In a post on the Accomplished California Teachers’ blog, English teacher David B. Cohen writes that the advice for schools that trickles down from the business world often seems to envision “a rigid hierarchical system built on simplistic notions of threat and reward.” So he finds it ironic that, at least based on a recent perusal of The New York Times’ Corner Office feature, this perspective tends to run counter to the priorities innovative CEOs embrace in running their own companies. He concludes:
To the extent that individuals and organizations have some similar behaviors and dynamics, it's worth looking to the world of business to inform education reform—not to enable outsiders to dictate "solutions" to educators, but to empower educators to seek working conditions that bring out our best performance and to demand mutual accountability from those who share the responsibility to improve schools.