ABSTRACT
The most effective means by which any educational manager maintains credibility is to be judged as being able to make things happen. With occasional exceptions, in the study of schools as organisations the issue of power has received little attention, yet it would be difficult to deny its significance in the context of individual and group behaviour. Numerous examples can be quoted of knowledge-based power. Curriculum co-ordinators or subject heads possess power in their teaching areas so long as other staffs acknowledge their superior's expertise gathered through experience, course attendance, additional reading and so on. The notion of authority attempts to provide legitimation. Undoubtedly, a school is disadvantaged if its authority structure bears minimal resemblance to the power structure. In all schools efforts to change the power patterns are both inevitable and continuous. From the head teacher's perspective, the achievement of balance centres around issues of staff involvement in decision-making.
