THE EDUCATIONAL GRID

Robert Blake and Jane Mouton (1964) presented the managerial grid model; a situational leadership model which originally identified five different leadership styles based on the concern for people and the concern for production. The grid theory has continued to evolve and develop with two additional leadership styles and with a new element, resilience.

The managerial model is represented as a grid with concern for production as the x-axis and concern for people as the y-axis; each axis ranges from 1 (Low) to 9 (High). The resulting original leadership styles which are shown on the grid are: the indifferent style (1,1): evade and elude; the accommodating style (1,9): yield and comply; the dictatorial style (9,1): control and dominate; the middle-of-the-road) style (5,5): balance and compromise; the sound style (9,9): contribute and commit.The opportunistic style (exploit and manipulate) and the paternalistic style (prescribe and guide) were added to the grid theory in the 90’s.

Through this managerial model, an analytical approach has been developed that is suitable for a variety of contexts (e.g., sales, supervision, media, marriage). Pracically, this approach can be applied in any human activity that concerns at least two persons and the production-supply of a product or service; within this context Blake and Mouton introduced the Sales Grid, an evaluative tool that is extensively used for assessing the techniques used by sales representatives.

In this article we extend this methodology to incorporate it in the quality chain of education. In this process the persons involved are the trainers and the trainees; the «production» activity is education. This educational grid theory specifies the educational grid, the types of trainers, and the types of trainees, and, finally, focuses on its potential:
1) for improving the quality of education within the context of an educational organization or system (macro perspective), and
2) for personal improvement of trainers and trainees (micro perspective).