[Administration of the "Healthy School" project].

INTRODUCTION

The term of project management is commonly used to describe the work of a team that is handling a special program. In this type of management, a form of leadership which creates environment, enables fast movement of participants through different work phases achieving the common aims, is used [1-4]. The "Healthy School" Project, launched in almost all European countries, has been taking place in Yugoslavia since the end of 1991 [5]. The project developed within the country designed as a health promotion-education intervention study in primary schools. The network of 13 schools on 11 locations representing typical economic, cultural and social environments, was established to cover the country. Although the proposed methodological approach from WHO was followed [6], the specific situation in the country (economic crisis, break down of Yugoslav Federation, the war and international blockade) distated the particular modification. The management of the Healthy School Project in general, and in Yugoslavia particularly, is based upon project management structure (Scheme 1). The objective of this research was to assess the Healthy School project management in Yugoslavia, by measuring causal, intervening and output variables.

METHOD

In the process of assessing the management in general, three groups of criteria are commonly used: (a) causal (those that influence the course of developments in the Project), (b) intervening (representing the current condition of the internal state of the Project), and (c) output (that reflect the Project achievements). (a) For the purpose of this study the causal criteria were measured by analyzing the overall management strategy and the level of agreement in objectives of the Project itself, the Project Coordinators and main participants in the Project. (b) The intervening criteria used in this assessment were: the time spent on different project activities, the estimate of the severity of the problems in different aspects of project management, the level of personal influence on different aspects of Project development and overall work motivation and satisfaction of all participants. (c) The outcomes of the given management attempts were analyzed by the following output variables: the number of different types of meetings held, the number of seminars, mass media presentation and articles, the amount of money raised and the number of questionnaires administered. Triangular method was used to gather the data: (1) direct observation, (2) four types of questionnaires and (3) project reports and documentation. Four types of specially designed questionnaires were used to examine four groups of participants (Project Coordinators, School Project Managers, Directors and Project Co-operators). The questionnaires were different in the questions concerning examinees' project tasks and types of external communication, while the questions referring to personal characteristics, general features of the project (goals, common jobs, participation in decision making, motivation and satisfaction) were the same for all groups.

RESULTS

The average age of the project participants was 45.50 ranging from 25 to 60 years of age. The oldest group was the group of School Directors, while the youngest were School Co-operators. The project has been run mostly by women, while men were predominantly represented in the group of School Directors. The teaching occupation is presented by 61.8%, the rest being health professionals, mostly of preventive orientation. The analysis and classification of participants goals verify that the personal goals of all participants correspond with the main Project goals. Certain groups have also some additional motives which support their successful and affective movement towards the overall Project goals. The largest problem in all groups appear to be in the field of financing the Project activities (Figure 1). (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED)