CHAPTER 5
CULTURE AND CLIMATE
IN SCHOOLS
The behavior of a group cannot be predicted solely from an understanding of
the personality of each member. Various social processes intervene…the
group develops a “mood”, and “atmosphere.” In the context of the
organization,
we talk a bout a “style”, a “culture”, a “character”. Mintzberg
I wish Jake
would get his
hand off me!
Culture
• Definition: A system of shared orientations that
hold the unit together and give it a distinctive
identity
• Created by a groups or organizations norms,
shared values and basic assumptions
• The significance of an event is more about what
the event means than the actual event
Levels of Culture
Tacit Assumptions
- Nature of human nature
Deep
-Nature of human relationships
-Nature of truth and reality
Abstract
Values
-Cooperation
-Trust
-Teamwork
-Openness
Norms
-Support your colleagues
-Don’t criticize the principal
Superficial
-Handle your own discipline problems
-Be available to give students extra help
Concrete
Norms
• Usually unwritten and informal expectations
of a group or organization
• Can be communicated by stories and
ceremonies
• People are usually rewarded when they
conform to norms and punished when they do
not conform
• Examples: wearing a tie to work, respecting
the administration
Values
• Beliefs of what is desirable
• Often define what members should do to be successful and
what standards to uphold in the organization
• Define basic character and give an organization a sense of
identity
• Core Values: dominate values shared and accepted by the
majority of organizational members
• Example: an organization giving retirement benefits to reward
long term employment
Strong Cultures
• Beliefs and values held intensity, shared
widely and guide organizational behavior
• Can be a positive or negative aspect in time of
change. If a culture is so set in their ways and
resistant to change, change is unlikely to occur
• Example: A department who has taught
“their” way for years refusing to teach to the
standards.
Tacit Assumptions
• Definition: abstract premises about the nature of human
relationships, human nature, truth, reality and environment
• Deepest level of culture
• Members share a view of the world, their place in it and their
way to cope with external factors
• These ideas are valued and passed on to new members
• Highly resistant to change
• Example: A school who believes their teachers are motivated,
responsible and capable of governing themselves
Functions of Culture
• Culture has boundary-defining function; it creates
distinctions among organizations
• Culture provides the organization with a sense of
identity
• Culture facilitates the development of
commitment to the group
• Culture enhances stability of the social system
• Culture is the social glue that binds the
organization together; it provides the appropriate
standards for behavior.
Primary Elements that Shape Culture
• Innovation: the degree to which employees are expected to be
creative and take risks.
• Stability: the degree to which activities focus on the status quo
rather than change.
• Attention to detail: the degree to which there is a concern for
precision and detail.
• Outcome orientation: the degree to which management
emphasizes results.
• People orientation: the degree to which management decisions
are sensitive to individuals.
• Team orientation: the degree of emphasis on collaboration and
teamwork.
• Aggressiveness: the degree to which employees are expected to be
competitive rather than easygoing.
Symbols
help indentify cultural themes
Stories: narrative truth with some fiction
Myths: Belief demonstrated through fiction
Legends: Stories retold again and again with
fictional details
Icon: Physical artifact (mottos, trophies)
Rituals: Routine ceremonies (faculty meeting)
Analysis of School Culture:
Schools with strong cultures of efficacy, trust and
academic optimism provide higher levels of
student achievement
A Culture of Efficacy
• Collective Teacher Efficacy: the shared
perception of teachers in a school that the
efforts of the faculty as a whole will have a
positive effect on students
• At the cultural level, this is a set of beliefs or
social perceptions that are strengthened
through their use and give a school a
distinctive identity
Sources of Collective Efficacy
Organizations learn much like individuals
Four primary sources of self-efficacy
Mastery
Vicarious
Social
Experience experience persuasion
Emotional
arousal
Sources of Efficacy
•Mastery of
Experience
•Social Persuasion
•Affective Status
Performance
Analysis of the
Teaching Task
Analyses,
Attributions, and
Interpretations
Assessment of
Teaching
Competence
Estimation of
Collective
Teacher
Efficacy
Consequences of
Collective Efficacy
•Effort
•Persistence
•Success
Formation of Collective Efficacy
Considerations:
Abilities and motivations of students
Availability of instructional materials
Community constraints
Quality of physical facilities of the school
General optimism about the capability of school to deal with
negative situations in the students home as well as at school
Collective Efficacy
Research Findings:
Strong school culture of efficacy leads to the
acceptance of challenging goals, strong
organizational effort, and persistence that
leads to better performance.
A Culture of Trust
• “Trust is a little like air; No one thinks much
about it until it is needed and is not there.
• Important in that:
– Facilitates Cooperation
– Enhances Openness
– Promotes Group Cohesiveness
– Improves Student Achievement
Faculty Trust
• This is a teachers willingness to be vulnerable
to another party based on the confidence that
the latter party is benevolent , reliable,
competent, honest and open.
