Arguably schools are a uniquely challenging type of organisation to manage, particularly in contemporary times. Schools are at the centre of societal change shaping the skills, expectations and mores of the next generation. The work of teachers is important and meaningful but has become increasingly stressful as they face massive occupational change combined with increasing levels of individual accountability to multiple stakeholders and questionable valuing of their work. Consequently, the management of schools as workplaces presents difficult challenges due not only to the pressures their teachers face but also because of a range of educational governance and labour market issues. Thus it is surprising that schools (and the teaching occupation) rarely feature in the human resource management (HRM) literature.

This seminar will report ongoing research (New Zealand based) into what makes a school a good place to work and in particular the challenges of HRM in schools.