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I EFFECTIVENESS AREAS AND STANDARDS It is impossible to appraise a manager without knowing the output requirements of his position. The concept of effectiveness is the only sound basis of MBO

ON AVERAGE FIGURES, all coutries in the developed world (but, regrettably, not in the third world) are able to increase their national output year by year. Examined in isolation, statistics associated with such growth (e.g. output per worker) demonstrate a comforting trend — even though the vertical scales of graphics might have been selected with that purpose in mind! The simple step of making cross‐country comparisons can, however, quickly remove some of the complacency.

The world of education within the UK is in turmoil. As in other countries there is a blurring between education and training. Teachers at all levels are faced with implementing the National Curriculum. Polytechnics are coming to terms with their independence from local authorities and dependence for (decreasing levels of) funding on the Polytechnics and Colleges funding Council. The Universities are grappling with their own new funding body — the Universities Funding Council. Students are likely to be faced with taking out ‘top‐up’ loans. The National Vocational Council lurks around the next comer to put in its ‘threepennyworth’.

Despite the emphasis on management training during the past decade, it is doubtful whether more than 10 per cent of practising managers have ever read a book on management. Much as educationists may deplore this, it is hardly surprising. After all, as busy practical people facing practical problems, most managers are interested in solutions, not theories. And unless a management book can point the way to such solutions, it tends to remain unread—except by students and those whose professional interests lie in management education.

Over the past ten years there has grown up a new way of thinking about management. We talk about management styles. While recognising that there are many varied styles we talk about two in particular: the authoritarian style and the participative style. To reduce our main consideration to only two styles is a bold over‐simplification. But it is useful: it enables us, for instance, to show how different styles produce different motivational climates. This growing concern with differing management styles is one of several factors which are having a big influence on the mechanics of instruction and learning. But it is only one factor. What are the other factors which are changing our understanding of the instructional and learning process?

Although the age of computers is upon us, there are very few managerial jobs where success in meeting targets can be achieved without the active co‐operation of others. This calls for leadership skills on the part of the manager, and a real understanding of the needs of those whose efforts are essential to achieving his goals.

How do you bring together in a collaborative and co‐operative framework, the management studies work of three major colleges and some 20 other establishments spread across three counties and very varied in the extent and level of their work?

For a variety of reasons (some good, others not so) “research” has almost become a dirty word. To many people it smacks of intellectual aloofness; to others it appears the plaything of arrogant academics; whilst by some it is regarded as a luxury which can seldom be enjoyed just to let boffins pursue fallacious flights of fancy. Some people say that research has no real role therefore, and at worst must be tolerated; it is not the practical way of life.

A two‐year experimental programme to apply the research findings of a research programme into the practice and organisation of new product development is described. It was conducted within a large manufacturing subsidiary of a major international organisation. The results from the past research work were converted into a usable form and applied through a planned programme of analysis and change. It describes how the work covering all levels of personnel from general manager to the shop floor staff, was initiated directed and controlled.

This article sets down some thoughts on the teaching of educational administration. It delves briefly into three interrelated aspects which need to be considered by teachers of the subject: the learners and their stages of individual development, their tendency towards dependence, and their needs to master and belong; the setting, particularly such factors as assessment, the inclusion of students from different organizations, and group teaching; the content, specifically how different learning objectives might be met by different teaching approaches and whether reality is a unidimensional concept or always the most efficient approach in learning situations. It is concluded that only when we expect of ourselves what we expect of our students, that is, that performance comes to depend not only on intuitive skill or ‘art’ but also on explainable techniques and procedures, that we will transform a craft into a profession.