• Culture of trust can be measured based on
degree of faculty trust in
a.) parents & studentsb.) principal
c.) principal
Faculty Trust Cont.
High
Principal
Trust
High
Student
Parent
Trust
High
Colleague
Trust
Ideal Culture of Trust
Measuring Faculty Trust
• Administer the Omnibus T-Scale to all Faculty
• Use following fomulas to calculate score
• Standard Score for Trust in Clients (TCl) = 100(TCl3.53)/.621+500
• Standard Score for Trust in the Principal (TP) =
100(TP-4.42)/.725+500
• Standard Score for Trust in Colleagues (TCo) =
100(TCo-4.46)/.443+500
• Add all 3 and compare against standard
performance index of other schools
Academic Optimism
• The beliefs about the strengths and
capabilities in schools that helps promote
optimism. This in turn promotes both
effectiveness and trust with an academic
emphasis
Academic
Performance
Can Be
Achieved
Teachers believe
in themselves
Faculty
Believes in
the Students
Students Can
Learn
Faculty focus
on Student
Success
Academic Emphasis
Faculty Trust
Collective Efficacy
Custodial Culture =
Traditional School
Rigid, highly
controlled
setting
Maintenance
of order is
primary
Rigid pupil
teacher
status
hierarchy
Humanistic
Culture =
Educational
Community
Students
learn through
cooperative
interaction
and
experience
Learning and
behavior
viewed in
psychological
and
sociological
terms
Pupil Control: Findings
•Greater Teacher Disengagement
•Lower Levels of Moral
•More Close Supervision by the Principal
•More Alienated Students
•Greater Student Vandalism
•More Violent Incidents
•More Suspensions
Changes towards
Humanistic are slow and
often unsuccessful
Organizational Climate Defined
Put simply, the set of internal
characteristics that distinguish
one school from another and
influence the behavior of each
school’s members is the
organizational climate
Personality is to the individual
as climate is to the
organization
Frames For Viewing School Climate
Openness
Health
••
Citizenship
A Climate of Organizational Openness
• Halpin and Croft (1962) began mapping the domain of
organizational climate of schools because the concept of morale
did not provide an adequate explanation for schools differing
markedly in their feel
• Developed the Organizational Climate Description Questionnaire
(OCDQ) to measure important aspects of teacher-teacher and
teacher-principal interactions
• There are now three contemporary versions of OCDQ– one for
elementary, one for middle schools, and one for high schools
(see tables 5.3 and 5.4)
OPEN CLIMATE
•
•
•
OCDQs provide valid and
reliable means to map
openness behaviors of
teachers and administrators in
schools
The open climate is marked by
cooperation and respect within
the faculty and between the
faculty and principal
Principal
Teachers
•
• Supports open
and professional
interactions among
faculty (high
collegial relations)
•
•
•
Behavior of both principal and
faculty is both open and
authentic
•
Listens and is
open to
teacher
suggestions
Gives
genuine and
frequent
praise
Respects
professional
competency
of faculty
Gives
teachers
freedom to
perform
without close
scrutiny
Provides
leadership
behavior
•Teachers know
each other well and
are close personal
friends (high
intimacy)
•Cooperate and are
committed to their
work
CLOSED CLIMATE
• Virtually the antithesis of the
open climate
• Principal and teachers simply
appear to go through the
motions
• These misguided tactics are
accompanied by frustration
and apathy, but also by a
general suspicion and lack of
respect of teachers for each
other as either friends or
professionals
Principal
Teachers
•Principal
stresses routine
trivia and
unnecessary
busywork (high
restrictiveness)
•Faculty
responds
minimally,
exhibits little
commitment
(high
disengagement)
•Ineffective
leadership seen
as controlling
and rigid (high
directiveness),
also
unsympathetic,
unconcerned,
and
unresponsive
•Non-supportive,
inflexible, and
hindering (low
supportiveness)
•Faculty that is
divisive,
intolerant, and
apathetic
•Low intimacy
and no collegial
relations
Discussion:
OPEN
OR
CLOSED?
Which type of climate do you think
exists at your school?
(*Use the appropriate OCDQ to determine the openness of your
school climate.)
OCDQ Research Findings
Studies demonstrated that schools with openness:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
have less sense of student alienation toward the school and its personnel
Have stronger principals who are more confident, self-secure, cheerful,
sociable, and resourceful
Teachers who express greater confidence in their own and the school’s
effectiveness (are more loyal and satisfied)
Generates more organizational commitment to the school
Positively related to teacher participation in decision making
Positively related to ratings of school effectiveness
Positively related to student achievement in mathematics, reading, and
writing in middle schools
A CLIMATE OF ORGANIZATIONAL
HEALTH
• Calls attention to conditions that facilitate growth and
development or those that impede healthy org. dynamics
• A school with a healthy org. climate copes successfully with
its environment as it mobilizes its resources and efforts to
achieve its goals
• The org. health of secondary schools is defined by seven
specific interaction patterns in schools. They meet the
needs of the social system and represent the three levels of
responsibility and control within the school. (Table 5.5)
Healthy Schools
•Protected from unreasonable community
and parental pressures
•The board resists efforts of vested interest
groups to influence policy
•Principal provides dynamic leadership
(both task and relations oriented) Is also
supportive of teachers, yet provides
direction and maintains high standards.
