ABSTRACT
It is relatively easy to perceive management writers as participants in a strategy to foster complexity as a matter of deliberate policy. Possibly the historic success of schools before managerial considerations became prominent occurred because headteachers and senior staff were already using the skills and approaches which are receiving so much attention. Techniques and approaches which might promote good communications, improve motivation and commitment, provide better leadership, or enable staff to accept change more willingly, should not be difficult to understand or explain. The main factor relates directly to task performance. Society frequently maintains that many of its problems would be alleviated if changes were made in the ways in which schools prepare young people. A manager can learn to become proficient in single, isolated skill areas—motivating colleagues, self-assertiveness, conflict resolution, and so on—but only rarely are these skills used in isolation.
