration
towards changing the current syllabus to better level, childrens higher education and also this
would include the development of school buildings, premises and facilities. School development
is a process that which identifies the current shortfalls of the school and improve it towards to a
best level, and those improvements and implementation changes should bring better outcomes
for school children and employees ().

As per author of this report own understanding, school development has been explained as,
School development is about changing the school for the better. This would be addressing all the
existing challenges and shortfalls. Based on that, the development aspects are listed below :

1. High class facilities (IT facilities, Class room facilities, etc)

2. Highly qualified employees
3. best learning opportunities for children
4. Latest technologies
5. Globally accepted indoor and outdoor training for children
6. Guaranteed future for children

Challenges faced in the school as a middle manager of English Club

As a middle manager there are many challenges faced by practical scenario, which are

1. Lack of resources

In this context, resource included many factors, which can be stated as lack of spaces for children
for indoor and outdoor activities. This space issue will reduce the productivity of the students at
the same time that would reduce the level of motivation of the teachers in a mass way. On the
other hand resources such as availability of multimedia projector, no right human resources at the
right place, these types of issues as a middle level manager should emphasize to the top level
managers, because this type of lacking resources would reduce the overall productivity of the
school and this would reduce the commitment and motivation of the teachers and other
employees () Furthermore parents will get disappointed with the school due to this type issues
and that would negatively affect the school in the long run because parents may have more
number of options for their childrens education, for an example sending overseas children for
the education is a trend today, therefore they may think of another options and that would affect
the reputation of the school. As middle level manager in this context he or she should act as a
trainer to train the people to make maximum out of limited resources. Furthermore, as middle
level manager he or she could communicate to the top managers with a proper forecast report
about lack of resources and how the students and teachers suffering with those issues. On the
hand a middle manager could quantify the losses in the long run that also they could
communicate to top managers.

2. Lack of skilled teachers

This is another challenge would be lack of skilled teachers in the school, skilled teacher are the
role model for all the students and children. Skilled teachers involves in instructions and working
towards childrens development purposefully, furthermore they regularly and cooperatively help
the children at any given time () Skilled teachers together set goals for all the course of children,
they design right syllabus at right annum, they prepare distinct lessons for children furthermore
they teach children and evaluate the results of them (). When skill teachers are lacking in a
school this as a middle manager it is a responsibility enhance the skills of the unskilled teachers
in order to prevent future discrepancies and future risks. In this context as a middle level
manager he or she can train the teacher to enhance the skills. Because training and development
would help to enhance the skills of the people (), therefore middle level managers organize
training and development programs in the school, further they can contact best trainers in this
industry make use of them to train the teachers to enhance the skills.

3. Financial issues for outdoor activities

Outdoor activities would enhance the single-discipline, interdisciplinary values of the
children, and therefore this type of activities is very much important for a school (). Innovations
are fortified; adjustments in sizes of the classes and right location of the classes are identified by
outdoor training (). Therefore, there should be right financial allocation needed in order to enjoy
the benefits of the outdoor training. Wang et al () argued that at least once a week outdoor
training should be needed to students in order to gain the competitive advantages in a school.
Therefore, lack of financial resources for outdoor training would be an absolute challenge for
middle level managers. In this context as a middle level manager, he or she should convince the
top management to invest to the outdoor activities. Therefore, middle level manager should
prepare a report emphasizing the importance of outdoor activities and how it will enhance the
productivity of the students, furthermore, a middle level manager can prepare an annual budget
for outdoor activities and they can convince them with these reports.s

Literature support

Some authors argue many factors about school development and they stated over ten for middle
level managers, but very few factors can be considered as critical factors for school development
challenges ()., () stated that certain positive and negative attitudes about numerous aspects of the
development stages, for an example Nature of school development by school development
committee (SDC).

Some authors stated lack of enthusiasm of top management and top level politics are considered
as another critical factor for this issues (), but these factors cannot be considered as critical
factors affecting the school development and challenges faced by middle level managers because
lack of enthusiasm of top management and top level politics are practically out of the control of
middle level managers. Some researches elaborated school development is a complex and
complicated concept because this would involve the teams such as employees, students, parents,
old boy associations, school development societies and other stake holders (), () (), (). But this
type of factors also cannot be considers as critical factors because these factors are very basic
and common factors which would affect the school development in any country. Some authors
say that an ethical leadership would help to school development (), (), (). This is a very valid
point to consider ethical leadership is needed to a school in order to give a productive outcome
to the students.
Ethical leadership is a kind of leadership which can be designed with respect for the ethical
consideration in school and those ethics could be convert to the values in order to achieve the
school goals and objectives for the dignity and rights of others () That is an accepted point
because majority of the arguments are more favor of the ethical leadership style and on the other
hand authors argued that consultative management style is an ideal style for a school because
consultative management style would be essentially dictatorial but when it comes to the decision
making, it would be the best interests of the employees as well as the school student,
furthermore, consultative management style generally communicate downward, most of the
time they make use of middle level manager for right feedback () this management style
practically resolve resource scarcity effectively. Therefore it also can be considered as valid plus
point for a school, as they are proved as valid and important points by leading authors such as (),
, (), (), ().

