Financial Management Strategies and Organizational Performance in Inclusive Educational Institutions A Business Management Perspective

Abstract

Financial management is an important aspect of improving organizational effectiveness in inclusive education institutions, especially those serving a socially and economically diverse student body. This study aimed to analyse from a business management perspective how financial management strategies affect the performance of inclusive educational institutions. The type of research design used was quantitative, cross sectional and secondary data analysis with a sample of 1000 educational institutions as open-source data from the Education Inequality Data. The financial management strategies were implemented using funding per student, student teacher ratio, and internet access percentage, and organizational performance were measured using average test score percentage and dropout rate percentage. Inclusion-related institutional context was represented by the percentage of low-income students and minority students. To explore relationships within the study variables, descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, multiple linear regression, and school-type comparison were conducted. The results indicated weak relationships between the indicators of financial management and organizational performance outcomes. Results of the regression analysis did not reach a statistically significant level, but there was a slight positive association between funding per student and average test scores and a slight negative association with dropout rates. The student teacher ratio, Internet, and inclusion-related indicators were not strong predictors of institutional performance. The study concludes that financial allocation is not enough to create a high-performance inclusive educational institution, because strategic planning and resource optimization, educational leadership and special mechanisms for student support must accompany it.