On MBO In Primary And Secondary Schools In China

Management By Objective (MBO) was first advocated by the famous American managerialist Peter F. Drucker as a new managerial method in 1950s. It co-relates the key managerial activities by organizational objective and individual objective, hence the comprehensive efficient management. Since then, this new method has been widely accepted by western enterprisers. However, as an efficient method in enterprise management, MBO has to face some problems when it is applied school administration: the working cycle at school is comparatively longer than in enterprises, and the factors concerned are a lot more, so it is difficult to establish the objective system; the converse-control MBO strengthens the education for most talented, according to which only those few talented people are well educated and most others are neglected; it rigidifies the dynamic educational process; evaluation of performance lays emphasizes the effect, not the process, which tempts some teachers to do something immoral, breaks the harmonious atmosphere at school, and enhances the examination-oriented education. The cause for such problems is that there is limitation in MBO theory, and the characteristics of education lead to its "climate sickness". In addition, some school administrators know little about MBO, and they tends to shift the "objective" to proportion of students entering schools of a higher grade.According to Contingency Theory, there is no perfect managerial method in the world. MBO is no exception. But we cannot deny its value totally. How can we apply MBO in school administration? How can we take advantage of its merits? How should we avoid its "climate sickness" at school? In this paper, the author proposes that Total Quality Control (TQC) can be applied properly to make up for the deficiency of MBO.How can we combine MBO and TQC? The author thinks two problems must be solved: One is that the managerial ideas should be changed. The quality should be given the top priority, and efficiency should submit to quality. The consciousness and responsibility for quality should be nurtured. Education aims at training qualified talents, so the educational quality should be given the priority. Another is that the managerial mode should be reformed. The author proposes that MBO and TQC should be combined together, hence the TQC - MBO mode at school. The paper also makes a tentative study on the main procedures and function of this TQC - MBO mode.