Strategies

When developing solutions to the context of a school, there should be right strategies required,
because compared to a school is much sensitive place. Whereas stakeholders should be handled
in a highly emotional way (). As per the literature analysis, for this current issues of the middle
manager, there can be two methods adopted at the initial stage of development.

Ethical Leadership style by the middle manager

When a leadership helps a school children and subordinates lift a better school, which can be
rewarded as better ethics of a leader, without moral conducts, ethics a school would be not a
good place (). Whereas ethical leadership will be a solution for all the resources scarcity. A
teacher should act as ethical leader, that would help them to settle all the resource shortages,
including financial resource shortages, because it has been proven that an ethical leader make use
of all the available resources in an effective manner in order to increase the school productivity
().

Consultative management style

When a consultative management style in a school would help to enhance the skills of the
employees. Employees willing to enhance their skills along with the job satisfaction of the
employees, whereas a consultative management style would enhance the job satisfaction and
ultimately that will lead to enhance the skills of the school staffs () () (), (). Therefore, it could be
argued that skilled staff will be borne by consultative management style.

Motivation

According to Lau and Roopnarain (2014) motivation is important to execute in a school

development process, control and monitor exceptionally complex tasks in the development.
Additionally Dessler (2010) argues that middle level managers motivation drive the school
development process towards the strategic objectives by sustaining competitive advantage. Also
to build a high standard motivation towards school development is an important area to focus on
(Kini & Hobson, 2002). A key factor for motivation is selecting right people for the school
development team by the middle level managers (Tracy, 2013). Moreover, middle level manger
in school development motivators are called the factors which helps in directing, reposing,
sustaining the developed performance in a school (Duttweiller, 1986). People who involved in
school development team are not motivated will end up in poor performances they will be a cost
in terms of high expenses, therefore as a middle manager right motivational strategies shoul be
implemented at the right time (Jobber, 1994)..

In a conclusion, it could be argued that as a middle level manager of a school and author of this
report, there are two types of transformation would help to overcome the current challenges such
as Lack of resources, Lack of skilled teachers and financial issues for outdoor activities can be
sorted with ethical leadership and consultative management style.

Based on the above analysis author chosen the below strategic points in a school selected in
Maldives region and elaborated the middle managers role, ethical issues and right direction for
school development success.

Strategic direction of the school

Strategic direction of teaching and learning
Strategic management of people and resources

Strategic direction of the school

Current status of the school need much development in order to meet requirement, the for an
example the selected school in the ordinary level out of 8 subjects normally majority of the
students get through only 5 subjects. Therefore there should be some quality of education and
provision needed to the students. This can be considered as the most challenging factor, but in
the long the real success of a school would be quality of the education. Therefore, the right
quality planning should be involved from all the internal and external stakeholders of the school
community (). Commitment of the principal and teaching staff is a most important factor for the
quality of education. Therefore, it could be argued that the key agents in school development
process are principal and teachers (). Therefore, the first strategic direction of the school in this
context would be to enhance the quality of the education and in the ordinary level 90% pass rate
and to make all students to through all 8 subjects. Because for the moment on an average there
are only 50% to 60% of pass rate exists.

As a middle manager they should act as a right coordinator and motivator among all internal and
external stake holders in order to achieve this strategic objective. In this context, Intrinsic
motivation is most ideal, Intrinsic motivation is defined as a motivation which is lively with
personal interests, enjoyment and pleasure ( Guay et al., 2010). Deci at al, (1999) states that
intrinsic motivation provides vitality and sustains activities which are more necessary to have to
better learning outcomes than extrinsic motivation in education sector (Mahadi & Jafari, 2012).
According to Thomas (2009) Middle managers engagement is known as the main reward that
quality of education required as an intrinsic motivational factor in an school. Furthermore,
challenging cognitive tasks can self-regulate the attitudes and behaviors of middle managers
(Story et al., 2009). Nevertheless people who are intrinsically motivated towards quality of the
education are willing to work freely for the school as they are satisfied in their jobs. The major
factors in this context are given below in figure 1.
Figure - 1 Motivation

