Abstract:

The dissipation of organizational and managerial concepts from the business sector to the public sector is a familiar phenomenon. For example, one can find many similarities between Taylor’s “Scientific Management”, originally intended for the industry, and the management of schools, hospitals, local authorities etc. in aspects such as the division of labor, hierarchical structure, the knowledgeable manager/doctor/teacher… and the passive worker/patient/pupil.

Lean is a concept that started evolving in the nineties, based on the Japanese management approach and other ingredients. Its raison d'être is to reduce waste. But unlike other approaches waste reduction is not done by the optimizations of the means of production, but rather from the customer’s point of view – waist is anything that does not create value for the customer. Its tangible results convinced many business organizations to adopt it. More recently there are numerous attempts to introduce it to the public sector, mainly in the health services, local authorities, the army and various governmental agencies.

I would like to show that the transition to self-managed schools in the Israeli education system utilizes many ingredients of Lean, in their concept as well as their modus operandi. For example: putting the child in the center, while his needs and his community needs dictate the school’s operation, the acknowledgement that people in the field have valuable knowledge which they should be able to express, and the monitoring of achievements aimed at continuous improvement and not punishment or reproach

Keywords:

Self-managed school, Lean Thinking, School management, Educational policy.