ISSN 1581-6311
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journal
Managing Global Transitions
International Research Journal
editors
Anita Trnavčevič, National Leadership
School, Slovenia
Dušan Lesjak, University of Primorska,
Slovenia
associate editors
Roberto Biloslavo, University of Primorska,
Slovenia
Andrej Koren, National Leadership
School, Slovenia
Egon Žižmond, University of Primorska,
Slovenia
editorial board
Boštjan Antončič, University of Ljubljana,
Slovenia
Zoran Avramovič, University of Novi Sad,
Federal Republic ofYugoslavia
Terriče Bassler, Open Society Institute,
Slovenia
Cene Baveč, University of Primorska,
Slovenia
Jani Beko, University of Maribor, Slovenia
Vito Bobek, University of Maribor, Slovenia
Fedor Cerne, Government Office for
European Affairs, Slovenia
KariDehli, University of Toronto, Canada
Enes Duvnjakovič, Ministry of Education,
Science, Culture and Sport, Tuzla Canton,
Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Jeffrey Ford, The Ohio State University, usa
Lee Frost-Kumpf, University of Illinois, usa
George Hičkman, Memorial University
of Newfoundland, Canada
Andras Inotai, Institute for World Economics
of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences,
Hungary
Hun Joon Park, Yonsei University,
South Korea
Štefan Kajzer, University of Maribor, Slovenia
Jaroslav Kalous, Charles University,
Czech Republic
Neva Maher, Ministry of Labour, Family and
Social Affairs, Slovenia
Massimiliano Marzo, University of Bologna,
Italy
Luigi Menghini, University of Trieste, Italy
Marjana Merkač, College
of Entrepreneurship, Slovenia
Kevin O'Neill, State University of New York,
Plattsburgh, usa
Susan Printy, Michigan State University, usa
Jim Ryan, University of Toronto, Canada
Boris Snoj, University of Maribor, Slovenia
Ian Stronačh, Manchester Metropolitan
University, uk
Ciaran Sugrue, Dublin City University,
Ireland
Zlatko Šabič, University of Ljubljana,
Slovenia
Mitja I. Tavčar, University of Primorska,
Slovenia
Nada Trunk Širča, University of Primorska,
Slovenia
Ivan Turk, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
Zvone Vodovnik, University of Ljubljana,
Slovenia
Min-BongYoo, Sungkyunkwan University,
South Korea
Pavel Zgaga, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
w A FAKULTETA ZA | FACOLTÄ DI | FACULTY OF
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Managing Global Transitions
International Research Journal
volume 1 • number 1 • spring 2003 • issn i58i-63ii
Table of Contents
3 The Editor's Corner
5 Speculative Fictions for Understanding
Global Change Environments:
Two Thought Experiments
Noel Gough
29 Vital Approach to Transition:
Slovene Multiple Case Study
Suzanne Winbauer Catana
49 Educational Leadership for Results or for Learning?
Contrasting Directions in Times of Transition
David Oldroyd
69 Creating a Culture of Innovation
in Canadian Schools
David C.Dibbon
89 Managing Global Training
Utilizing Distance Learning
Technologies and Techniques:
The United States Army
Readiness Training
Susan Haugen
Robert Behling
Wallace Wood
David Douglas
The Editor's Corner
More than a year ago the idea about a new journal was born. At the time
colleagues often stopped me curiously asking: 'How is it going?' For this
long year the only answer was: 'It's moving.' With this first volume and
the first number a step in this 'moving' process can be identified - some-
thing has been moved and we keep moving on. Let me, then, start by
thanking the authors of the manuscripts we have received, the Edito-
rial Board Members and reviewers for their willingness to join us in this
'moving' journey as well as for the work they have done in order to make
this journal 'happen'.
For the readers as well as for those who might consider submitting
their article to Managing Global Transitions: International Research
Journal, we would like to point out the distinctive features of the journal
-	its focus on transitions and the aspiration to provide diverse perspec-
tives on the processes of change and evolution in a broad range of aca-
demic disciplines and fields, such as management and administration,
economics and business, education, legal issues and leadership.
The Journal, therefore, seeks to embrace three processes - manage-
ment (administration, leadership) concepts and processes, globalisation
and transitions, which are not all specifically tied to one area or academic
discipline. 'Transition' was one of the challenging ideas as we, in our part
of the world, often associate it with the economic concept of a 'country
in transition'. Yet, what or who is not in transition if we look at current
world events? What is stable and what has been changing? As we try to
understand, anticipate and manage these transitions, even more - ev-
ery now and then we even have the feeling we control them. However,
there are many critical issues that need to be deconstructed and surfaced
-	research is one of the means to achieve this aim.
One might argue that by the breadth we will lose the depth. Our in-
tentions go beyond the dichotomy of 'depth' and 'breath' by arguing that
the articles and you, researchers and authors, will bring the depth of your
topic, research into our journal, yet the journal as a whole will provide
the reader with a breadth of areas, fields and disciplines. We believe that
the complexity of processes and interrelations, interconnectedness and
even more, the perplexity of 'pulses for change', occur in complex en-
vironments and have implications for many, traditionally isolated and
well-bounded academic disciplines and 'real' life. For these reasons, the
Journal consists of different sections that might and will vary from issue
to issue. This first number embraces articles related to 'general' man-
agement and education while the next issue will bring to the surface
economic views and current educational topics. Such a variety has rich-
ness in bringing diversity and complexity of relations upfront, but it also
might have some weaknesses for those looking for a specific topic.
The first number is almost a display of the variety and diversity of top-
ics, areas and methodologies. It starts with Noel Gough's 'experiment',
with his 'travelling' through speculative fictions for understanding the
global change environment, an article that invites philosophical discus-
sions. The author invites readers to join the discussion and we would be
pleased to publish your discussions through the next three numbers. The
following articles are grouped into management, and education. Catana
was a Fulbright scholar in Slovenia and she provides the findings of mul-
tiple case studies related to management and organisational theories that
she conducted during her visit to Slovenia. Oldroyd discusses contrast-
ing directions in educational leadership bringing to light the 'results or
learning' oriented dichotomy. Dibbon focuses on the processes of creat-
ing a culture of innovation in Canadian schools while Haugen, Behling,
Wood and Douglas discuss a project done on distance learning in the
United States Army. Thank you for joining us and sharing your work.
We also kindly invite you - the researcher and scholar and the reflec-
tive practitioner - to join our endeavour by sending your article to the
Journal. It is an intriguing and challenging journey - a never ending story
of research and discussion. We have started it and we can keep it going
only with your contributions. Let's keep moving, then.
Anita Trnavcevic
Editor
Speculative Fictions for Understanding
Global Change Environments:
Two Thought Experiments
Noel Gough
The purpose of a thought experiment, as the term was used by quan-
tum and relativity physicists in the early part of the twentieth century,
was not prediction (as is the goal of classical experimental science), but
more defensible representations of present 'realities'. Speculative fic-
tions, from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein to the Star Wars cinema saga,
can be read as sociotechnical thought experiments that produce alter-
native representations of present circumstances and uncertainties, and
anticipate and critique possible futures. In this essay I demonstrate how
two examples of popular speculative fictions, Frank Herbert's Dune
(1965) and Ursula Le Guin's The Telling (2000), function as thought ex-
periments that problematise global transitions in their respective eras.
I argue that critical readings of such stories can help us to anticipate,
critique, and respond constructively to social and cultural changes and
change environments within nation-states that constitute, and are con-
stituted by, global change processes and their effects.
Introduction
My invitation to join the editorial board of this journal (and to con-
tribute an article to its first volume) arrived just a few days after I had
finished reading The Telling, a relatively new science fiction novel by Ur-
sula Le Guin (2000). The Telling imagines some of the ways in which
humans might respond to the forced homogenisation of culture on a
planetary scale and I was immediately struck by its pertinence to my
educational research interests in the social and cultural effects and im-
plications of globalisation. A few days later another request arrived, this
time from a uk colleague, Justin Dillon, who had been invited to chair a
discussion at the first Cheltenham (England) Festival of Science entitled
'Happy Birthday Silent Spring to mark the 40th anniversary of the publi-
cation of Rachel Carson's (1962) best-known book.1 In preparing for this
session, Dillon asked a number of colleagues in environmental education
research to share their views of Silent Spring.
DrNoel Gough is associate professor in the School of Social and
Cultural Studies in Education, Deakin University, Victoria, Australia.
In a subsequent article, Dillon (2002) reveals that all except one of his
colleagues viewed Carson's book very positively - in fact, the only neg-
ative criticism he received was my own brief response which concluded
that'Silent Spring is politically incoherent' (p. 16). I must say here that I
do not entirely disagree with my colleagues. I too admire Carson for her
courageous and passionate expose of the deleterious environmental ef-
fects of chemical pesticides, and acknowledge Silent Spring's significance
as a trailblazing text in environmental consciousness raising. However,
in recent years I have come to suspect that Carson's political responses
to environmental crisis were at best naive and at worst irresponsible.
More importantly, for the purposes of this essay, my suspicions were not
aroused by a direct re-examination of Carson's text. Rather, I returned to
Silent Spring via its intertextual relationships with Frank Herbert's (1965)
cult science fiction novel, Dune.2
Dune, like The Telling, can be read as a thought experiment. Both
novels produce alternative representations of present circumstances and
uncertainties, and anticipate and critique possible futures. Each novel
dramatises social transformation on a global scale. In Dune's case, the
driver of transformation is ecological crisis, whereas in The Telling it is
the lure of an intergalactic (rather than merely global) 'common market'.
In this sense, each fiction speaks to a familiar world and demonstrates
the defensibility of Donna Haraway's (1991) assertion that 'the boundary
between science fiction and social reality is an optical illusion' (p. 149).
I argue that critical and deconstructive readings of these novels might
help us to produce anticipatory critiques of global transitions and trans-
formations.
Science Fiction and Social Reality: Dune and Silent Spring
I first read Dune in 1968, the year in which I began teaching high school
biology. Over the next few years, I recall recommending it to students
and discussing aspects of the novel that were most obviously relevant
to their course. When I moved into teacher education in 1972 I listed it
for wider reading in the biology and environmental education teaching
methods courses I taught for several years. I found little of interest (to me
or my students) in Dune's several sequels, and other examples of sf - an
acronym that now refers to much more than 'science fiction'3 - became
more relevant to my work in teacher education and, eventually, to my
research in curriculum studies (see, for example, Gough 1991; 1993; 1995).
In the course of this more recent research, I became increasingly aware
of the growing academic interest in interdisciplinary studies of literature
and science and the relevance of these studies for my own work.
In 1996 the us Society for Literature and Science circulated a call for
expressions of interest in contributing to an international sourcebook on
the contemporary literature of nature, a 250,000-word volume of more
than sixty chapters that was intended to cover the major geographic re-
gions of the world as well as national literatures within those regions.
The editor welcomed suggestions for other types of contributions and I
offered to write a chapter on science fiction as environmental literature. I
did this for two reasons. First, I was personally challenged by the prospect
of writing in an academic discipline (literary criticism) in which I had no
track record. Second, I was familiar enough with the literature of what
was beginning to be called ecocriticism that emerged, especially in North
America, during the mid-1980s4 to realise that sf might not be regarded
as a form of nature writing by many of its practitioners and critics. For
example, Thomas Lyon's (1996) Taxonomy of Nature Writing includes the
following five categories: field guides and professional papers; natural
history essays; 'rambles'; essays on experiences in nature (including three
subcategories: 'solitude and back-country living', 'travel and adventure',
and 'farm life'); and 'man's [sic] role in nature' (p. 278). Lyon makes no
references to fiction at all, let alone to genres such as sf, and I began to
suspect that such popular texts might constitute blind spots in scholarly
studies of environmental literature. I thus saw my chapter as a deliberate
intervention in the 'greening' of literary studies that complemented my
long-standing interests in exploring and expanding the educative poten-
tial of sf in disciplines in which it is still relatively undervalued.
When I revisited Dune in the course of writing my chapter for the
sourcebook (Gough 1998), I was less interested in its relevance to biol-
ogy and science education than with appraising it from an 'ecocritical'
standpoint. As a point of departure for my essay, I characterised my own
position by reference to William Howarth's (1996) description of an eco-
critic as 'a person who judges the merits and faults of writings that depict
the effects of culture upon nature, with a view toward celebrating na-
ture, berating its despoilers, and reversing their harm through political
action' (p. 69). Although I intended to focus principally on the distinc-
tive features of sf as environmental literature, I also thought it would be
prudent to draw attention to what the genre shares with more conven-
tional forms of nature writing (Gough 1998, 409):
For example, homages to solitude and wilderness, accounts of
rambles in remote areas, and other reflections on experience
in nature can be found in specific works of sf, such as Ur-
sula Le Guin's (1986) meditation on scrub oaks in Always Com-
ing Home (pp. 239-41) - an exemplary exercise in heightened
attentiveness to nature. Furthermore, sf usually responds to
the same cultural imperatives that motivate other nature writ-
ers, as Brian Aldiss and David Wingrove (1986) demonstrate
by devoting a whole chapter of their comprehensive history of
sf to 'the flight from urban culture' that characterised many
of the genre's most typical works between the 1890s and the
1920s. Similarly, Frank Herbert's novel (1965), Dune, which he
dedicated to 'dry-land ecologists, wherever they may be', can
be seen to reproduce what R. J. Ellis (1990) calls the 'discourse
of apocalyptic ecologism' (p. 104) generated in North America
during the 1960s by books like Rachel Carson's (1962) Silent
Spring.
I also pointed out that, as a response to an environmental crisis (in
this case, massive desertification on the planet Dune), Herbert's story
displays some of sf's least admirable stereotypes, such as the assumption
that virtually all problems are amenable to technical solutions (although
Dune emphasises appropriate and environmentally sensitive technology
rather than high-tech gadgetry for its own sake). Less defensibly, given
the novel's rhetoric of holistic approaches to environmental problems,
Herbert invests much of the political power to intervene in Dune's ecol-
ogy in an individual, Paul Maud'Dib, an extraordinary and increasingly
autocratic frontier hero (another sf stereotype). This hero is (of course)
male, and Dune explicitly reproduces many of the patriarchal discourses
that are so disabling in attempts to resolve social and environmental
problems through democratic processes.
According to Ellis (1990), Herbert hoped that Dune would be 'an envi-
ronmental awareness handbook'5 and admitted that the title was chosen
'with the deliberate intent that it echo the sound of "doom"' (p. 120). Ellis
(1990) argues that the apocalyptic representation of ecological balance in
Dune is 'constrained from coherence by its narrative reproduction of the
discursive formulations of the science of ecology in mid-century Amer-
ica ... and these discourses' instabilities' (p. 106). Ellis does not suggest
that Silent Spring's similarly apocalyptic representation of the impact of
chemical pesticides upon North America's ecosystems was a direct in-
fluence on Dune6 but, rather, that both books are symptomatic, in their
discursive formations, of key features of scientific representations of the
usa's environmental status during the late 1950s and early 1960s. Dillon's
request to comment on Silent Spring reminded me that it shared a degree
of political naivety with Dune - that both books were (to paraphrase El-
lis) similarly constrained from coherence by their narrative reproduction
of the discursive formulations of democratic governance, civil society
and citizenship in mid-twentieth century America and these discourses'
instabilities. However, I am now persuaded that, for all its limitations,
Dune's narrative location within the sf genre allows Herbert to deploy
a set of generic expectations that enable him to explore the political im-
plications of ecological crisis more creatively and critically than Carson
does.
Carson argues that ecological disaster is imminent but fails to sug-
gest any possibilities for political action or power redistribution that
might avert her doomsday scenario. She indicts governments and chem-
ical companies for their actions and inactions but her engagement with
political power arrangements degenerates into anguished and repetitious
hand wringing about the effects of insecticides (p. 121):
Who has made the decision that sets in motion these chains of
poisonings, this ever-widening wave of death that spreads out,
like ripples when a pebble is dropped into a still pond? Who
has placed in one pan of the scales the leaves that might have
been eaten by the beetles and in the other the pitiful heaps of
many-hued feathers, the lifeless remains of the birds that fell
before the unselective bludgeon of insecticidal poisons? Who
has decided - who has the right to decide - for the countless
legions of people who were not consulted that the supreme
value is a world without insects, even though it be also a sterile
world ungraced by the curving wing of a bird in flight? The
decision is that of the authoritarian temporarily entrusted with
power; he [sic] has made it during a moment of inattention by
millions to whom beauty and the ordered world of nature still
have a meaning that is deep and imperative.
This passage simplistically equates control with tyranny and individ-
ualised authoritarianism - hardly an enabling analysis of political power
in the us of the 1960s. Carson's uncertainty about political agency is con-
sistent with Noam Chomsky's (1997) argument that throughout the 20th
century us media figures and other elites have promulgated 'spectator
democracy' rather than participatory democracy. Wayne Ross (2000) ar-
gues that social studies education in the us continues to promote specta-
tor democracy by reproducing proceduralist conceptions of democracy
in which 'exercising your right to vote' is the primary manifestation of
good citizenship: 'Democracy based on proceduralism leaves little room
for individuals or groups to exercise direct political action; this is a func-
tion left to a specialised class of people such as elected representatives
and experts who advise them' (p. 241).
Compared to Silent Spring, the narrative of Dune presents a relatively
clear and coherent analysis of its political themes. Although Herbert fo-
cuses his exploration of the political choices facing the inhabitants of
Dune on the dilemmas confronting an individual, he actively interro-
gates the relationships of power, control, responsibility and foresight
through Paul Maud'Dib's constant agonising about the ways he is being
elevated to the status of Messiah and his fears that by assuming control
of Dune's future he will become a tyrant. In Dune's sequels, this ecopolit-
ical theme is subordinated to portrayals of cosmic conflict - banal space
operas comparable to the more recently produced episodes in the Star
Wars cinema saga. But Dune itself is rescued from such banality by its
persistent engagement with the politics of responding to global ecolog-
ical crisis. Moreover, this engagement is made accessible to readers by
the relatively obvious implicit parallels that can be drawn between the
history of Dune and the history of the us.
In other words, returning to Howarth's (1996) characterisation of an
ecocritic, I argue that Carson's Silent Spring is ecocritical to the extent
that it depicts the effects of culture upon nature, celebrates nature, and
berates its despoilers, but that it largely ignores or oversimplifies the pos-
sibilities of'reversing their harm through political action' (p. 69). But this
is precisely what Dune offers: a dramatic rehearsal of possible human re-
sponses to ecological crises and catastrophes.
I do not want to overstate this particular comparison. There is no
shortage of ecocatastrophic literature from the era of Silent Spring and
Dune. I personally believe that J. G. Ballard's stories of the earth in eco-
logical ruin, such as The Drowned World (1963) and The Drought (1965)
surpass Dune in literary and ecocritical merit, although neither enjoyed
the latter's mass popularity. I could also have made several more direct
comparisons between books on similar themes, such as Paul Ehrlich's
(1968) The Population Bomb and John Brunner's (1968) Stand on Zanz-
ibar. My purpose is to draw attention to the different qualities of texts
drawn from different genres that deal with similar 'big issues' in par-
ticular times and places and to caution against investing all or most of
our interpretive efforts in those that come with arbitrary labels such as
'non-fiction', 'documentary' or 'educational' rather than those which are
designated as 'fiction' or 'entertainment'.
Katherine Hayles (1990, xi) makes a similar point in her archaeology
of textual representations of chaos and complexity theories in literature
and science:
... different disciplines, sufficiently distant from one another
so that direct influence seems unlikely, . . . nevertheless focus
on similar kinds of problems [at] about the same time and base
their formulations on isomorphic assumptions____Different
disciplines are drawn to similar problems because the concerns
underlying them are highly charged within a prevailing cul-
tural context. Moreover, different disciplines base the theories
they construct on similar presuppositions because these are
the assumptions that guide the constitution of knowledge in
a given episteme. This position implies, of course, that scien-
tific theories and models are culturally conditioned, partaking
of and rooted in assumptions that can be found at multiple
sites throughout the culture.
As a curriculum scholar, I am interested in how the different qualities
of texts from different disciplines might best be deployed by teachers and
learners. And I would argue that, although every text must be judged on
its own merits, sf stories often are more hospitable to socially critical ed-
ucational purposes than 'non-fiction' texts because they are open-ended
thought experiments rather than assemblages of evidence, arguments,
and foreclosed conclusions. Books such as Silent Spring and The Popu-
lation Bomb are a mixture of rhetorical forms but typically include: ser-
mons, moral exhortations and reprimands, didactic instructions, indict-
ments and arraignments, cases for the prosecution, 'scientific evidence'
and conclusions, conclusions, conclusions, all characterised by foreclo-
sure, by the author's assumption and assertion of a rhetorical dead-end
(guilty, qed).
Much sf is not foreclosed. In Frankenstein Mary Shelley (1992) asks:
what if a young doctor creates a human being in his laboratory...? In
Dune, Frank Herbert asks: what if massive desertification threatens a
planet very like Earth...? As Le Guin (1979, 156; emphasis in original)
writes:
The purpose of a thought-experiment, as the term was used
by Schrödinger and other physicists, is not to predict the fu-
ture - indeed Schrödinger's most famous thought-experiment
goes to show that the 'future,' on the quantum level, cannot be
predicted - but to describe reality, the present world.
Science fiction is not predictive; it is descriptive.
Instrumentalist approaches to education tend to reflect and naturalise
models of social interaction in which 'rational' behaviour is assumed to
follow from human actors pursuing their more or less enlightened self-
interests. These approaches readily accommodate 'instructive' texts like
Silent Spring because they privilege 'scientific' understandings that are
assumed to be instrumental in enabling humans to pursue such 'rational'
choices. Yet the extent to which knowledges are authorised, and the man-
ner in which they are (or are not) mobilised in the form of dispositions
to act (or not), might be very sensitive to different cultural traditions,
values and identities. Thus, for example, with respect to environmental
education, I agree with Brian Wynne's (1994) arguments for caution in
predicting the effects of providing people with scientific knowledge of
global environmental changes, such as those associated with greenhouse
gas emissions (p. 186):
The assumption is that increasing public awareness of global
warming scientific scenarios will increase their readiness to
make sacrifices to achieve remedial goals. Yet an equally plau-
sible suggestion is that the more that people are convinced that
global warming poses a global threat, the more paralysed they
may become as the scenarios take on the mythic role of a new
'end of the world' cultural narrative. Which way this turns out
may depend on the tacit senses of agency which people have
of themselves in society. The more global this context the less
this may become. Thus the cultural and social models shaping
and buried within our sciences, natural and social, need to be
explicated and critically debated.
I have no doubt that Silent Spring energised and inspired many read-
ers to become environmental activists and educators,7 but I suspect that
many others might have been paralysed by its apocalyptic storyline, in
much the same way that the threat of nuclear holocaust prompted some
citizens to work for peace and others to build bomb shelters. A thought
experiment like Dune invites a socially critical approach to curriculum
and curriculum inquiry because it foregrounds socio-political structures
and agency as well as technoscientific responses to an environmental cri-
sis.
