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Business-Managed Democracy

‘Business-managed democracies are those in which the political and cultural
arrangements are managed in the interests of business.’
Sharon Beder, 2009.


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Business Language
reference
Reference: Abraham Yogev, ‘The Spirit of Captialism and School Reform in America’, in Val D. Rust (ed) International Perspectives on Education and Society: Education Reform in International Perspective, Greenwich, Connecticut, JAI Press, 1994, p. 156; Simon Marginson, Markets in Education, Sydney, Allen & Unwin, 1997, p. 5.

The language of school reform borrowed heavily from business management literature (see table below).

reference
Reference: Erika Shaker, ‘Customers in the Classroom’, Education Forum, Fall, 1995, , p. 28.

For example the Minister for Education in Ontario, John Snobelen, described “his vision” for Ontario’s schools in 1995 in terms of “clients”, “customers” and “front-line service providers” (teachers) who would be “customer and client-focused”. Such language was also taken up by the Australian media:

reference
Reference: Press coverage quoted in Jane Kenway and Elizabeth Bullen, Consuming Children: Education–Entertainment–Advertising, Maidenhead, Philadelphia, Open University Press, 2001, p.  123.

Allan White is the general manager of a $4.5 million business with 1000 teenage clients all wanting to buy a bright future. In short he runs a high school… [which] boasts a management team, which includes the executive officer (principal), and line managers (two assistant principals and a pivotal business manager).

Table: The New Language of School Reform

Bureaucratic professionalism New managerialism
Public service ethos Customer-oriented ethos
Driven by commitment to professional standards and values such as equity Driven by efficiency, cost effectiveness and competitive advantage
Cooperation Competition
Managers with educational backgrounds Managers trained in economics, business management
Focus on inputs, control of processes, teacher qualifications, qualitative outcomes Focus on goals, measurable results
Consequences for poor results – accountability
Schools Educational Enterprises

Parents

Learning

Students

Teachers

Principals

Consumers/customers/clients

Production/product

Products/clients

Workers/producers/classroom managers/service providers

Managers/leaders/entrepreneurs
Source: adapted from G. Whitty, S. Power, and D. Halpin, Devolution and Choice in Education: The School, the State and the Market, Melbourne, Australian Council for Educational Research, 1998, p. 54.

 

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See also: Business Model | Business Management | Not Appropriate

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© 2009 Sharon Beder
http://www.herinst.org/BusinessManagedDemocracy/education/businesses/model.html
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