Teresa V. Menzies

Forms and Effects of School-Based Management: A Review

Eighty-three empirical studies of school-based management (SBM) were examined in order to determine variations in the forms of SBM in practice and the effects of each variant on students and others involved in SBM implementation. Evidence from the review suggests that SBM takes at least four forms in practice: administrative control, professional control, community control, and equal control. The main features of each of these forms is outlined and especially instructive cases are used for purposes of illustration. Both positive and negative effects on students, teachers, and people in other relevant roles are reported. The review finds little evidence of positive effects on students.

A Review of Research Concerning the Implementation of Site‐Based Management∗

ABSTRACT Seventy‐seven empirical and case studies of the implementation of school‐based management (SBM) reported between 1985 and 1995 are reviewed in order to determine obstacles typically encountered in the early to middle stages of such implementation and promising strategies for dealing with them. Results are reported in terms of obstacles relevant to teachers, principals, parents and the wider community, site councils, schools as a whole, and district administrators. These results are discussed in terms of the potential role for SBM in the creation of “high involvement” schools.

School restructuring, transformational leadership and the amelioration of teacher burnout

Abstract School restructuring processes typically increase teacher stress and the potential for burnout. This study inquired about the contribution of transformational forms of school leadership to the amelioration of burnout in restructuring contexts. Survey responses from a sample of 337 Canadian teachers were used to estimate the value of the variables in a model explaining teacher burnout which included, in addition to leadership, both personal and organizational variables associated with burnout in previous empirical studies. The LISREL 8 analysis of covariance structure aproach to path analysis and maximum likelihood estimates was used to test the model. Results indicated that leadership had a combined direct and indirect effect on burnout of .34, organizational factors .50, and personal factors .15.

Transnational networking and business performance: Ethnic entrepreneurs in Canada

It is generally acknowledged that transnational networking plays an important role in promoting the performance of ethnic entrepreneurial firms. Yet distinctions between the different types of transnational networking and their effects on business performance have received scant attention in the literature, probably because ethnicity has been considered to be the main actor in the networking–performance relationship. This paper argues that one of the reasons why business performance differs across ethnic entrepreneurial firms is that ethnic entrepreneurs engage in dissimilar types of transnational networking. Analyses of the data generated by 720 ethnic entrepreneurs in Canada revealed that ethnicity, along with human capital and push/pull factors, both of which are part of our conceptual framework, plays a central role in the engagement of different types of transnational networking and that the different types of transnational networking affect business turnover (sales) and business survival (age). Push/pull factors were found to play a marginal role in business performance. These results highlight the competitive market that immigrants and members of ethnic minority groups encounter in the hosting economy and stress the value of transnational networking.

Measuring Ethnic Community Involvement: Development and Initial Testing of an Index

This paper builds on the work of Chaganti and Greene, who distinguish between ethnic minority entrepreneurs/small business owners who are very involved with their ethnic community and those who are not. We extend their work by developing an Index of Ethnic Community Involvement based not only on personal but also business characteristics. We utilize a large sample size (698 interviews with entrepreneurs), drawn from five ethnic groups, and develop a valid and reliable (0.69) Index of Ethnic Involvement (IEI) with a strong emphasis on social capital theory. Our initial analysis shows the IEI predicts some personal and business characteristics. Future development will include building regression models to predict business outcomes. The IEI, when fully developed, promises to be useful for targeting assistance, education and training programs, and policy initiatives for entrepreneurs and small business owners according to the level of ethnic community involvement.

Entrepreneurship Education and Engineering Students Career Path and Business Performance

A 15-year cohort of graduates of an engineering degree programme at a major Canadian university who had taken either one (1EES) or three (3EES) elective entrepreneurship course(s) and a randomly stratified comparison group are the subjects of this paper. Career path, business start-ups, ownership, performance and satisfaction with their entrepreneurship education are examined. Being male and taking one or more courses in entrepreneurship proved to be a strong predictor of business ownership. Significantly more of the 1EES group had started businesses (48% had owned a business at some time since graduation) than those in the comparison group (26% had owned a business at some time since graduation). However, business performance was not significantly different according to group. Taking one or more courses in entrepreneurship was also a strong predictor of later reaching top management status. Significantly more of the 1EES group, who were not business owners, were employed in top management positions. This study also provides information on the time lag from graduation to venturing, on business characteristics, and on the desire for an entrepreneurial career in the future. Findings are important for educators and policy makers.