Of course, all of this is to be wise after the event. If I had been disposed
to think about texts in the 1960s and 1970s in the ways I think about them
now I might have taught my high school and teacher education students
very differently. My interest now is in what this sort of analysis means for
my present practice as a university teacher and researcher.
The Telling: A Thought Experiment in Global Transition
I suggest that there are at least three reasons for educators to appraise
speculative fictions that might help us to generate new ways of imagining
global transitions in social environments and civil society in our present
times and circumstances.
First, many nation-states are in various stages of economic, politi-
cal and social transition from authoritarian regimes to more liberal and
market-oriented societies and the role(s) that education can, should or
actually does play in their democratisation remains open to question.
For example, Holger Daun et al. (2002) report recent studies of student
perceptions of and attitudes toward democracy and its representation in
textbooks in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Yugoslavia, Mozambique, and South
Africa, and conclude that 'a rather dark picture emerges in all four coun-
tries' (p. 192). They found that 'curricula do not deal very much with
matters on democracy or in a way that could make the students less au-
thoritarian and more democratic' (p. 192) and that 'judging from teach-
ers' and students' answers, they do not see the school as a place where
democracy and such matters are discussed and learnt' (p. 193). Daun et
al. (2002) also write that in these four countries 'it is evident that cur-
ricula and textbooks do not embrace a broad perspective of democracy
(including the participatory type of democracy) and that large propor-
tions of the students do not have what in Western liberal democracies is
seen as democratic attitudes' (p. 4).8
Second, although Western liberal democracies embrace the rhetoric
of participatory democracy, it does not necessarily follow that education
and other social practices enact or encourage active citizenship. For ex-
ample, I have already noted the cultivation of spectator democracy in the
us, and I would argue that Australia during the past 20 years has fulfilled
Marcus Clarke's prophecy - made more than 120 years ago - by becom-
ing 'a Democracy tempered by the rate of exchange'.9 That is, Australian
social and educational policy is now a function of the nation's position in
a global marketplace understood as 'a grand democracy of consumption'
(Edwards 2002).
This leads to my third reason for appraising speculative fictions that
address global change processes. As globalisation blurs nation-state
boundaries and undermines national authority, the grounding of public
education systems in national democracies is destabilised. Carlos Alberto
Torres (2002) notes that the purposes of public education have typically
included preparing future labour for the nation's economy and prepar-
ing citizens for the nation's polity but that globalisation 'shifts solidarities
both within and outside the national state' (p. 364). He thus argues that
alternative futures for democratic education under globalisation must
address the questions raised by the globalisation of the two traditional
bases of formal education systems, namely, governance and economies
(p. 364):
These questions are very straightforward: Will globalization
make human rights and democratic participation more uni-
versal, or will globalization redefine human enterprise as mar-
ket exchanges invulnerable to traditional civic forms of gover-
nance? Whether education as a publicly shared invention, con-
tributing to civic life and human rights, can thrive depends on
the future of globalization - a future that may offer the inter-
nationalization of the ideals of a democratic education or may
reduce education, and civic participation, to narrow instru-
ments of remote and seemingly ungovernable market forces.
Torres thus calls for a reexamination of education in the light of trans-
formations of individual and collective identities into both more priva-
tised and more globalised forms and concludes that 'to ask how educa-
tional policies could contribute to a democratic multicultural citizenship
poses a formidable challenge to the theoretical imagination' (p. 376). I
suggest that part of this challenge involves questioning taken-for-granted
assumptions about the types of cultural materials and media that consti-
tute appropriate resources for the 'theoretical imagination'.
Clearly, globalisation is a contemporary example of what, to borrow
Hayles's (1990) terms (as quoted above), we could call an 'underlying
concern' that is 'highly charged within a prevailing cultural context'. We
can reasonably expect that 'theories and models' of globalisation 'are cul-
turally conditioned, partaking of and rooted in assumptions that can be
found at multiple sites throughout the culture'. To understand the cul-
tural work performed under the sign of globalisation we need to con-
sider how different disciplines represent globalisation as a focus for in-
quiry and speculation and how they resolve the questions, problems and
issues that arise from these foci.
I think it is fair to say that when we10 present globalisation as a topic
in education courses or conceptualise it as an object of educational in-
quiry, we tend to privilege texts from a relatively limited range of dis-
ciplines and sites of cultural production. For example, books that ex-
plicitly link globalisation and education (e. g., Burbules and Torres 2000;
Stromquist 2002; Stromquist and Monkman 2000) tend to rely on work
in the economics, politics and sociology of education, comparative ed-
ucation, and policy studies. Scholars from other disciplines whose work
is drawn upon by educational researchers again tend to emphasise areas
such as economics, politics and sociology (e. g. Appadurai 1996; Bau-
man 1998; Beck 2000; Brown and Lauder 2001; Giddens 2000; Jameson
and Miyoshi 1998; Waters 1995). These works rarely refer in any detail
or depth to the arts and popular culture as sites for the production of
meanings of globalisation.
Studies that relate globalisation to issues of multiculturalism, post-
colonialism and identity politics (including diasporan cultural identi-
ties) are more likely to refer to examples from literature and the arts (e. g.
Coombes and Brah 2000; Grant and Lei 2001; Hage 1998; Phillips 2001;
Sardar and Cubitt 2002; Wilson and Dissanayake 1996). Few education
academics are likely to question the relevance of Salman Rushdie's (1981)
Midnight's Children or, more recently, Zadie Smith's (2001) White Teeth,
to understanding the cultural identity politics of globalisation, but nov-
els such as these come with relatively 'high culture' credentials. I suggest
that many works of genre fiction - as well as many 'low' cultural arte-
facts, including advertising, blogs and jokesn - might be equally rich
sites for exploring the wider cultural meanings and manifestations of
globalisation. 12
Which brings me to The Telling, Le Guin's most recent contribution
to her series of so-called 'Hainish' novels and short stories. The com-
mon background for this series supposes that, at least half a million years
ago, intelligent humanoids from the planet Hain spread across the galaxy
and settled on nearly a hundred habitable worlds (including Earth) that
were then left alone for many millennia. Le Guin's stories imagine that
communication and travel between the worlds has resumed and that a
loose interplanetary federation, the Ekumen, coordinates the exchange
of goods and knowledge among the myriad of diverse cultures, religions,
philosophies, sciences and forms of governance13 that have evolved sep-
arately on the various planets. Representatives of the Ekumen travel to
each planet when it is rediscovered and invite peoples of Hainish descent
to participate in the federation, if they wish. Worlds have much to gain
from joining the Ekumen, but also risk losing their distinctive identities.
Sutty is a Terran Observer for the Ekumen, a language and literature
specialist who has travelled to the planet AkaM to continue studies initi-
ated by the Observers who first made contact with the Akan people some
seventy years earlier. When she arrives she finds little to study because,
while she has been travelling to Aka,i5 the traditional culture has been
brutally suppressed and almost completely replaced by a technophilic
ruling class that has enthusiastically embraced 'The March to the Stars'.
Differing local spiritual practices and dialects, and the ideographic writ-
ing and literature she had studied, are now deemed subversive, and Sutty
finds that she might be the only person on Aka who can still read texts
that were written only a generation ago. The Corporation that governs
Aka normally forbids Observers from travelling outside the new cities,
which have been constructed and settled since the first contact with the
Ekumen.
Sutty unexpectedly receives permission to travel upriver from the cap-
ital to an old provincial town where she gradually finds her way into the
unofficial, traditional culture of Aka, which still survives and to some ex-
tent thrives in the locations and activities of daily life that are most diffi-
cult to police. She learns of the yearlong and lifelong cycles and patterns
of feasts, fasts, indulgences, abstinences, passages, and festivals - obser-
vances that resemble the practices of most of the religions with which
she is familiar. These are now unobtrusively interwoven into the fabric
of ordinary life so that the Monitors of the Sociocultural Office find it
difficult to identify any particular act as forbidden.
Sutty's problem (and, as I read it, the novel's) is how she and her fel-
low Observers might help to 'save' this culture from the destruction that
the Ekumen's arrival on Aka inadvertently precipitated. Sutty initially is
hostile towards the leaders of the Corporation - personified by a Mon-
itor who tracks her activities - but she also recognises that her hostility
is self-destructive and self-defeating. Her struggles with her own hatreds
and self-doubts are in part located in the personal and historical baggage
she brings from Terra to her work on Aka. Sutty grew up in a period of
severe religious repression on Earth, and realises that she must learn to
deal with her own tragic experiences of religious warfare and terrorism
if she is to deal fairly with the Akans. The complexity of Sutty's back-
ground and its influence upon her development as an Observer offers a
convincing vision of the difficulties and the opportunities of contact be-
tween different cultures for the people whose identities are constituted
by those cultures.
Sutty begins to resolve her dilemmas when she leaves the city and
listens to her fellow travellers talk about the events of their daily lives
(pp. 34-5):
She heard about them, their cousins, their families, their jobs,
their opinions, their houses, their hernias. . . . These dull and
fragmentary relations of ordinary lives could not bore her. Ev-
erything she had missed in [the capital city], everything the
official literature, the heroic propaganda left out, they told. If
she had to choose between heroes and hernias, it was no con-
test.
Part of what makes The Telling so curiously compelling is its sustained
focus on the lives of ordinary people and the subtlety and sensitivity with
which it renders everyday life. As is the case with Dune, the stakes in the
novel are high - the survival of an entire world's traditional knowledge
and culture - but in The Telling the struggle for survival takes place pri-
marily within the registers of daily life, because it is the very richness of
'ordinary' life that Aka's totalitarian 'March to the Stars' threatens. Cul-
tural destruction on Aka proceeds by grand and hideous macropolitical
gestures, but its traditional culture survives and flourishes in small acts
- choices about what to eat, what words to use, what stories to tell. In
this sense, The Telling's title can be understood as a call to witness and
celebrate culture as the telling of stories that give form and meaning to
everyday life. I see the politics that Le Guin dramatises here as being con-
sistent with Nancy Fraser's (1993) feminist view of a 'global solidarity'
that is 'rooted in a concrete sense of human interdependence in everyday
life, a vivid sense of the forms of emotional and practical support peo-
ple require from one another in daily life, not only when they are very
young, very old, or sick but also when they are healthy adults' (p. 22).16
Thus, one reading of The Telling is as a thought experiment in reha-
bilitating democratic ideals in the wake of their destabilisation by global
corporatism. As such, it addresses Torres's (2002) questions about glob-
alisation's effects on solidarities within and outside the nation-state by
imagining in rich and plausible detail how we might perform a citizen-
ship premised on shared responsibility for each other's everyday exis-
tence. Although Fraser (1993) theorises this mode of solidarity as 'femi-
nist', she emphasises that it does not require shared identity but, rather,
a shared understanding of 'those upon whom we feel entitled to make
claims for help and those whom we feel obliged to help in turn' (p. 22).
Fraser's political principle clearly meets Torres's (2002) 'challenge to the
theoretical imagination' but Le Guin delivers a similar challenge (and
represents a similar principle) without the abstractions of theoretical la-
bels. The Telling is a work of the practical imagination, a rehearsal of the
concrete choices, decisions and actions that men, women and children
can make to protect civic life and human rights (and resist their erosion)
at a local, micropolitical level. 17
Another reading of The Telling is to interpret its defence of daily life as
an allegory of Tibet's plight under Chinese occupation. The ways of Akan
telling resemble traditional Tibetan Buddhist practices and the modes of
its suppression resemble Mao's Cultural Revolution. Le Guin confirms
this interpretation in an interview with Mark Wilson (n. d.):w
I was really just trying to work out in fictional terms what
something like the Cultural Revolution in China or the rise
of fundamentalism in Arabic countries does to the people in-
volved in it - whether it's the suppression of a religion, which
is what happened in China, or the dominance of a religion and
the suppression of politics, which is happening in a lot of the
Arab world. These are terrifying phenomena - this stuff's go-
ing on right now, all around us. And it is something obviously
that human beings are likely to behave this way given the right
circumstances. So I sort of had to write a book about it.
Nevertheless, the Akan government is called the Corporation and the
novel's vision is as applicable to the homogenisation of culture under
corporate capitalism as it is to China's cultural wars. Le Guin's thought
experiment gives us detailed historicised and contextualised visions of
possible and plausible futures that are rooted in the choices we face in
the present moment.
These two readings do not exhaust the many possible interpretations
of The Telling but they should be sufficient to indicate that Le Guin's fic-
tion shares what Hayles (1990) calls 'isomorphic assumptions' with the
more self-consciously 'academic' literature of globalisation, governance
and social transformation. Many of its interpretive (and thus, I believe,
educative) possibilities lie in what at first seem like minor details. For
example, almost every significant event in the book is reported to Sutty,
who witnesses almost nothing directly, at any point (a little like the way
many of us get our news of world events via cnn and its affiliates). Also,
Aka is a world with only one continent, so that all of its peoples live on
just one landmass. Sutty's reflections on the significance of this differ-
ence from Terra - and its implication for the politics of identity - are
intriguing, especially in relation to her conviction that traditional Akan
spirituality is not a 'religion' (pp. 98-9):
... religion as an institution demanding belief and claiming
authority, religion as a community shaped by a knowledge of
foreign deities or competing institutions, had never existed on
Aka.
Until, perhaps, the present time.
Aka's habitable lands were a single huge continent with an
immensely long archipelago of its eastern coast____Undivided
by oceans, the Akans were physically all of one type with slight
local variations. All the Observers had remarked on this, all
had pointed out the ethnic homogeneity . . . but none of them
had quite realised that among Akans there were no foreigners.
There had never been any foreigners, until the ships from the
Ekumen landed.
It was a simple fact, but one remarkably difficult for the Ter-
ran mind to comprehend. No aliens. No others, in the deadly
sense of otherness that existed on Terra, the implacable divi-
sion between tribes, the arbitrary and impassable borders, the
ethnic hatreds cherished over centuries and millennia. 'The
people' here meant not my people, but people - everybody,
humanity. 'Barbarian' didn't mean an incomprehensible out-
lander, but an uneducated person. On Aka, all competition
was familial. All wars were civil wars.
We hardly need to be reminded of just how deadly our sense of other-
ness can be. The breadth of new antiterrorist legislation in nations such
as Australia and the us - coupled in Australia with the present federal
government's paranoid approach to 'border protection' and treatment of
asylum seekers that amounts to institutionalised racism - is eroding the
foundations of respect for human rights in these countries and world-
wide. The Telling provides us with empirical evidence of the possibility
of thinking what to many humans is unthinkable, such as imagining a
world without 'foreigners'. What would social policy (and educational
policy) look like if we too assumed that 'the people' meant 'everybody,
humanity'? Le Guin reminds us that it is possible to think differently
about identity and community, and questions of inclusion and exclu-
sion, without ever underestimating the remarkable difficulty of doing so,
and the even greater difficulty of bringing new imaginaries into effect.
A Reflection and an Invitation
I have no 'conclusions' to this essay, but I will end it by offering a brief
reflection on its production and an invitation to readers to continue its
always-unfinished work. I began this essay with the hope that it would
connect global transitions, educational inquiry and my reading of The
Telling in ways that might be generative for other readers. I believe that
the generativity of this essay depends, in part, on readers recognising
that it consists of explorations rather than explanations and/or exhorta-
tions and that it exemplifies a mode of inquiry in which 'essay' should
most often be understood as a verb - to attempt, to try, to test. In con-
ceptual inquiry an essay serves a similar function to an experiment in
empirical research - a disciplined way of investigating a question, prob-
lem or issue. Both 'essay' and 'assay' come to English speakers through
the French essayer from the Latin exigere, to weigh. Thus, I write essays
to test ideas, to 'weigh' them up, to give me (and eventually, I hope, my
colleagues) a sense of their worth. For me, the act of writing an essay is
a form of inquiry, and I usually do not know what the final thesis of my
essay will be when I begin to write. Ideas about narrative, fiction, textu-
ality and intertextuality are the instruments and apparatus with which I
produce 'data' in my conceptual laboratory.
If my essay has been generative you might now be more disposed than
previously to look for sf stories that can be read as social thought exper-
iments and to explore their intertextual relationships with the canonical
and/or commonplace academic and professional texts that inform your
work. More importantly, you will have no hesitation in thinking of these
explorations as a form of social inquiry.
Acknowledgments
My thanks to Annette Gough, Evelyn Johnson and Ian Stronach for
their thoughtful and constructive comments on earlier drafts of this
essay.
Notes
1.	Silent Spring is considered by many critics to be one of the most influ-
ential books of the twentieth century (as its publication in the Penguin
Modern Classics series indicates). It focuses on the effects of the indis-
criminate use of chemicals, describing how pesticides and insecticides
were being applied almost universally to farms, forests, gardens and
homes with scant regard to the contamination of the environment
and the destruction of wildlife. Despite condemnation in the politi-
cally conservative us press and attempts by the chemical industry to
ban the book, Carson succeeded in creating a new public awareness
of the environment that led to changes in government policy and in-
spired the modern environmental movement.
2.	Dune is a multiple award winning science fiction novel that spawned
numerous sequels. It is a lengthy and elaborate adventure with a
labyrinthine plot, much of which takes place on a desert planet called
Arrakis (or Dune). Arrakis is the sole source of Melange, a spice
that is necessary for interstellar travel and grants psychic powers and
longevity, so whoever controls it wields great influence. When the
Emperor transfers stewardship of Arrakis from the Harkonnen Noble
House to House Atreides an intricate power struggle begins. Through
sabotage and treachery the Harkonnens cast a young duke, Paul Atrei-
des, out into the planet's harsh environment to die, where (not without
considerable difficulty) he falls in with the Fremen, a tribe of desert
dwellers who he recruits to his quest to reclaim Arrakis. However, Paul
might also be the end product of a very long-term genetic experiment
designed to breed a super human - a 'messiah' - and his struggles with
this possible 'destiny' are as difficult and as complex as those he faces
in the desert environments of Arrakis.
3.	As Haraway (1989) explains, since the late 1960s the signifier sf has
designated 'a complex emerging narrative field in which the bound-
aries between science fiction (conventionally, sf) and fantasy became
highly permeable in confusing ways, commercially and linguistically';
sf now refers to 'an increasingly heterodox array of writing, reading,
and marketing practices indicated by a proliferation of "sf" phrases:
speculative fiction, science fiction, science fantasy, speculative futures,
speculative fabulation' (p. 5).
4.	This literature included new periodicals such as The American Nature
Writing Newsletter from 1989, and the journal Interdisciplinary Studies
in Literature and Environment from 1993.
5.	An 'environmental awareness handbook' might seem to be a more
appropriate description of Silent Spring than of Herbert's sf novel,
but this is just one of the ways in which each book 'borrows' some of
the other text's generic conventions. For example, Silent Spring's first
chapter, 'A Fable for Tomorrow', is written in the past tense and emu-
lates (albeit somewhat clumsily) dystopian science fiction.
6.	A much more obvious influence is Paul Sears's (1947) Deserts on the
March.
7.	Dillon (2002) quotes an 'Australian ee doctoral student' as follows: 'I
read Silent Spring for the first time as a fourteen-year-old teenager. At
the time I was horrified, but vividly inspired by this text. It provided a
doorway to the environmental movement and ... inspired me to enter
the debate . . . Ten years have passed, and I am still intrigued by Silent
Spring, such that I now endeavour to lead a career in the environmen-
tal movement and live my life accordingly' (p. 15).
8.	Daun et al. (2002) note that participatory democracy appears as an
important theme in South Africa's new curriculum framework and
textbooks but that large majorities of students in all four countries
agree with such authoritarian positions as 'every country needs leaders
whose decisions are not questioned' and 'some political parties should
be forbidden' (p. 192).
9.	Marcus Clarke is a significant figure in the history of Australian lit-
erature, best known as the author of an epic popular novel, For the
Term of His Natural Life. This quotation is taken from an essay, 'The
Future Australian Race', published in The Marcus Clarke Memorial Vol-
ume (Mackinnon 1884, 251), but must date from some years previously
since the term of Clarke's own natural life expired in 1881.
10.	By 'we' here I mean People Like Us - academic and/or professional
researchers and teachers who edit and contribute to journals like this
one.
11.	An email joke doing the rounds earlier this year alleged that the fol-
lowing was a 'High Distinction answer from ec0101 tutorial, first year,
School of Economics and Commerce, Faculty of Arts, Australian Na-
tional University':
Q: How do you define globalisation?
A: Princess Diana's death.
Q: Why?
A: An English Princess with an Egyptian boyfriend crashes in a French
tunnel, driving a German car with a Dutch engine, driven by a Belgian
affected by Scotch whisky, followed closely by Italian paparazzi, on
Japanese motorcycles, treated by an American doctor, using Brazilian
medicine. (Sent to you by an Australian, using American [Bill Gates]
technology which he stole from the Taiwanese.)
12.	To demonstrate that I am prepared to practice what I preach, I note
here that I have included references to sf and/or popular culture in
several of my own publications on globalisation (see, for example,
Gough 1999; 2000; 2002).
13.	Readers who are interested in other thought experiments in gover-
nance are likely to find an earlier novel in Le Guin's Hainish series,
The Dispossessed (1974), particularly rewarding. In some editions The
Dispossessed carries a subtitle, An Ambiguous Utopia, which signals the
novel's implicit questioning of the conventional form and substance
of utopian writing in Western literature. The central character of The
Dispossessed is a theoretical physicist located in a century-old anar-
chist society at a time when it is becoming more structured. Not to be
confused with nihilism or libertarianism, philosophical anarchism is
based on a belief that moral responsibility rests with individuals and
views cooperation (solidarity, mutual aid) rather than competition as
the key to evolutionary survival.
14.	Le Guin stresses the importance of naming things in both her fiction
(see, for example, Le Guin 1987) and literary essays (see Le Guin 1989),
so it seems very likely that she intends the name of the planet Aka to
invoke the acronymic abbreviation 'aka' (also known as).
15.	A period of many years - the technology exists to transmit informa-
tion instantaneously across any distance, but physical travel through
space still takes a long time.
16.	Fraser (1993) outlines three other ways of formulating an 'inclusive,
universalist, global view of solidarity as shared responsibility which
does not require shared identity', namely: a socialist view 'based on ...
our interdependence in a common global political economy... where
wealth is the common creation of all people's labor'; an environmen-
talist view 'based on our ... interdependence as inhabitants of a com-
mon biosphere'; and a radical-democratic view 'rooted in the fact that
we inhabit an increasingly global public space of discourse and rep-
resentation . . . that might be redefined as a space in which all people
deliberate together to decide our common fate' (p. 22). Traces of the
latter view can be discerned in The Telling (and a variation on it is
particularly apparent in The Dispossessed; see n. 11, above).
17.	Le Guin's non-fiction essays on sf and fantasy demonstrate a persis-
tent engagement with feminist politics (see, for example, 'Is gender
necessary? Redux' and other essays in Le Guin 1989) and much of her
recent fiction challenges the gendered conventions of these genres.
