Investing in, Maintaining and Retaining Intellectual Capital in Education : Study in Lebanon

النوع : Thèse

Lebanon has always been known to be the educational center of the region of the Middle East. However, during the past decade many factors have contributed to the sense of frustration that teachers felt in their working environments. The focus of this research was on the three concepts of intellectual capital, motivation and leadership, since a right combination between the three will give any educational institution a competitive edge that will cause others to follow the same suit. The concept of intellectual capital has not yet been discussed as such in the realm of educational institutions, since such institutions avoid engaging in a discussion of the concept of competition in a direct manner. However, with the many financial restraints, educational institutions are not able to keep up with financial incentives. Moreover, they noticed that teacher turnover also caused unwanted consequences to the institution. The research undertaken has highlighted a number of these factors and surveyed 279 teachers from various secondary schools in Beirut, asking about the different practices that administrators might utilize to implement intellectual-capital-building strategies in their schools. Teachers were also surveyed about the various motivational techniques whether direct or indirect. Using data-reduction and clustering methods, the data was analyzed to reveal the consistency and relevancy of these factors in the different educational institutions. It is interesting to notice whether intentionally, many school administrators implement developmental strategies that engage sound motivational and leadership practices.