Management Controls of Teachers—Scale Development and Validation

Abstract

Teachers are an important determinant of school outcomes, and their behaviour and actions need to be controlled to ensure desired performance. New public management (NPM) and new institutional theory propose that practices used by ‘for profit’ organizations should also be adopted by ‘not for profit’ organizations, which also include schools. Anthony’s (1965) model of management control has been applied to schools but has been found to have loose coupling with outcomes. This article proposes a scale that covers both formal and informal controls and is contextual. Second, it uses Merchant’s (1998, p. 14) ‘objects of control’ framework to develop such a scale for private unaided schools. An instrument has been developed by operationalizing constructs of action controls, result controls, personnel controls and cultural controls. Items were drawn from school effectiveness and school improvement literature. Data have been collected from the 10th class teachers of private unaided schools affiliated to a state examination board in India. The scale has met reliability and validity measures and is found appropriate for future use. The instrument will help school managements understand the extent of control in their schools, which control dimensions to focus on, and how these aspects of control influence other dimensions such as teacher’s satisfaction, role stress and school performance.