18. http://www.scifi.com/sfw/issue189/interview.html (27 November 2002).
By way of reflecting on my own textual strategies, I must point out
here that I am not privileging Le Guin's interpretation of The Telling
merely because she wrote it. I agree with the spirit of Umberto Eco's
(1984) dictum that 'The author should die once he [sic] has finished
writing. So as not to trouble the path of the text' (p. 7). I quote Le Guin
for the same reasons that I use or paraphrase other authors' words: be-
cause their formulations and interpretations are agreeable to me and
because I am self-consciously writing in a genre of academic journal-
ism characterised by the rhetorical deployment of frequent quotations
and citations.
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Vital Approach to Transition:
Slovene Multiple Case Study
Suzanne Winbauer Catana
This paper uses a multiple case study to suggest the effectiveness in ap-
plication of an integrated model for the design of sustainable change
strategies in high velocity environments and organizations. The model
integrates awareness of current organizational cultural characteristics
with leadership intent and strategy formation. The cultural analysis
provides a lens through which diverse organizational values are ex-
posed and stakeholders can assess organizational alignment with the
external environment, organizational mission and future vision. Us-
ing the inherent differentiation of values as creative tensions, strategies
are formulated for purposeful change to improve alignment. Leader-
ship inquiry is used to suggest an alignment of personal intent with the
strategic initiatives to project sustainable change. This Values, Inquiry,
and Tensions Alignment for Leadership model (vital) is applied as
an intervention sequence which provides information, direction, and
motivation for sustainable change in transition organizations and en-
vironments.
Context of the Study
The recently formed democratic nation of Slovenia is scheduled to join
the European Union in 2004. This independent state, as a part of the
former socialist federation of republics of Yugoslavia, is undergoing evo-
lutionary changes in its social, economic, governance and educational
systems and structures. There are fundamental shifts from its socialist
history toward globalization, modernization and evolution of leadership
and management practices. While change in the business environment
has been moving forward at a rapid pace, public administration and
non-profit sectors lag in capacity development and implementation of
participatory practices. This paper provides a review of a multiple case
study of three non-profit sector organizations and an in-depth analysis
of one of the cases. The intent of the paper is to consider the cases in
the context of complex societal changes taking place in Slovenia and to
suggest a practical model for designing change strategies based on the
Dr Suzanne Winbauer Catana is adjunct instructor at State
University of New York, Plattsburgh, usa.
tenets of democratic values and grounded in organizational and man-
agement theory. The results of the study are indicative of the poten-
tial for effective and sustainable change strategies based on aligning or-
ganizational culture, leadership intent, and strategy development. The
in-depth study demonstrates the use of inquiry, analysis, and problem
solving to suggest an integrated developmental path. As a result of the
comparative case study and the in-depth study, a model was developed
suggesting evolutionary change processes for organizations in transition
in the midst of societal change. The application of three analytical tools
in a holistic model, Values + Inquiry + Tensions Analyses and Leadership
(vital), can provide a set of high leverage strategic change options for
leaders. The holistic focus provided by analysis of organizational culture,
the perspective variety elicited from two institutions and one non-profit
organization, the integral nature of the models fitting together to form
a whole picture, and the action research application of each of the tools
collectively generate a syncretic result. The data composite can initiate
new perspectives and changes in mental models as well as make deep
patterns of organizational behaviour and cultures possible.
Embracing the values of openness, participation, accountability, ef-
fectiveness, and coherence (Commission of the European Communities
2001) involves profound changes which require radical changes in val-
ues, beliefs, behaviours and modes of organizing for learning for Slovene
managers and leaders. A common and fundamental attribute of non-
participative, ruled societies is that ruling authorities have power over,
control of, or decide for others who are perceived in some way as less
important, less valued, less able or less entitled. This deeply embedded
attribute and belief structure is characteristic of the historic leadership,
management, and educational practice in the Eastern and Southeast-
ern European region. As a fundamental principle of leadership based on
democratic values, participation in collaborative processes from com-
mon core values, while sustaining the power of diverse perspectives, is
key.
To accomplish a shift in values, to move from prior paternalistic and
authoritarian styles, to promote inclusion and solidarity for inclusive
policy design, decision-making, and action, changes in the educational
infrastructure for leadership development are essential. To reflect 'new'
democratic values, institutions of higher education must be accountable
for establishing and sustaining an integrity of doing what they say leaders
and managers must do to avoid an inherent misalignment between val-
ues in action and the voice of espoused values. Just as former oppressed
societies must undergo deep cultural change, institutions responsible for
the development of future leaders must consider deeply embedded pat-
terns which sustain an alignment with values of a socialist society. Lead-
ership and management approaches and belief structures must be exam-
ined and patterns modified in order to enable the development of vi-
brant, 21st Century leaders and managers in a diverse and integrated so-
ciety. This study examined the status of this shift in three organizations
charged with the education of leaders and managers in school admin-
istration, business and economics, and youth development. The study
looked at the alignment of organizational culture, leadership intent and
environmental conditions to posit strategies for effective change.
It is against this backdrop of analysis of the emergence of the democ-
racy of Slovenia, its transition from authoritarian rule and its consolida-
tion toward greater maturity in evolving its democratic form, that this
paper is situated. In his comentary on Slovenia, Rizman (2001) suggests
shifting of these mental models is a technical (p. 5) development need.
Given the history of this country, a hesitancy to trust authority is an ap-
parent undeveloped attribute of Slovenia in its emergence as a civil so-
ciety. It could be argued that these attributes are reflected in any society
in conditions where patriarchy and authoritarian rule have been nor-
malized into management and leadership practice (Northouse 2000). In
post industrial era America many organizations and populations could
be described in similar ways. This stage of evolution is an illusion, pro-
jecting the image of stability on the surface that is sourced and main-
tained through more subtle forms of dominance and control, carrying
forward residuals of patriarchy and patronage. As shifts in environment
and humanistic thought occur in industrialized and emergent civil soci-
eties, one can see similar patterns change through developmental stages
toward more complexity and integration of more diverse forms and pro-
cesses of organizing.
In considering patterns of alignment between environment, organi-
zational forms and processes and leadership, leaders in stable environ-
ments mirror the attributes of an organization in stable environments.
The emergent globalizing and interconnected world and organizational
environment of the 21st Century is fluid, open-ended, turbulent, and
subject to the rapid change and complexity fostered by the information
driven knowledge society and the transition to service-based economies.
It is clear in the organizational literature that organizations in general,
regardless of democratic maturity, face similar issues (Mintzberg and
Quinn 1992). In the organizational cultures that have emanated from
industrial based organizational knowledge and capitalistic values, man-
agers and leaders face the same challenges as those in emerging democra-
cies. The difference may be in the scale, scope, and depth of the paradigm
being challenged. Any environmental shift which presents challenges to
historic patterns or belief structures, those closely held paradigms which
are known and from which we have from antiquity found our solidarity,
beckons the emergence of a corollary shift in leadership attributes, skills
and tools (Quinn 1996).
The change facing former ruled societies as they move toward demo-
cratic participation in governance, suggests deep cultural, organizational
and psychological shifts. To begin addressing the best practice methods
for preparing leaders and managers challenged with facilitating these
deep shifts, this paper examines the results of a pilot study of two re-
lated test case institutions of higher education infrastructure in Slovenia.
These institutions are in a state of flux. Each is in a major transition pro-
cess as an organization, moving from dependency on established uni-
versities to interdependency, in relationship as peers with official desig-
nation and acceptance as university level institutions within the struc-
ture of the education system of Slovenia. The third case examines the
cultural typology of a national youth service organization that has ex-
isted and thrived in Slovenia during the time of former Yugoslavia until
the present day. In comparing these three cases, it is interesting to note
the patterns that suggest current states of alignment or misalignment be-
tween organizing, leading and interacting with their environment. These
institutions additionally provide a potential microcosm of the status of
leadership competency development and process of change that mirror
the transitions occurring in the larger Slovene society. The cases pro-
vide a snapshot of the key teaching and learning environments and the
competencies currently viewed as foundational for leadership and man-
agement in the business, non-government, and educational sectors.
Slovene Cases
Modern day philosopher Ken Wilber calls for higher, wider and deeper
understanding of the world in which we live and towards whose evolu-
tion we contribute (Wilber 1998). In response to this call as a research
and theoretical challenge, three Slovene organizational cases were stud-
ied between January and February 2002. A pilot and follow-up studies
were conducted to determine the possible developmental status of lead-
ership and management preparation in a society in transition, Slovenia.
The pilot study was conducted to raise the awareness of the potential in-
formation available from institutional and leader self-analysis, to raise
the level of trust between the researcher and institutional members to
enable a full study, and to test the value of the syncretic triangulation
of the three analytic methods. The study gives institutional leaders and
members an opportunity to consider to what extent their organizational
culture reflects historic models of bureaucratic and mechanistic charac-
teristics associated with stable and known environments consistent with
old world and industrial societal forms (Daft 1983). Leaders and man-
agers of organizations can determine whether the institutionalized cul-
ture reflects attributes of more evolutionary, organic and open cultures
of inclusion and flexibility consistent with rapidly changing and complex
external environments (Daft 1983; Morgan 1986). Information collected
can be used to determine the appropriate and desired organizational cul-
tural characteristics on which to focus a developmental change process
(Cameron and Quinn 1998). The institutions involved in the study can
strategically plan for organizational and personal development. Change
can be planned to be consistent with the emerging environments, roles
and identities of their new organizational status and their emergent po-
tential for shaping the developmental, educational and credentialing in-
frastructure for Slovene society and the management and leadership of
its organizations.
Two higher education institutions in Slovenia and one youth service
organization were studied. Case 1 is a college that has an educational fo-
cus on economics and management. Case 2 credentials master degree
students in educational administration. Case 3 provides educational and
leadership development programmeming for youth and is part of the
international scouting movement. The analysis of the educational pro-
grammes for future leaders and managers of Slovene society provides
information with which to intentionally modify teaching methodology,
organizational attributes and curricula. An analysis of the current prepa-
ration of leaders in secondary and primary education provides informa-
tion about what new educational programmes or course content will be
needed to prepare students to enter into the European Union or other
environments that embrace pluralistic democratic values and principles.
An analysis of a youth development organization provides a benchmark
against internationally guided programmeming for youth from which
to view the institutions of higher education and to speculate about the
larger societal development. If these organizations and their respective
leadership are congruent with their environment, with the requisite va-
riety of a holographic organization (Morgan 1986) the organizations and
the training provided would align with and reflect cultural environments
in which deep societal transitions are occurring.
Quinn's (1990) Competing Values approach has been applied as a
comprehensive analysis tool for organizational effectiveness, leadership
role assessment (Quinn 1990) and as an organizational culture analysis
tool (Cameron and Quinn 1998) by practitioners and theorists since the
mid 1980s. The Competing Values Model (cvm) identifies distinctions in
personal and organizational tendencies and patterns of behaviour based
on certain inherent values and underlying psychological archetypes. Its
reliability and validity as a typological, action research, and diagnostic
tool are well established. Key dimensions of the model, with a cultural
focus, are noted in Figure 1.
The first analysis tool, the Competing Values Model (Quinn 1990),
was applied as an organization culture assessment (Cameron and Quinn
1998). The Competing Values Model organizational culture assessment
instrument was administered to full time staff in all three organizations
and to full time faculty in the institutions of higher education. An analy-
sis was completed of the programmes of study offered by the institutions
of higher education. The results of the organization culture analysis for
each organization indicated unique cultural attributes for most of the
cultural dimensions, with one exception. The leadership component was
similar for both institutions. In both cases, leadership was perceived to
be congruent with hierarchical values and a hierarchical culture. In the
management institution case, the perception of hierarchical leadership
was clearly the dominant one; in the educational leaders institution case
there was also an opposite tendency towards perception of leadership as
consistent with an adhocracy culture. The overall culture profile and the
profile of the leadership dimension for each of the institutional cases is
depicted in Figure 2.
In their research, Cameron and Quinn (1998) found a need for con-
gruence between the different components of an organization's culture as
well as a need for alignment of the organizational culture with the envi-
ronmental conditions. Intuitively, there follows the imperative for lead-
ership competence to align with both the environmental conditions and
organizational culture. For both institutional cases, hierarchical leader-
Flexibility and discretion
Culture:	CLAN	ADHOCRACY
Leadership:	Facilitator	Innovator
	Mentor	Entrepreneur
	Parent	Visionary
Effectiveness Criteria:	Cohesion	Cutting-edge output
	Morale	Creativity
	Development of Human Resources	Growth
Management Theory:	Participation fosters commitment	Innovativeness fosters new resources
Quality Strategies:	Empowerment, Teams	Create new standards
	Employee involvement	Creative solution finding
	Open communication	Continuous improvement
Internal maintenance
and integration
Culture:
Leadership:
Effectiveness Criteria:
Management Theory:
Quality Strategies:
HIERARCHY
Coordinator
Monitor
Organizer
Efficiency
Timeliness
Smooth functioning
Control fosters efficiency
Error detection
Measurement
Process control
Applying quality tools
Systematic problem solving
External positioning
and differentiation
MARKET
Hard-driver
Competitor
Producer
Market share
Goal achievement
Beating competitors
Competition fosters productivity
Measuring customer preferences
Improving productivity
Enhancing competitiveness
Involving customers and suppliers
Creating partnerships
Stability and control
Figure 1: Key Dimensions of the Competing Values Model
(adapted from Cameron and Quinn 1999)
Case 1: Management
Case 2: Education
Clan
Adhocracy
Clan
Adhocracy
Hierarchy
Market
Hierarchy
Market
Culture
Leadership Dimension
Figure 2: Case Specific Culture and Leadership Dimension
using Competing Values Model
ship is inconsistent with the needs of organizations based on their domi-
nant cultures (Cameron and Quinn 1998) and the nature of the environ-
ments in which they find themselves (Daft 1983). The cultural analysis
of both institutions noted by the dotted line in Figure 2, reflects stake-
holder experiences as more balanced in each of the quadrants than the
leadership competency analysis. Environmental aspects of change, com-
plexity and turbulence discussed in the context of the study suggest that
successful performance of the institutions would require leadership com-
petence that is high on adaptability, innovation, stakeholder brokering,
and resource acquisition. As noted in Figure 2, the leadership competen-
cies identified in both cases by the solid line are consistent with envi-
ronments and organizations that are stable, simple, and with behaviour
demonstrating historic patterns tending toward security and control, in-
dicating a mismatch between leadership competence, the internal cul-
ture and environmental conditions. In both institutional cases, leaders'
and managers' effectiveness will depend on their competence in operat-
ing in an open system characterized by high turbulence, rapid change,
high diversity of involved stakeholders, and open information flow or
transparency.
Instructional Programmes Analysis
The instructional programmes in the institutions of higher education
were analysed by sorting required and elective course topics using the
Case 1: Management
Case 2: Education
Clan
Adhocracy
Clan
Adhocracy
A AA
AAA AAAAAA
★★★★ ★★
AA
AAA
AAA A
AAAAAAAAAA AAAA
★★★★★★★★★★ ★★★★★
AA
AA AAAAAA
Hierarchy
Market
Hierarchy
Market
A Graduate Courses A Elective Courses ★ Required Courses
Figure 3: Course Distribution in Institutional Cases
cvm. Instructional emphasis and inferences about competency develop-
ment were determined by considering the number and distribution of
courses offered in each of the quadrants. Also considered in the analysis
of instructional programmes was the distribution of required as com-
pared to elective courses. The analysis of the programme of study for
managers in Case 1, at undergraduate level, revealed there was an em-
phasis on hierarchical, stability seeking oriented courses. There was a
lighter relative distribution of required courses available to provide com-
petency development for more flexible, open organizations and market
driven organizations. The majority of both required and elective courses
at graduate level are oriented towards capacity building with an assump-
tion of stable environments and hierarchical organizations. At graduate
level, the clan and market organization competency courses are not as
available as the other two quadrants. In the analysis of the education ad-
ministrators' curriculum, the most notable revelation of the distribution
was no required coursework related to a market culture with a productiv-
ity and quality customer service orientation. This case also demonstrated
a lack of curricular balance. In both cases the current curricula emphasis
is incongruent with the prevailing environments of change, complexity,
and turbulence. Figure 3 provides a view of the distribution of course
offerings.
Based on decades of leadership in management education at the
Wharton School, Russell Ackoff (1974) suggests that there are signifi-
cant problems with management education programmes in the United
States and abroad. Because of their focus on teaching content rather than
enabling students to learn how to learn, using the content as the medium
for learning rather than the end goal of teaching, graduates of manage-
ment programmes are ill equipped to manage (Ackoff 2002). The Case
1 programme was modelled after programmes in the us and the Case 2
programme was modelled after a programme in the uk. The fundamen-
tals of both programmes are focused on the functions, analysis, and tech-
niques of business management and administration, respectively. This is
consistent with recent reflections on the evolutionary or developmental
status of education programmes that indicate that current programmes
are designed from knowledge of 1908 business forms and 1950s business
strategies (Mintzberg and Gosling 2002). Pfeffer and Fong further review
the research on curriculum in business schools siting that the content of
what is taught in business schools is not correlated with business success
(Pfeffer and Fong 2002). Consistent across the literature is a call for a
learning focus, live and real application of theoretical material, focus on
interpersonal and leadership development and active engagement by the
student in the process of interaction and learning in the classroom.
Competing Values Model Summary
The analysis allows the institutions to take a more comprehensive or
wider look at institutional cultural attributes and the scope of course-
work or competencies being offered for the leaders and managers of cor-
porations, government agencies, non-profit orgnisations and schools in
Slovenia in the next ten to twenty years. Curriculum development might
be geared to fill in the gaps and shift emphasis from functional content
to improving skill development that reflects the open systems forms of
emerging democracies and aspirations of the European Union. Using
this analysis tool, the institutions have a greater awareness of how their
organizations fit within the context of the current transitional environ-
ments they face and can make strategic decisions with a more tangible
sense of appropriate and congruent action which will support their ef-
fective development. In consideration of the institutional cases in com-
parison with the youth service organization case, one can make the ob-
servation that there is organizational variability within the same culture,
simply by considering the different shapes of the culture and leadership
profiles. The Youth Service organization represents an organization not
under the same political and educational restrictions as the institutions
of higher education. This provides a within the culture yet an 'outside
Figure 4: Youth Service
Organization Cultural
and Leadership Analysis
Clan
Adhocracy
Culture
Leadership Dimension
Hierarchy
Market
the system' perspective which offers insights about the organization it-
self and is useful as a comparative reference. When the organizational
culture of the institutions is compared to the youth service organization,
there is a clear difference in the shape of the culture in its demonstration
of greater orientation toward humanistic values and a lesser emphasis
than the institutions on open interaction with the environment. In com-
paring the leadership attributes between the institutions and the youth
service organization it is noted that there is a similar lack of focus on
the values of network management and similar lack of production ori-
entation. There appears to be a less hierarchically oriented style of the
leadership in the youth service organization compared with that which
exists in the institutional cases. Figure 4 shows the two profiles of the
youth organization case.
The intent of this study was to introduce a new, integral and com-
prehensive action management tool that the leaders of the organizations
could use to make more informed strategic choices and to consider crit-
ical change paths. Further research with more cases would enable a de-
piction of the national culture of schools of management and educa-
tional administration. It is one thing to cognitively understand cultural
attributes and leadership styles, it is a different challenge to determine
strategically an appropriate change emphasis. While the cvm provides a
perspective of gaps, current and potential cultural attributes, and meth-
ods for developing competencies (Quinn and Faerman 1996; Cameron
and Quinn 1998), a different model can provide leaders and managers
with an effective method for engaging the dynamics of different values
within the same organization. In order to apply, in action, the results of
the culture analysis in the institutions studied, a strategic analysis and
action planning tool was used to determine, given the culture, leadership
and environmental conditions, a reasonable strategic agenda for each of
the institutions. Consideration was given to the best possible change ini-
tiative to potentially pursue that had the greatest alignment with the or-
ganization's mission and vision. This tool was used only with the insti-
tutions of higher education with which there was direct access to the
leadership of these organizations.
Tension Model Analysis
The Tension Model (Nutt and Backoff 1992) uses inherent polarities of
values, behaviour patterns and cultural norms within organizations as a
means of suggesting generative or creative, inclusive, collaborative strate-
gies. The Tension Model was used to determine whether the orientation
of the leaders' strategic intents aligned with environmental and cultural
conditions of Slovene society and the specific organizations of which the
leaders are a part as the process of complex transition unfolds.
The inherent tension between the normative tendencies represented
by the quadrants of the cvm suggest the real life interplay between the
mental models, embedded patterns of leadership and management prac-
tice, and organizational culture. The recognition of these natural differ-
ences serves as a catalytic force for change (McWhinney 1997), inviting
the discovery of a higher order of potential developmental strategies by
integrating the apparent paradoxical tensions. By framing the apparent
paradoxes within a higher order potential, or holon as Wilber (1998)
would suggest, and embracing the paradox, more powerful and influen-
tial strategies can emanate from the creative tension. Higher order strate-
gies are required for the organizations to break the historic and deeply
embedded patterns of leadership and management in Slovene society
(Rizman 2001). This break from embedded patterns would allow accel-
erated movement toward and alignment with a preferred organizational
culture while effectively meeting the demands of transitional societal and
institutional environments. Leadership practice would need to shift from
the hierarchical mode to incorporate more humanistic and consumer fo-
cused attention.
Because of the inherent tensions and comprehensive robustness of the
Competing Values Model, it is used as an orientation backdrop for ap-
plying the Tension Model (Nutt and Backoff 1992). The Tension Model
was applied as an analytical tool to the cvm cultural dimension of lead-
ership. Both institutional cases examined had similar leadership profiles.
The Tension
Model
Flexibility
Internal process
Management, Control,
Documentation, Stability,
Continuity:
THE HIERARCHY
Control
Open Systems
Insight, Innovation,
Adaptation, External
Support, Growth, Change:
THE ADHOCRACY
Leadership Tension
External Focus
Rational Goal
Productivity, Goal
Clarification, Direction,
Decisiveness, Service:
THE MARKET
Figure 5: Tension Model High Leverage Strategies
The Tension Model was applied using the tension between the pull to-
ward hierarchical tradition-bound leadership and the simultaneous pull
toward open systems growth and innovative leadership consistent with
environmental flux, turbulence and transition. An underlying 'driving'
value is identified for each end of the tension (values that drive inter-
nal stability and control, and values that drive external network develop-
ment and stakeholder collaboration). A higher order value that includes
both of the driving values is identified to embrace the whole of the ten-
sion. Strategies and actions are then derived from an inquiry into how
the organization can articulate that higher order value. With experience
in applying the model in many organizations, it has been found that the
most powerful strategies to catapult beyond a tension are located in the
cvm quadrants perpendicular to the tension being managed. The ten-
sion engages two of the quadrants; the goal and solution reside in the
other two quadrants. What the organization focuses on and how it gets
there create a balance of competing values and a dynamic spiraling affect
that induces effective change that serves to align the organization and
strategically pursue a desired cultural shift. The two example strategy
derivations are depicted in Figure 5.
