A New Dynamics Paradigm for Analysing Structural and Cultural Dynamics in an Educational Organisation

Abstract

A plethora of organisational behaviour literature leads to the deduction that structure as the under girding framework of the definition and arrangement of roles and responsibilities in any organisation is important in designing a school, but it is not the only consideration. For school reform to be effective it is essential, not simply to re-structure, but to consciously re-culture the values, beliefs, norms and practices of participants in the school community. Unfortunately, whereas restructuring of schools became a buzz-word in the 1980s, the development of collateral theoretical constructs to help analyse the nature of the structural-cultural dynamics in the organisational life of an educational institution undergoing change appears to have lagged behind. This paper presents a new Dynamics Paradigm designed in a doctoral thesis (Kivunja, 2006) to specifically provide a cognitive lens for examining deeply into the structural and cultural dynamics in an educational institution undergoing major reforms. Starting from a well documented corporate organisational dynamics model (Pace, 2002) the paper details how 16 dynamics core variables derived from 14 secondary schools newly restructured into multi-campus colleges in New South Wales were incorporated in the new Paradigm to provide a versatile mental map which was then used to extend an understanding of the structural-cultural dynamics in the schools.