Teacher

How do each of the four organizational climate constructs relate to school effectiveness? The Importance of four organizational climate in the school effectiveness is very large. It is essential to recognize that large-scale organizational improvement does not occur in a vacuum or sterile environment. It occurs in human systems, organizations, which already have beliefs, assumptions, expectations, norms, and values, both idiosyncratic to individual members of those organizations and shared. In my writing I try to explore these shared cultural traits and individual understandings of climate can greatly affect, and be affected by, the school improvement process. Deal refers to organizational culture as “the epicenter of change.” Harris believed this so strongly that she asserted, “Successful school improvement can only occur when schools apply those strategies that best fit in their own context and particular developmental needs”. Similar claims on the need to consider school climate and culture as part of the organizational change process are made by many of the leading authorities on school improvement. Many of the scholars demonstrated the pronounced effects of school climate and culture on the organizational change process Deal illustrated how dysfunctional school cultures, e.g., inward focus, short-term focus, low morale, inconsistency, emotional outbursts, and subculture values that replace shared organizational values, hinder organizational improvement. In order to assess the alignment of the existing school culture with the contemplated improvements or to attempt planned cultural interventions, it is first necessary to understand well the constructs of organizational climate and culture. If the definition is needed the foundational work in school climate is generally recognized as that of Halpin and Croft, who roughly related their definition of climate to morale, but admitted that time constraints restricted their consideration of that construct to the social interaction between the principal and the teachers. Their research examined teacher disengagement from the teaching-learning process, the extent to which the principal burdens teachers with routine duties and demands All of these factors combine to help define the climate of a school. Many authors, including Schei, have drawn sharp lines of demarcation between the constructs of organizational climate and culture. Rousseau differentiated between these two constructs on the basis of climate being the descriptive beliefs and perceptions individuals hold of the organization, whereas culture is the shared values, beliefs, and expectations that develop from social interactions within the organization. The boundaries between organizational climate and culture can appear to be artificial, arbitrary, and even largely unnecessary. Definition of Organizational culture is the integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior that depends upon man's capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations; b : the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group; c : the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes a company or corporation. A school’s culture and climate can interact with the school improvement process in many ways and in all phases of that improvement process. Figure 1 illustrates a typical school improvement process, which progresses from a planning phase to implementation, and eventually to institutionalization of the desired changes. Many school leaders have consciously recognized the need to change the climate and/or culture of their school and have set out to do so. In the private sector, some organizations have taken what may be the most direct approach – removing certain members of the organization and selecting and socializing new members of the organization who already have values and belief systems consonant with the desired culture. In schools, however, tenure or continuing contract laws, student and teacher rights, community pressure, and a host of other factors mitigate against this as a feasible approach for further discussions on the limitations of this approach). This approach to cultural change clearly falls into the trap identified by Wilkins and Patterson, who sagely noted that many approaches to cultural change are too simplistic and promise too much. Leaders of school improvement processes can help to change the organizational culture through the carefully selective telling of stories, emphasizing heroes and heroines whose actions exemplify the beliefs, values, and assumptions fundamental to the desired changes. Positive stories of heroes and heroines are generally regarded as more effective than negative stories about organizational members or stakeholders who have acted in ways contrary to the desired cultural mores and norms. Deal extended this storytelling responsibility of leaders to working with the “informal network of priests, gossips, and storytellers” of the school culture. To sum up, school culture and climate are integral components of the school improvement process. They affect decisions throughout all phases of that process. In turn, they are affected by the decisions made in all phases of the process. Although difficult to measure precisely, both constructs can be discerned within an organization if the evaluator has sufficient time and access to witness the daily behaviors of members of the organization and probe deeply as to the values, beliefs, and fundamental assumptions underlying those behaviors. Leaders of school improvement processes can utilize the information gained through the assessment of the school’s climate and culture to help guide each phase of the change process, from determining the school’s readiness for change to selecting the types of improvements most likely to be compatible with the organization’s climate and culture, from implementing the improvements to ensuring that they become institutionalized. Despite considerable discussion in the professional knowledge base as to how feasible it is to make significant changes in a school’s climate or culture, in some cases it is the climate or culture, itself, which most needs to be changed if true school improvement is to occur. Through judicious use, over time, of power/coercive, rational/empirical, and, primarily, school leaders can shape and develop cultures and climates that are in harmony with, and supportive of, the desired organizational changes.