ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the cases which represent turbulent conditions relating to the central office. The tension best connected to these cases pits control from the top on one hand against local initiative on the other hand. Before looking at the cases themselves, it would help to consider the question of control versus encouraging local initiative from a wider perspective because school systems do not operate in a siloed vacuum. The question of central control versus encouraging local initiative is also a constant in organizational studies. Theorists such as Fredrick Taylor and others associated with the scientific management movement of the early 20th century created what has been called the machine metaphor. Education policy in the United States carries with it the tension between control and local initiative.