The second factor would be the enhancing the current information technology (IT) maintenance
facilities and enhance the IT skilled students. This is also currently lacking with current selected
school. Today IT industry is growing in a mass way therefore IT skilled pupils are much needed
for a country like Maldives. Expansion in the IT industry all around the globe has been witnessed
with many revolutions, therefore IT skilled pupils are very much important for a country. As IT
industry build on knowledge workers, absorbing such qualified employees become the focus
point. In the competitive IT labor market, companies make substantial investment by adopting
various strategies to recruit qualified knowledge workers creating a high IT labor turnover rate in
the industry (). Therefore from the school level discovering the talents of IT students and
grooming them towards IT skills will be an added advantage for a countrys economy ().

As middle level manager the right strategy to follow up would, right training and development to
students towards IT applications. Today it is widely theory that training and development are at
the core of a school development and therefore a schools success depends heavily on effectively
managing training and development (Becker and Greve 2009). According to Egan (2008),
despite the fact that considerable research and practice took place during the past few decades
about the IT training and development potential in a school, which shows, training and
development may still be regarded as an umbrella philosophy with plenty of variations and
definitions rather than a unified concept with commonly accepted objectives and strategies to
enhance the IT skills of the students. Indicatively, furthermore training and development for
schools students towards IT skills has been defined by Swift (2001) as an enterprise approach to
understanding and influencing students behavior through meaningful communications in order to
improve IT skills. The measuring tool of IT skills would be giving a proper training and
development to the students as middle manager of a school may lead to attainment in better IT
skilled students in a school (). The figure 1 shows the training and development cycle to develop
IT skills of the students by the middle managers

The third strategic objective would be launching advance level in the selected school, for the
moment they do not have advance level for the moment. Launching advance level will be a
prestigious project for a school, since that is the beginning stage of a student for his career
progression. Therefore as a middle level manager, he or she should strengthen the internal
communication to the top management, as a middle manager the demand of the advance level in
the market and its advantages should be communicated to top management time to time in order
to justify the launch. The communication plan is given below in table 1.

Official Communicatio Description

n Channel

Middle level Managers Email Middle managers will collect all the data
and submit a report to all the teachers and
principle

Immediate managers Email Immediate Managers provide feedback from

(Managers who involved in middle level and measure the potential
educational project launches)

Divisional Managers Email Both information will be passed to

(Managers who deal with top divisional managers with the key message,
managers directly, they may and also consider their feedback and
heading divisions like finance, recommendations,
HR etc in a school)
Top level managers Hard Copy Afte divisional managers advise and
Report Format recommendations final report will be send
to top management with key messages.

Stake Holders Hard Copy After top management approval report will
Report Format be passed to Stake holders with the key
message
Table 01 Communication Plan

Furthermore Wilbur (1954), explains that in general, communication is a means of connecting

people or places. In school, it is a key function of management. As Benizi (2006) states school
cannot operate without communication between levels, departments and teachers. It is the
essence of human interaction and learning. Quality and reliability of communication is depended
on the interaction made between two or more parties and the understanding created over that
interaction. For decades, man has recognized the importance of communication. Today, with
various means by which one can communicate, it has become much easier to communicate a
message to the other party, than it was several decades ago. According Warnakulasooriya N.
(2003), to every school, no matter what their expertise and where they are situated, and what
scale they operate, realize and value the importance of good communication in school for better
learning outcome. This communication for schools takes place both within the teachers as well as
with other stakeholders outside (Wazid, 2002). Therefore, it is vital for any business school to
understand the communication models out there, so they can use them for enhancing effective
communication in the school.

The basic flow of communication and the elements need for this communication process can be
seen in the diagram below. According to this flow, the sender (Middle level manager) sends a
message to the receiver and then they share the feedback.
Figure -2 Flow of Communication

The methods of communication is needed for the decision of which method to use for selected
purpose because not all communication methods work for all transactions towards launching
advance level.Due to the importance of communication, different types of models have been
introduced by experts over the years (Andrew, 1996). These models help to understand how
communication works, how messages are transmitted, how it is received by the other party, and
how the message is eventually interpreted and understood.