Organizational Culture Assessment
The Tension Model analysis when used in isolation might yield the same
strategic choices for both cases. The orientation of the strategic choices,
however, is different because the cases had very distinct organizational
cultures as a whole as determined by the cvm analysis. In the educational
leadership institution, Case 2, where the culture was aligned as an adhoc-
racy with the exception of the leadership component, the high leverage
strategy would suggest a change in leader behaviour. Current leader be-
haviour was perceived to be consistent with controlling and monitor-
ing roles while the organization operates in an open system. The out-
come and strategy would be directed toward alignment of the leadership
behaviour with both the cultural orientation and environmental condi-
tions. The leadership component was the only skewed aspect of the or-
ganization's culture and the organizational culture is congruent with the
dynamic and turbulent transition environment in which it exists. There-
fore isolating a strategy directly related to leadership behaviour change
was straightforward and intuitively clear from the analysis.
The strategic intent of change could be focused on making develop-
mental adjustments in the leadership behaviour to create congruence
with the other facets of the culture. This type of strategy would access
alternate quadrants, using the cvm as an orienting tool. A focus on more
involvement of staff in the decision-making process by activating the val-
ues of productivity and effectiveness of the curriculum might provide
the potential for expansion of leadership competence in innovation and
adaptation to bring the leadership facet into balance with the other as-
pects of the culture.
In considering the management institution, Case 1, where the cultural
assessment revealed no alignment between cultural components, a po-
tential outcome that the organization might desire is a clear focus and
strategic direction, to activate the values of productivity and effective-
ness. The clear focus and direction can be developed using a participa-
tory process in which the higher core value of human potential is used
as a lever to create an organizational vision and strategic plan. Thus the
inherent tension between hierarchical control and the open flexibility of
adhocracy is balanced by creating a generative tension between process
and product, using participatory visioning and strategic planning.
There are additional tensions at play in the organizations between
quadrants that are over-emphasized and quadrants that are less devel-
oped. The tensions chosen for strategic analysis were selected for illustra-
tion. If the organizations chose to develop to a next stage of competence
in maximizing the spiral balance of responsiveness in all four quadrants,
strategic agendas for each of the tensions would be necessary. Other fac-
tors influence the ability of an organization to pursue the strategic so-
lution identified. This is a story of raising leadership awareness by look-
ing through a wider analytical lens, exploring the potential hidden with
the tensions of competing values, conducting an inquiry into leadership
motivation, and as action research, there were no limits or boundaries
identified that would limit or eliminate potential strategies.
Logical Levels Analysis
The third step in interacting with the leaders of the institutions of higher
education was an application of an inquiry process using neurolinguis-
tics developed from the field of neuro-psychology. This inquiry tool in-
vites consideration of environment, behaviour, capacities, beliefs, values,
identity, and life purpose to form personal strategic direction and action.
The inquiry was derived from the Logical Levels of Experience Model
(Dilts 1996). This model provides the potential for a deep exploration
into a metaphor of identity that incorporates both the real and the po-
tential of past, current and future experience. In the process of inquiring
into deeper leadership values and motivations, it is possible to determine
if there is alignment between the individual's deeper structural patterns
and the envisioned strategic agenda for the organization. As the third an-
alytic perspective, the two administrative leaders of the institutional cases
were asked to complete a series of questions that access Logical Levels of
Experience as defined by Dilts and McDonald (1997). The questions were
intended to elicit the following information:
1.	specification of a particular outcome for the institution,
2.	the deeper value that is the driving force for desiring the outcome,
3.	the measures or evidence for when the outcome has been realized,
4.	the personal barriers to realization of the outcome,
5.	competences the leader has and needs to realize the outcome,
6.	first action steps and timeline, and
7.	personal metaphor representing the leader leading the organization
toward the outcome.
The questions were intended to invite the leaders to reflect more
deeply on individual motivations for behaviour and to raise awareness
of whether current behaviour is consistent with deeper core values, per-
sonal life purpose, and self-identity as leader. Tapping this deeper sense
of purpose and archetypes through metaphor provides an individual
access to volitional, spiritual and emotional sources for action. (Marcic
1997) Because of the short-term access to the organizations and leaders in
the study, it is unknown at this time whether the leaders actually changed
their behaviour as was indicated in their responses to the questions. It
is arguable that organizational change at the cultural level begins with
individual change and that leaders have the potential to influence the
direction and speed of change (Jawarski 1996; Quinn et al. 1996; Senge
1999).
In an analysis of leader responses to the questions, the cvm was used
as a framework and the Tension Model as a compass. In the case of
the management institution, the outcome identified by the leader was
a sense of professional successfulness, interpreted as a rational goal ori-
ented outcome. The strategy selected to achieve that goal was to focus
on limiting the personal scope of work by reducing the amount of time
spent in the office and doing only the work that was within the param-
eters of the leader's formal position. The leader identified an outcome
and behavioural change in the same quadrant, externally focused ratio-
nal goals. When asked to identify how others could support the leader
to accomplish the desired outcome, the leader stated the need for others
to do their assigned work. This response again aligns with the overarch-
ing value of productivity. The leader identified a 'human being' as the
metaphor to represent future development. In the interview, the leader
could offer no qualitative description of the chosen metaphor. This lack
of qualitative description may be an indicator that the leader may not
have tapped the inspirational power of a life metaphor at the time of the
interview. Fox and Amichai-Hamburger (2001) argue that emotions are
an important component to consider in creating and sustaining success-
ful change initiatives.
The analysis of the Case 1 leader's strategy yields interesting results
when viewed in conjunction with the cvm and the Tension Model anal-
yses. The organizational level analyses indicate that cultural change to-
ward more open systems and leadership that supports that, would be
most congruent with the organization's institutional and societal tran-
sition environments. The chosen personal change strategy would not
move the leader or the organizational culture in the direction of align-
ment with the environment. It is unlikely that the organizational culture
will be positively impacted with the implementation of the leader's ac-
tion and there is some question as to whether the outcome will be real-
ized by enacting the chosen strategy. A vicious circle around control of
self and others from a hierarchical mental model towards high produc-
tivity and internal monitoring prevails in the leader strategy. The strat-
egy selected and action envisioned continues to play on the tension line
in the lower control portion of the cvm. The open system, transition en-
vironment in which the organization operates, requires high flexibility,
innovation and collaboration internally and externally (George 2001).
Attention to process, or management of the means to goals is a compe-
tence for the future (Johnson and Broms 2000) that has not been devel-
oped as a competency by this leader. The current leadership competence
and future strategic intent appear to be incongruent with the emergent
organizational leadership needs.
In the case of the educational leaders' institution, Case 2, the desired
outcome for the leader was a personal change in leader-colleague rela-
tionships. The leader intends to shift attention away from attempting to
control consequences for others towards managing personally meaning-
ful consequences. The strategy for achieving this outcome was to begin to
work together with colleagues beyond what is needed to complete class-
room teaching and administrative tasks. From an original orientation in
the hierarchical quadrant, the leader tapped the rational goal quadrant
by envisioning the institution in the future and how the leader would
be performing as a member. The leader activated the human resources
quadrant by using a participatory strategy. In analysis of the leader's
strategy, it fits the criteria as a high leverage strategy for organizational
change. It activates quadrants adjacent to the quadrants producing ten-
sion in the organization, an outcome of productivity and a process of
collaboration with human resources. Because the leadership quadrant is
the only aspect of the culture that was out of alignment in Case 2, if this
strategy is successful, the organization will be in a position to sustain
its congruence with its high transition environment, thus be in a peak
performance state.
Discussion
Integrating and activating diverse values is a key ingredient for organi-
zational versatility. This organizational capacity is needed to accommo-
date sustainable change. This implies having the leadership capacity to
access embedded patterns and activate generative tensions to cope with
the turbulence and flux of transition environments, diverse workforces,
and intercultural interaction. Using these inherent tensions to generate
creative and intentional directions for leader and organizational devel-
opment provides an inclusive approach for collaborative breakthrough
strategies. Examining leader intent at a deep psychological level that taps
personal and professional inspiration is an important tool to invite an
alignment of personal vision with organizational change and high per-
formance. Use of these analytical tools, following a practice of strategic
inquiry and supportive dialogue provides higher, wider, and deeper in-
formation from which to make strategic choices and to engage a journey
of sustained change in environments of transition.
These three models for organizational and leadership assessment and
analysis, when used separately, have unique contributions to make in ex-
tending awareness, raising the level understanding, sourcing the origins
of motivation, and encouraging action. Applied in concert these individ-
ual approaches become an integrated model for guiding wider, higher,
and deeper evolution. When used as a disciplined leadership practice
for human resource development, the information elicited can be the
basis for sustainable development of individual leader competence, or-
ganizational effectiveness, system development and societal transition.
The power of these models lies in their fluid applicability in multiple
contexts, organizational types, levels of organization, and individual pat-
terns. While the tools emanate from different theoretical fields they each
engage mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual human systems. These
systems are the underlying driving forces for human patterns of be-
haviour. Given the attention to the sources of behaviour, and the breadth,
depth, and scope of the models, sustainable change and evolution are not
only possible but can been observed in practice.
The results produced in the syncretic application of the models, as
demonstrated by this pilot study, offer the possibility of sustainable
change given their individual and collective integral nature (Wilber
1998). The application of three analytical tools in a holistic model, Val-
ues + Inquiry + Tensions And Leadership (vital), can provide a set of
high leverage strategic change options. Given the holistic focus, perspec-
tive variety, integral nature, and action research application of each of
the tools, and their syncretic result, changes in mental models and deep
patterns of behaviour and cultures are possible. In each institution, the
efficacy of the vital model as a catalytic and guiding approach will
need to be assessed. The potential of the vital model to reveal in the
microcosm of individual organizations, the conditions of a larger soci-
ety in transition, remains to be assessed. The power of the approach to
raise awareness and ultimately influence institutional, leadership, and
curriculum development, and the impact the study will have on the ed-
ucational infrastructure of Slovenia remains as inherent potential.
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Educational Leadership for Results or for Learning?
Contrasting Directions in Times of Transition
David Oldroyd
Educational leadership, like educational systems and schooling, is
steered by the national political, professional and social contexts in
which it occurs. In recent years, managerialist values have informed the
policies of many governments and 'new public management' challenges
the ideals of 'progressive humanistic leadership' in schools in many
countries. The former approach is driven by results and demands for
accountability whereas the latter favours an holistic, child-centred ap-
proach to leadership in which educational leaders at both system and
school levels adopt a proactive, empowering and participative approach
based on humane values of personal and organisational learning. Newly
professionalised educational managers in the transforming systems of
central and east Europe face the difficult task of reconciling these two
differing directions. Scholars, researchers and developers of educational
leadership have a key role to play in helping to deepen understanding
of the dilemmas created by these contradictory trends.
As a field of study, educational management has a history of around three
decades (for a wide-ranging overview of the field of educational manage-
ment see Bush, Bell, Bolam, Glatter, and Ribbins 1999). Its literature has
grown at an accelerating rate along with the professionalisation of ed-
ucational management. Up to one third of teachers in some countries
are now managers or coordinators of other professionals in their organ-
isations. In the countries of central and east Europe that are undergo-
ing fundamental transition, some complex and difficult choices about
schooling and educational management are needed. In impoverished
education sectors with little prospect of substantial increases in public
funding, which is the appropriate road of transition to follow? After a
brief examination of the changing context of educational management,
I shall distinguish between two broad roads:
1. 'New public management' or 'leading for results' - the drive led by
politicians for higher, measurable, visible standards of effectiveness
and efficiency and equity to meet the challenges of global competi-
tion in a rapidly changing world.
David Oldroyd is Independent Educational Management
Development Consultant, uk.
2. 'Progressive humanistic leadership' or 'leading for learning' - lead-
ership that seeks to empower professional staff and young people
based on principles of humanism, democratic citizenship and holis-
tic personal and organisational learning.
These are highly generalised categories that label complex meanings.
The former is the main politically driven direction in most oecd coun-
tries led by the uk and the usa. The latter is more associated with current
policy and leadership practices in the Scandinavian countries although
it has advocates among education professionals in many countries (see
oecd 2001). The roads are not completely separate and sometimes inter-
sect. Different ideologies and orientations underpin both. However, the
tension between these two roads is widespread and presents educational
leaders with dilemmas that are difficult to reconcile. They give rise to a
number of trends in educational management that impact with varying
force in different national contexts.
Contexts and Change
Educational management is strongly influenced by the political and so-
cial contexts that steer school systems in certain directions. Globalisa-
tion, post-modernity, advances in social and neuro-science, historical
traditions, social and political reconstruction provide the context for ed-
ucational change. In recent decades, these contexts have been steering ed-
ucation at an accelerating rate towards change. Education is seen as part
of an 'unfinished revolution' (Abbott and Ryan 2000) that is being driven
in directions not always clear and often confusing or contradictory. The
forces that drive educational policy forward include a combination of
political, professional and public pressures that operate differently from
country to country. However, the common experience is increased un-
certainty, accelerating change and a consequent 'educational crisis.'
A new discourse of globalisation has arisen which leads most coun-
tries to perceive an 'educational crisis' that is affecting the ability of na-
tions to compete in the global market. Bottery (1999) discerns in 'man-
agerial globalisation' a global picture of management practice in which
there is a convergence of the business and public sector 'codes' leading to
the use of concepts such as quality, competence, target setting, empow-
erment and learning organisation in the public as well as private sectors.
This convergence between management in the private and public sectors
has contributed to both of the roads outlined in this paper. The posi-
tivistic, neo-Taylorism represented in new public management contrasts
Table 1: First and second order educational changes
'First Order' Educational Changes 'Second Order' Educational Changes
Constructivist learning approaches
Brain-based teaching methods
('accelerated learning')
Teaching for understanding
('deep learning')
Development of 'key skills'
(communication, emotional
intelligence, problem-solving)
Student self-evaluation
Collaborative group learning
Problem-based learning
Commitment to life-long learning
Associated with new public management
1 Results-based accountability for
pre-specified standards and targets
Market competition between schools
1 Staff appraisal and performance-related pay
Associated with professional empowerment
1 Restructuring of the school as a professional
learning community
Transformational school leadership (vision,
mission, strategy, re-culturing, learning
organisation)
Continuing school-based professional
development cpd
strongly with the learning organisation principles linked to progressive
humanistic leadership, but both derive from business management the-
ory and practice.
Educational reform in most economically developed countries in re-
cent years has involved centralised mandated change in curriculum and
assessment and a deluge of reforms imposed by central government (bu-
reaucratic control). At the same time budgets and the implementation
of policy mandated by national governments have been decentralised to
local levels, either directly to schools, or to district administrations (one
aspect of professional empowerment). These simultaneous but contra-
dictory trends of central bureaucratic control and a deregulated educa-
tional market provide a backdrop to the changing nature of educational
management. In response to widespread criticism of schooling in the
press and by politicians (labelled the 'discourse of derision') both strate-
gies of centralised control and decentralised professional empowerment
have been promoted in an effort 'drive up standards' in order to compete
more successfully in the global market. Some writers see the struggle be-
tween bureaucratic control and personal empowerment as part of the
'transition to postmodernity' (Hargreaves 1994).
The changes that are promoted can be seen as 'first order' relating
to the core functions of schooling (learning, teaching, socialisation), or
'second order' changes in policy and infrastructure to support 'first or-
der' changes (Leithwood, Jantzi, and Steinbach 1999). Some first and sec-
ond order changes are identified in Table 1.
Essentially first order changes are concerned with teaching and learn-
ing whereas second order changes have more to do with leadership, pol-
icy and management. It is hard to show how second order changes bring
about first order changes, if at all. Furthermore, the two groups of second
order changes are difficult to achieve, complex and frequently at odds
with each other. There is a fundamental tension between external ac-
countability to the state bureaucracy or the 'hidden hand' of the market
of new public management on the one hand, and the autonomy associ-
ated with professional empowerment on the other hand.
The lack of congruence between first and second order changes is
clearly illustrated by the application of managerialist approaches to ac-
countability and standards that have been introduced into the public
sector from the business world. Some analysts see a radical change in
the way education is perceived. They refer to the 'commodification' of
education-turning learning into a measurable commodity that can be
graded and measured. And with this commodification, the role of leader-
ship becomes corporate, imitating the way a Chief Executive of a business
enterprise uses profitability or 'value-added' to account for performance
(Grace 1995). This concern for 'levering up standards' has led to a con-
centration on raising the scores of pupils on national standardised tests
and examinations. The publication and comparison of school results in
the form of league tables allows parents to choose the 'best schools' in a
competitive consumer market of schooling. The consequence of this 'sec-
ond order' change has been that teachers are diverted from the first or-
der changes listed in Table 1. Instead, they are forced to focus on 'tactical
learning' or teaching for the test instead of promoting the 'deep learning'
of key skills in preparation for life-long learning. This clearly represents
an unintended consequence of the attempt to raise standards. There is
considerable concern that the rapid expansion of educational manage-
ment activity (second order change) has become disconnected from the
core purposes of schooling.
The transforming states of central Europe, particularly the candidate
countries for eu accession, are driven by the imperative of matching the
standards of education systems in the eu. Educational managers and
policy makers in these countries will have to strike a balance between
contrasting managerialist and progressive values that we have labelled
'new public management' and 'progressive humanistic leadership.' The
former is associated with neo-liberal or 'new right' political ideology and
neo-Taylorist managerialism whereas the latter is a continuation of post-
war welfare state consensus and progressive educational values that are
in retreat in public policy, though not in the professional literature, in
oecd countries in general. Each will now be examined in more detail.
New Public Management
In 1988, the British education system was radically redirected. The
biggest Education Reform Act for 40 years introduced many fundamen-
tal changes that consolidated the managerialist approach and challenged
the progressive values that prevailed in the 60s and 70s. The reforms
of education were part of a major overhaul of all the public services
that has come to be known as 'new public management.' Two aspects of
managerialism-accountability to the central bureaucracy and account-
ability to the educational market-shifted power from school and local
authority management. For example, a national curriculum and stan-
dardised national tests and examinations at ages 7, 11, 14 and 16 replaced
the autonomy of each school to design its own curriculum. At the same
time, local educational authority control of schools was largely replaced
by delegated budgeting which gave each school the responsibility of ful-
filling the aims of the prescribed national curriculum. Schools had to
compete for students in an educational market place in which the 'con-
sumers' (parents) chose between schools based on their performance
in raising standards defined by test results. The results determined the
place of the school in published 'League Tables' that took no account of
the nature of the student intake in each school.
In addition, an apparently rigorous national system of school inspec-
tion was created that gives numerical grades to schools from 'excellent' to
'failing.' The grades are based on a process of aggregating the scores given
to teachers whose lessons were observed three times during the one-week
visit of a team of private inspectors subcontracted by the Office for Stan-
dards in Education (ofsted). These inspections are based on standards
set out in a handbook and a 40-page inspection report is produced for
each school. A summary of the report is sent to all parents. ofsted in-
spections have had a major impact on the life and work of schools but
they remain controversial. Apart from the stress they have generated and
the view that they distract teachers from working with pupils due to the
heavy load of paper work, they have been severely criticised for their lack
of reliability and validity. Fitz-Gibbon (1996) refers to the judgements
of the inspectors as 'inaccurate guessing' about student progress in the
absence of hard evidence. Since 1997, over 650 out of 25,000 schools in-
spected have been graded as 'failing' and placed under 'special measures'
requiring drastic action referred to as a 'Fresh Start' which usually in-
volves replacing the school leadership team. Alternatively, such schools
can become 'City Academies' and be taken over by private firms. So also
can local education authorities that are found to be 'failing' by the in-
spectors (Department for Education and Skills [dfes] 2001).
It is significant that a major consulting firm from the business world
formulated the legislation on delegated budgeting, justifying the ap-
proach as follows (Coopers and Lybrand 1988):
Good management requires the identification of management
units for which objectives can be set and resources allocated.
The unit is then required to manage itself within those re-
sources in a way which seeks to achieve the objectives. The
performance of the unit is monitored and the unit is held to
account for its performance and its use of funds. These con-
cepts are just as applicable to the public sector as they are to
the private sector.
This view of 'rational management', thought to be equally relevant to
private and public sector management, follows in the tradition of the
scientific management movement, management by objectives (mbo) or
Taylorism. It assumes that human beings have to be driven to meet ob-
jectives and that they will only be efficient in their work if they are man-
aged, controlled and supervised in ways that secure the required output
for the organisation. The implementation of rational management has
become subtler in recent years. As Bennett (1997) notes, in modern ver-
sions of scientific management, managers can direct and control through
the construction of self-regulating organisational systems rather than di-
rect supervision. In this way, the qualities of the learning organisation
(see below) are brought into the service of rational management.
In a more traditional version of managerialism, Darling-Hammond
(1995) describes the American state schools as 'hierarchical, factory
model institutions where teachers, treated as semi-skilled assembly-line
workers, process student for their slots in society.' New public manage-
ment seems, for many commentators, a return to this productivity and
output-based model of schooling in spite of the emphasis on diversi-
fication and specialist schools. Managerialism is the assumption that
management is the solution to many organisational problems and that
management is an end in itself, rather than a means to some greater
end (Oldroyd and Brzdak 2002). Grace (1995) describes 'the changing
discourse of state schooling' in terms of a new vocabulary based on the
school as a 'production-function centre.' In the new discourse, schools
are now concerned with 'adding value' for 'customers' in an 'enterprise
culture' in which the government and market forces encourage schools
to find their 'market niche' and 'unique selling points.' The British gov-
ernment is aiming to have 1500 secondary schools designated as 'special-
ist schools' by 2006. It is also currently experimenting with value-added
approaches to measurement of pupils and school improvement in 200
schools (dfes 2001). However, within new public management, the force
of the market relationships (driven by customer power) is combined
with the continuing regulatory power of educational bureaucracy. More
power is accruing to the institutional level within the central control
frameworks, hence the rise in importance of education management.
Simkins (1999) identifies five consequences for school managers of the
shift from bureaucratic to entrepreneurial management:
1.	Greater responsibility at school and college level - stronger leadership
in a tight team, chief executive role for the head, empowerment of
senior managers.
2.	Cultural distancing - between 'corporatist' managers and 'individ-
ualist' teaching staff.
3.	Structural change - more managers in schools; delayering with more
distance between organisational levels in further education.
4.	Middle management - more clearly defined delegated powers within
a tighter framework of accountability.
5.	Technicist approaches - strategic and operational planning, 'harder'
human resource management including staff appraisal and perfor-
mance related pay.
The characteristics of new public management combining bureau-
cratic control with market forces in the education sector can be sum-
marised as follows:
1.	Explicit pre-specified standards and performance indicators for stu-
dent learning, teacher and managerial performance.
