Demystifying Organizational Transformation: A Poetical Look at "Tomorrow's Schools".

Autor/inn/en	Mitchell, Brad; Varner, Donna
Titel	Demystifying Organizational Transformation: A Poetical Look at "Tomorrow's Schools".
Quelle	(1990), (19 Seiten)Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; Monographie
Schlagwörter	Change Strategies; Educational Change; Elementary Secondary Education; Obsolescence; Organizational Development; School Restructuring; Theory Practice Relationship + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Lösungsstrategie; Bildungsreform; Organisationsentwicklung; Schulreformplan; Schulumwandlung; Theorie-Praxis-Beziehung
Abstract	It is widely assumed that empowerment represents the organizational transformation strategy to help schools fulfill a broad array of announced goals, such as academic excellence, economic prosperity, military security, and social equity. This paper directs a demystifying light on the rhetoric and rationality of organizational transformation theory as related to educational reform. Inspiration comes from both Charles Perrow and the poet Ralph Waldo Emerson. Demystification occurs when we place the poetical at the heart of transformation and push the "rational instruments of announced goals" to the periphery. Much theory and research focuses more on effective change characteristics than on the character of change. The study of organizational change has evolved across three streams of thought (organization development, strategic management, and organizational transformation) requiring different conceptions of "fit." To fit the OD experience, participants must value shared decision-making. Strategic management participants must value aggressive, risk-oriented decision-making. Organizational transformation involves a complete appraisal of the rules and the nature of the game. To fit this experience, participants must value and accept empowerment. Mainstream views of empowerment as a management practice, internal state, and organizational state are unidirectional, static, and manipulative and fail to support the construct's liberating values. The mainstream logic embedded in "Tomorrow's Schools" relies on several myths and the fit concept while seeking permanent solutions. The search for permanence tends to promote dominant power relations and resource exploitation. Authentic organizational transformation involves the passionate pursuit of obsolescence. (41 references) (MLH)
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC