II. SUIS: Staff Organization

As a private organization, SUIS highly regards the use of business practices to operate and develop its schools. A look at the SUIS management structure reveals it is hierarchical and multilayered like a corporation as opposed to “flat” like an ordinary public school (see Figure 1). Keeping in mind that a single SUIS school can enroll well over a thousand students, it would be difficult for a single leader to effectively manage instruction and administration without some assistance. Like most privately run schools, SUIS devised alternative leadership structures and reporting lines to divide large tasks into manageable sections, thereby refraining from micromanagement (Marshal 20).

Figure 1 SUIS Staff Organizational Structure

Source: Shanghai United International Schools. Sept 2009.

The school leader’s span of control is limited to instruction and administration only, while areas such as school evaluation, marketing, and human resources are handled by the SUIS head office. The school leader reports directly to the company’s director of international education, who in turn reports to the organization’s chief executive. Below the school leader, management is further divided up between a “head of curriculum” and a “head of administration.” These two positions are middle management positions and the school leader is authorized to open as many as deemed necessary (for instance, some schools have opened head positions specifically for the implementation and training of the adopted international program). The head of curriculum’s job is to oversee the school’s instructional programs and implementations, including the ongoing development of the teaching staff. The head of administration’s job is to supervise non-academic portions of the school such as transportation, lunches, custodial services, enrollment, student services, and spending. The heads are required to meet regularly with the school leader whereby ultimate decisions in both curriculum and administration are made after careful consideration.

With responsibility centered entirely on instruction and administration, SUIS school leaders are less likely to be overwhelmed by several unrelated tasks at once. In turn, they are held highly accountable for meeting specific academic and financial objectives such as drafting and adhering to budgets and implementing instructional programs. In order to handle such responsibilities, school leaders are granted requisite authority similar to the chief executive of a corporation, that is to recruit, manage, promote, and retain staff members who are subscribing to school policies and performing at its standards, and to terminate the employment of those who are not (a liberty rarely experienced by public school leaders in the west).