THE PROMOTION OF ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE: THE CASE OF GREECE

Theodora Tzianakopoulou, Nikolaos Manesis

Abstract


Organizational culture constitutes a fundamental characteristic of the educational organism because, on one hand, it contributes to the shaping of its character and the way of thinking of its members and, on the other hand, it is connected to the productivity of educators and the academic performance of students. Pivotal is the role of the educator in shaping the culture of the educational organism, a culture that moulds the imprint and identity of the school unit and constitutes a criterion for its effectiveness. Culture constitutes a tool in the hands of the leader in order to goad the members of the school community into a developmental trajectory, creating organizational conditions which contribute to learning outcomes and positive change. We conducted a survey using semi-structured interviews on a number of principals of secondary education school units within Attica Prefecture, relative to the way in which they promote organizational culture in their school unit, the role that other stakeholders have, the promotion of cooperative climate and the association of culture and learning outcomes. A lack of strategic orientation for the promotion of culture is clearly evident from the results. The ways in which the members of educational community are involved in organizational culture, cumulatively evaluated, indicate a strategic handling of the promotion of organizational culture. Evaluated, though, separately they are deprived of potency and reassert the incapability in approaching culture holistically. Practices for the consolidation of cooperative climate and the principal's relationship with learning outcomes are confirmed.

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organizational culture, principal, secondary education, Greece

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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46827/ejes.v8i2.3579

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