Critical success factors that improve school management

Abstract

Highlights: Educational institutions increasingly need to deal with the responsibility of transmitting knowledge by promoting student development and qualifying them for the job market. To remain competitive in this market they need to satisfy the needs of their clients (parents and students). Therefore, educational managers must use strategies to improve and develop the organizational environment of the school.

Objective: Analyse, through identification, description and evaluation, the Critical Success Factors (CSF) that influence the improvement of school management. These factors involve aspects such as: training, political pedagogical project, teaching tools, and perceived quality, besides contributing with data that corroborate the development of school management.

Methodology: The theoretical reference used to treat Rockart's CSF (1979) is komolgorov-Smirnov (1979). As the Kolmogorov-Smirnov method has a simplified application, the Paraconsistent Logic will also be employed, as it allows the natural treatment of divergences, inconsistencies and contradictions, as well as allowing the achievement of more precise results close to reality (Casarin, 2007).

Results: It was found that the use and prioritization of CSF can positively influence the performance of the school manager. It is important to clarify that schools are still companies that provide services and as such should consider the employment of strategies that improve their competitiveness, productivity, profitability and excellence. It is concluded that school management could improve its performance by using the prioritization of CSF in the following increasing order of importance: teaching tools, training, political pedagogical project and perceived quality.

Limitations: This work is restricted to the ten best schools in the city of Niterói, according to the concept in the National High School Exam (ENEM – Exame Nacional do Ensino Médio). This delimitation makes the results obtained subject to standards, such as behavior and market requirements.

Practical Implications: In addition to adding value to existing literature, it is hoped to stimulate studies around the proposed theme, aiming to increasingly assist school managers in the effectiveness of their actions.

Value and originality: Few studies have been found in the literature proposing the use of CSF to address management improvement in educational institutions. Therefore, this work intends to describe innovative proposals for this segment; to give the educational manager a prominent role in identifying and prioritizing the CSF; and, finally, to contribute with other works that evaluate the impact of the training of educators in the advancement of school management and in the quality of student care.