The Creation of a successful organisational culturein an independent school

[摘要] According to the available literature, schools with a positive organisational culture are moreeffective and will probably achieve better results. This study investigates the way in which apositive school culture is formed. It focuses on the role of the leadership of the principal indeveloping an organisational culture of an independent school. This qualitative study scrutinises one specific school in a group of several independentschools in South Africa and compares the school culture of the original school (between1971 and 1974) to the current school culture as manifested in the last four years (2009-2012). Data was gathered through interviews with the founder of the school, interviewswith current teachers and the current principal, document research of artefacts as well asobservations made by visitors to the school in a professional capacity.The data recorded was analysed in terms of a levels of culture model proposed by Edgar Schein (1985) by looking at what 'the school said about itself, what 'the school and theprincipal did, and what things look like. Furthermore, a study was made of what is seen asacceptable behaviour and unacceptable behaviour followed by what is regarded asimportant and not important in the school. The answers to these questions were used todetermine the assumptions that members of the school community hold about the natureof the school.The analysis of the school's culture aimed to determine how this school's past is living in thepresent and what role the leadership of the principal played in shaping the school's culture.All of this was done to determine how school culture is formed, so that other schools canalso use the methods identified in this study to identify their own school's culture and findways of changing it.The researcher concludes that the formation of a school culture can be controlled andmanipulated towards a positive outcome and ways of doing this are identified. It is alsofound that the culture of the specific school in this study seems to have been well-definedand positive throughout its history and that the leadership of the principal plays a significantrole in the success of the school.

[发布机构] University of Pretoria