2.	Stress on inspection and use of published, measurable and stan-
dardised results in order to control outputs and provide evidence
for 'consumer choice.'
3.	Decentralisation of responsibility for budgeting, staffing, mainte-
nance, etc. to districts or schools within a strong national policy
and monitoring framework.
4.	Introduction of competition between schools (quasi-market forces).
5.	Increased influence of clients and stakeholders.
6.	More autonomous and entrepreneurial (but also accountable) lead-
ership at school level.
7.	Emphasis on efficiency and productivity, value for money and do-
ing more for less.
Many school leaders have welcomed certain aspects of new public
management such as school-based management and control of budgets,
but many are profoundly opposed to the imposed constraints of the na-
tional curriculum, standardised testing, league tables and heavy inspec-
tion. While the professional status of managers and their levels of pay
have been enhanced, many speak of the deprofessionalising effects on
teachers. The weight of these mandated reforms has limited their scope
to be creative in meeting the many varied needs of their pupils. In addi-
tion, other features of new public management such as teacher appraisal,
performance related pay and career ladders cause teachers to complain
that they spend too much time 'collecting papers instead of teaching
children.' Pupils no longer remain at the centre in the 'audit culture' of
new public management with its prime focus on standards and measur-
able results. The new purpose of schooling seems to focus on published
results in a limited number of subjects using narrowly defined 'perfor-
mance indicators' that encourage 'tactical learning.' The consequence is
that school headteachers (Fergusson 1994)
are becoming distinctive key actors in an essentially manageri-
alist system pursuing objectives and methods that are increas-
ingly centrally determined ... and who must account for their
achievement and ensure compliance of the teaching staff.
Progressive Humanistic Leadership
for Democratic Accountability
Progressive humanistic leadership is the main counter-trend to what has
just been described. It can be characterised as 'leading for learning' rather
than 'leading for results.' It is primarily about professional empowerment
and organisational learning, and is driven by values of community and
democracy rather than measurable results and the imperatives of eco-
nomic competitiveness. Leadership is the 'influence exerted to structure
activities and relationships in a group or organisation' (Leithwood et al.
1999). This is done by influencing the actions, beliefs and values of oth-
ers in forming and implementing policy. This label for the second broad
trend in educational management deliberately uses the term leadership
as distinct from management. In new public management, the school
director and management colleagues manage in the sense of mainly im-
plementing the policies of others, for example, mandates from the state.
In progressive humanistic leadership, school leaders assume greater re-
sponsibility for leading a learning organisation with a capacity for self-
determination and continuous improvement. The term progressive im-
plies that the interests of the 'whole child' or student are placed first and
the purpose of schooling is not reduced to 'levering up results' on state
mandated tests and examinations. In other words, schooling is about de-
veloping human potential, not simply about improving measurable test
results. Its agenda is seen as humanistic, person and community-centred
- developing 'resourceful humans' equipped, through lifelong learning,
to face the postmodern world. This contrasts with the managerialist con-
cept of'human resources' in which people are seen as resources that must
be developed to meet the needs of a productive and competitive econ-
omy.
Advances in neuro-science, cognitive psychology and pedagogy have
provided new insights into child-centred learning, reinforcing construc-
tivist approaches and offering a fuller appreciation of holistic learning
(Smith 1998). In recent years, educational leadership development and
school effectiveness research and improvement have increasingly focused
on how the second order changes in school organisation and manage-
ment relate to the core tasks of schooling, such as those set out in Table 1
(Weatherley 2000). The following quotation from Ranson (2000) is typ-
ical of the sometimes romantic progressive humanistic perspective that
he terms 'a new education emerging for a new age':
During the past decade key research on learning has critically
re-evaluated the dominant paradigm and proposed values and
practices that amount to a new culture of learning. Education
has traditionally been shaped by too narrow a conception of
purpose, of human capacity, of frameworks of learning and
of assessment. The central principles informing the new peda-
gogy of capability for active citizenship are:
• reconnect learning to living through preparation for active
citizenship;
•	enhance the capacity for participation and dialogue;
•	understand all the needs of the learner, especially emotional
well-being;
•	promote active learning for developing responsible as well
as reflective learners.
Learning for life (not tests), community, participation, reflection and
dialogue are all aspects of the humanistic vision for schooling and leader-
ship. They apply both to students and teachers and there is considerable
congruence between the work of teachers and school leaders because of
the central concern for learning. The focus on deep learning becomes
the key to progressive leadership, not the preoccupation with tactical or
surface learning that results from teaching to improve test results. It also
distinguishes educational leadership from that of the business world.
The proponents of progressive humanistic leadership argue that edu-
cation systems and institutions differ significantly from business organ-
isations. This is because of the special purpose of schools in preparing
critical citizens for democratic participation in community and society.
1.	Developing a critical but constructive voice for its own sake (for self
and citizenship).
2.	Empowering a level of participation better than that needed for the
'best results.'
3.	Helping the next adult generation search for and vocalise the means
for a 'good society.'
4.	Recognising that public institutions are about equity and justice not
just profit and loss, economy and efficiency.
5.	Ensuring that employees in those institutions are good role models
for the young.
Child-centred progressive education has a long history and its princi-
ples are congruent with more recent organisational learning theory and
practice associated with the 'learning organisation' or, to use a more re-
cent term, 'professional learning communities.' Management is replaced
in learning organisations by transformational leadership that empow-
ers the staff to participate in decision-making and problem-solving and
commits them to continuing self and school improvement. This is a
form of leadership that is based on respect rather than power, just as
progressive, child-centred teaching seeks to empower the child as an au-
tonomous learner.
As an alternative to the factory metaphor of American schools quoted
earlier, Darling-Hammond (1995) proposes schools as 'professional com-
munities where student success is supported by the collaborative efforts
of knowledgeable teachers who are organised to address the needs of di-
verse learners.' Such professional communities are based on trust and
a willingness to collaborate in the quest for continuous improvement.
Trust requires a high level of mutual predictability and shared aims and
involves trusting both persons and processes. It allows staff to become
'critical friends' who are:
1.	At a personal level-assertive and confident enough in relationships
to give and receive constructive feedback.
2.	In relation to processes-willing to engage in experiment, shared
decision-making and creative problem-solving, networking, action
research and continuing professional development.
The personal and the professional dimensions of trust need to be
brought together in a professional learning community. The larger and
more bureaucratic the organisation, the harder this is to achieve, which
partly explains the frequently noted cultural differences between small
primary schools and more factory-like secondary schools.
The most influential theorist of the learning organisation, Senge
(1990), uses three archetypes of the leader of such professional learn-
ing communities:
•	Designer - of structures and processes that contribute to a culture
of continuous learning for all members of the organisation.
•	Steward - of the self-respect and release of actualising potential of
the staff; guardian of the shared vision of the organisation.
•	Teacher - who helps the staff, through 'generative dialogue', to ex-
amine their mental maps of reality and to see the 'big picture' be-
hind events and patterns of behaviour.
These functions need to be spread across all leaders in the organisa-
tion and system at all levels. Learning organisations are not divided into
'thinkers' (top management) and 'doers' (the workforce). All partici-
pants, especially in schools that are organisations staffed with profession-
als, should engage in a continuous process of thinking, doing, reviewing
and reflecting that is facilitated by leaders at every level. In the classroom
where the teacher is the leader, there are now many calls to promote
key skills (communication, inter-personal relations, creative problem-
solving, etc.) as part of the process of 'learning to learn.' This involves
helping learners to become more self-aware and able to use metacog-
nition (thinking about their thinking) and metacommunication (com-
municating about their communication) as a preparation for life-long
learning. These ambitions for the classroom closely parallel the ideals for
the school as a whole. This view of the relation between the progressive
teacher and learners is similar to that of the leader as designer, steward
and teacher-the progressive humanistic leader. Both in the school and
in the classroom, these conceptions of leadership are radically different
from traditional teaching and educational management.
Progressive humanistic leadership is about leading first and second
order changes within the school rather than being reformed through
external mandates. Structural solutions to educational change such as
new curricula and syllabi, new examinations, reorganised types of school
are politically popular but are less enduring than cultural changes from
within that are supported by the school's own community of local stake-
holders, in particular, the teaching staff. School cultures are deeper and
less transitory than the attempted interventions from the external struc-
tures of the state. Since the seventies there have been many examples of
schools that have operated a collegial, team-based approach to creating
what Joyce et al. (1999) call an 'inquiring workplace.' Teacher develop-
ment is embedded in the workplace. Teachers work collaboratively in
an information-rich environment, participate in decision-making, en-
gage in action research, behave as 'critical friends' in giving and receiving
feedback and are committed to continuous improvement. Leadership is
diffused and empowering in order to create the conditions in which such
a development culture can thrive.
Table 2 summarises the broad distinctions between the two models of
educational leadership that emerge from the above discussion.
Discerning the Trends
Along the two roads of educational management or leadership mapped
above, a number of more specific trends can be discerned.
professionalisation
Since the early eighties in the uk and earlier in the us, the creation
of educational management as a distinct profession has proceeded very
rapidly. In the mid-nineties eu educational development aid projects
stimulated the transition countries of central and east Europe and the
former Soviet Union to professionalise educational leadership. For ex-
Educational Leadership for Results or for Learning? 61
Table 2: Two trends compared
New Public Management
'Leading for results'
•	Manager with chief executive role
•	Transactional Leadership
•	'Strong leader'
•	Mandated reform, politically driven
•	Top-down decision-making
•	'Heavy' external inspection
•	National Curriculum
•	National Testing and League
•	Tables Focus on aggregated results
•	Staff development prescribed nationally
•	Performance related pay
•	Governance by the market
•	Audit culture of accountability
•	Managing human resources
Progressive Humanistic Leadership
'Leading for learning'
•	Leader with educative role
•	Transformational leadership
•	'Diffused leadership'
•	Learning organisation, professionally led
•	Participative decision-making
•	School self-evaluation
•	School-based curriculum development
•	Teacher assessment of pupils
•	Caring holistically for individual pupils
•	School-based staff development
•	Developmental appraisal and mentoring
•	Self-governing schools
•	Collaborative development culture
•	Developing resourceful humans
ample, Poland, following a series of major educational projects and re-
forms, has recently expanded the requirement for school leaders to ac-
quire qualifications and engage in continuing professional development
programmes. The technical professionalisation of education manage-
ment will be complete when specific qualifications in educational man-
agement have to be obtained before the role can be assumed, which is
now the case in several countries.
intensification and stress
One reason for this extension of the 'diploma disease' is the intensifica-
tion of the role of leadership. As more responsibilities are delegated, the
tasks both widen and deepen, demanding a greater pool of knowledge,
skills and resourcefulness than ever before. The consequence of this in-
creased challenge has been to create difficulties in recruiting headteach-
ers in some countries and much higher incidence of stress among school
leaders. Hargreaves (1994) points to two types of guilt that profession-
als in school experience as a result of the mounting pressures from both
within and outside the school:
•	'Persecutory guilt' - when it proves difficult to meet the incessant
demands of accountability and imposed reform.
•	'Depressive guilt' - when one feels one is letting down one's own
teachers, pupils and family in failing to meet their aspirations due
to the excessive burden of work.
multiple roles and diffused leadership
There are numerous menus outlined in the literature on educational
leadership. Management is seen as a sub-set of leadership. Leithwood et
al. (1999) describe six categories of educational leadership, each with a
different focus:
1.	Instructional - strong focus on pupil learning and development.
2.	Transformational - focus on the commitment and capacities of the
teachers and empowering them to share and reach organisational
goals.
3.	Moral - focus on their own values and ethics in relation to democ-
racy, social justice.
4.	Participative - focus on sharing decision-making with stakeholders
in the face of ambiguity and a constantly changing environment.
5.	Managerial - focus on functions, tasks and behaviours adopting a
rationalist approach to supervision and control of inputs, processes
and outputs.
6.	Contingent - focus on responding to unique situations and solving
problems that arise in a variety of ways.
This is a daunting list for any single leader to accomplish, which is
one reason why diffused or distributed leadership is advocated in learn-
ing organisations. Maybe a third of all teachers in a school structured
as collaborative, team-based, professional learning communities have a
leadership role with other adults. Policy-making and responsibility for
implementation and review are therefore widely shared in a learning or-
ganisation.
focus on cultural change from within
A simple definition of culture is 'the way we do things around here' -
the way members of a school talk, think, act and believe. It is strongly
affected by the fluctuating 'climate' of inter-personal relationships that
prevail on a daily basis. The new public management model of lead-
ership fails to address culture and the unique qualities of every school.
Organisational culture cannot be controlled. It can only be facilitated or
encouraged in certain directions through example, policy and practice.
Culture evolves and changes incrementally and is much influenced by the
history and 'organisational memory' of each school. Thus a school staff
with a track record of failed innovation will probably take on further
reforms reluctantly. Leaders have a choice of how they use their power
and influence. They can exercise their power 'over, through or with' their
colleagues. When 'power over' (controlling) is used, the person being led
has the position of a sub-ordinate. When 'power with' (collaborating)
is used, the so-called subordinate is empowered. Thus the way leaders
use their power, influences rather than controls the direction in which
a culture will evolve and the capacity for learning and dealing with new
challenges.
increasing complexity, ambiguity and dilemmas
School leaders are the gate-keepers between the school and the exter-
nal administrative and social influences. They have to satisfy the ever-
increasing and often contradictory demands of multiple stakeholders:
government, parents, business and local community. As outlined above,
three types of accountability (demands for quality) press in on the
school:
•	Administrative accountability - compliance with laws, regulations
and mandatory reforms.
•	Market accountability - ensuring that the school maintains its re-
sults and reputation in order to satisfy its 'customers' and to recruit
sufficient students.
•	Democratic accountability - responding to the specific needs of the
parents and pupils, the local community and to the needs of the
state for the next generation of democratic citizens.
These contrasting demands from the outside are accompanied by in-
ternal demands from staff and students. Together they add up to a major
intensification of the work of educational leadership. When school lead-
ers fulfil a bureaucratic role of carrying out orders from central admin-
istration, as in former times, their work is considerably less complicated.
Now they are assailed by many dilemmas such as:
•	encouraging reflection and critical practice while coping with the
intensification of both their own and their teachers' work;
•	influencing a caring school culture while 'levering up results';
•	building a professional learning community while competing in the
educational market place;
•	caring for deviant pupils while protecting other pupils from them.
convergence of managing and teaching
There are strong parallels between how schools and classrooms are man-
aged. 'Leading for results' and the pressures of new public management
send strong messages about how teachers might relate to their pupils. So
does 'leading for learning' with its person-centred, holistic values. The
author's recent experience of the contrasting effects of the two roads in
schools in England and Sweden is illuminating. In the English school the
senior staff allocated a large amount of teachers' time to providing extra
coaching to students whose grades in the external examination for 16-
year olds might be raised from 'D' to 'C.' The position of the school in the
League Tables depends on the proportion of pupils gaining 5 grade 'C's or
more. In the Swedish school, art, music and drama were used across the
whole curriculum to maintain a 'lust for learning' through the adoles-
cent years. In the eighth year (15-year-olds) a year-long project involved
all the students in researching, writing, producing and performing a mu-
sical drama or comedy that was presented to the local community - a
'real-life' challenge full of deep learning experiences. The Swedish school
leaders were driven by a vision of empowering their pupils and the teach-
ing and non-teaching staff. Both pupils and adults collaborated in work
teams in a highly active and participative way.
A professional learning community not only 'manages' (gets results) it
also learns. Figure 1 suggests how a rational management cycle of results
can be combined with a cycle of learning. This simple model might point
the way to a reconciliation of the two roads we have been considering.
External feedback and comparison with other schools can enrich both
cycles. The school in England was inspected and graded by ofsted,
including in its report more 'measured results' for lessons observed.
The Swedish school chose to engage consultants to promote 'evaluation
Learning
Policy-making
Generative dialogue
Review
Planning
Implementating
Reflection
Figure 1: Leading for Learning and Results
through dialogue' that included feedback to the work teams of an analy-
sis of letters to the evaluators written by teachers and pupils to reveal the
deeper realities of the school culture (for a fuller account see Oldroyd
and Hogberg 2002).
many perspectives on educational leadership
The rise of educational management as a profession has been seen
through different academic perspectives. Positivistic scientific manage-
ment and phenomenological humanistic perspectives underlie what has
already been presented in the above analysis. To these one can add, for ex-
ample, the perspectives of critical theory that portrays educational man-
agement as serving the interests of the corporate state, and feminism that
presents the case that educational management is still patriarchal, hier-
archic, masculine and gender-blind. Techno-rational, phenomenological
and critical perspectives each have their own extensive and accelerating
literatures that lie well beyond the reach of most practitioners and even
most academics as well as this paper!
The Challenge of Educational Leadership:
Travelling Two Roads
Dealing with dilemmas is the stuff of educational leadership. Current
school traditions and structures arose from the 19th and early 20th cen-
tury models of mass production that aimed to produce workers with ba-
sic skills to enter a largely predictable industrial world. These structures
are not designed to 'help teachers work together more effectively in col-
laborative cultures of positive risk and continuous improvement' (Harg-
reaves 1994). Nor are the imposed requirements of new public manage-
ment for levering up standards conducive to organisational learning or
the deeper and broader purposes of 21st century education. Nevertheless,
the desire for politicians to direct and control education systems will per-
sist. In central Europe the full professionalisation and provision of truly
professional salaries and conditions of employment will be a long time in
coming. Even in the relatively affluent western nations educational lead-
ers find it hard to reconcile the contradictory directions of the two roads
- 'leading for results' and 'leading for learning.' Progressive humanistic
leadership in professional learning communities remains an ideal arising
from theory, research and practice that is desirable but not always feasible
to implement within current political and social contexts. Nevertheless,
it is imperative that the community of academics and leadership devel-
opers keep these ideals alive, as leaders at every level of education tread
the road of transition.
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Creating a Culture of Innovation
in Canadian Schools
David C. Dibbon
Since its inception in 1996, the GrassRoots Program has been instru-
mental in facilitating the integration of information and communica-
tion technologies (ict) into the classrooms of Canadian schools. By
linking the GrassRoots Program to the school curriculum and pro-
viding incentives for teachers to engage students in the process of co-
creating electronic curriculum resources for the Internet, it has been in-
fluential in transforming classrooms into authentic centres of learning.
There is overwhelming evidence supporting the concept that the Grass-
Roots Program is a powerful connector between ict and new teaching
theories.
This paper provides an overview of innovation, a background to
some of the challenges associated with large-scale innovation in the
Canadian K-12 school system and the findings from a collection of 16
case studies conducted in innovative schools in Canada. An analysis
of the data contained in the case studies indicates that the GrassRoots
Program is having a positive impact on the diffusion of ict in the
classrooms of schools that are members of the Network of Innovative
Schools (nis), and it is making a significant contribution to the devel-
opment ofa culture ofinnovation. The existence ofGrassRoots projects
has also increased the capacity for innovation by empowering and en-
abling the schools and teachers to work on multiple innovations simul-
taneously. Also, there is sufficient evidence to show that GrassRoots has
had a major impact on: teacher professional learning; teacher technol-
ogy skill development; student technology skill development, student
employability skill development; access to teaching resources; leader-
ship opportunities; and school growth and development.
Introduction
In 1996 Industry Canada's SchoolNet launched an innovative program to
stimulate, among other things, the integration of information and com-
munication technologies (ict) into the classrooms of the nation. The
GrassRoots Program1 offers funding to schools for the creation of in-
novative, Internet-based, collaborative and interactive electronic learn-
Dr David Dibbon is associate professor at Faculty of Education,
Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada.
ing projects. To qualify for funding these projects must be relevant to
the school curriculum and lead to the creation of Canadian content, de-
signed and implemented by teachers and students, and published on the
Internet. They must also foster the acquisition of academic, employabil-
ity and technology skills in Canadian youth, by integrating information
and communication technologies into learning activities, and facilitate
increased connectivity and training opportunities.
In 1998 Industry Canada's SchoolNet, in partnership with the Cana-
dian Association of School Administrators (casa), launched a pilot
project, the SchoolNet Network of Innovative Schools2 (nis). The ob-
jective of this program is to identify innovative schools in the K-12 sys-
tem that are successfully integrating ict into the curriculum. The pur-
pose of the Network is, among other things, to establish a 'network of
schools' that are capable of learning from one another and mentoring
other schools in online learning communities. To date, over 100 schools
have been selected to be part of this Network and they have been pro-
vided with a modest financial grant ($10,000 per year for three years) to
facilitate their innovation plans.
Purpose
Based on a more extensive study reported elsewhere (Dibbon 2002),
this paper will illustrate how the GrassRoots Program functions in nis
schools and provide evidence to show that GrassRoots projects stimulate
learning and innovation in these schools. Specifically, this paper will:
•	demonstrate how the Grassroots Program facilitates the movement
of innovative educational practices beyond isolated pockets of ex-
cellence to reach a much greater proportion of students and educa-
tors;
•	identify how educators in innovative schools use GrassRoots pro-
jects to prepare students for learning so that they are capable of ac-
quiring pertinent new skills and knowledge throughout their life-
time;
•	identify how the GrassRoots Program has made a significant con-
tribution to innovation in the selected schools.
Methodology
The study summarized in this paper followed a case study design. Stake
(2000) identifies three types of case studies. First, there are 'intrinsic case
studies', studies undertaken because the researcher wants a better un-
derstanding of one particular case. Second, there are 'instrumental case
studies', where a particular case study is examined mainly to provide
insight into an issue or to redraw a generalization; the case is of sec-
ondary interest. Third, when there is less intrinsic interest in one case a
researcher may jointly study a number of cases in order to investigate a
phenomenon, population or general condition. This type of case study
is referred to as a 'collective case study' and it is really an instrumental
study extended to many cases. This study followed the 'collective case
study' methodology.
A representative sample of 16 nis schools representing each of the
Canadian provinces and territories, elementary and secondary schools,
from urban and rural communities was selected, in consultation with
GrassRoots officials responsible for overseeing the GrassRoots Program.
Interview questions were developed and field-tested, and minor adjust-
ments were made to the wording of some questions. Telephone in-
terviews were then conducted with administrators (n = 16) in each of
the schools and at least two teachers who were involved in GrassRoots
projects (n = 34). The interviews were recorded and then analyzed using
the constant comparative method.
Background
innovation and the education system
As a result of a fast-changing global economy, Canadian schools and
school districts are facing increasingly turbulent times (Dibbon 1999;
Rait 1996; Stoll and Fink 1996; Leithwood and Aitken 1995; Prestine 1994;
Leithwood, Janzi, and Steinback 2000). Changes in our economic en-
vironment brought on by globalization, government restructuring, and
the rapid growth and expansion in information and communication
technologies has made it necessary for Canadian schools to be innova-
tive in their approach to preparing students for success in this new econ-
omy (Canadian Federal Government 1995, and 2001; Conference Board
of Canada 2001a; Conference Board of Canada 2001b; Laferriere 2001;
oecd 1993). Not since the waning of the 19th century when North Amer-
ican educators had to deal with rapid growth due to immigration and the
arrival of the industrial revolution (Campbell, 1987; Bolman and Heller,
1996), has the teaching profession had to cope with such broad-based,
societal change. Today, we are in the information age and much of the
change and innovation in schools is focused on the successful integration
of information and communication technologies into the learning envi-
ronment. While there have been many examples of individual schools
that have been innovative in their use of ict to enhance teaching and
learning, the challenge for system-wide innovation remains.
