Review of T J Sergiovanni's "organisations and Communities"

Thomas Sergiovanni raises an interesting issue when he claims that "Educational administration must develop an identity of its own". Educational management has traditionally belonged to the field of ‘Organisation' where central ideologies include concepts such as "legitimacy, hierarchy and self interest". Organisations assume failure; they monitor progress and correct problems. They are ruled by the concept of efficiency and productivity.

In borrowing structures from Organisations, schools miss out on the vitality of community. Students are viewed as economic entities. Relationships are contingent upon control, rules and regulations, where each individual is aware of their place within the hierarchy, and respect from others is gained through progression through each respective level. With respect and responsibility come authority and more freedom. Sergiovanni also claims, somewhat cynically, that prevailing assumption in this model is that the greater authority a teacher has, the more they care. Teachers who work within the system of the School Organisation are more likely to be rewarded with information and conferences.

Motivation for students and teachers to succeed comes from the outside – Principals and leadership barter to bargain for the highest ‘output' of all members. The system becomes controlling and calculating; less effort is given by the stakeholders of the Organisation: teachers and students.

Sergiovanni asserts that in changing the metaphor for a school body from ‘Organisation' to the word ‘Community', schools have the ability to create a new reality in their educational practice. ‘Community' as a structure revolves around relationship. At the very heart of a community are shared values, intentions and ideas that bind individuals, and create a cohesive unit. Communities rely more on relationship, where a "natural interdependence" occur.

These shared values, practices and interdependence form their own governance and control of the community, rather than outside forces, as in the Organisation.

In communities empowerment and motivation comes from within, focus is on the duties and obligations individuals have as communal members, through shared traditions, believing and caring.

Sergiovanni puts forward Ferdinand Tonnies' theory of gemeinschaft (community) and gesellschaft (society). In gemeinschaft relationships