MUHAMMAD ALI JINNAH UNIVERSITY,

ISLAMABAD.

Zara Sabeen
MM051015

The Euro-Asian International Schools and Colleges

A Case Study

It was an uncertain morning. Everyone was wondering what was going to happen? How
the things are going to work from now onwards? It was all different and uncertain. All
the teachers and staff of Euro-Asian International schools and colleges, junior branch,
were being introduced to their new principal Mr. Stephen, and the entire staff was unsure
about the future course of action.

The Euro-Asian International Schools and Colleges; A Brief Review

The European schools and colleges was found in 1980, in Europe, with the basic mission
of developing the school as one of the best international schools, providing quality
education all around the world.

Initially there were only three branches, one junior branch and two senior branches (one
for boys and one for girls), all based in the same country of Europe. The founders worked
very hard to grow the school as an international level school. They opened the branches
all over the country. Their next target was to open an off-shoot in Asia. After the tiring
struggle of eight years they were able to begin their branches in Asia in 1988. The school
was now renamed as The Euro-Asian International Schools and Colleges. They opened
their junior as well as senior branches in three main cities of Pakistan. The selection of
the country for opening their braches was based on the same religious values as well as
good friendly relationships of the governments of the two countries, which made it easier
to have consensus on the issues related to litigation.

The school was a success in Asia too. The number of branches and their population
started increasing day by day. Great amount of revenue was being generated every year.
They were now about to open more branches in two other countries of Asia before
thinking of other continents. It was becoming difficult to manage the business and its
tremendous growth day by day.
Management Structure

The school had its head office in Europe. There was a country manager for each country,
appointed by the head office to take care of the branches in his country. Both the country
managers were from the home country. Mr. Henry was the country head sent from the
head office for Asia. All the branches were headed by the local people, hired after
advertisement and extensive interviews. The school had an umbrella of the organizational
structure. All the major strategic decisions were coming from the head office. The
country manager then communicated the decisions to the branch heads (principals), who
got them implemented in their respective branches.

The management of the school believed in ‘think global, act local’ , so the country head
as well as the branch manager were independent in making any decision in the day-to-day
matters, as long as they didn’t coincide with the organizational mission, norms and
values, according to their local requirements.

The organizational Chart of Euro-Asian International Schools and Colleges

The CEO (Europe)

Country manager (Europe) Country manager (Asia)

Principal Branch A Principal branch B Principal branch A Principal branch B

Teacher Teacher Teacher Teacher

Teacher Teacher Teacher Teacher

The Human Resource Management practices

Recruitment

Recruitment of staff was done at the branch level. The principal of the school interviewed
the candidates short listed after the scrutiny of their resume, and a practical lecture
demonstration. The academic requirements of the candidates were also according to the
international standards. The selected people had an orientation of one day, in which
he/she was told to observe the same subject teacher in all of the classes. They were also
socialized with the other staff in the break time, where every one was introduced to
him/her.

Compensation

The school offered attractive compensation packages, varying with the qualification of
the teachers, their experience and their negotiation power. However there was no
transparency maintained in the procedures, which was creating unrest amongst the
teachers, developing a sense of inequity. Due to this factor the teachers got demotivated,
and the turnout ratio of the school started increasing. The new teachers were getting more
disturbed due to this, as the older ones were quite satisfied with their position and respect
in the organization. As yet this was not clear to the management of school that why
people were leaving the school. No serious efforts were made to explore the fact. The
happy part was that the vacancy was soon filled again.

Cultural Diversities

The management believed that the geographical and national diversity was a real
advantage to their global identity and success. Yet it had its own disadvantages. The
country managers were sent from the home office. For the purpose of promoting their
national language, the head office sent the language experts from the home office as staff
members to the host countries. It made things a bit difficult at the local branches. The
language and cultural differences made communication difficult. Also the principals had
difficulty in taking and implementing decisions from a foreigner boss to the local staff.
The country manager was though a very friendly and approachable person.

Decision Making

Except the strategic decisions, the entire decision making was done by the board that
comprised of all the principals of the branches of each city. In their monthly scheduled
meetings they discussed the progress and issues faced by the branches. The problems and
suggestions are then tried to be sorted out. The major issues such as need of funds,
compensation related issues etc were conveyed to the country manager. He would
communicate the concerns of the staff to the head office along with his own suggestions.
The Competitors

The school was facing great competition from two other major international schools in
Asia. The competitor schools also had a very extensive syllabus prescribed by the
Oxford, while the Euro-Asian school had its own prescribed syllabus. So it had to
compete for the quality of syllabus as well. The school was providing the education
cheaper than the competitors. The growth of school had made it a true competitor of these
schools, but still there were areas that needed to be improved in order to sustain the
growth in future. There was no formal training system for the teachers, which the
competitors were providing. Also the diversity of staff and their communication was
making the management difficult, as the size of school was growing.

