“I have a Solution…”: administrative power in a school meeting

In this article an analysis is undertaken of one meeting of a primary school council. The article focuses on the efforts by the principal and councillors to determine and control the business of the meeting. A staff member's attempt to procure money for teaching aids provides the subject matter of the article. Extractsfrom a transcript of the talk which took place and subsequent reflections of members in the meeting are included in the text. The case study indicates both how an administrator uses his reputation tofurther his administrative ends and illumines the internal dynamics of the leader-follower relationship.