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”. MintzbergI wish Jake

would get his hand off me!

I wish Jake would get his hand off me!

CultureCulture

• 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

NormsNorms

• 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

• 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

ValuesValues• 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.

• 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 AssumptionsTacit 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

• 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 CultureFunctions 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.

• 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.

Symbolshelp indentify cultural themes

Symbolshelp indentify cultural themes

Stories: narrative truth with some fictionMyths: Belief demonstrated through fictionLegends: Stories retold again and again with

fictional detailsIcon: 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

Sources of Efficacy•Mastery of Experience

•Social Persuasion•Affective Status

Sources of Efficacy•Mastery of Experience

•Social Persuasion•Affective Status

Analyses, Attributions, and Interpretations

Analyses, Attributions, and Interpretations

Analysis of the Teaching Task

Assessment of Teaching

Competence

Analysis of the Teaching Task

Assessment of Teaching

Competence

Estimation of Collective Teacher Efficacy

Estimation of Collective Teacher Efficacy

Consequences of Collective Efficacy

•Effort•Persistence

•Success

Consequences of Collective Efficacy

•Effort•Persistence

•Success

PerformancePerformance

Formation of Collective Efficacy

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 & students b.) principalc.) principal

Faculty Trust Cont.

High Student Parent Trust

High Student Parent 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(TCl-3.53)/.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 Emphasis

Faculty Trust Collective Efficacy

Pupil Control: FindingsCustodial School

Climate

Custodial School

Climate

•Greater Teacher Disengagement•Lower Levels of Moral

•More Close Supervision by the Principal•More Alienated Students

•Greater Student Vandalism•More Violent Incidents

•More Suspensions

•Greater Teacher Disengagement•Lower Levels of Moral

•More Close Supervision by the Principal•More Alienated Students

•Greater Student Vandalism•More Violent Incidents

•More SuspensionsChanges towards

Humanistic are slow and often unsuccessful

Changes towards Humanistic are slow and

often unsuccessful

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

• Behavior of both principal and faculty is both open and authentic

Principal Teachers

• 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

• Supports open and professional interactions among faculty (high collegial relations)

•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)

•Ineffective leadership seen as controlling and rigid (high directiveness), also unsympathetic, unconcerned, and unresponsive

•Non-supportive, inflexible, and hindering (low supportiveness)

•Faculty responds minimally, exhibits little commitment (high disengagement)

•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)

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

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