ETL504 - Organisational Theory

Organisational theory – how is a school like an organisation?

I’m not sure that I totally ‘get’ organisational theory. The reading we had to do for this was by Bennett and he pretty much just threw you on into it without really explaining what organisational theory is.

So this is my understanding – all organisations can be characterised by what they do, how they do it and why they do it. And within that are the individuals who do the things. Organisations should be fluid and dynamic entities (usually) that respond to and reflect both internal and external culture.

The culture within an organisation is very important. It dictates the values and ideals of an organisation as well as the way things are done. Often it also defines the power relationships. I guess it is a lot like teaching, in that, students need to know why they are doing something before they can be bothered to do it. If there is no structure, no drive and no one in a position of power pushing them then no work gets done. This is also true of a school as a whole – there needs to be some driving vision and leader that motivates the work that gets done.

As for the whole power thing in organisational theory, I still don’t get that, but maybe that’s because I don’t have any.

I tried to complete the three dimensions of organisational operation diagram on p.119, but only about half of it makes sense to me.