Organizational culture of three high performance secondary schools in British Columbia
Date
2018-06-26
Authors
Jones, Richard Merrick
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Abstract
Recent evidence suggests that strong, positive
organizational cultures characterize high performance
schools. Themes related to the concept of organizational
culture (e.g. climate, ethos, values, underlying
assumptions, style) have been the subject of investigation
for more than half a century. However, because the concept
has been examined with numerous variables, methodologies,
and theoretical frameworks, there is a lack of common
understanding in the literature about the term
organizational culture, particularly as it applies to
schools. The general purposes of this research, therefore,
are: (1) to contribute to the clarification of the concept
of organizational culture as it applies to educational
administration and organizational theory, (2) to describe
the organizational cultures of three high performance
British Columbia (BC) secondary schools and to describe the
similarities and differences among their cultures, and (3)
to evaluate the research technique for discovering and
describing the organizational cultures of schools.
Anticipating cultural variation associated with
population size, geographic location, and public/private
school settings, one urban, one rural, and one independent
school were selected for study from among the highest
performing British Columbia secondary schools. Academic achievement on specific provincially developed assessment
instruments was used to gauge the relative performance
levels of the province's secondary schools. Data were
primarily gathered using semi-structured audio-taped
interviews with all school administrators and randomly
selected samples of students, teachers, parents, and
secretaries or custodians. The taped interviews were later
transcribed and analyzed using content analysis.
Examination of school documents and informal observation
also provided sources of data.
The principal conclusions of this study are listed
below:
1. The values held by the members of the study's schools
were highly congruent, and common values were enumerated.
With reference to Hodgkinson's (1978) value paradigm, the
vast majority of values were interpreted as Type 2A and/or
Type 2B.
2. Although many attitudes were unique features of
individual schools, the majority were common among the
schools. These are analyzed and described.
3. Despite the fact that normative expectations were highly
congruent among the organizations, a great deal more
variability existed for cultural norms than was the case for
attitudes and values.
4. Within each school the cultural perceptions of
organizational members were highly congruent.
5. Although all three schools were characterized by
relatively strong organizational cultures, that of the
independent school was interpreted as stronger than either
the rural or the urban school.
6. No appreciable difference in cultural strength was
identified between the rural and the urban school.
7. A positive relationship appeared to exist between
respondents' perception of the organizational culture and
the length of time they had been associated with the school.
Furthermore, after one year in the independent and after two
years in the public schools, organizational members appeared
to have become acculturated.
8. The study's semi-naturalistic approach allowed the
researcher to discover and describe school-wide
organizational cultures in the study schools.
9. This research suggests that perhaps most important to
the success of an organization are the underlying values and
attendant attitudes. The research, therefore, promotes the
notion that future investigations concentrate on the
organizational values and attitudes associated with schools.
Description
Keywords
High schools, British Columbia