Abstract This paper aims on analyzing The Special Music School in New York which is as school for gifted music students. The importance of the school is to produce professional musicians who would lead to the development of the music industry not only in the New York but also in the world. To ensure that the students grow morally upright, the school utilizes core values which are linked with the development and conformity of the society values and norms. The focus is on matters related to its management styles. The aim of the paper is to apply the organizational and management theories taught in class in a real life situation. Analysis is done by comparing the functioning of the Special School way of management with various Organizational theorists. The introduction gives the back ground information the Special Music School which explains its functions and the hierarchy of its management. Nevertheless, the body focuses on analyzing the functioning of the Music School with respect to organizational theories, management practices, system theory, classical theories studied in class and also discusses the impacts of the university in ensuring excellence. Finally, the conclusion gives a brief summary of every information discussed in the whole paper.
Introduction Special Music School is a small school for gifted young musicians based in New York USA. The program is funded by the Department of Education and the private sector. The school has talented teachers who work towards ensuring efficiency of their products. Teachers are caring thus they guide and direct students with great love in all the undertakings. The hierarchy of its management in the department of music runs from the top management to the subordinates. The school practices democracy in its management, thus information flows smoothly from the top management to the subordinates. Every stakeholder in the school has a room to give out an opinion on matters related to the welfare of the school (Special Music School, New York, 2012). Special Music school in New York has a conducive learning environment which has been a good source of producing unique music talents within the region. The school has well talented teachers who enhance efficiency in learning and play a part in encouraging the students to work hard so as to become better people in the music world. The economic environment of the school is conducive whereby all students are sponsored in pursuing their programs. The private sector and the department of education play a part in ensuring that these students get funds for their education. Nevertheless, the society plays a part in the social environment whereby they advocate for traditionally classical trainings so as to encourage the development of the society and strengthen the morals of the students so as to become responsible people in the society (Special Music School, New York, 2012). Special Music School operates in New York vibrant culture practices which has much of American culture. The fact that the school is situated at the New York City which is a global art market makes it to have diverse culture. To support the American culture, the school curriculum is directed towards culturally responsive teaching. Teacher put much stress on the practice of culture among the students. There are various values and norms which surrounds the applicability of this culture in the school. First, the school encourages the practice of values such as being innovative and creative. This is because is an art and requires one to be creative and innovative so as to become efficient. Its curriculum calls for students to be more creative and innovative in order to become more efficient in the world of music (Special Music School, New York, 2012). The main actors in the in the Special Music school are the parents, teachers, students, the government, private sector, and the society. All this actors play a vital role in ensuring that efficiency prevails in the running of the school. The teachers play a vital role in ensuring that the students get good music skills and knowledge. On the other hand, the government and the private sector sponsor the learning of the students. Finally, the society ensures that the society morals are involved in the learning process so as to enable the students grow morally upright. The school has one major challenge which are inadequate admissions due to lack of enough resources. The music school has few numbers in its programs thus limiting the growth of the music career in the region. To solve this issue the school management should source for more funds from well-wishers and donors so as to increase their resources.
Illustrative Management Practices of the Organization Special utilizes democratic leadership style of management. As a result, the school allows all its members to participate in decision making of the school. This has been very vital in increasing the efficiency of the institution activity control and coordination. The exists good relationship among all the members of the organization. As a result, coordination of activities has been very easy to achieve under all the levels. Nevertheless, the supervisors are able to control the employees without any problem.
The management of Special Music School plays a vital role in ensuring every member satisfaction through motivation. Motivation arising when the department of Education in this school provides fees for the student education while else the private sector pays fees for the music portion. This has been a strong motivator in nurturing talents for musician in the 21st century. Self-motivation is highly encouraged among the members of the school so as to foster the spirit of friendship and praising, thus discouraging competition. Finally, there is much freedom existing between the students and their teachers which provide a conducive learning environment. The school program also follows democracy thus making every activity in the school to be carried in a democratic kind of leadership which is strongly recommended by the theory Y of management (Juhn, 1972).
Classical Organization Theories Special Music School has heavily borrowed from the Weber's classical bureaucratic theory. In the organization structure of this institution, there is the hierarchy of arrangement in all departments. Each department has specific duties but they are the control of the top administration (Deborah & Catherine, 2005). The top administration is given the duty of allocating and dividing of powers within the institution. Leaders in the institution are also divided in career basis. In the institution Taylor’s theory of organization management is also applied. In the institution the management believes more in the empowerment of the staff more than the supervisors or departmental heads. Tutors in this institution are given the attention they need to perform. Since it funded by the government, teachers have been given salaries assurance by their allegiance to unions. Finally, Special Music School utilizes centralized planning and control in their management. Each department holds meetings and comes up with its plans and ways of controlling their activities. Following this, the heads from each department meet and come up with final plans and control mechanisms for the School. Nevertheless, every head of the department acts as a supervisor of entire group of his or her department. The main task as the supervisor is providing the workers with instructions on how to implement the laid plans and control system.
