ABSTRACT
‘No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.’ So wrote John Donne in 1624. When we see our school organisations as a network of interconnections, and recognise that the strength of the network depends as much on the quality and quantity of these interconnections as on the individual qualities of the agents being interconnected, the importance of effective relationships becomes more than a wish for an amicable daily routine. Relationships become a major plank of school effectiveness, in a complex behavioural network, where to a greater or lesser extent, each part affects all the others. We are interdependent in our quest to reach a common goal or vision for our school. In this chapter we will look at the importance of relationships as they affect culture, what the function of relating is, what qualities we should strive for in our relationships, and some ways in which we might manage the relationship-building process.