The standard definition of innovation is 'the adoption of an existing
idea, practice or object that is perceived as new by an individual or other
unit of adoption' (Rogers 1995). In this definition, whether or not an idea
is objectively new as measured by the lapse of time since its invention is
of little concern. The perceived newness of the idea for the individual,
group or organization determines the reaction to it. If the idea seems new
to the individual or group then it is an innovation (Rogers 1995). In the
academic literature, there is a clear distinction made between innovation
and invention - the adoption of a new idea as opposed to the creation of
a new idea. However, in this era of rapid change, the line between the two
appears to have blurred, and innovative organizations are both inventing
and adopting new practices. As a result, in today's world innovation has
come to refer to both (Borins 2002).
In recent times, innovation has become a topic of great interest to lead-
ers in both the public and private sectors. In the private sector, the rapid
development of new technologies has provided opportunities for firms
to launch new products, transform their production processes, and do
business in new ways. For many industries, innovation is necessary in or-
der to ensure economic competitiveness and sustainability. While public
sector organizations (including the education sector) have traditionally
been shielded from the pressures of their private sector counterparts, no
longer can they claim to be exempt from the pressures of global compet-
itiveness.
Innovation in education has never been an easy task, primarily be-
cause of the conservative nature of our public education system (Levin
2001). While the past half-century has been marked with numerous at-
tempts to innovate and reform our system, in terms of the impact on
teaching and learning, most of these efforts have failed miserably (Fullan
1995; Levin 2001). While many of these initiatives (e. g., the human re-
lations movement of the 1940s and 1950s, the curriculum reform move-
ment of the 1960s, the implementation studies in the 1970s, the effective
schools movement in the 1980s, and the restructuring initiatives in the
1990s) delivered short-term solutions, they provided no panacea. From
an innovation adoption perspective, by the 1980s we knew a fair amount
about the factors associated with introducing a single innovation but
from a societal point of view it was too little too late (Fullan 1995).
During the 1990s, the pace of change accelerated and it was no longer
sufficient to deal with innovations one at a time. The ante had been
upped (Fullan 1995) and as the country prepared to move from a tra-
ditional resource-based economy to a newer knowledge-based economy
there were numerous calls from both government and business for in-
novation and change to our education system, to ensure that the next
generation of Canadians to graduate from the nation's schools would be
equipped with the skills and knowledge required for success in this new
economy. For example, an 1993 oecd Report stated (oecd 1993, 9):
Only a well-trained and highly adaptable labour force can pro-
vide the capacity to adjust to structural changes and seize new
employment opportunities created by technological progress.
Achieving this will in many cases entail a re-examination, per-
haps radical, of the economic treatment of human resources
and education.
The Council of Ministers of Education (cmec), a creation of the
provincial governments that has no formal power over any of the pro-
vinces but does play a co-ordinating role with respect to educational
policy changes, was also quick to identify the need for changes to our
education system. In Joint Declaration: Future Directions for The Council
of Ministers of Education, Canada (1993) the chairman noted:
We are well aware of the challenges to the education systems
posed by our rapidly changing world: globalization of the
economy, openness with regard to other cultures, pressing
needs for skilled labour, and technological advances that are
having an impact on our daily lives as well as the job mar-
ket. These changes require constant adjustments to our educa-
tional practices to ensure high quality, accessibility, mobility,
and accountability.
The Third Annual Innovation Report by the Conference Board of
Canada (2001a) claims that innovation is one of the most important
means to improve competitiveness, generate wealth, create jobs, and sus-
tain our high quality of life. As such, creating a fertile environment for
innovation is the responsibility of government, business, investors, the
financial community, academics and individual Canadians. In Knowledge
Matters: Canada's Innovation Strategy (2001) the Government of Canada
recognizes that there will be an ever-increasing demand for a well edu-
cated and skilled workforce in all parts of the economy and in all areas of
the country. The report continues by saying, to accomplish these goals
'our learning system must be strengthened' (Canadian Federal Govern-
ment 2001, 2). In the Social Studies and Humanities Research Council's
(2001) (sshrc) recent call for proposals on Initiatives for the New Econ-
omy (ine Grants) it claims education is a key factor in equipping young
Canadians with the knowledge and skills to succeed in a new economy.
Clearly, encouraging innovation in the nation's schools to ensure that
students develop the skills required for success in the new economy is
of national importance and stakeholders have placed high priority on
achieving this goal.
During the 1990s policy makers recognized that one of the primary
functions of education in our society has been one of cultural cohesion
and stability - aimed at perpetuating cultural values, knowledge, stan-
dards, and practices. In essence, for many years the system was more
concerned with preserving the status quo than it was with innovation
and change. These same policy makers also rediscovered that education
could be a powerful and essential instrument of innovation and social
change. In fact, one could argue that a central motive behind many cur-
rent educational reform initiatives is the belief that education has a crit-
ical role to play in strengthening the country's capacity to meet the chal-
lenges of the future. Education is now so important that governments
and industry are major players and education is seen as too important to
be left solely to the judgment of educators.
There have been many responses to the call for innovation but as the
experiences of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s have shown, the integration
of a new idea into general practice is often very difficult. Even inno-
vations with obvious advantages require a lengthy period, often many
years, before they are widely adopted. Although educators have imple-
mented many innovations over the past two decades it is apparent that
widespread acceptance is problematic. Many educators claim that taking
an innovation to 'scale' (Elmore 1995) or speeding the 'diffusion time'
(Rogers 1995) is extremely difficult due primarily to what Fullan and
Steilgerbauer (1991) calls 'the school's incapacity for change.'
Recognizing this difficulty in taking an innovation to scale, Industry
Canada's SchoolNet has developed a number of programs designed to
accelerate the uptake of ict innovation throughout the Canadian K-12
school system. This paper examines the impact that the GrassRoots Pro-
gram has had on innovation in a Network of Innovative Schools and
identifies how the GrassRoots Program has contributed to nurturing a
culture of innovation within these schools.
grassroots: the diffusion of an innovation
How can we ensure that good educational practices that impact posi-
tively on teaching and learning, like the Grassroots Program, move be-
yond isolated pockets of excellence to reach a much greater propor-
tion of students and educators? The problem of scale is not a prob-
lem of the general resistance or failure of schools to change. In fact,
most schools are constantly changing - adopting new curricula, new as-
sessments, new schedules, changing decision-making mechanisms and
sundry other modifications (Elmore 1995; Fullan 1995). However, when
it comes to changing the technology of schooling, replicating this success
on a larger scale has proven to be a challenge. Technology of schooling
refers to the knowledge of the craft of teaching and learning that teach-
ers need to possess so that currently modern thinking about education is
manifested in teaching and learning processes.
The GrassRoots Program is aimed at encouraging teachers to move
beyond traditional ways of teaching to incorporating more innovative
approaches to teaching and learning in their day-to-day work. Generally
these innovative approaches are new teaching strategies that acknowl-
edge a general shift in thinking about education, a shift that advocates
moving away from:
•	a teacher-centred classroom to a learning-centred classroom,
•	a system that relies on single sense stimulation to a system that en-
ables multiple intelligences,
•	a single media environment to a multimedia environment,
•	isolated work to collaborative work,
•	isolated artificial content to authentic real world experiences, and
•	information delivery to information exchange.
The GrassRoots Program provides for a powerful connection between
ict and new educational theories about teaching, and learning (e. g.,
constructivist learning theories, project-based learning, and multiple in-
telligences). Making the connection between these theories and the inte-
gration of ict is essential to the successful introduction of new teaching
strategies involving the integration of ict into the classroom.
To facilitate the diffusion of new ideas about teaching and the use of
ict across the curriculum (GrassRoots Program), it is important to have
a strong external standard for innovative teaching practice. In this in-
stance, the external standards (developed externally to the school) can
be represented as the criteria that individual teachers use to guide their
project development. The external standard is important because it in-
stitutionalizes the idea that professionals are responsible for looking out-
ward at challenging conceptions of practice, in addition to looking in-
ward at their values and competencies (Elmore 1995). By developing ad-
vanced forms of collaborative and interactive electronic learning projects
and making them available to teachers on the Internet, a standard for
practice is being set, and the online database of projects provides an in-
formal way of communicating norms of good practice to others. The
important thing about these norms is that they inform teachers' ideas
about practice and they carry with them a high degree of professional
authority.
In the past, and to a large extent today, educators tended to be some-
what naive about how to ensure the large-scale diffusion of an innovative
idea. Given what we know about the conditions under which teachers
work (Bluestein 2001; Elmore 1995; Fullan 1995) and the generally weak
incentives that exist for teachers to embrace ideas that are generated ex-
ternal to the school and classroom, this is not surprising. Just presenting
the idea and assuming that because it is a good idea others will adopt
it, does not work. Changing teaching practice, even for the most dedi-
cated and committed teachers, can be a slow and arduous process and
teachers have to feel there is some compelling reason for them to alter
their practice. The GrassRoots Program's linkage to curricular change
and financial incentives for teachers to engage students in co-creating
electronic curriculum resources for the Internet, and thereby providing
a process that allows for the reproduction of classroom successes, has
been influential in transforming some classrooms into authentic centres
of learning.
An analysis of the data contained in the case studies upon which this
paper is based, as well as earlier studies completed by Laferriere (2001)
and the Conference Board of Canada (2001b), indicates that the Grass-
Roots Program is having a positive influence on the diffusion of ict in
the classrooms of schools that are members of the nis and making a sig-
nificant contribution to the development of a culture of innovation in
the schools.
Findings and Analysis
assessing innovative capacity
There are at least three stages in the adoption of any new technology
(Chapman 1996). The first stage is the reproduction stage - a stage where
the primary concern is with using the new technology to do 'old things
in new ways.' Using PowerPoint to replace overheads is a classic example.
Until now, much of the use of technology in schools has been largely con-
cerned with the reproduction of current pedagogical practices. In stage
two, the newly available technology leads to new ways of teaching and
learning, and supporting the administration of education (Chapman
1996). Getting to stage two is easier and the innovation is more signif-
icant if people (teachers) are able to work collaboratively as members of
interactive networks. The creation of a professional network (e. g., nis)
to support the practices of teachers who are in the process of changing or
modernizing their teaching practices, has provided leverage for change
in the way some teachers approach their work. There is considerable ev-
idence from the case profiles prepared for this study that nis schools are
working comfortably at this level of adoption.
The final application of technology (stage three) is the transforma-
tion of education or the movement from traditional types of schools to
open model schools (Stevens 1999; Stevens and Moffatt s. d.). The open
model school is based on the premise that schools integrate with one
another for at least part of a school day. The open model of the school
is also grounded in the application of information and communication
technologies to teaching and learning and the construction of networked
classes for the purpose of facilitating the creation, transfer, utilization
and documentation of knowledge. As innovative schools become more
innovative, they will be well positioned to lead this transformation.
Changes of this magnitude cannot occur unless there are committed
groups of teachers and administrators who see the urgency for this tran-
sition and are willing to champion the initiative. Earl and Lee (1998) in
their work on school improvement in Manitoba observed a pattern of ac-
tivity that they have characterized as 'a cycle of urgency, energy, agency
and more energy.' Something stimulates a group of educators to feel a
sense of urgency about changing the way they do business. The urgency
is experienced as a surge of energy that results in either productive action
or dysfunctional behaviour. When the conditions are right, for example
when a school receives the support of GrassRoots or the nis, these bursts
of energy lead to an upward spiral with an increased sense of agency
and productivity. This support, in time, releases more energy and the cy-
cle continues. When support is withdrawn there is a greater chance that
the energy will spiral downward resulting in anger and disillusionment,
and a previously innovative school risks loosing its innovative status.
The schools in this study have realized a sense of urgency about making
changes to the pedagogical process and the support provided by Grass-
Roots and nis has been instrumental in producing an upward spiral of
energy with an increased sense of agency.
Finally, there is ample evidence that the GrassRoots Program has con-
tributed to an increased capacity to integrate technology into the teach-
ing and learning environment in these innovative schools. There are
many instances where technology integration began with a single teacher
and a single GrassRoots project but with the leadership and coaching
provided by GrassRoots teachers and co-ordinators, the GrassRoots Pro-
gram in these schools has grown and is continuing to grow. For example,
in many of these schools teachers are working on more than one project
and in many schools up to 50% of the teachers have experience working
with GrassRoots. Also, some of the projects are very sophisticated and
involve multiple teachers and multiple classes of students, and in some
schools all students are involved.
The existence of GrassRoots projects in these innovative schools (nis)
has increased the capacity for innovation by empowering and enabling
the schools and teachers to work on multiple innovations simultane-
ously. As we make the transition to a knowledge-based society, these
programmes provide the necessary support and encouragement that is
required for these schools and teachers to be innovative in their use of
technology for teaching and learning.
how grassroots has influenced innovation
The GrassRoots Program has had a positive impact on the ability of nis
Schools to be innovative in their approach to the use of ict. Based on
the case studies reported in this study, the leverage from the GrassRoots
Program lies in an increased capacity for: teacher professional learning;
teacher technology skill development; student technology skill develop-
ment; student employability skill development; access to teaching re-
sources; leadership opportunities; and school growth and development.
1. Teacher Professional Learning. Clearly, the GrassRoots Program is an
innovative programme that is stimulating professional learning oppor-
tunities for educators in innovative schools. In fact, in some schools there
is evidence that a professional learning community (Laferriere 2002; Du-
Four and Eaker 1998) is developing. In a professional learning commu-
nity educators acknowledge that the traditional guiding model of edu-
cation is no longer relevant in our knowledge-based society and they
embrace ideas that are somewhat different to those that have guided
schools in the past. As one of the teachers in a K-12 school claimed,
'The amount of collaborative learning taking place between students and
teachers has surpassed what could ordinarily be accomplished through
traditional teaching and learning strategies.' The GrassRoots Program
provides strong incentives for teachers to re-think their traditional ap-
proaches to teaching and their delivery of the curriculum. The learn-
ing resources teacher in a large urban high school claims that, 'teach-
ers are empowered to abandon traditional ways of teaching in favour of
more innovative approaches and this has stimulated many of them to
evaluate their own philosophies and practices in teaching.' Participants
from each of the schools confirmed that teachers who were engaged in
the GrassRoots Program were more inclined to adopt innovative teach-
ing methodologies (e. g., project-based learning) and integrate them into
their day-to-day teaching.
2.	Teacher Technology Skill Development. Not surprisingly, when teachers
and students were engaged in GrassRoots projects they increased their
capacity to successfully utilize ict. The technology teacher at a mid-size
urban high school explained how his school developed and maintains
an up-to-date Technical Skills Inventory. 'It's simple really - a checklist
of skills ranging from the simple to the more complex, that provides a
guideline to the skills that teachers and students need to know before
they tackle specific projects.' All teachers and administrators reported
that as a result of their involvement in GrassRoots projects, teachers were
more confident in their use of ict in the classroom. For example, teach-
ers indicated that the GrassRoots experience motivated them to learn
website construction skills, how to use digital cameras, how to do multi-
media presentations and how to organize students to work in project
teams.
3.	Student Technology Skill Development. Reports indicated that students
were enthusiastic about learning and applying ict to their schoolwork.
Teachers spoke convincingly of how GrassRoots projects provided op-
portunities for students to improve their technical skills (e. g., website
construction, email, digital photography, multimedia productions, and
robotics) through working with other students and teachers on authentic
learning problems. In an urban elementary school the learning resources
teacher spoke confidently about how technology was integrated into all
grade levels, with the exception of the kindergarten children. 'Every stu-
dent has his/her own website. This initiative starts in Grade One when
the children learn how to set up their site and post artwork and stories.
It continues to each subsequent grade level so that a portfolio of work
traces their progress up to Grade Six.'
4.	Student Employability Skills Development. There is sufficient evidence
that the skills students are acquiring through the project-based approach
to learning being practiced by teachers who participate in GrassRoots
projects are the types of skills that are outlined in the Employability Skills
Index developed by the Conference Board of Canada3 (2000). The acqui-
sition of employability skills is critical if students are to be prepared for
success in the 21st century economy. In these innovative schools, stu-
dents and teachers work seamlessly with technology (often in the form
of GrassRoots projects) to help develop ict and other fundamental, col-
laborative and personal management skills that are critical for success
in a modern workplace. This project-based approach towards teaching
and learning gets students involved in their own learning and provides
opportunities for teachers and students to solve problems as members
of collaborative teams. While some schools are able to involve all teach-
ers and students in this process, there are still many challenges to meet
before this type of teaching and learning is accepted and adopted in all
schools. While there is clear evidence that there is a synergy between nis
and GrassRoots, there remain some challenges to accelerating the rate
of diffusion of innovative practices within and between schools and dis-
tricts.
5.	Access to Resources. Innovative teachers need classrooms that are well
equipped with the latest technology, as well as access to training in the
appropriate uses of the technology. There is unanimous consent that the
financial awards accompanying selection to the nis, and the successful
completion of GrassRoots projects, provides teachers and students with
increased access to new and modern technology. These awards also stim-
ulate professional learning among teachers. In the vast majority of cases,
the teachers involved in these projects have control over how to spend
the money and many use it to support their own professional develop-
ment. Invariably these teachers also invest in new tools for their class-
room and this in turn provides intrinsic motivation to learn how to use
them and appropriately integrate them into their classroom teaching. In
a school system that is for the most part under-funded, these financial
awards provide classroom teachers with a degree of autonomy and in-
dependence in decision-making not available with other programmes.
A science teacher in one of the city schools claimed that the resources
he accessed through the GrassRoots Program were instrumental to him
receiving national and international recognition for his work.
I learned a long time ago that the school didn't have the kind of
money I needed in order to grow my program. To me Grass-
roots was a real blessing; over the past 5 years my colleagues
and I have been able to access over $40,000 to modernize our
classrooms. Today I have an electronic classroom that includes
a half dozen computer workstations, a digital camera, digi-
tal microscopes, a smart board, an lcd projection unit and
a laptop computer. My students and I use the technology in
all of my classes and we've been able to do some interesting
work - work that has resulted in me being recognized with
national and international awards for teaching. Grassroots has
been good to the school and to me personally.
6. Leadership Opportunities. To serve the purpose of innovation, an ap-
proach to leadership must be comprehensive; that means it must extend
beyond the reaches of the people who occupy formal leadership posi-
tions. While it is acknowledged that people who occupy formal positions
of authority do play a critical role in the operation of schools (see for
example, Leithwood et al. 2000; Fullan 2001), in innovative schools there
is evidence that leadership is 'distributed' (Leithwood et al. 2000; Ryan
1999) and that formal leaders empower their teachers to take action, to be
creative, and to be innovative. Embracing a distributed approach towards
leadership and empowering teachers to be innovative in their teaching
(for example, participation in GrassRoots projects) is one of the reasons
these schools achieve an innovative status.
The GrassRoots Program provides many opportunities for classroom
teachers to develop and refine their leadership skills. When not working
with their students these teachers are usually '. . . coaching or mentor-
ing other teachers on some aspect of how to be an innovative teacher -
whether it is integrating ict into their teaching, completing a GrassRoots
application or learning how to use a project-based approach in teaching
and learning', notes a principal of a small rural high school. This teacher-
leadership leads to an increase in the capacity of the school to be inno-
vative in its approach to teaching and learning. While the formal leaders
(i. e. administrators) provide support for teachers so that they have the
time and resources to do the necessary work that goes into the planning,
development and implementation of GrassRoots and other innovative
programmes, the real leaders in the integration of ict are the knowl-
edgeable, skilled and committed teachers who are willing to challenge
traditional models of teaching.
7. School Growth and Development. The collaborative nature of the Grass-
Roots Program has influenced the increased level of collaboration be-
tween teachers, schools and other community agencies. Participants pro-
vided evidence of teacher collaboration on GrassRoots projects, both
within schools as well as between sites. A principal from a large urban el-
ementary school summed up the thinking of many participants when she
said, 'connecting with schools in other provinces has provided learning
opportunities for both teachers and students that would not otherwise
exist.'
There is also evidence that the GrassRoots Program has enhanced the
ability of these schools, from a knowledge and process perspective, to
work with community partners on the development of ict projects.
Many of the schools developed community and industry partnerships in
their attempt to find the necessary resources to develop their technology
enabled learning environment. The experience of creating, maintaining
and nurturing these relationships provided students and teachers with
both new skills and a new understanding of the importance of a strong
relationship between industry, the community and the school.
Conclusion
At this point in our history, innovation and the adoption of ict in the
nation's schools are essential if we are to meet the challenges posed by our
rapidly changing society. Challenges such as globalization of the econ-
omy, pressing needs for skilled labour and technological advances are
having an impact on our personal lives as well as our professional lives.
Meeting these challenges requires educators to be innovative in their
thinking about how to improve educational practices so they can better
prepare their students for a successful transition to the global economy.
There is no doubt that programmes like GrassRoots are providing the
necessary support and encouragement required for schools and teachers
to be innovative in their use of technology for teaching and learning as
they prepare students to take their place in the knowledge-based society.
From an innovation adoption perspective a solid foundation has been
laid, and the GrassRoots Program has provided a strong connection be-
tween ict and new teaching theories. As a result it is having a positive
impact on the use and adoption of ict by teachers and students in select
Canadian schools and classrooms. And while some schools have trans-
formed themselves into professional learning communities where educa-
tors are embracing innovative approaches towards teaching and learning,
there is still much work to be done before these innovative approaches to
education become systemic.
The paradox of innovation is that things continue to change and even
successful programmes are in need of constant evaluation and updat-
ing - indeed that is the very reason that they are successful. The Grass-
Roots Program is no different. Industry Canada, the federal government
department that provides the major institutional support for the Grass-
Roots Program, is currently considering changes to the programme de-
sign that would enable it to continue to work with schools that are on the
leading edge of innovative practice as well as continue to create a culture
of innovation in schools that find innovation a challenge.
So what should this new programme look like? Clearly, any new pro-
gramme needs to move towards an innovative model that promotes and
stimulates the development of schools and school districts as profes-
sional learning communities where people continue to push for systemic
change. Three ideas that should be considered are: the development of
'innovative school districts', the development and use of 'learning object
repositories', and the development and use of 'online learning tools and
programmes.'
An innovative school district (isd) would possess a vision of the future
that involves the use of ict as a resource in developing new and innova-
tive ways to structure the education system and provide equitable access
to educational services for all students and teachers in the district. An
isd would exemplify the characteristics of a professional learning com-
munity as outlined by DuFour and Eaker (1998) and Laferriere (2002).
