Performance contracting: Implications of the behavioral paradigm for educational administration

Abstract

Accomplishing organizational goals and objectives is a major theme of management texts. x Because of the typical structure of educational institutions, the school administrator's role necessitates accomplishing organizational goals and objectives through those who work for him. Consequently, developing and maintaining a satisfactory level of motivation among a school's instructional staff is a problem administrators confront regularly.This essay addresses the issue of motivation in an organizational setting; cites concepts and applications of behavioral motivational strategies; and draws implications from the behavioral paradigm for educational administrative practice. Motivation in an Organizational SettingMuch of contemporary organizational thought rests on the motivational theory proffered by Abraham Maslow. 2 This notion, combined with the research based on Maslow's model, justifies a brief review of Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory. 3 Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Maslow's holistic-dymanic theory of motivation identifies five basic needs: physiological; safety; belongingness and love; esteem; self-actualization. These needs arrange in a hierarchy of relative prepotency: physiological needs being the most basic; self-actualization, the highest of all human needs. As a particular need is satisfied, other and higher needs emerge. Human motivation is dominated only by unsatisfied needs. Maslow