Understanding and Preventing Teacher Burnout: Teacher Burnout: A Critical Challenge for Leaders of Restructuring Schools

The highest reward for a persons toil is not what is received for it, but what he/she becomes by it . – Anonymous Burnout is a label used to define the stress experienced by those who work in interpersonally intense occupations subject to chronic tension (Cunningham, 1983), such as teaching. This form of stress manifests itself as a state of physical, emotional, and cognitive exhaustion that produces feelings of alienation, indifference, and low self-regard (Huberman, 1993b). The most commonly used instrument for assessing burnout, the MBI (Maslach Burnout Inventory; Maslach and Jackson, 1981), defines it in terms of three dimensions: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and a reduced sense of personal accomplishment. Symptoms of burnout are both organizational and personal. Organizational symptoms include increased absenteeism, performance decline, poor interpersonal relations with co-workers and, in the case of teachers, with students (Cunningham, 1983). At a personal level, teachers who experience burnout are less sympathetic toward students, are less committed to and involved in their jobs, have a lower tolerance for classroom disruption, are less apt to prepare adequately for class, and are generally less productive (Blase and Greenfield, 1985; Farber and Miller, 1981). Perhaps even more germane to school restructuring is the evidence, reviewed by Cunningham (1983), that teachers experiencing burnout tend to be dogmatic about their practices and to rely rigidly on structure and routine, thereby resisting changes to those practices. Clearly, these symptoms are anathema to most current school restructuring efforts.

Social Capital, Networks and Ethnic Minority Entrepreneurs: Transnational Entrepreneurship and Bootstrap Capitalism

The contributors to this collection provide a wealth of new analyses of both traditional and emerging aspects of entrepreneurship, from a variety of national perspectives and from a variety of disciplines. Globalization has begun to dismantle the barriers that traditionally segregated local business opportunities and local firms from their international counterparts. Local markets are becoming integral parts of broader, global markets. As globalization proceeds apace, entrepreneurs and small businesses will play a more prominent role on the global business arena. The volume is divided into three sections. The first looks at the internationalization process itself while the second focuses on factors facilitating this process in small and medium-sized firms. The last section examines emerging dimensions in management policy.

EXPLORING THE NATURE AND IMPACT OF GESTATION-SPECIFIC HUMAN CAPITAL AMONG NASCENT ENTREPRENEURS

This article explores the nature and impact of gestation-specific human capital on successful start-up among a random sample of Canadian nascent entrepreneurs. Although much is known about the relationship between individual-level factors and the probability of becoming a nascent entrepreneur, the same cannot be said for the relationship between individual-level factors and success in starting a business. Previous studies of existing business founders indicate that general human capital (education and work experience) plays a role in opportunity identification, but at best plays a very weak role in opportunity pursuit. In light of these findings we sought to identify elements of human capital that would be specific to gestation–previous start-up experience, completion of classes or workshops in starting a business, and financial management capability (FMC). In documenting these elements, we found the majority of the sample had not taken any classes or workshops on starting a business, were novices to the start-up process, and were characterized by a wide range of financial management capability. Among those nascent entrepreneurs who succeeded in starting a business, FMC was found to be associated with sustainability. We conclude by discussing implications for researchers.

Earning Teachers' Commitment to Curriculum Reform

The curriculum is one of several foci for change in the more comprehensive school restructuring initiatives currently prevalent in most developed countries. Other foci include, for example, school decisionmaking structures; empowerment of teachers, parents, and students; site-based management; instructional processes; and forms of leadership (Hallinger, Murphy, & Hausman, 1993; Murphy, 1991). Almost all of these initiatives interact (and all are of no mean consequence for what teachers do). Although curriculum reform is the theme for this journal issue, what we have to say about teacher commitment in this article