TITLE : TEAM MANAGEMENT: LEADERSHIP BY CONSENSUS.

This book is written for all who are interested in the contributions and limitations of participative management to organizational effectiveness. Although it is content-specific to the management of educational institutions, its principles' of participative management are transferable to most organized human endeavor.

The concept of participative management is not new. However, it is enjoying a renaissance as a result of several factors discussed in chapter 1: Japanese industries' success using this concept, its endorsement by the leading professional associations of school administrators, its successful application in American educational institutions, and its promise for arresting the trend toward unionifation of school principals. Most important, growing research evidence suggests that participative management, properly conceived and applied, can make a substantial contribution to the productivity and quality of work life.

This book reviews the research and scholarly thought pertaining to participative management, relating the research findings and thought to a concept of leadership that the authors find appropriate for the contemporary scene in education. Throughout, we address the application of participative management theory and leadership theory to the practical - business of managing educational institutions, integrating theory and praxis. Successful application of participative management requires understanding of both. We believe that some attempts to apply participation management have failed because the application, rather than the theory, was unsound.

Our title, Team Management, was chosen to capture the interest of readers who associate that common term with participative management. However, we find the team analogy inappropriate. As explained in chapter 1, we prefer the term in our subtitle, Leadership by Consensus (LBC), which we define in that chapter.

We have attempted to be objective in our treatment of the subject. We call attention to both the contributions and the limitations of LBC. We detail the conceptual systems of administration and the value systems with which it is compatible. At the same time, we recognize that this method is not appropriate for all school management at all times.

Although there is no place for ethical considerations in the body of administrative science, value-free science is of limited help in formulating operational strategies for administrators, as Herbert Simon points out. Every administrative decision, including the adoption of LBC, involves both factual and value considerations. In addressing the topic, we reveal our own values. We have not attempted the absolute separation of facts and values that Alfred North White-head so dreaded.

The transcending value of our view of leadership through LBC is well expressed by Thomas Greenfield:

We are all leaders in some degree. We all have legitimacy in the degree to which we act out our own values and can involve others in them. This view rejects the idea of a simple, unitary value structure as the foundation of any large, complex social order. In this view, all social orders are pluralistic and there will always be struggle and contention among those who represent conflicting values within the structure. Those who represent the contending values are the leaders and they are in all respects human, fallible, self-interested, perverse, dogged, changeable, and ephemeral. In social possibility, we are all leaders. Certainly none of us can claim the ultimate right to leadership, to an ontological justification that is denied to others.

The central facts of our view of leadership through LBC are well expressed by Herbert Simon:

Organizational behavior is a complex network of decisional processes, all pointed toward their influence upon the behaviors of the operatives-those who do the actual "physical" work of the organization. The anatomy of the organization is to be found in the distribution and allocation of decision-making functions. The physiology of the organization is to be found in the processes whereby the organization influences the decisions of each of its members-supplying these decisions with their premises.

Readers who can accept these two premises should find the book instructive and persuasive.

The book is written for educational administrators at all ranks in all educational institutions. It is written also for those preparing for careers in educational administration who are interested in deepening their understanding of organizational theory and behavior and leadership theory More specifically, it addresses the role of leadership in goal setting, decision making, communicating, planning, organizing, directing, evaluating, managing conflict, and managing change. It should also be of interest to school board members and others serving policy-making roles in educational institutions.

In chapter 1, we examine the factors that have led to the growing interest in the concept of team management. The forces that have been eroding the authority of administrators and increased interdependence within organizations are probed for better understanding of where they may be leading us. Within this context, we explore the potential of team management as part of a more comprehensive approach to institutional renewal that we have designated leadership by consensus.

The administrator as leader is the focus of chapter 2. The distinction between managing and leading is placed in perspective, and emerging views of leadership are related to some of the social and technological changes that have been impacting on contemporary organizations. The discussion treats several approaches to participative management in terms of their implications for leadership. Leadership by consensus is defined and exemplified with the intent of demonstrating its utility.

What might the organizational structure look like as a result of the adoption of a leadership-by-consensus approach? Chapter 3 relates LBC to the dominant conceptual systems of administration, with emphasis on the Managerial Grid, as developed by Robert Blake and Jane Mouton. A contingency view of leadership has implications for adjusting administrative style to the organizational maturity of the group.

Conventional wisdom holds that the three essential elements of a self-renewing organization are communication, cooperation, and change. Chapter 4 considersthe complex but crucial element of communication as related to LBC. Practical applications of essential communication skills are presented and some of the pitfalls for those who endeavor to improve communication are noted.

Chapter 5 examines the premise that decision making is the essence of administration in the context of the basic prmciples of LBC. Should the administrator risk sharing decision making with others? Is a participative approach worth the effort? Who should be involved in what decision making and when? These are the central questions raised in this chapter, and the answers, in part, are illustrated through a decision matrix that provides a means of systematic control of the decision-making process.

Chapter 6 gives close scrutiny to the relationship between LBC and fundamental organizational tasks. Particular emphasis is placed on goal setting and the problems inherent in that process. Practical examples show the unique contribution that LBC can make toward more effective goal setting. The authors point out the important distinction between collective bargaining and collective gaining based upon the LBC approach inherent in the latter.

Chapter 7 focuses on opportunities for revitalizing organizations through leadership by consensus. It discusses the concept of the organization as a problem-solving system and relates it to such essential management functions as decision making, power utilization, sustaining accountability, and exercising leadership. While recognizing that LBC is no panacea, we reaffirm our belief in the validity and effectiveness of this approach for contemporary organizations. We hope that the reader will sense some of the excitement that we have experienced in exploring the potential of leadership by consensus for making institutions more productive and more satisfying places in which to work.

The Appendix includes an "installation manual," a step-by-step procedure for implementing LBC that is based on a systems planning model. It explains strategies for developing effective management teams. This chapter will be helpful to the administrator who attempts the transmutation of the theory of LBC into practice in her administrative jurisdiction.