Abstract

Introduction

The emergence of the school business manager in England

Social identity and school business managers

The research

School business managers and identity negotiation

Implications

References

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the concept of group identity formation amongst school business managers in the English school system.

Introduction

In England, schools are complex organizational structures with sizable budgets often operating in collaboration with other schools and agencies. Furthermore, recent structural reforms implied by the growth of the academies program and the associated decline of the local authority[1] or district-level government are symptomatic of a shift towards what has been termed a “school-led system” (Hargreaves, 2010). Against this backdrop, the role of the school business manager has evolved as a key position for schools adapting to a turbulent policy landscape that has necessitated an increase in organizational management capacity (Woods, 2014). The individuals occupying these roles are situated in an interesting position within the ecosystem of the school. School business managers are often members of the school leadership team with considerable influence and decision-making responsibility over financial, resourcing and organizational matters. Further, they are likely to be the only non-qualified teacher member of the school leadership structure yet the nature of their work and the areas of the school for which they hold responsibility dictate that they are also classed as support staff distinct from the qualified teacher members of the workforce. As such they occupy multiple group memberships within their schools (Armstrong, 2014). This paper reports on empirical data from a research project that employed semi-structured interviews with school business managers as a means of exploring their experiences as a relatively nascent group, carving out their own territory within a school system traditionally led and managed by trained educationalists. Informed by social identity theory and group formation (Tajfel, 1978; Hogg and Abrams, 1988), the paper draws on interview data in which participants discuss their career trajectories and perceptions of both their role and the burgeoning community of school business managers to which they belong. Recent and on-going structural reforms to the school system in England have had a profound influence on the means by which schools are managed financially organizationally. The school business management function sits at the forefront of these changes, yet the role and the wider community to which it belongs remain in its infancy. The findings offer insight into the enabling and inhibiting factors encountered by this cohort in establishing and negotiating a distinguishable group identity within the wider school workforce. As such the school business manager role provides an intriguing case through which to explore the notion of identity formation.