When it comes to the above strategic direction plan of the school, there are three major phases
has been finalized in the report. Which are,

Improve the quality of education

Improve the IT skills of the students
Launching advance level

Ethical issues towards strategic direction of the school

The ethical issues in this contexts is listed below

I. Politics among employees

II. External factors unwanted influence
III. Internal factors such as personal favors for students
IV. Social factors such as social class issues among the employees and students

Strategic direction of teaching and learning

The current direction of teaching and learning is much positive in the selected school, but
initially students do not have the corporate world exposure and they do not have the right
knowledge on corporate world culture. In practical world corporate companys culture was in a
confused state because the culture does not fixed with the rapidly changing industry, on the hand
adaptability was not applied by both sides, therefore, a student soon after the schooling cannot
adopt to overnight to those environment, and ethical and operated with a highly achievement
culture is appreciated to build in a school with teaching and learning this culture was very
efficiently should be injected to the students. There are strategies adopted to change the teaching
and learning culture by superiors and subordinates, because both parties should understand the
importance of the culture change which is essential to achieve for the quick performance of the
students.

As a middle manager in this case he or she should be adopted to ethical leadership style (as
mentioned in previous chapter. In usual school development context, ethical leaders know the
value of ethical leadership and how it will affect the students in corporate world, Further, it is
an agreed fact that as middle level manger leaders they value what they value will have a benefit
to his/her values too (Thornbory, 2014). And also acting as an ethical leader, would recognize
the importance of ethical behavior in an the school at the same time students also will learn the
ethical leadership and they will apply that in their future workplace, this importance will be
globally recognized by teaching and learning and therefore many school develop their culture in
line with ethical leadership (Lawton, & Pez, 2015). Ethical leaders create a culture which
described performance as the building of a culture of fair teaching and learning , by which a
strategy is created for acquiring, enhancing the ethics of the students (Keulartz, Van den Belt, -).
Therefore, when acting as an ethical leader he/she have to stick in to one common ethical culture
to bring the teaching and learning at the same time maintain a healthy future for eth students
(Phipps, & Prieto, -). The ethical leaders will always believe in ethics and values and that has
been visible with culture which is living them in the actions of every single day ().

The second teaching and learning objective would be, changing the teacher centered teaching to
student centered culture. This falls in to change management of the school. In this context as a
middle manager he or she should be act as a change agent. Because in this context they should
change the culture from teacher centered to student centered.

The middle manager in this context middle manager have to act as a change agent since it is a
change management process. The change management is an important process for the school
with the fast paced environment and change must be clearly when understood by the middle
level managers who are making the change in the school. In current context Leadership is all
about people, influence, interaction and change and it is a context dependable, moral activity, and
has a time relevant quality (Kjelin, 2009, P.39). Myatt (2012) state middle manager of the
school eventually fail due to the complexity of the change. The success of highly performing
middle manager depends on leadership with strategy (Bersin, 2012).To bring into change
leadership in the school as a middle level manager effective leadership is necessary. Change
leadership refers to a set of principles, techniques, or activities applied to the human aspects of
executing change to influence intrinsic acceptance while reducing resistance (Griffth- Copper
and King, K., 2009, P. 14).

Figure - 3 The Leadership Grid

When analyzed in the leadership grid both the concern for the teacher centered as well as
students centered, it is two different extreme process for the results both were very low.
Therefore as a middle manager the role of the leadership is very essential for the success of the
student centered culture. Daft (2011) state this as Impoverished management, which reflects
the reduced management philosophy and interpersonal relationship management and the need for
the future leadership considered team management leadership style where all members work
together to achieve the team tasks and objectives as a middle manager of a school.

Ethical issues in strategic direction of teaching and learning

I. Stakeholders unwanted involvement in internal learning operations

II. Special concentration to known students by teachers
III. No equal treatment for the students

Strategic management of people and resources

As per the current contexts of the school, as a middle manger the below strategic practices can be
used in order to manage the people and resources.

I. Maslows Hierarchy

Figure 4 Maslows Hierarchy

Maslows hierarchy of will help to motivates the teachers motivation. As per the Maslows
hierarchy it could be believed that this set of motivation processes (As per figure 8) would help
to overcome all the people and resources issues and it will lead to meet the job retention of the
teacher on the other hand this will fulfill the basic needs of a human being, Maslows hierarchy
includes five motivational need, which can be seen in figure 8. This five stages of this model can
be divided into basic and psychological needs of teachers and other staffs which will ensure the
survival of the selected school. Ultimately this would help to meet the commitment of teachers,
principle and other staffs and also that would help to design a right career management for the
teachers, if not there are some ethical problem exist in the career management. Career
Management has been increasingly adopted by corporations, including many fortune 500
companies. Main challenge for top management would be improving the schoolal commitment
of employees towards career management (Bainbridge, 2015) Career management as a business
philosophy or orientation. Following these authors, career management is mostly about
transforming the school into a student-focused school towards building the commitment.
Therefore every school needs high career management towards commitment. (Pullan, & Murray-
Webster, (2012) refer to proper career management in an school as the capability that the school
requires to develop and maintain a sound career management strategies will help to enhance the
commitment of the teachers and other staffs

