Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book concerns directly with the handling of staff. It moves to a consideration of the possibility that schools and industrial organisations have sufficient in common for the former to learn something from the latter. The book provides an overview of the definition and fulfilment of school managers’ needs. It analyses of the enabling policies to be pursued by the employing LEA. The book looks forward optimistically, yet by no means unrealistically, to a system where, for the first time in history, teachers may be regarded as true professionals. It describes the one from the perspective of a particular LEA, the other from the viewpoint of an individual school, attempt to provide the necessary reassurance that appraisal can be positive and non-threatening.