The Three Series: 3 (well 6 actually!) books for managers in ELT

This is part of The Three Series.

I read a lot of books, but unfortunately I don’t have enough time to review all of them in detail. This being said, I wanted to put together a post that focused on books for my managers out there! What follows here is a list of six titles that I think all academic mangers in ELT should read. Now, this is part of the Three Series, but I’ve decided to include six books but split into two groups of three. The first group focuses on three educational management books, while the last three are books from the world of business management.

Three educational management books for the academic manager

From Teacher to Manager – White, Hockley, Horst Jansen & Laughner

Ok, so we are going to start with the most important book on this list as it is ELT specific and covers pretty much everything that one could hope for. From Teacher to Manager focuses on managing language teaching organisations, and is written in a way that is accessible AND practical – it’s not too ‘business-y’. It touches on everything from organisational culture, to professional development and even change management. If you could only buy one book from this list, then it is definitely this one!

I just reviewed Ellman and Lucantoni’s From Teacher to Trainer (a must read for trainers!), and one of the features they have in their book is QR codes that lead to videos from trainers, explaining how certain concepts are realised in their contexts. I’m actually hoping that Cambridge release a second version of From Teacher to Manager and do something similar, because I think that would add a whole lot more value to this book.

Effective School Management – Everard, Morris & Wilson

The second book on this list is Effective School Management. I have the fourth edition, and whilst it focuses on mainstream education, there are loads of takeaways that are relevant for Language Teaching Organisation (LTO) management.

One of the areas of management this book really helped me with, especially for the NILE MA Management model, was ‘managing change’ within an educational organisation. The change process that they outline I thought made a lot of sense, and certainly helped me get my head around all the variables. I’ve included a photo of the diagram they have – the chapter which this is from goes into a good amount of detail about all of the variables you can see.

Performance management in education – Reeves, Forde, O’Brien, Smith and Tomlinson

Performance management is one of the core responsibilities of many academic managers, and for good reason – high ‘performance’ leads to better teaching/learning. It is an area that, in my opinion, is misunderstood by many managers with ELT – many teachers within our industry, unfortunately, have horror stories related to development, appraisal, etc. This, clearly, should not happen in development- and staff-focused LTOs.

Performance management in education is another book that focuses on mainstream education, but highlights many principles of performance management that should be – no scrap that – need to be in place for teachers to actually benefit from ‘appraisals’.

One thing I really liked about this book was its overview of what they call work-based learning – they highlight the different methodologies that might be present in educational organisations (See below). My descriptions are of course very brief and should you be interested in these, I highly recommend getting yourself a copy!

• Managerial methodologies: Here performance management is focused on top-down management – making what needs to occur in the LTO explicit (e.g., detailed job descriptions), and “the underlying assumption here is that if the individuals who make up the workforce do the ‘right things right’, the performance of the whole organisation will be enhanced” (Reeves et al. 2004, p.82). In essence, managers identify certain competences that teachers need to display these (let’s call these teaching ‘standards’), and work with teachers so that they ‘meet’ these.
• Craft/Professional methodologies: So, here learning occurs best when an inexperienced teacher works with a more experienced teacher. Performance management and assessment here focus on the ‘mentor’s’ view regarding whether or not the teacher has met the standards set out either explicitly or implicitly.
• Organisational development methodologies: Basically, these methodologies see learning happening best through a team effort. That is, the teachers works with colleagues, building relationships, carrying out projects collaboratively, etc. From a management perspective, “performance [is] seen as being enhanced through participation in a collegial process of learning where everyone in the organisation works together to improve organisational outcomes” (Reeves et al., 2004, p.93).

Three business management books for the academic manager

Essentials of Organisational Behaviour – Robbins & Judge

Robbins and Judge’s Essentials of Organisational Behaviour is a textbook that is often studied on business management courses and degrees – and for good reason. This book outlines in good detail how people work in an organisation. It looks at staff motivation, individual factors that influence things like performance and retention, organisational culture, etc.

The more I read about management, the more I realise that good management often relies on common sense. However, this book made me realise that any organisation is a complex, living ‘being’ of sorts, and whilst we cannot control everything, by having a good understanding of different variables that impact organisational effectiveness, and a clear overview of what we know about people in the workplace (e.g., what people need to feel ‘motivated’), managers can influence the organisation quite positively.

There is so much in this book, and it would be hard for me to list my main takeaways. However, for this post, I’ll include four of my favourite quotes from the book.

“There is also a strong correspondence between how well people enjoy the social context of their workplace and how satisfied they are overall”.

Robbins & Judge, 2012, p.65

“A recent outgrowth of self-determination theory is self-concordance, which considers how strongly people’s reasons for pursing goals are consistent with their interests and core values. If individuals pursue goals because of an intrinsic interest, they are more likely to attain their goals and are happy even if they do not. Why? Because the process of striving toward them is fun.”

Robbins & Judge, 2012, p.128

“The process of initially setting pay levels entails balancing internal equity – the worth of the job to the organisation (usually established through a technical process called job evaluation) – and external equity – the external competitiveness of an organisations pay relative to pay elsewhere in its industry (usually established through pay surveys. Obviously, the best pay stem pays what they job is worth (internal equity) whilst also paying competitively relative to the labor market.”

Robbins & Judge, 2012, p.151

“Specifically, teams that rate higher on mean levels of conscientiousness and openness to experience tend to perform better, and the minimum level of team member agreeableness also matters: teams did worse when they had one or more highly disagreeable members. Perhaps one bad apple can spoil the whole bunch!”