Moreover, they have influence with their
superiors and the ability to exercise
independent thought and action.
•Teachers are committed to teaching and
learning, set high but achievable goals,
maintain high standards, and the learning
environment is orderly and serious
•Students work hard on academics, are
highly motivated, and respect other
students who achieve academically
•Classroom supplies and instructional
materials are accessible
•Teachers like and trust each other, are
enthusiastic about the work, and are proud
of their school
Unhealthy Schools
•Vulnerable to destructive forces
•Teachers and administrators are
bombarded with reasonable demands from
parental and community groups
•Principal does not provide leadership, little
direction, limited consideration and support
for teachers, virtually no influence with
superiors
•Morale of teachers is low
•Teachers do not feel good about each other
or their jobs. They act aloof, suspicious, and
defensive.
•The press for academic excellence is limited
•Everyone is simply “putting in time”
OHI and Research Findings
• OHI (Organizational Health Index) can measure health of a
school. Administered to professional staff.
• Three valid and reliable contemporary versions available
online– one for each school level.
• Consistent with many characteristics of effective schools
• A correlation between the openness and health of schools
(open schools tend to be healthy and healthy schools tend to
be open)
• Healthy schools have high trust, high esprit, low
disengagement, and more committed teachers
• Research also shows that org. health is positively related to
student performance (higher achievement levels, lower
dropout rates, higher student commitment)
A CLIMATE OF CITIZENSHIP
•
Another frame for viewing the climate of a school in terms of the citizenship
behavior of its members
•
Organizational citizenship is behavior that goes beyond the formal
responsibilities of the role by actions that occur freely to help others achieve
the task at hand
•
Citizenship behavior has five specific aspects: altruism, conscientiousness,
sportsmanship, courtesy, and civic virtues (Table 5.6)
•
Prototype of a climate of citizenship is a school in which teachers help each
other and new colleagues by giving freely of their own time
•
Measured by Org. Citizenship Behavior (OCB) scale
OCB Research Findings
• OCB is another useful tool for measuring another
important aspect of school climate.
• Organizational citizenship is positively related to
collegial principal behavior, teacher professionalism,
academic press, and school mindfulness.
• Schools with high degrees of citizenship are more
effective and have higher levels of student
achievement.
CHANGING THE CULTURE AND
CLIMATE OF SCHOOLS
Long term systemic effort is more likely to
produce change than short-term fads.
Three general strategies for change:
• Clinical Strategy
• Growth-centered
• Normative Procedure
The Clinical Strategy
•
Focuses on the nature of relationships among the school’s subgroups
•
The manipulation of the intergroup and interpersonal interactions can foster
change
•
Proceeds through the following steps:
1. Gaining knowledge of the org. through careful observation, analysis, and study
(using OCDQ, OHI, and OHB)
2. Diagnosis, providing labels for diagnosing potential trouble areas (ex. Poor
morale, high disengagement, etc.)
3. Prognosis, “clinician” judges seriousness of situation and develops a set of
operational strategies to improve the situation
4. Prescription, How can the situation be remedied? Taking necessary steps
5. Evaluation, evaluate the extent to which prescriptions have been implemented
and are successful
The Growth-Centered Strategy
•
Involves the acceptance of a set of assumptions about the development of school
personnel as a basis for administrative decision making
•
The assumptions are:
1. Change is the property of healthy school organizations.
2. Change has direction. (can be positive or negative, progressive or
regressive)
3. Change should imply progress. (should provide movement of org.
toward its goals)
4. Teachers have high potential for the development and
implementation of change. (principals are always ready to provide
teachers with more freedom and responsibility in the operation of the
school)
A Norm-Changing Strategy
Members list norms that already exist and operate in their work
group
Suggest new norms that would be more effective for improving
productivity or morale
Key norms are related to important areas such as: control,
support, innovation, social relations, rewards, conflicts, and
standards of excellence
Five steps:
1. Surface norms (identify those that currently guide attitudes and
behaviors) 2. Articulate new directions 3. Establish new norms 4.
Identify culture gaps 5. Close the culture gaps
Resources
• All OCDQ, OHI, and OCB instruments,
scoring instructions, and interpretations
(for elementary, middle, and high school
levels) are available online for use at :
www.coe.ohio-state.edu/whoy