II. Hawthorne Studies

A number of experiments has been done with Hawthorne Studies in order to maintain the and
enhance motivation of people and other resources, Hawthorne Studies can be considered as one
of the best ancient influence to the field of human resources management in an school which can
be adopted by a middle level manager in a school development. This will provide a clear and
positive relationship between motivation and school productivity, adopting to this study of
selected school would help to overcome the current negative situation of the people and
resources and also which would help to enhance the efficiency of employees and school
productivity. The figure 8 explains the arms of Hawthorne studies.

III. Hezbergs two factor theory

As a middle level manager, in order to manage people and resources, Hezbergs two factor
theory is another theory which could be adopted, as per the Hezbergs two factor theory, there are
two factors which would affect the people and resources relationship. As per the figure -10
Hygiene factor and motivator factor are the factors which has to enhance by top management in
order to overcome the current situation
 Figure 5

IV. Leadership Practices

As a middle level manager in the

selected school, in order to manage the people and resources Leadership would play a major role,
based on the current situation ethical leadership is the most powerful leadership to overcome the
current negative perspective of this school. There are three key perspective of leadership can be
applied to this school as a middle level manager in the selected school, in order to manage the
people and resources. they are: Heifetzs Perspective, Burns Perspective, and Greenleafs
Perspective. These three perspectives play a prominent role in leadership perspectives (Hotho, &
Champion, 2011).

Heifetzs Perspective

Heifetzs Perspective emphasizes on how a leader help the subordinate to confront conflict and
effect changes from conflict in a school. On the other hand, as helping the staffs to deal with
school conflicts (Bainbridge, 2015). In addition, dealing with conflict in this particular context
would be helping staffs in conflict values. When dealing with these values, middle managers
should exploit the authorities to restrain staffs to face some tough challenges (Moller et al, -).
Furthermore, the middle managers in this school should provide healthy environment which
should involve trust, nurturance, and empathy towards the staffs, that would help them to meet
all the conflicts successfully and this leadership would help for their retention (Hotho, &
Champion, 2011). And also the leader's duty should be to assist the subordinates when they
struggle to meet the school changes and some other transformational activities within and outside
the school to get the right productivity from the teachers (Purcell, 2010).
 Burns Perspective

Burns perspective talks about the transformational leadership. Whereas it ideally suit with
todays highly changing internal and external environment of this school, and in addition, it
places a strong prominence on staffs needs, values, and morals (Purcell, 2010). On the other
hand, Burns perspective involves attempts by middle level managers to move staffs to higher
responsibility in order to enhance the school commitment of the teachers as well to build a
challenging working environment for students (Maloney, & Stanford, 2011). Further , Burns
Perspective emphasize the responsibility of leader to help their staffs to identify their values and
needs in order to promote them to a higher positions in the hierarchy, this would give a liberty,
justice, and equality to a teachers and other staffs (Moeller et al, -)

Greenleafs Perspective

Greenleafs Perspective is an inconsistent approach where it is a very common factor in a school

development process and gained reputation in years. Greenleafs perspective has a strong noble
ethical implication that means middle level managers should be attentive to school staffs
(Maloney, & Stanford, 2011). On the other hand, Greenleafs Perspective of ethical leadership
should be granted on a persons gene talent and commitment. Nature of servant cannot be
absorbed by everyone, unless by nature a servant absorbed as a leader (Zhang et al, -). And, this
type of perspective leaders, first they act as being a servant and second as a boss, there is a big
gap between these two extremes, but always this type of leaders mainly focuses on the needs of
the subordinates (Fitsimmons, 2009).

Conclusion

In conclusion, it could be argued that school development project is day by day becoming
popular along with the developmental changes in the culture. Education became the best tool of
success and now modification of the teaching and learning styles changing every second in the
world. These all purely because of the demand for education all around the globe. Ultimately this
bought up a pressure on the people who are in the teaching profession. They have to change the
teaching and learning methods as per the environmental changes. The middle managers role in a
school will come to play in this point. Middle managers create the path for the teachers by taking
the correct action towards the school development. Therefore it could be argued that middle
managers role is very much important for an organization.