Theorizing Schools as Organizations: Isn't It All About Complexity?

• In Event: Organizational Theory in Research and Practice

Abstract

The daily work of organising in schools both configures and is configured by the nature of schools as complex organisations. However, the organisational complexity of schools is often omitted in normative and analytical accounts of schools as organisations. This paper seeks to redress that omission and to bring organisational complexity to the fore in theorising about educational organisations and organising. It explores the notion of organisational complexity in schools from two perspectives: schools as complex, evolving systems and schools as loosely-coupling systems, with the intention of developing a synthesis between the two perspectives. It considers significant aspects of schools from this complexity perspective and establishes the validity of such a perspective and its relevance to organisation theory in education.

Authors

• Melissa Hawkins, University of Bath

• Christopher R. James, University of Bath