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Educational Management

Notes systems. The line-officers in school systems are the director of education, deputy directors,
district inspectors education officers, principals and vice-principals, departmental heads and
other officers on special duty who are given authority from the head of the system. The staff
officers include statisticians, psychologists, counsellors, librarians, physical education directors,
curriculum experts, etc., and many other persons belonging to service divisions (clerical and
office assistants, etc.) who serve the entire system.
Many variations of line-and-staff model of organizations are found. Three common models are
described by Burton and Brueckner. These are :
1. Line-and-staff with vertical supervision of instruction.
2. Line-and-staff with horizontal supervision of instruction.
3. Coordinate line-and-staff which usually follows the horizontal or divisional plan.
In vertical organizations supervisors work throughout all levels from primary to higher
secondary level. In horizontal organizations they work only at a given level, elementary, junior
or secondary. The co-ordinate line-and-staff is, in fact, a variation of the line-and-staff with
horizontal supervision. The extra feature of this is the stress on the co-ordinate nature of the
activities of line-and-staff officers. According to this activities of the line-and-staff officers are
considered co-ordinate functions. Staff officers in this kind of organization serve only the given
level of education, elementary or secondary and so on. In this kind of organization the principal
of a school and the inspector of the school both are assumed to be interested in the improvement
of the instruction. They work in collaboration with each other. Thus, this model emphasizes
and encourages co-operation and integration under an authoritarian system.

The forms of supervisory organizations described above have no exactly similar examples
anywhere in the world. Everywhere they are found with differences here and there only
indicating the dominant trend. In India and her various states the organization of supervisory
services is, largely, modelled on the pattern of the line-and-staff with characteristics of both the
vertical and horizontal organization.
2. Democratic Organization, in most respects, is diametrically opposed to the autocratic
organization. Here, authority is based on superiority of knowledge, skills and capacity and not
on legal sanctions. So authority instead of being centralised in one person is shared by all.
Every worker is required to contribute his best to group purposes and group welfare. The
talents of all workers are utilised fully. Channels of communication are kept wide open. There
is maximum possible participation of all workers in determining policies, procedures and final
evaluation. Each individual personality is respected and considered of supreme value. There is
no hierarchy of positions. Equality is practised in all matters. In the democratic organization
coercion is replaced by persuasion and authority by leadership. Emphasis is placed on mutual
relationship and respect for one another. The leader protects the group and is concerned with
the satisfaction of the aspirations of each individual. With the sharing of responsibility and
power and pooling together of abilities the level of production is considerably raised. In such
an organization “leadership is a means, rather than an end in itself ...the effectiveness of any
leadership technique lies in its acceptability to the followers.”
Democratic organization is basically leadership-oriented. Eight principles of democratic
organization relate to its external organization, the machinery and personnel while the three
relate to its internal organization, functioning of its machinery. These are (1) authority residing
in the situation (2) authority shared by all participants, (3) responsibility assumed by leadership
(4) educational leadership and responsibility shared by all (5) leadership exercised all stages
(policy formulation and policy execution) by securing participation of all concerned, (6) group
made rules, mechanisms and procedures (7) shared responsibility, exercising initiative and
performing functions as desired by the group. The three characteristics of the internal

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