Ouchi

21 Pages 5133 Words

rsity Press (http://www.mcb.co.uk).
Three Overlapping Literatures
Organizational culture is a significant area of research because it is emerging as a central concept in at least three bodies of literature on school improvement and school reform that touch on one another and, to some extent, overlap. These include the literatures on effective schools, on alternative schools, and on high schools.
Literature on Effective Schools
The effective schools literature has, from its beginnings, emphasized organizational characteristics of schools that bespeak cultural as contrasted with structural characteristics. For example, the many lists of organizational characteristics described in that literature commonly include safe and orderly climate, high expectations for students, time on task, clearly stated objectives rather than more traditional issues of organizational structure. More recently, the literature on effective schools increasingly includes discussion of social-cultural norms such as collaborative problem solving, shared commitment to mu...