Over the years, participants in GrassRoots have developed a wide vari-
ety of good quality, online K-12 content and curriculum resources. These
resources must now be meta-tagged (Downes 2002) and organized as
learning objects (Downes 2002) in a content repository that would pro-
vide a rich library of resources for teachers and students in every school
in the country. Rather than continuing solely with the production of
larger units of curriculum, the new focus could be on the development
and production of small modules of content and learning resources with
appropriately tagged learning objects. Learning objects are digital re-
sources that can be used and reused to support learning. They are usually
small chunks of information that are self-contained but can be aggre-
gated with other learning objects to complete a learning unit or module.
This knowledge building process is also characteristic of sophisticated
professional learning communities.
Also, to promote online collaboration and participation in online
knowledge building communities (DuFour and Eaker 1998; Laferriere
2002), the use of specific online learning tools and programmes should
be promoted. Online learning tools and programmes are often based
on constructivist learning theory which promotes the idea that learners
learn best when they are involved in the creation of their own learning
experiences. The uses of online learning tools and programmes are es-
pecially appropriate for helping students to learn academic, teamwork
and personal development skills highlighted by the Conference Board of
Canada in their Employability Skills Index.
The GrassRoots Program has met with tremendous success, primarily
because it has been legitimated in an environment external to the school,
is recognized as having a positive impact on pedagogy, is intrinsically
motivating to teachers and students, and provides educators with extrin-
sic rewards for participation. Any new programme should build on these
features.
The GrassRoots Program has been a powerful influence on innovation
within the Canadian K-12 school system. There is every reason to believe
that the scale-up process will continue and a sound educational prac-
tice will move beyond isolated pockets of excellence to transcend every
school and every classroom in the country.
Notes
1.	Readers interested in learning more about the GrassRoots Program
are referred to Canada's SchoolNet GrassRoots website (http://www.
schoolnet.ca/grassroots/).
2.	Readers interested in learning more about the GrassRoots Program are
referred to Canada's SchoolNet nis website (http://www.schoolnet.ca/
nis-rei/).
3.	The Conference Board of Canada has identified (1) fundamental skills
Managing Global Transitions
such as the ability to communicate effectively, manage information,
use numbers and think and solve problems; (2) personal management
skills such as demonstrating positive attitudes and behaviours, taking
responsibility, being adaptable, lifelong learning skills and workplace
safety, and; (3) teamwork skills such as the ability to work well with
others and to participate in tasks and projects. For more details please
consult the Conference Board of Canada's Employability Skills Index
2000+ (http://www.conferenceboard.ca/education/).
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Managing Global Training
Utilizing Distance Learning
Technologies and Techniques:
The United States Army
Readiness Training
Susan Haugen
Robert Behling
Wallace Wood
David Douglas
Distance learning (e-learning) is expanding at a very rapid pace as orga-
nizations throughout the world search for economical, responsive, and
effective means to train workers to meet the challenges of the infor-
mation age workplace. The Army Distance Learning Program (tadlp)
model is discussed in the context of the global e-learning environment.
Both e-learning infrastructure and management issues are identified,
with emphasis on: (1) developing policy, (2) measuring performance,
(3) managing resources, (4) maintaining standards, and (5) satisfying
users. The tadlp program is challenging to manage effectively, and
difficult to accurately assess program outcomes.
The tadlp program is shown to have a well-executed infrastructure
plan, quality management of both facilities and services by contractor-
supplied staff, and well-designed classrooms. However, the program
suffers from limited courseware, creating a bottleneck for full program
utilization. A discussion follows relating the Army program to public
and private e-learning programs and expectations.
Dr Susan Haugen is Professor in Department of Accounting
and Finance, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, usa.
Dr Robert Behling is consultant in Arrowrock Technologies, usa.
Dr Wallace Wood is Professor in Department of Computer
Information Systems, Bryant College, usa.
Dr David Douglas is Professor in Department of Computer
Information Systems and Quantitative Analysis, University
of Arkansas, usa.
Introduction
The us Army shows many similarities to a large multinational business
enterprise: locations throughout the world, a workforce that requires
ongoing training, finite budgets, and constantly changing training re-
quirements. The Army has put in place a number of different training
programs to address these needs. The program we will examine is The
Army Distance Learning Program (tadlp), a computer and telecom-
munications technology-driven initiative to bring training to the soldier.
The program is available to personnel in the active Army, the Army Re-
serve, the Army National Guard, and Department of the Army civilian
employees. The mission statement for the program is 'Delivery of stan-
dardized individual, collective, and self development training for soldiers
and units anywhere and anytime through the application of information
technologies.' According to Army Chief of Staff General Eric C. Shinseki,
'The Army Distance Learning Program is a technological enabler that
supports the Army vision-people, readiness, and transformation-by ex-
panding training opportunities and providing leaders a greater flexibility
in developing soldiers and growing leaders' (tadlp 2002).
While there may be differences in overall mission, there are numerous
similarities in meeting the training requirements for individuals within
the tadlp program and other private and public distance learning pro-
grams. Learning content will be unique for each application, therefore
the focus of this study will be on the management and delivery of train-
ing, especially as it relates to infrastructure and computer and telecom-
munications technology. Before discussing the tadlp program specifics,
it would be useful to review some of the basics of distance learning, often
referred to as e-learning when used in the corporate context.
Distance Learning (E-Learning) Overview
The Internet is perhaps the most transforming technology in history, re-
shaping business, media, entertainment, and society in astonishing ways,
and is bringing us closer to making learning of all kinds a practical reality
for everyone. While there has been much publicity about innovative pro-
grams, it is important to understand that Internet-supported distance
learning is not without pitfalls. Experts are divided over the question
of the learning effectiveness of e-learning programs versus face-to-face
classroom programs; however, there is growing evidence that e-learning
is an effective means for learning in most applications (Kearsley 1998).
Also, there are a number of fundamental policy and general infrastruc-
ture concerns requiring attention before e-learning applications can be
maximized.
The Web-Based Education Commission of the United States Congress
(Kerrey and Isakson 2000) has identified a number of important e-
learning issues that need Congressional action, including making In-
ternet resources more available and affordable, protecting user privacy,
revising outdated telecommunications and other relevant regulations,
and promoting private and public sector collaboration. While these is-
sues represent initiatives for the United States, the call to action is equally
relevant for all global e-learning applications. With or without action
on these and other relevant initiatives, e-learning is rapidly assuming a
prominent role in educating individuals at all levels. Along with tradi-
tional educational institutions such as colleges and universities, business
and industry has become a significant champion of e-learning.
Corporate America is faced with training and retraining 50 million
workers, and is turning to e-learning for all aspects of their training
requirements (The Telemedicine Center 2001). The us corporate e-
learning market was estimated at $1.1 billion in 2000, and is expected
to grow to $11.4 billion by 2003. The total global market for e-learning
is estimated to grow to an astounding $365 billion (corporate, college
and university, government, and elementary and secondary schools) by
2003 (Kerrey and Isakson 2001). While there are many factors causing
the dramatic growth, the ability to reach a wide and diversified student
population and overcome geographic boundaries with communications
technology is clearly one of the driving forces. A pent-up demand for
all types of training in a convenient and personalized format is also an
important factor. When viewed from the technology perspective, the
pervasive use of the World Wide Web (www) has presented educational
institutions, business and industry, and the military with a platform for
a wide variety of learning programs and activities. Nucleus Research re-
ports that a study of several thousand global corporations found that
e-learning initiatives led all information technology applications when
measured by return on investment (roi), far surpassing the more tradi-
tional information technology (it) applications found in industry (Eu-
ropemedia.net 2002).
The Army Distance Learning Program Model
As the Army moved into the information age, commanders understood
they needed to change their training procedures. Training programs were
generally residential institutional programs, very personnel and facil-
ity intensive. They required the soldier to come to them, thus making
the programs expensive to operate. Training budgets faced peacetime
reductions and were not sufficient to train and sustain the skills sol-
diers needed to perform their required tasks. Many Army schools imple-
mented distance learning on a small scale; however, they generally devel-
oped unique programs that could not communicate or interoperate with
other programs or schools. A substantial added training concern for the
Army is the reserve corps, part time soldiers who have limited flexibility
to travel to training classes while maintaining their full time job. With re-
duced training, readiness is negatively impacted, and the Army needed a
coordinated, responsive, effective, and less costly way to deliver training.
The Army Distance Learning Program (tadlp) is the Army's innova-
tive approach to training soldiers, making use of leading edge computer
and communications technology to bring the instructor and all the train-
ing related resources to the student rather than requiring the student
to travel to a central location for training (tadlp 2002). The program
emphasizes and supports development of standardized courses for the
Army. tadlp provides an environment that supports student/instructor
interaction in both real time and non-real time as well as self-paced stu-
dent instruction without the need for an instructor.
The mission of tadlp is to deliver standardized, individual, collective
and self-development training to soldiers and units anywhere and at any
time through multiple means and technologies. This includes providing
telecommunications and data processing systems, as well as associated
equipment worldwide. The program will perform the enterprise man-
agement of these systems through one Training Access Center (tac) and
several Regional Training Access Centers (rtacs) and multiple Digital
Training Facilities (dtfs). The tac and one rtac are located at Fort Eu-
stis, Virginia. To date, about 150 dtfs have been fielded to sites within the
continental United States and locations in other parts of the world. Ad-
ditional rtacs and dtfs are planned for fielding to worldwide military
locations over the next several years.
The tadlp will provide up to 400 dtfs, the infrastructure, and the
software needed to manage the distance learning enterprise, including
students, classrooms, courseware, and facilities management. This is be-
ing accomplished through block upgrades and modular contracting.
Each block will satisfy a set of requirements and will provide additional
functionality. Each new block will be integrated into the existing system.
Block 1, which has been completed, concentrated on deploying mod-
ern Digital Training Facilities that incorporated automation and two-
way audio/video teletraining (vtt) products into all Army components.
Block 2, building on this functionality, allowed the Army to network the
dtfs, manage them centrally, and link them to Department of Defense
intranets and the Internet. Implementation of Block 2 is well underway.
Block 3 will provide the hardware and software for automated student
administration, management, and scheduling. Block 3 implementation
has been started. Blocks 4 through 6 will provide video on demand and
desktop video teleconferencing, along with simulation capabilities.
The following is a list of the more important objectives of the tadlp
system architecture.
•	Scalability to accommodate the multitude of courseware applica-
tions as well as a large number of digital training facilities and loca-
tions.
•	A user friendly system, featuring simple user interfaces and single
logon protocols.
•	A system that minimizes operating and maintenance costs.
•	A secure system.
•	An interoperable system based on standards and uniform solutions.
•	A system that reduces risk by using off-the-shelf technology.
It should be noted that - as with many large scale government pro-
grams - budgeting, bidding, and implementation activities are measured
in years, and while the technologies and resources utilized are current
technologies, they are seldom if ever state-of-the-art. The tadlp pro-
gram has an overall budget for infrastructure and courseware that ap-
proaches $500 million, and it is anticipated that the blocks will require
between five and ten years to implement. Program concerns for security,
interoperability and field support preclude chasing technology, some-
thing which smaller and more individualized programs may be better
able to accomplish.
From the soldier's perspective, along with courseware available, the
most important component of the tadlp program is the on-base fa-
cilities, management of those facilities, and overall system support. The
contract calls for standardization of each learning site along with trained
on-site management and centralized help-desk support. A brief descrip-
tion of each follows.
digital training facilities (dtf)
Each dtf will consist of 16 student work stations, 1 manager workstation,
1 office jet multifunction machine (printing, faxing, copying and scan-
ning), a laser printer, a vtt system to allow two-way training between
and among other sites, and networking capabilities to the NiPRnet gov-
ernment intranet for access to web-based training resources. Facilities
can be utilized in synchronous, asynchronous, active and passive modes,
depending on the training requirements. Enterprise management will
be provided by the tac center, including network monitoring, patches,
anti-virus software, updates and other upgrades required by the program
manager.
Networking resources allow for dtf interoperability and access to ex-
ternal resources through the Web. However, e-learning support also in-
cludes classroom instruction resources such as a document camera, vcr,
personal computer, and student microphones.
Courseware is a critical component with any e-learning application.
The tadlp program is unique in that a separate command is responsible
for managing the contracts. Courseware development and maintenance
is outside the tadlp program, utilizing a different project management
team and different courseware contractors. Because of security consid-
erations and overall management control, only approved courseware is
authorized for use in the dtf. At times the lack of unified program man-
agement can cause confusion or friction among the various project man-
agers and responsible parties.
the digital training facility manager (dtfm)
The dtfms manage and administer the classrooms, and are under the
operational control of the distance learning point-of-contact (poc) indi-
vidual on each site, and under the administrative and managerial control
of the dtfm project manager. A contracting firm, acs Systems and En-
gineering, Virginia Beach, Virginia provides project management. The
dtfm is responsible for daily dtf operation under the direction of the
installation poc. The dtfm will: (1) operate the dtf in accordance with
the schedule and availability restrictions established by the local poc;
(2) implement procedures to identify, account for, and secure assigned
equipment; (3) ensure that sufficient classroom seats are available for
both incoming students and students currently in training; (4) perform
preventative maintenance on the equipment in the dtf; (5) troubleshoot
system and network problems, printer and computer problems; and (6)
prepare and submit trouble tickets and/or implement repairs.
The dtmf is also responsible for performing orientation briefings,
which include information about operating hours, resources available,
equipment operating requirements and restrictions, and details about
the facilities. Each student must also have an annual video briefing cov-
ering security procedures, scheduled and monitored by the dtfm and
logged into the student's record. Tools available for performing their du-
ties include Microsoft Exchange for e-mail and calendaring, and Army-
Knowledge Online to submit usage reports, help desk service requests,
student registrations and other required reports.
the training access center (tac)
The overall function of the tac is to provide help desk services to the
tadlp students, dtfms, and instructors. Telephone, fax and ARweb all
serve as access points of entry for tac service calls. The help desk is the
central contact point for information technology support at tac. It is
also the portal through which the dtfms, instructors and students form
opinions about tac functions. tac services are available around the
clock, every day of the year, and are centralized in Fort Eustis, Virginia.
The core values of the help desk are based on six essential principles:
(1) integrity, (2) knowledge, (3) respect, (4) professionalism, (5) trust,
and (6) customer empathy. It is the responsibility of the help desk to en-
sure that productivity through the use of technology is maintained at the
highest possible levels. Because team members are dispersed throughout
the world (especially dtf Managers), a well defined charter or set of ob-
jectives, complemented by collaborative tools and the Internet, enhances
team development. There is also a Network Control Center located at
Fort Eustis, which is responsible for connection, operation, and repair of
the video training and administrative systems.
controlling risk
System backup is a primary risk control activity. The objective of the
backup plan is to ensure that in the event of a complete or partial system
failure, there is a workable plan for continued operation of tadlp. Rel-
evant emergency situations to plan for include: fire, flood, civil disorder,
natural disaster, bomb threats and other evacuation threats, and other
potential incidents that risk lives or damage. Contingencies planned for
include: (1) loss of functionality of individual servers and processors, (2)
temporary or permanent hardware loss in the dtf, (3) loss or degrada-
tion of service caused by malicious attacks or computer viruses, (4) tem-
porary or permanent loss of hardware within tadlp, and (5) student
workstation software failure. These risks are not unique to military or
government programs, and similar planning is equally relevant to busi-
ness and industry technology applications.
Once the risk factors and contingencies are identified and analyzed,
a plan is prepared to mitigate the risk. The Disaster Recovery Plan in-
cludes: (1) adequate contingency sites; (2) backup plans and schedules;
(3) off site storage for tape and other backups; (4) annual testing of the
contingency plan; and (5) a recovery plan listing necessary actions and
procedures to recover from interrupted operations at the dtf, tac and
rtac sites, including contractor contact people and phone numbers. Be-
cause the tadlp program relies heavily on contractors for all aspects of
development and management, a brief discussion of contractor support
and services follows.
contractor support and services
As e-learning becomes an inevitable, integral part of meeting the needs
for continuous learning, it has fueled a remarkable growth in service
providers that help migrate programs from traditional classroom to web-
based training, as well as providing for technology platform develop-
ment and support (Lau 2000). When firms are contracted to develop,
field, and support e-learning programs, it is important for them to fully
understand the program requirements and objectives. The following list
describes some of the more important questions that need to be an-
swered before contractors can effectively assist the Army in meeting e-
learning goals.
•	What is the current Army training environment?
•	What is the current training format being utilized?
•	How does the Army currently monitor, measure quality and track
training?
•	Why is e-learning being launched?
•	Can off-the-shelf products be utilized in the new e-learning system?
•	What are the e-learning program objectives?
•	What geographical and personal characteristics are associated with
the learners utilizing the new e-learning system?
•	How will the Army monitor and measure quality and track e-
learning training?
•	What budget constraints should the contractor be aware of?
• What time constraints should the contractor be aware of?
Because the majority of the tadlp program is supported by contrac-
tors, it is essential that good communications be maintained between the
contractors and the program manager. Program success is possible only
when both groups work with the same objectives in mind. The contrac-
tor (in the case of tadlp, acs Systems and Engineering and other con-
tractors) provides help desk support; core services such as network man-
agement, support of fielding activities, including classroom construction
and setup; program management and staff training; and support of dtf
managers, systems development, and software.
To accomplish these activities acs Systems and Engineering has built
a contractor administration organization dedicated to supporting the
tadlp program. The basic organizational chart is shown in Figure 1.
Technical reviews and audits provide verification of the system's devel-
opment process and contracted management activities. These activities
are event driven throughout the life cycle of the development activities
and the fielding and operation of the Digital Training Facilities. Policies
and procedures for these reviews have been developed by acs Systems
and Engineering and approved by the tadlp Program Manager.
Internal reviews provide a means for periodic examination during sys-
tems development phases, and provide a basis for baseline growth and
expansion. Maintenance reviews provide means for determining the im-
pact of changes on the safety, operability, and reliability of the tadlp
system. Configuration audits examine the functional and physical char-
acteristics of the systems and support documentation, which include re-
view of test results, compliance with standards, and configuration con-
trol activities. The contractor is responsible for maintaining and control-
Figure 1: acs Systems and Engineering Organizational Chart
ling records of all applicable technical reviews and audits and making
them available to the tadlp Program Manager.
tadlp critical system design concerns
and operational issues
The scope of the tadlp program causes considerable complex problems
for administrators, developers, and contractors. Numerous government
standards and protocols must be incorporated into contract specifica-
tions for the networks, facilities, software, and other products and ser-
vices developed and implemented. Because technology is off-the-shelf,
procedures to evaluate various technologies must satisfy both the con-
tractor and the tadlp Program Manager, and must lead to the acquisi-
tion of equipment and services that will be compatible and functional.
The following list describes some of the more important system design
concerns.
•	Bandwidth limitations and variations for the various technologies
and locations.
•	Firewalls - the ip router network is non-secure, as are some com-
mercial networks being utilized, requiring the use of Virtual Private
Network (niprnet) encapsulating packets for secure data trans-
mission.
•	Maintaining all Department of Defense and other government stan-
dards and policies.
•	Maintaining a current release Windows operating environment at
all dtf sites.
•	Incorporating required security levels and procedures into the sys-
tems.
•	Maintaining system integrity and accuracy.
•	Safeguarding confidentiality.
•	Following object development/reuse protocols for information use
and reallocation.
•	Providing adequate system audit points and trails.
Once hardware and software are in place, the program needs to meet
operational objectives. By identifying critical operational issues early in
the block implementation plan, systems can be designed with these in
mind, which determine the basic design specifications. Critical opera-
tional issues are to:
•	Deliver standardized training courses where and when needed.
•	Provide accessibility throughout the duty day and provide timely
transfer and downloading of training materials to students.
•	Provide means for instructors to communicate with students at re-
mote sites through real time (synchronous) technologies.
•	Provide capability to manage classroom and student schedules, en-
rollment, and tracking.
•	Provide interoperability and data exchange with appropriate inter-
nal and external systems and networks.
•	Manage the tadlp system, including contracted services such as
hardware maintenance, facility management and support services.
•	Meet and maintain established standards for courseware, training
materials, logistics and operations.
•	Protect sensitive data and provide adequate security.
•	Meet soldier training needs through courseware and other training
materials suitable for distance learning applications.
Once the technology, facilities and management are in place and im-
plementation begins, the next critical step in delivering and maintaining
a quality program is measuring performance.
measuring performance
Performance measurements in government programs are used for three
basic purposes: (1) providing measurable results so the agency can
demonstrate progress towards goals and objectives; (2) determining ef-
fectiveness by measuring how well the agency is meeting its mission,
vision and goals, and identifying areas that need attention; and (3) pro-
cess improvement. The Department of Energy measures performance
based on relevance (the degree to which a program adds value and is
responsible, timely, and pertinent to the needs of customers), produc-
tivity (the degree to which work yields useful results compared to re-
sources consumed), and quality (the degree to which work is considered
to be technically excellent). Assessment measures are both qualitative
and quantitative, and include peer review, numerical assessments, and
customer evaluations.
Challenges for effective performance measurement are many. Some
functions are difficult to measure due to the subjective nature of the in-
formation. Programs may be initiated with both short and long range
goals and as the program evolves, objectives may change, making mea-
surement of performance trends difficult to establish, maintain, and re-
vise as mission objectives become refined over time. It is also important
to note that performance measurement, especially when it is quantitative
in nature, will not guarantee successful programs.
When measuring performance:
•	The cause and effect of outcomes are not easily established.
•	Poor results do not necessarily point to poor execution.
•	Numerical quotas do not fix defective processes.
•	Measurement can only approximate the actual system.
•	Performance measurement does not ensure compliance with laws
and regulations.
To work effectively, performance measures require clearly understood
expectations, objectives, and definitions so that everyone is working to-
ward the same end. Presently the performance measurements for the
tadlp program are very basic, consisting of logging various activities
such as hours of system use, technical problems and solutions, soldiers
enrolled, and courses delivered. While this data is useful for operational
planning, it gives little insight into the effectiveness of the program.
More sophisticated performance metrics need to be developed and im-
plemented to help measure how well the program is meeting learning
objectives as well as monitoring the overall program effectiveness.
managing resources
E-learning programs deploy computer and communications technolo-
gies in place of humans and bricks and mortar to deliver learning
throughout the organization. Efficiencies are gained, but many of the
traditional methods and procedures for managing resources and keep-
ing records are no longer viable. Artificial neural network technology can
be used in various e-learning environments to manage stored informa-
tion, filter content, and enable better knowledge adoption on behalf of
the users (Kostas, Psarras, and Papastefanatos 2002). The tadlp project
management team utilizes a variety of computerized systems to manage
software, networks and computer and telecommunications resources,
but has not yet incorporated the more sophisticated Artificial Intelli-
gence tools into their management scheme.
