The School As A Social System

1
The School As A Social System
2
Natural System An Organic Model

• Human Relations The Beginning
• Hawthorne Studies
• Illumination Experiment I
• Illumination Experiment II
• Illumination Experiment III
• Informal Organization
• Rate busters

3
Contemporary Natural Systems A Human Resources
View

• Survival
• Individuals
• Needs
• Specialization
• Formalization

• Informal Norms
• Hierarchy
• Span of Control
• Communication
• Informal organizations

4
Open System An Integration

• The Open Systems Perspective
• Chester Barnard Functions of the Executive
  (president of Bell Telephone) (formal
  informal)
• Herbert Simon
• Max Weber

5
Key Properties of Open Systems

• Inputs
• Transformation
• Outputs
• Feedback
• Boundaries

• Environment
• Homeostasis
• Entropy
• Equifinality

6
Open System with Feedback Loop
Environment
Transformation Process
Inputs People Materials Finances
Outputs Products Services
7
Key Elements of the School Social System

• Structure
• Individual
• Cognition
• Culture
• Politics

• Environment
• Outcomes
• Congruence Postulate
• Internal Feedback Loops
• External Feedback Loops

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Internal Elements Of the System
Environment
Transformation Process
Structural System (Bureaucratic Expectations)
Learning
Teaching
Cultural System (Shared Orientations)
Political System (Power Relations)
Outputs
Inputs
Learning
Teaching
Individual System (Cognition and Motivation)
9
Interaction of Bureaucratic and Individual
Elements Affecting Behavior
Bureaucratic Expectations
Individual Needs
A
B
10
Congruence between Pairs of key Elements

• Congruence Relationships
• Individual Structural
• Individual Culture
• Individual Politics

• Crucial Questions
• To what extent do individual work needs enhance
  bureaucratic expectations?
• To what extent are shared orientation or
  organizational culture consistent with individual
  needs?
• To what extent do power relations conflict with
  individual work needs

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Congruence between Pairs of key Elements

• Congruence Relationships
• Structural Cultural
• Structural Political
• Political Culture

• Crucial Questions
• To what extent do the bureaucratic expectations
  reinforce the shared orientations of the cultural
  system?
• To what extent do the power relations undermine
  bureaucratic expectations?
• To what extent do the power relations conflict
  with and undermine the shared orientations of the
  culture?

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Social Systems Model For Schools
Environment
Inputs Environmental Constraints Human
and Capital Resources Mission and Board
policy Materials and Methods Equipment
Outputs Achievement Job Satisfaction Absenteeis
m Dropout rate Overall quality
Transformation Process
Structural System (Bureaucratic Expectations)
Learning
Teaching
Cultural System (Shared Orientations)
Political System (Power Relations)
Learning
Teaching
Individual System (Cognition and Motivation)
Discrepancy between Actual and Expected Performanc
e
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The School as a Learning Organization

• If schools are to be effective learning
  organizations, they must find ways to create
  structures that
• Support teaching and learning
• Enhance organizational adaptation
• Develop open climates and cultures that are
  collaborative Self regulating

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The School as a Learning Organization

• Attract individuals who are
• Secure, efficacious and open to change
• Prevent vicious and illegitimate politics from
  interfering with teaching/learning
• Transformational leadership
• Open and continuous communications
• Shared decision making

15
Emergent Nontraditional perspectives

• Post-modernism (antipositivistic)
• Critical theory
• Feminist theory

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Analyze Your School by Doing the Following
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• Name each person in the school who has formal
  authority over teachers.
• What is the role of each?
• Their titles?
• How much formal authority do t hey have and give
  examples of how the exert it.
• Describe the division of labor and specialization
  in the school.

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• Is there a narrow or broad span of control?
• How fixed or flexible is the curriculum?
• How much independence do teachers have to make
  their own decisions?

19

• Name each person in the organization who has
  informal power but does not have formal
  authority.
• Why does each person have such power?
• Where do they get their power?
• Describe the important informal norms that exist
  in your school.

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• How do the informal and formal leaders get along?
• Give some examples of their cooperation.
• What group of teachers is the in-group?

21

• How much conflict is there between those with
  formal authority and those with only informal
  authority?
• What is the conflict about?
• Give some examples.

22

• Which is more important in your school, the
  formal or the informal organization? Why?
• What area does each control?
• Where do you fit into the power relations in your
  school?
• What improvements would you try to make to the
  formal and informal relationships in your school
  if you became the principal? Why?

23

• Who are the people in your school whose voices
  have been silenced and why?
• Are there marginal groups in the school who are
  not heard or are oppressed?
• Describe them and their plight.
• Why have they been silenced?

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• Finally, analyze the leadership behavior of your
  principal.
• To what extent does she or he rely on the formal
  organization and informal organization to get
  things done?
• What is the balance between the two?
• Which is more important?
• From your view is the balance good or could it be
  improved?
• How?

25
What can you do to help your organization become
a successful organization?