District-Wide Strategic Teaming and Impacts on Organizational Capacity

• In Event: Situating Organizational Theory in Schools, Districts, and State Departments of Education

Abstract

School districtwide reform efforts traditionally fail to provide adequate consideration, implementation, and assessment of system analysis and organizational effectiveness variables. This study developed and used a District Strategic Teaming process for implementing and sustaining innovations and building innovation capacity in four under-performing districts with predominately underrepresented students in the a southern state. Multiple linear regressions predicted that learning organization theory variables like leaders’ vision and planning, effective leadership, and systems thinking were predictive of the general satisfaction of the staff, the level of staff concerns, and leader support. This should inform school leaders on the most cogent organizational variables to monitor and improve to support implementation and sustainability of innovative programs.

Authors

• Thomas L. Alsbury, Northwest University

• Margaret R. Blanchard, North Carolina State University

• Kristie Gutierrez, Old Dominion University

• Dell Tolin, North Carolina State University