MANAGERIALISM IN EDUCATION: EFFECTIVENESS OF THE MANAGEMENT TEAM OR ABSOLUTE RESPONSIBILITY OF LEADERSHIP
Authors:   Bohdan Khmelnytsky National University at Cherkasy, TYMOSHENKO Yurii , RADCHENKO Semen ,   Cherkasy State Technological University
Published: August 2024

Based on the foreign and domestic scien-tific discourse of managerism, individual experience of public management related to this ideology, public policy and management practice, the author of the paper at-tempted to substantiate the absence of comparable alter-natives to managerism in the recent past and present, despite its ambiguous, often diametrically opposed as-sessments. In order to recreate an objective picture of the phenomenon under study, its real causes and sources, essential characteristics, obvious results, as well as unre-alised opportunities in education management are ana-lyzed. As a result of the interpretation of the ideological, the-oretical (conceptual) and pragmatic meanings of the intro-duction of managerism in education, as well as on the basis of the analysis of judgements and arguments pro et contra of this introduction, we can draw the following general conclusions. 1.Throughout its almost half-century history, manager-ism has remained a relevant political-and-ideological project, a scientifically based theoretical-and-methodological concept (theory, doctrine) of management in education, an area that receives significant state and local resources, but, unfortunately, whose management often demonstrates its lack of effectiveness. And in view of this, the practical significance of managerism in today's realities is only becoming more pronounced. 2.The main interconnected vectors of practical imple-mentation of managerism in the educational system as an ideology of its state reform, as a policy of improving edu-cational management itself to improve the quality of ser-vices and as values of responsible management and leadership of an educational organisation are decentrali-sation of education management, gradual moving from state protectionism, leading to structural transformation of state/public education management, optimisation of the network of educational institutions, reduction of financial costs for their maintenance, prudent use of public funds, expansion of managerial autonomy of educational organi-sations, etc; Increasing the importance of entrepreneurial ap-proach, market mechanisms and public control in educa-tion, accompanied by strengthening the relationship be-tween education and employment (labour market), in-creasing labour productivity; Awareness of the absolute responsibility of manage-ment at all levels of education management for decisions on the processes and results of service provision, guaran-teeing and ensuring their quality. It is proposed in the paper to take responsibility rather than educational managers’ efficiency as the basis of managerism, since only responsible management allows combining economic efficiency and managerial humanity in the management of an organisation, balancing rational (analytical) and irrational (intuitive) decision-making. In its turn, educational managers’ responsibility im-plies an adequate understanding of the organisation they manage, an understanding of the processes that take place in it and outside it, an understanding of the nature of managerial activities and the art of management, and, finally, an understanding of their vocation as a manager-leader. Without this, managerism as the theoretical postu-lates of what and how a manager should do to be effec-tive will never become a successful practice that changes the organisation and the people in it, and therefore socie-ty. Undoubtedly, the systemic nature of managerism, its multidimensionality, comprehensive methodology, and practical application in various fields of education require a holistic picture of scientific knowledge of this phenome-non. Thus, outside the scope of the study, the issues of value orientations of managerism in education, its links with change management and strategic development of educational institutions, corporate culture, traditional and modern management paradigms, management and lead-ership, educational managers’ competence and profes-sional training, state regulation of education and freedom of action of managers responsible for its improvement remain poorly understood. In addition to successful prac-tices of managerism, the consequences of its negative impact and ways to minimise or overcome them in educa-tion management deserve special research attention.