What Organisational Culture Is

Every school has a culture. The culture shows up in how people greet each other in the corridor, how disagreements are handled, how new staff are welcomed, how parents are treated. A school’s culture is real and powerful, but often invisible to the people inside it.

A working definition

The handout offers a clear definition.

Pattern of shared values and beliefs that produce certain norms of behaviour is called organisational culture. For example, how things are done.

Three components.

1. Shared values and beliefs. Members of the organisation hold certain things in common.
2. Patterns. The values and beliefs are consistent across many situations, not random.
3. Norms of behaviour. The values and beliefs produce observable behaviour.

A school’s culture is what its members share that shows up in their behaviour. It is more than individual personalities, more than official policies. It is the collective way of doing things.

Two metaphors

The handout offers two useful images.

For some, culture is considered the “glue” that holds an organisation together.

The glue metaphor. Without culture, the organisation would fragment. The shared values are what hold the parts together as one whole.

And for others, the “compass”.

The compass metaphor. Culture points the way. When decisions are unclear, the culture tells members what direction to go.

Both metaphors are useful. A strong culture both holds the school together and guides its members through the daily choices.

A system of meaning

The handout adds depth.

It is a system of meaning that members share and that distinguish the organisation from others.

Two important phrases.

System of meaning

Culture is not random shared values. It is a system: the values fit together, reinforce each other, and produce a coherent way of being.

A school whose values are “academic excellence”, “individual attention”, and “honest relationships” has a culture that hangs together. The values support each other.

A school whose values are “academic excellence” and “we prioritise paperwork” has values in tension. The culture is incoherent, and members feel the incoherence.

Distinguishes from others

A culture marks an organisation as different from others. Two schools with the same building, the same curriculum, and similar staff can have very different cultures. The cultures make them different schools.

This is why parents who visit several schools have a sense of which one “feels right” for their child. They are reading the culture without naming it.

Dominant culture and subcultures

The handout introduces a useful distinction.

Dominant cultures: core values shared by the majority of organisation’s members.

Subcultures: core values of the dominant culture plus additional values unique to the members of the department or geography.

A larger school has one dominant culture and several subcultures. The dominant culture is what the school as a whole shares. The subcultures are what specific parts of the school have in addition.

A school’s dominant culture

The values most staff share. The way “we do things here” that applies across the school.

For example: “We treat each child as an individual.” “We are honest with parents.” “We support each other in the staffroom.”

Subcultures in a school

Different parts of the school may have additional values.

1. Primary section. May have a subculture around warmth and patience.
2. Secondary section. May have a subculture around academic rigour.
3. Sports department. May have a subculture around discipline and teamwork.
4. Admin office. May have a subculture around efficiency and precision.

The subcultures are not in conflict with the dominant culture; they are within it. The whole school shares the dominant values, and each part adds its own.

When subcultures conflict with dominant culture

Subcultures can drift away from the dominant culture. If the primary section develops a subculture that contradicts the school’s dominant values, the school becomes fragmented.

A school head should watch for this drift. Subcultures are fine; subcultures that contradict the dominant culture are a problem.

Why culture matters

The handout’s framing.

The topic of organisational culture is increasingly understood as a company asset that can be used to increase business performance.

Culture is not soft. It is a real asset. A school with a strong, healthy culture outperforms a school without one, even with similar resources.

Culture of an organisation greatly influences its countless decisions and actions.

Every day in a school, hundreds of small decisions are made. How to handle a late student. How to respond to a parent’s question. How to give feedback to a colleague. How much effort to put into preparation. Each decision is shaped by the culture. Across thousands of decisions over years, the culture determines what the school is.

A school head who attends to culture deliberately shapes these thousands of decisions. A school head who ignores culture lets them be shaped by whatever cultural drift produces.

Where culture comes from

Three main sources of a school’s culture.

Founding values

A school founded around specific values usually retains those values in some form for decades. The founder’s beliefs become embedded in how the school operates.

A school founded by a passionate educator with a clear philosophy has a different culture from one founded as a business venture. The founding values shape the culture long after the founder is gone.

Leadership behaviour

The current principal’s behaviour shapes culture daily. What she rewards, what she punishes, what she models, what she ignores. All become cultural signals.

A school head who treats teachers with respect in front of students teaches students to respect teachers. A school head who is sarcastic to junior staff teaches sarcasm. The leader’s behaviour ripples.

Staff selection and retention

The people the school hires and keeps shape the culture. A school that hires only obedient teachers gets an obedient culture. A school that hires teachers who push back gets a more engaged culture.

Over time, the cultural fit of new hires reinforces or shifts the culture. A school that hires consistently around its values strengthens them. A school that hires randomly drifts.

How a school head reads her culture

A culture is largely invisible to people inside it. They are too accustomed to it to see it. Three ways to read it.

1. Ask outsiders. New staff, new parents, visitors. They notice what insiders take for granted.
2. Watch the boundary cases. How does the school handle a difficult situation? The handling reveals the culture more than the routine.
3. Listen for the implicit norms. What does everyone seem to know without being told? Those are the cultural norms.

A school head who does these three regularly has a clearer picture of her culture than one who assumes she knows it.

Flashcard

What is organisational culture, and how is it different from formal policy?

Tap to reveal

Answer

Organisational culture is the pattern of shared values and beliefs that produce norms of behaviour.

It is the “how things are done here” that operates underneath the formal policies. Two metaphors:

1. Glue. What holds the organisation together.
2. Compass. What guides members when decisions are unclear.

Culture is different from formal policy because:

1. Policy is written; culture is implicit.
2. Policy is changed by decision; culture changes slowly through behaviour over years.
3. Policy can be ignored or worked around; culture shapes daily decisions whether anyone notices or not.

A school has one dominant culture plus subcultures (for sections, departments, geographies). Subcultures should reinforce the dominant culture, not contradict it. When subcultures drift, the school becomes fragmented.