Neo-Classical Organization Theories Special Music School utilizes various neo-classical organization theories. An outstanding example is the human theory as presented by Mary Parker Follett’s theory. First, is the existence of team work among the teachers and the student. The school has talented teachers who work towards ensuring efficiency of their products. Teachers are caring thus they guide and direct students with great love in all the undertakings. Nevertheless, the teachers work as a group thus exercising power which is commonly known as coactive power just as Mary Follett supports in her management style. Furthermore, teachers of Special Music School exercise group power rather than individual power just as provided by Follett’s management theory (Tompkins, 2005). On the other hand, there is much of McGregor Y management style in Special Music School, New York which holds that the satisfaction of performing good work is strong motivation (Tompkins, 2005). The management of Special Music School plays a vital role in ensuring student satisfaction by motivating them. Motivation arising when the department of Education in this school provides fees for the student education while else the private sector pays fees for the music portion. This has been a strong motivator in nurturing talents for musician in the 21st century. Just like theory Y of McGregor provides, self-motivation is highly encouraged among the students to foster the spirit of friendship and praising, thus discouraging competition. Finally, there is much freedom existing between the students and their teachers which provide a conducive learning environment. The school program also follows democracy thus making every activity in the school to be carried in a democratic kind of leadership which is strongly recommended by the theory Y of management (Juhn, 1972).
System Theory Special Music School in New York operates in a closed education system. This is because there are entry barriers for any students wishing to enter the school. Since the school offers sponsorship to those students who wish to become musicians, the admissions are competitive thus calling for the school to make use of closed systems which advocates for barriers in entry thus requiring it to have admission requirements. Due to complexity in music studies, the school discourages distance learning thus calling the use of closed education system which advocates for continuous class learning. In order to ensure efficiency in the music career the school advocates for minimum numbers in every category which is supported by the closed education system (Special Music School, New York, 2012).
The Impact of the Organization on Excellence There are various ways through which the school utilize in order to ensure excellence in development of young talents. To start with, the students are sponsored by the school and other private bodies and this helps in ensuring that the students have a smooth flow of their learning. Nevertheless, the school has talented music teachers who work hand in hand in ensuring that the learners acquire music knowledge. Moreover, the teacher student ratio is one is to one something which help the school to practice teacher student instruction. This has been a main source of ensuring efficiency in learning in the Special school.
In addition, the school main actors who include the parents, teachers, students, the government, private sector, and the society play a major role in ensuring excellence. The teachers play a vital role in ensuring that the students get good music skills and knowledge. On the other hand, the government and the private sector sponsor the learning of the students. Finally, the society ensures that the society morals are involved in the learning process so as to enable the students grow morally upright. Finally, to foster excellence, the school encourages the practice of values such as being innovative and creative. This is because Music is an art and requires one to be creative and innovative so as to become efficient. Its curriculum calls for students to be more creative and innovative in order to become more efficient in the world of music (Special Music School, New York, 2012). In addition, the Special Music School New York looks forward to ensuring the value of efficiency and commitment. The focus is to ensure that the musicians under study are committed in their class work as it is the only way to produce quality musicians. This value has been acquired because of the teacher-student commitment since teachers are enough to practice teacher-student instruction.
Conclusion Special Music School is an institution whose focus is to bring up young musicians who would develop the music industry in the world. Its organization and management style is creates a conducive environment for learning and development of Students. This is because it allows a good environment for development through exchange of views and socialization. The music curriculum for the school is intertwined with the customs, norms and cultural practices of the society. This is very vital in ensuring that these students grow morally upright in order to become responsible in the society. The students are sponsored as a way of motivating them to work hard towards the achievement of their laid goals. Finally, focus should be on the expansion of the school so as to increase its admissions thus increasing the number of music professionals.
References
Deborah A,. & Catherine, M. (2005). New York City's Best Public Elementary Schools: A Parent's Guide. New York: Teachers College Press
Juhn, D. S. (1972). McGregor's theory X-Y and Maslow's need hierarchy theory: an empirical study of managerial thinking in the New Orleans area,. New Orleans: Division of Business and Economic Research, Louisiana State University in New Orleans.
Tompkins, J.(2005). Organization theory and public management. Australia: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning
Scott, W. R. (2001). Institutions and organizations. Thousand Oaks, Calif: Sage Publications.
Special Music School, New York. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.greatschools.org/new- york/new-york-city/13280-Special-Music-School/