Successful implementation of e-learning requires the same level of
management commitment as other mission-critical, organization-wide
programs (Henry 2002). Effective operations management is the under-
pinning for program success. Maintaining a functioning system, facil-
ity, learning program and infrastructure is the foundation for student
achievement. Understanding and managing the dynamics of technology
change, courseware, and system privacy and security are significant chal-
lenges. E-learning is not a program that can be designed, installed, and
ignored. If it is to be effective, e-learning must be continually managed.
By developing the overall plan in the Block format, there is an evolu-
tionary approach to development and implementation. tadlp depends
on various contractors to perform necessary services as they initiate new
activities in each Block of the overall plan.
maintaining standards
When standards are not given appropriate concern by people design-
ing and implementing e-learning programs, they may find that the e-
learning activities are less convenient and more fragmented than they
should be. By being concerned with maintaining standards from the
inception of the program, e-learning flexibility and consistent deliv-
ery systems are more easily maintained (Singh and Reed 2002). tadlp
standards start with system access. Student interfaces, navigation tools,
and administrative record keeping are consistent throughout the sys-
tem. Hardware standards are important, as programs cross national and
international boundaries. Utilizing standardized commercial products
rather than custom designed hardware and software keeps costs under
control and makes documentation and access much easier for tadlp
management.
Discussion
Change is the common denominator in today's organizations, and the
Army is no exception. Technologies, knowledge and procedures are
evolving at a very rapid pace, requiring a workforce with ever-increasing
education and skills. When both public and private organizations look
at developing strategies for effective workforce training, e-learning is
seen as a way to economically and effectively address many of the major
training issues. Some of the more important issues identified include:
• Increased demand for skilled workers. Skilled jobs now represent
85% of all jobs in the United States. By 2006 nearly half of all work-
ers will be employed in industries that produce or intensively use
information technology products and services.
•	Shortage of skilled workers. In 1999 nearly 720,000 it positions
went unfilled in the United States.
•	Need for continuous training. It is estimated that 50% of all em-
ployees' skills become outdated within 3 to 5 years.
•	Shift to use of web-based training for workers. Classroom use in
corporate training is expected to decrease and the market for web-
based corporate learning is expected to grow from $550 million in
1998 to $11.4 billion by 2003.
•	Growth in Corporate Universities. 40% of the Fortune 500 compa-
nies have established corporate universities, and at the current rate
the number of corporate universities will exceed the number of tra-
ditional universities in the United States by the year 2010 (adapted
from Kerrey and Isakson 2000).
It should be noted that these same issues have an impact on military
training programs. More sophisticated weapons, vehicles, support tech-
nologies and battlefield strategies put pressure on military commands to
maintain well trained soldiers in the field. The Army views e-learning as
an effective means to meet many of their training needs.
While there are many different reasons for public and private orga-
nizations to embrace e-learning, three that are relevant to almost any
organization would be: (1) the desire to customize learning environ-
ments to the changing needs of the learners; (2) the need to improve
training-related administrative tasks such as how and when training is
delivered; and (3) the desire to pare down the cost of training. The Army
has done a good job of defining their training objectives; planning the
program implementation utilizing the block approach; effectively com-
municating the plan to developers and Army personnel; implementing
the technology-driven components on or ahead of schedule; and mon-
itoring the network, faults, system access and program utilization. The
tadlp program has deployed current technologies in the classrooms,
has sophisticated networking and communications facilities (with cen-
tralized management and software support) to link various training sites,
and is able to function in synchronous, asynchronous, active and pas-
sive modes with multimedia, video, and voice transmissions for single
or linked classrooms. The current constraints found in the program are
with limited courseware deployment rather than with technology and
facilities. The technology development, deployment, and management
systems are currently ahead of the courseware development and system
monitoring and evaluation systems. When compared with business and
commercial e-learning applications, the tadlp program planning, re-
source and management activities look to be comparable with all but the
most leading edge applications.
As one might expect, policies and procedures play a significant role in
operating and managing the tadlp program. Integrating the Depart-
ment of Defense, Army, government, and individual privacy require-
ments has been a challenge for both program planners and program
contractors. The program development and operational activities are al-
most completely outsourced, requiring clearly written and comprehen-
sive specifications, policies and procedures. Privacy and security have
been major concerns, and have received a great deal of program man-
agement attention. Specifications and requirements have been clearly de-
scribed, and tadlp administrators have had almost no problems in ei-
ther of these areas. Complaints have generally been directed at the cum-
bersome and time consuming procedures required by soldiers to access
and utilize the systems, which are a function of program management
concern for security and privacy.
tadlp management made the decision to utilize off-the-shelf hard-
ware components, operating systems, networking, and video and voice
technologies. This has standardized the design and configuration of the
classrooms being built. There has been some variation in the furniture
and fixtures; however, there has been an effort to standardize these as
well. The objective is to provide a consistent experience for the soldiers
wherever they are when they access e-learning utilizing the tadlp sys-
tem. It also makes updating and modifying of hardware and systems eas-
ier to support and justify.
To be successful, online education needs good quality, well-delivered
course material supported by tutorials, advice, counselling and an overall
support system which will effectively manage the program. The quality
of student-to-student and student-to-instructor interaction may be less
than is found in a face-to-face classroom setting, where prompting by
the instructor, body language, and social interaction come into play. To
mitigate this, instructors need to organize and deliver their courses in
ways that are very different from traditional classroom lecture formats.
With any online course, the danger is that students will become spec-
tators rather than participants (Healy 2001). Courseware development
has been a significant challenge for tadlp. Development is contractor
104 Haugen, Behling, Wood, and Douglas
Table 1: Issues with Online Course Delivery
Pros
Flexibility of scheduling and
communicating - any time and any
place access
Eliminates or reduces travel time and
classroom construction
Provides a format for self-paced
learning, tracking and assessment
Instruction can be more customized
and personal to meet individual needs
Economies of scale providing uniform
training and applications
Improves training related
administrative tasks
Cons
Very capital intensive for delivery
systems and resources
Courseware development is more
difficult and expensive
Requires added instructor technical
skills, course development and
preparation time, software updates
Traditional content may be difficult
to move online
Requires learners to have
minimum technical skills
Cheating, fraud, and virus risks may
increase in the online environment
Lacks social environment for students
and instructors
Can be difficult to structure assignments
and provide clear and explicit instructions
driven, and to date has not met completion targets. Table 1 outlines some
of the more important issues with online course delivery.
Distance education can be a very powerful tool. However, to make
these programs as effective as face-to-face traditional courses the tech-
nology needs to be constantly updated to take advantage of the new tech-
nology. This includes more interactive activities, modified lectures, more
discussion sessions, and a chat room and bulletin board for student-
to-student and student-to-instructor communications (Nelson 2001).
Developing these activities and tools for the tadlp program has gone
slowly, and specifications have been much more difficult to prepare than
specifications for communications technology, classroom resources and
network and enterprise management software. Because both the infras-
tructure and the courseware are contractor supplied, program managers
need to be particularly sensitive to getting their specifications right the
first time.
Moe, Bailey, and Lau (1999) report that corporations often find it more
efficient and expedient to focus on what they do best, and develop out-
sourcing partnerships with firms who are capable of providing other re-
sources and expertise when needed. Our rapidly changing technology
environment may be the catalyst for organizations to consider outsourc-
ing e-learning to control costs and utilize the most current technologies.
tadlp has chosen to outsource all but project management activities.
Three general models of outsourcing are often utilized. The first is
for the organizations to establish their own e-learning center, either by
themselves or via a joint consortium with other organizations. This is
the approach tadlp has chosen to take. A second approach partners
a group of organizations with technology and/or e-learning companies
to develop joint ventures into distance learning. A third alternative is
to form alliances with not-for-profit organizations such as colleges and
universities, trade associations, and professional associations. The Army
does some partnering with colleges and universities under other pro-
grams that complement tadlp.
Supporting e-learning activities are a wide variety of commercial soft-
ware products and network services. Two major companies that support
online education are Blackboard and WebcT. These and other similar
software tools provide a means for educators to create and manage their
online learning activities. The focus has been on providing an environ-
ment suitable for university e-learning activities, but these tools are of-
ten also appropriate for a much wider application in the business and
industry training arena. To date they have not been incorporated into
the tadlp suite of software, but do offer unique opportunities for more
effective system utilization once the courseware selection becomes more
robust. In addition to managing student learning activities, tadlp man-
agement must also provide for various system management activities.
There are many significant management and operational issues to
be considered with any e-learning implementation. Five critical issues
are: (1) developing policy, (2) measuring performance, (3) managing re-
sources, (4) maintaining standards, and (5) satisfying users. The intro-
duction of e-learning is requiring many organizations to review, modify,
amend, or rewrite their existing policies covering training and educa-
tional programs from the perspective of both the student and the in-
structor. The Division of Government and Public Affairs has produced
a white paper Developing a Distance Education Policy for the 21st Cen-
tury (American Council on Education 2000) which addresses some of
the more relevant issues. Of primary concern are intellectual property
policies and procedures. Patent, copyright, and software licensing are a
few of the issues that need to be addressed. As we move from traditional
classroom training to distance learning and e-learning we have an oppor-
tunity to: (1) clarify what is intellectual property and the circumstances
under which the institution will assume the costs of protecting intellec-
tual property; (2) define inventor and author rights, including rights of
revision and adaptation, reproduction, and ownership; (3) identifywhen
and how the organization can use intellectual property generated by in-
structors; (4) clarify how instructors will be compensated for the devel-
opment and preparation of distance learning courses; and (5) identify
who will administer the organization's intellectual property policies. Be-
cause the training materials utilized by the Army tadlp program are
often unique and not generally created or used by the general public,
intellectual property rights are not a major concern.
Policies directed at student issues include: (1) describing and defining
access rights and responsibilities; (2) fees and financial responsibility; (3)
privacy issues; and (4) liability. Limiting liability, especially copyright in-
fringement, requires development of policies that cover the types of ma-
terials incorporated into distance learning courses and procedures for
clearances or releases for use and distribution. In addition to relevant
and carefully crafted policies, E-learning needs to be compelling to the
targeted audience, offering resources that are seen as valuable and ap-
pealing to the learner (Henry 2002). Thompson et al. (2001) suggests that
a tension is often created between the endless technologies available for
deployment in e-learning programs and the need for the human dimen-
sion in learning. Successful organizations are able to manage the tension
and deliver an acceptable balance for their learner population. tadlp
students experience this tension most often with the security and cum-
bersome access procedures that are incorporated into the system. The
natural outcome of tension is frustration and dissatisfied system users.
Steve McGrath (2002), a Department of Energy performance man-
agement specialist, discussed performance metrics with the authors. He
believes that customer satisfaction is the basic building block of any per-
formance management system. He states that you need to focus on what
the customers really want (not what you think they need) and work to
do what you do faster, better, and cheaper. The rest takes care of itself.
When we look at satisfying users, the glaring deficiency in the program
is the availability of a rich and robust course offering list. Courseware
development has been lagging, and from the soldier's perspective, this
defeats the purpose of the program. Program managers may be more
satisfied than soldiers, because they have been able to develop the in-
frastructure and training sites within budget and on time. Standardiza-
tion has kept technical problems to a minimum, and the programs that
have been delivered are considered to be successful. Because a different
training command manages the courseware development and deploy-
ment, tadlp administrators have found themselves at a disadvantage
when they measure user satisfaction. After four years of operation, it has
become very clear that it is much easier to develop, manage and con-
trol the e-learning infrastructure than it is to develop and deploy quality
courseware. Optimistic and unmet courseware development schedules
have been the bottleneck for the program, and courseware design and
development has proven to be much more time-consuming and expen-
sive than was expected when the program was launched. We believe that
it is safe to say that effective courseware is the Achilles heel of any e-
learning program, and unless adequate resources and management at-
tention are directed at courseware, the e-learning program will fail to
fully meet training expectations. The infrastructure is only able to de-
liver the learning materials that are available and appropriate to meet
program objectives.
reflections on tadlp
While the ultimate overall success of tadlp is still possible, it is clear
that success, if it comes, will not be quick. The authors are not privy to
the reasons why the Army chose to have the courseware development
and the technology to be delivered in separate commands. It is clear to
the authors that was a mistake, and only time will tell if it was a fatal
mistake.
The result of this decision was the lack of an overall manager for
tadlp. Management literature is filled with examples of what happens
when two or more people are in charge - no one is in charge. It also re-
sulted in the project manager for the development and deployment of
the delivery mechanisms for the distance learning being severely handi-
capped because of the lack of suitable courseware.
Careful planning utilizing the Block approach makes tadlp systems
implementation an evolutionary activity, with opportunities to remain
technologically current, while continuing with implementation activities
for more sophisticated applications and activities. Standardizing tech-
nologies and deploying off-the-shelf hardware and software keeps costs
down, makes sites very compatible, and provides a common look and feel
throughout the locations. A great deal of thought and planning went into
designing the tadlp infrastructure, and the reward is a smooth running
group of Digital Training Facilities and Training Access Centers support-
ing the dtfs. The planning and development activities could serve as the
basis for any large global training program.
The weakness in the tadlp program continues to be courseware avail-
ability. Developers and contractors have experienced a great deal of frus-
tration in meeting goals and deadlines, and all but the simplest train-
ing activities are not yet available through tadlp. The lack of suitable
courseware for tadlp is not a unique problem for it has plagued e-
learning in general from the very beginning. The lack of courseware also
makes the measurement of user satisfaction with tadlp difficult, if not
impossible. While the operational issue of the user friendliness of tadlp
needs to be addressed, the ultimate satisfaction of the user will depend
on the quality and availability of the courseware.
The success of the eArmyU program reinforces the value of having
suitable courseware. This program designed by the Army to improve
retention provides the technology for e-learning, but the courseware is
provided by the participating colleges and universities. While the goal of
eArmyU is different, its success points out the importance of a robust
variety of suitable courseware.
Additional frustration is experienced because there is no overall pro-
ject manager, and separate command structures and project managers
control the infrastructure and courseware development. While having an
overall project manager for tadlp would not guarantee the appropriate
courseware, it would make the overall evaluation of tadlp easier and
more meaningful.
tadlp to date reinforces the idea that while the management of com-
puter and telecommunications technology is complex, it is still easier to
manage than people intensive activities such as courseware development.
Any organization developing a global program needs to be aware of this
problem and find ways to coordinate and meet planning objectives.
A key component to the management of an effort of this magni-
tude and type is to effectively coordinate and manage contractor sup-
port functions and activities. Organizations need to assess their strengths
and weaknesses to determine in-house capabilities and identify potential
contractor supplied services. While there does not appear to be a hier-
archy for contractor supported activities, there are critical 'choke points'
for any application. Core services such as network management include
some of the more critical systems for program success. Because the entire
distance learning project is dependent on the electronic distribution sys-
tem, network failures will quickly choke the entire system. Another pos-
sible choke point lies in the systems and software development efforts.
Failure or delays may not cause the system to crash, but may cause lim-
itations and restrictions on activities that can be performed. In the case
of the tadlp program, one primary contractor provided the majority of
the support services (exclusive of courseware), making communications
and management easier than if there were multiple contractors.
From an operational perspective, fielding activities such as classroom
construction, furniture design and configuration, and technology setup
may be best handled by a contractor familiar with construction require-
ments and codes. Issues such as ergonomic design, lighting, furniture
placement and layout, and power and cable requirements require spe-
cialized knowledge, and are often less expensive when utilizing a con-
tractor.
The risk that must be assumed with any contractor is timely delivery of
the needed services at the desired level and quality. When a contractor is
unable to meet commitments, the organizational exposure for failure is
much greater than when the activities are being done in-house. Contrac-
tor documentation is often limited and inadequate to allow the client to
pick up the project at some point along the way. Organizations will gen-
erally lack the technical staff to step in and effectively take over, and the
investment in the project can be lost, requiring a fresh start. Therefore,
care in selecting a contractor is a critical management issue, requiring
demonstrations of competence, reference checking and evidence of past
project success. Selection of the contractor may be the single most im-
portant activity after careful definition of the project planning and re-
quirements. While price is certainly important, the organization needs
to be assured that the contractor selected can meet the needs of the or-
ganization and deliver the desired services and products.
A second component necessary for a successful client/vendor relation-
ship is the establishment of a set of procedures to periodically examine
and review progress during the systems development and other con-
tracted activities. This would include a regular review of systems char-
acteristics, documentation, testing and test results, standards compli-
ance, audit and control issues, and operational and management issues.
Regular communications need to be maintained between the contrac-
tor and client, usually through both written memos and reports and
client/contractor meetings. A well informed client is critical to ensuring
a satisfied customer.
When we look at the tadlp infrastructure planning details, program
success is closely linked to the full understanding by the Army of their
training requirements and future needs before they begin any program
development activities or let any contracts. Understanding the need for
managing change and standardization drove the tadlp planning efforts,
and ultimately contributed to the contractors meeting and satisfying the
Army with respect to the implementation of the delivery mechanisms for
the e-learning.
While not a perfect program, tadlp planning, development and im-
plementation activities can serve as a guide for organizations developing
global training programs utilizing the World Wide Web, other network-
ing technologies, and E-learning for personnel training and education
programs.
References
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army.mil
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Training, 20 September, 249-55.
Kearsley, G. 1998. A guide to online education. http://home.sprynet.com/
~gkearsley/online.htm
Kerrey, B., and J. Isakson. 2000. The power of the Internet for learning:
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Kostas, M., J. Psarras, and S. Papastefanatos 2002. Knowledge and infor-
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70.
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McGrath, S. 2002. Personal interview and correspondence with R. Behling,
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Moe, M., K. Bailey and R. Lau 1999. The book of knowledge: Investing
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Nelson, C. 2001. Distance learning: A beginner's perspective. Management
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American Council on Education. 2000. Developing a distance education
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The Telemedicine Center. 2001. Distance learning. http://www.telemed.
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£
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G
O
Knowledge Society - Challenges to Management
Globalisation, Regionalism and the eu Enlargement Process
4th International Conference
of the Koper Faculty of Management
20-22 November 2003 • Portorož • Slovenia
The enlargement of the eu comprises 13
countries, 10 of which will be joining the
eu in 2004. The whole process of acces-
sion raises a number of issues and ques-
tions about the future of education, re-
search and employment policy in the New
Europe. The scope of this conference is
to address these issues and to challenge
politicians, researchers, academics and
practitioners to discuss questions related
to the concept of knowledge society, i.e.
how it is built and what are its implica-
tions for national education systems in
relation to the Common European area.
We look forward to meeting academics,
researchers and practitioners from educa-
tional and research organisations as well
as management of companies from eu
and acceding countries directly involved
in the implementation of the acquis com-
munautaire and in the field of education
and research.
Aims of the conference:
•	To discuss current legal and other issues
related to the legal framework for ed-
ucation and research within the Euro-
pean Union
•	To discuss creation and use of knowl-
edge in Europe and its interconnected-
ness with the labour market after the
admission of new eu member states
•	To present case studies and analyses
from different national contexts that
raise questions about management of
organisations and their focus on invest-
ments into knowledge
•	To provoke and indicate changes of the
integration process in education and
research areas
Topics of the conference:
•	Staff recruiting and development
•	Education and research
•	Creation and use of knowledge
•	Countries in transition
We kindly invite participants to submit
abstracts for papers, round-table discus-
sions, poster sessions by July 1, 2003 elec-
tronically to e-mail address:
conference@fm-kp.si.
For submission forms please visit our web
site: http://www.fm-kp.si.
The Programme Board will inform au-
thors about acceptances by September 15,
2003 the latest. Final papers are expected
by October 1, 2003.
The conference proceedings will be pub-
lished after the conference. Selected pa-
pers will be considered for publication in
the Managing Global Transitions: Inter-
national Research Journal. Articles in the
Journal are peer reviewed.
University of Primorska
Koper Faculty of Management
Cankarjeva 5, 6000 Koper, Slovenia
Phone: ++386 (0) 5 610 2000
Fax: ++386 (0) s 610 2015
Managing Global Transitions
International Research Journal
aims and scope
The journal Managing Global Transitions
is aimed at providing a forum for
disseminating scholarship focused on
transitions. The journal seeks to publish
ground breaking work in management
research that will provide integrated and
diverse perspectives on the processes of
change and evolution in a broad range of
disparate fields, including systems theory,
leadership development, economics,
education, sociology, informatics,
technology, decision-making theory, and
action learning. To further the
understanding of transition environments
internationally the journal aspires to
enhance the availability of case studies and
analysis of data from different cultural
environments in public, non-profit, and
corporate contexts.
information for authors
Manuscripts should be prepared following
the style of The Chicago Manual of Style
(University of Chicago Press 1993).
Manuscript Style
•	Papers may be submitted electronically
via e-mail. Manual submission (one hard
copy plus one on ibm format disk) is also
required.
•	Papers should be between 4000 and 5000
words in length, accompanied by a
100-150-word abstract and about five key
words on a separate sheet. Book reviews
should be between 1000 and 2000 words
in length.
•	The title page must list full title, author(s)
address, phone, fax, and e-mail.
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spacing and 25 mm (1 in) margins. A12 pt
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must be numbered (e.g. 1,1.1,1.2, etc.)
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Word and IATgX. Figures should be saved
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Author name should be used as file name
(e.g. smith.doc for the main file and
smith1.eps, smith2.eps, etc. for figures).
Reference Style
The author should make sure that there is a
strict one-to-one correspondence between
the names and years in the text and those on
the list. The list of references should appear
at the end of the main text. It should be
listed in alphabetical order by author's
name. References should appear as follows:
Beech, Mary Higdon. 1982. The domestic
realm in the lives of Hindu women in
Calcutta. In Separate worlds: Studies of
purdah in South Asia, edited by Hanna
Papanek and Gail Minault, 110-38. Delhi:
Chanakya.
Jackson, Richard. 1979. Running down the
up-escalator: Regional inequality in
Papua New Guinea. Australian
Geographer 14 (May): 175-84.
Lynd, Robert, and Helen Lynd. 1929.
Middletown: A study in American culture.
New York: Harcourt, Brace and World.
University of Chicago Press. 1993. The
Chicago manual ofstyle. 14th ed. Chicago
and London: University of Chicago Press.
Articles are peer reviewed.
copyright notice
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Managing Global Transitions is held by
individual authors.
subscriptions
Annual subscription (two numbers):
individual rate 9,600 sit (euro 40);
institutional rate 14,400 sit (euro 60).
Prices include postage.
Managing Global Transitions
International Research Journal
volume 1 • number 1 • spring 2003 ' issn I581-63II
5 Speculative Fictions for Understanding
Global Change Environments:
Two Thought Experiments
Noel Gough
29 Vital Approach to Transition:
Slovene Multiple Case Study
Suzanne Winbauer Catana
49 Educational Leadership for Results or for Learning?
Contrasting Directions in Times of Transition
David Oldroyd
69 Creating a Culture of Innovation
in Canadian Schools
David C. Dibbon
89 Managing Global Training
Utilizing Distance Learning
Technologies and Techniques:
The United States Army
Readiness Training
Susan Haugen
Robert Behling
Wallace Wood
David Douglas
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