The Notion of Sustainable Team Management in Educational Institution

The article deals with one aspect of a larger scale and long-term grounded theory research to explore and define the concept of the sustainable team management in educational institution. This article seeks the answers to research questions: what constitutes the management of educational institutions, and which sustainable development initiatives are implemented in the management of educational institutions. This article aims to explore the concept of the sustainable team management of educational institution, as well as to coin the elements of the sustainable development of organization, which could serve as a basis to improve sustainable team management in educational institution. The data were collected by the content analysis of the sustainable team management initiatives reflected on 47 homepages of educational institutions; case studies regarding the implementation of sustainable team management in educational sector and 12 interviews with school administration on the state of the art of sustainable team management. Research sample was 59 educational institutions: 17 primary schools, 29 secondary schools, and 13 state gymnasiums with broad geographical representation – the schools in the capital city, cities, small towns, and countryside. Sustainable team management supports principals and their teams in leading their educational institutions towards sustainability, also, achieves institutional goals and cultivates a culture where collaboration, appreciation, and teamwork are valued. According to the data of the study, the institutions insufficiently implement the sustainable development initiatives in the education management process of the educational institution that does not meet state policy and vision, also, in order to implement sustainable development initiatives in educational institutions, attract funding from Erasmus+ or other projects. There is also a lack of the uniform understanding of sustainability among the members of education management team. The authors admit that the concept of sustainable team management in an educational institution needs to be defined at the national level.