Robbins & Judge, 2012, p.180

Appraisal, Feedback and Development – Fletcher

One of my MA assignments for the NILE management module was centred on appraisal. Well, better said, I chose to focus on appraisal. Fletcher’s Appraisal, Feedback and Development is the proverbial goldmine for those looking to set up effective appraisal systems in the workplace. I read a lot about appraisals from different authors, books, articles, etc., but this book provided the best overview and ideas in my mind.

Whilst going into detail regarding effective appraisal systems is out of the scope of this post, I’ll list a few things Fletcher stresses:

• Appraisal is a dirty word – but shouldn’t be: Appraisal has a bad reputation, mainly because it has traditionally been done from an assessment perspective (and generally the job is ‘on the line’). Fletcher advocates that we take a development perspective of appraisal – that is, appraisal is seen as a learning and supportive ‘moment’. Of course, evaluation and assessment need to take place, but the underlying structure of appraisal should be development-focused. Another interesting point is that appraisal carries quite negative connotations in some contexts, and so Fletcher advises managers to change it if this is the case in their context. We have done just this – we call them Professional Development Discussions!
• Appraisal needs to be collaborative: Appraisal systems generally are top-down implemented, with little to no input from staff. This means that teachers are often assessed on standards that they had no voice in creating, which can lead to problems. In short, if we want teachers to really be positive towards appraisal, we need them to have a say in how appraisal is carried out. This can de done through negotiating components of appraisal, what teaching standards are used, how observations are carried out, etc.
• Appraisal should be both top-down and bottom-up: Teachers get appraised, but what about management? What about coaches? One of the issues that I feel is present in most language teaching organisations is that there is no “upwards appraisal” (Fletcher, 2008). It’s strange how many managers want their teachers to partake fully and ‘gladly’ in the appraisal system, but don’t want to be appraised themselves. Perhaps I’m being harsh here – normally, it is the system that is lacking and not managers motivations… what are your thoughts?
• Appraisal should occur frequently: Traditionally, appraisal occurs once a year. This is, of course, far too infrequent to have an impact, especially if development is the goal. Ideally, appraisals should be linked to short- to medium- term goals, and should occur frequently enough so that progress with these goals can be measured, and feedback provided.
• Appraisal skills need to be taught – to both appraiser and appraisee! One of the more interesting part in this book looked at how effective appraisals are actually those in which both the appraiser and appraisee know what to do in the appraisal. It sounds strange, but appraisers need training on standards, coaching, providing feedback, etc. Appraisees need training on how to take advantage of their appraisals (e.g., what questions to ask, what paperwork needs to be completed, etc.).

(HBR) Being the Boss: The three imperatives for becoming a great leader – Hill & Lineback

The last book on this list is actually the latest management book I’ve read – and just so happens to be one of the best! Being the Boss is for bosses in all sectors/industries, in my eyes, as it deals not so much with the technical aspect of management, but rather with the personal, what-you-do-in-your-day-to-day management stuff. The books also comes with numerous self-assessment charts that can be quite revealing, especially when it goes into detail about HOW you interact with staff and people within your networks. I can’t recommend this book enough.

I do want to highlight two ‘things’ that I took away from this book, the first of which relates to what the authors calls “The Three Imperatives of Management” (Hill & Lineback, 2011).

• Manage yourself: The authors look at how you as a manage manage people – whether you rely on formal authority, friendships, trust, etc. It was quite interesting to read about the pitfalls of different ways of managing people – we often think it’s important to build strong friendships with our staff, but the authors highlight that this actually may be detrimental to your managerial effectiveness.
• Manage your network: Here the authors stress the importance of ensuring that your team is supported by others within your organisation, and this support is mostly ‘acquired’ by your skills in managing your network. They also talk about the need to take deliberate actions in creating a network that not only supports your team or organisations, but also the long-term goals of the organisation and yourself!
• Manage your team: The authors go into detail about how company culture impacts how teams operate, and emphasise that whilst we can’t artificially create culture (it occurs naturally), we as managers can certainly influence how culture comes about through certain management practices that focus on social dynamics, building the ‘team’, etc.

The second really practical idea they put forward is the prep-do-review framework. It is something that all of us a familiar with, but I took a moment to reflect on my own management practices after I read the chapter in which the prep-do-review framework was introduced, and I came to realise that I don’t actually reflect enough on my manager self, and what occurs on a weekly basis. So, at the start of every week, I write down my goals, etc. and what I and my team need to do – this is emailed to all staff (i.e., prep). Then we/I (ideally) do those things (i.e., do), and then at the end of the week, I send an email to all my staff, writing down the events of the week and my personal reflections. I tell teachers that they don’t have to respond, but if they would like to share their reflections, they should feel free to. It’s been interesting as I’ve actually received some really positive feedback from staff, and have found that this is a really nice way to round off the week. It also provides me with a moment to highlight the great things my team has accomplished!

Final notes

There are loads of management books out there – for both language teaching and general management. I could have written many more for both sections here, but I think that these books have, so far, provided me with the most bang for my buck, so to speak. But, enough about me – what about you? I’d love to hear about your favourite management books 🙂

References

Everard, K.B., Morris, G. & Wilson, I. (2004). Effective School Management – Fourth Edition. London: Paul Chapman Publishing.

Fletcher, C. (2008). Appraisal, Feedback and Development – Fourth Edition. Oxon: Routledge.

Hill, L.A. & Lineback, K. (2011). Being the Boss. Boston: HBR.

Reeves, J., Forde, C., O’Brien, J., Smith, P. & Tomlinson, H. (2002). Performance management in education. London: Paul Chapman Publishing.

Robbins, S.P. & Judge, T.A. (2012). Essentials of Organisational Behaviour. Harlow: Pearson.