The Euro-Asian schools and Colleges (junior branch), Islamabad

The junior branch of the school, situated in Islamabad was being run by the principal,
Mrs.Waqar. The principal joined the school as its first principal five years back. She was
a thirty five years old, active, devoted and dynamic principal. She was always busy in
making the school grow and to enhance its image. She treated the school as her child, and
dealt with each and every problem faced by the school, with all the due care and
attention. The staff of the school was like her family, as many a times expressed by her.
She would never get tired of working for the school.

Leadership Style

Mrs. Waqar was a visionary leader, having an eye on the future prospects of the decisions
and actions taken in the school. She believed in participatory management style. All the
staff was fully involved in every issue and matter confronted by her branch as well as the
school overall.

The staff

The staff of the school comprises of a combination of old and new, local and foreigner
teachers. All the local teachers were hired by the principal herself. She always took into
consideration the cultural adjustment of the staff, while making a hiring decision. All the
teachers were hence of almost of same thinking style, same approach towards the issues,
with minor personality differences. They had a good understanding and work
relationships. Yet the foreigner teachers, who were sent from the home country, were
having some communication problems, though many of them had come to Pakistan from
the very first day of the establishment of the school there.

One family concept

The principal of the schools believed in communication and participation. For this she
believed that all the staff must feel like at home. They should not feel any hesitation or
fear while giving their input in the meetings. She personally involved herself with her
staff, knowing their concerns and even their personal problems. She encouraged
celebrating any occasion of her staff collectively. They celebrated the religious festivals
and the family occasions of the staff together.

The routine meetings

Every week there was held one routine meeting to discuss the problems of the teachers
and students, and ways to improve the things. All the teachers were supposed to report
the progress of the week. The principal would communicate any news from the head
office. For any sudden or special purpose, more meetings could be called. The same
pattern was adopted by the other branches. They were all headed by the local principals.
The presence of the foreigner teacher was very less in these meetings.

The change of management

As the school kept on growing, it was becoming even difficult to manage. The
communication of the local and foreign staff was becoming a problem. For the purpose of
teaching their culture and language, they were bound to have the foreign teachers. The
compensation issues were also creating unrest amongst the staff, especially the newly
hired one. The competitors were offering good salaries along with training opportunities.
Here the teachers had no career development opportunities.

The head office decided to hire the principal for each branch from the head office, who
will replace the present principal. This resulted in demotion of the principals as vice
principals. All the staff had their concerns for the new principals. The communication
problem was going to be even worse. Mrs. Waqar was about to leave the organization.
Same rumors were there from other branch principals. The staff was not ready for the
change. They were all uncertain about their own and the school’s future.
The Euro-Asian International Schools and Colleges

TEACHING NOTES

Synopsis

The Euro-Asian international schools and colleges was found in 1980 in Europe, with a
mission of becoming the global leader in education. They opened their branches in Asia
(Pakistan) in 1988 as a first step of their globalization process. They introduced their own
syllabus and also wanted to promote their language and culture. For this reason they sent
the language teachers from the home office, and made the language class compulsory for
each class. The strategic decision making was done by the home office, while the
branches were independent for their day-to-day decisions.

The branches were headed by the local principals, while the principals were supposed to
report to the country manager, appointed by the head office. The country manager was
also a home country national. The branch staff was also a mix of local and home country
teachers. This was making the communication difficult. The recruitment procedures were
up to the standards, while the compensation procedures were ambiguous and were
creating doubts amongst the staff. Also there was lack of trainings.

The junior branch was headed by Mrs. Waqar who was loved by her staff. She was a
loyal and devoted person. She treated the school as her child and the staff as her family.
She was participative in her approach, and was concerned about her staff. Almost all the
branches had similar situation with their local principals as the emphasis of the schools
was on the cultural fit, at the time of recruitment of their principals.

The growth of school was making its management difficult. The culture of the
organization was also getting overshadowed by the local culture. There was
communication gap between the local and home country employees. The teacher’s
turnover rate was also increasing. For this reason the top management decided to replace
the principals of all the branches by the home country peole.

Teaching Objectives

• To make clear and apply the concept of organizational change

• To discuss the HR practices of the organization

• To discuss the role of strategic HRM in global organizations

 • To describe the importance and maintenance of organizational culture

Discussion Questions

1. How do you see the management structure of the school?

2. What are the cultural issues faced by the organization? What could be solution to
these?

3. Discuss the human resource management practices of the school. What

improvements could be made?

4. What could be the after effects of the resignation of Mrs.Waqar and other
principals? How can the consequence be avoided?

5. Suggest the alternatives of the management decision?