Schools are perhaps the most complex of all U.S. formal organizations. The primary objective of this book is to enhance insight into human behavior within organizations in order to promote greater skill in governing skills. The book develops three major conceptual frameworks that have important implications for schools. Chapter 1 develops the frameworks, which depict educational organizations as bureaucracies, sociopolitical systems, and open systems. Chapters 2, 3, and 5 make a comprehensive examination of these models and the ways in which they influence contemporary education. Chapter 4 is an ethnographic study of school systems as they reflect characteristics of the bureaucratic, social system, and open system models. Chapter 6 examines a relatively new orientation, which suggests that the key to understanding management behavior is to understand the nature of the changing situations managers face. As the situations change, so must the styles of management. The discussions of leadership, motivation, communication, educational marketing, conflict management, and organizational change are found respectively in chapters 7 through 12. The final chapter examines educational management in an international context, particularly in developing countries. (Contains 23 figures, 8 tables, chapter endnotes, and subject and author indices.) (LMI)