Public enterprises are coming under increasing pressure to provide solutions to broader social and economic issues such as unemployment and income distribution. The public school system in Australia has been under just such pressure, the consequences of which include a restructuring of the system of schooling with a vocational and efficiency emphasis. A new efficiency movement has arrived in Australia. Privatization looms in the background as the ever-present threat if public schooling is unsuccessful in its adjustment to the demands of economic realities. Efficiency has become the major touchstone for administrative action, but the sociopsychological consequences of this new order for the managers of schools have largely been ignored. This article explores these issues and, drawing from a recent study by the author, also describes the emotional fallout for individual school managers in the face of administrative reform.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Ashenden, D. , & Gallagher, M. (1980, February). The political economic context and Australian schooling. Discussion paper [review of primary education in the Australian Capital Territory]. Canberra, Australia: Department of Schools, Australian Capital Territory.
2.
Bates, R. (1985). Public administration and the crisis of the state. Victoria, Australia: Deakin University Press.
3.
Benson, J. (1977). Organizations: A dialectic view. Administrative Science Quarterly, 22(1), 3-21.
4.
Button, H. (1971). Doctrines of administration: A brief history. In W. Hack, J. Ramseyer, W. Gephart, & J. Heck (Eds.), Educational administration: Selected readings (2nd ed., pp. 204-211). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
5.
Callahan, R. (1962). Education and the cult of efficiency. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
6.
Carr, A. (1986). The political economy of technological change. In P. Watins, F. Rizvi, & R. Bates, (Eds.), Working papers in the theory and practice of educational administration (pp. 102-120). Victoria, Australia: Deakin University Press.
7.
Carr, A. (1989). Organisational psychology: Its origins, assumptions and implications for educational administration. Victoria, Australia: Deakin University Press.
8.
Carr, A. (1991). Stress amongst school principals manifested as anxiety and depression: An exploratory study using a psycho-analytic approach (vols. 1 & 2). Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Deakin University.
9.
Carr, A. (1992). Doctrines of public administration: The case of schools. Sydney: University of New South Wales, Public Sector Research Centre.
10.
Carr, A. (1993). The psychostucture of work: "Bend me, shape me, any way you want me, as long as you love me it's alright."Journal of Managerial Psychology, 8(6), 2-6.
11.
Cunningham, L. , Hack, W., & Nystrand, R. (Eds.). (1977). Education administration: The developing decades. Berkeley, CA: McCutchan.
12.
Denhardt, R. (1981). In the shadow of organizations. Lawrence, KS: Regents.
13.
Dessler, G. (1980). Organization theory: Integrating structure and behaviour (2nd ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
14.
Diamond, M. A. (1984). Bureaucracy as externalized self-system: A view from the psychological interior. Administration & Society, 16(2), 195-214.
15.
Diamond, M. A. (1988). Organizational identity: A psychoanalytic exploration of organizational meaning. Administration & Society, 20(2), 166-190.
16.
Diamond, M. A. (1992). Treating the paratoxic organization: A case example of intervention strategy. Administration & Society, 24(1), 61-80.
17.
Freud, S. (1983). Inhibitions, symptoms and anxiety. In A. Richards & A. Dickson (Eds.), On psychopathology (pp. 229-333). London: Pelican Freud Library. (Original work published 1926)
18.
Freud, S. (1984). On narcissism: An introduction. In A. Richards & A. Dickson (Eds.), On metapsychology: The theory of psychoanalysis (pp. 59-97). London: Penguin Books. (Original work published 1914)
19.
Henkel, M. (1991). The new "evaluative state."Public Administration, 69, 121-136.
20.
Hirschhorn, L. (1988). The workplace within. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
21.
Hubbell, L. (1992). Four archetypal shadows: A look at the dark side of public organizations. Administration & Society, 24(2), 205-223.
22.
Keeves, J. (Chair). (1982). Education and Change in South Australia (The Keeves Report, South Australian Committee of Enquiry Into Education in South Australia). Adelaide: Education Department of South Australia.
23.
Kellett, D. (1986, December). Principals told to toe the line on departmental policy. The Advertiser, p. 8.
24.
Kets de Vries, M. , & Associates. (1991). Organizations on the couch: Clinical perspectives on organizational behavior and change. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
25.
Kets de Vries, M. , and Miller, D. (1984). The neurotic organization: Diagnosing and changing counterproductive styles of management. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
26.
Krug, S. (1979). The development of a validity scale for the Clinical Analysis Questionnaire. Multivariate Experimental Clinical Research, 4(4), 125-131.
27.
Krug, S. , & Cattell, R. (1980). Clinical Analysis Questionnaire manual. Champaign, IL: Institute for Personality and Ability Testing.
28.
La Bier, D. (1983). Emotional disturbances in the federal government. Administration & Society, 14(4), 403-448.
29.
La Bier, D. (1986). Modern madness: The emotional fallout of success. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
30.
Lapierre, L. (1989). Mourning, potency, and power in management. Human Relations, 28(2), 177-189.
31.
Maccoby, M. (1976). The gamesman. New York: Simon & Schuster.
32.
Marcuse, H. (1964). One dimensional man. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
33.
McInnes, M. (1990). Public sector reform under the Hawke government: Reconstruction or deconstruction?Australian Quarterly, 62(2), 108-124.
34.
Pusey, M. (1990). The impact of economic ideas on public policy in Canberra. Sydney: University of New South Wales, Public Sector Research Centre.
35.
Pusey, M. (1991). Economic rationalism in Canberra: A nation-building state changess its mind. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
36.
Schwartz, H. (1987). Anti-social actions of committed organizational participants: An existential psychoanalytic perspective. Organization Studies, 8(4), 327-340.
37.
Sinclair, A. (1989). Public sector culture: Managerialism or multiculturalism?Australian Journal of Public Administration, 48(4), 382-397.
38.
Taylor, F. (1911). The principles of scientific management. New York: Harper.
39.
Watkins, P. (1985). Agency and structures: Dialectics in the administration of education. Victoria, Australia: Deakin University Press.
40.
Watkins, P. (1986). From managerialism to communicative competence: Control and consensus in educational administration. Journal of Educational Administration, 24(1), 86-106.
41.
Wright, E. (1976). Class boundaries in advanced capitalist societies. New Left Review, 98, 3-41.
42.
Wright, E. (1979). Intellectuals and the class structure of capitalist society. In P. Walker (Ed.), Between labor and capital (pp. 191-211). Boston: South End.
43.
Wright, E. (1980). Class and occupation. Theory and Society, 9(1), 177-214.
