There are factors that either positively or negatively influence school culture.
Therefore, a distinction of those factors needs to be well understood by school leaders who have the ability and responsibility to enhance, control or maintain a positive school culture. Bush (2015:321) asserts there is a requirement for leadership, teamwork, and attention to goal orientation in order to shape organisational culture in schools. Moreover, the school administration, teachers and the school leadership should garner a positive school culture by engaging in healthy behaviours; promoting collaborative decision making; displaying high professional standards; and consistently holding learners to high standards with most learners meeting such standards (Gumuseli et al., 2011:22).
There are factors that influence the culture of a school and play a crucial role in shaping certain values and beliefs, which build the organisational culture. These factors include the environment, school facilities, school structure, information
47
systems, styles practiced in decision-making, school policies, and ethics that govern the school (Lessinger et al., 2016:180). In this regard, school principals need to identify all factors that influence school culture and find strategies to use those factors to ensure a positive school culture.
2.6.1 Central philosophy
Most well-performing schools are characterised by a central philosophy that provides a guiding spirit to the design and implementation of such schools’ results (Lockhood, 2012:15). Lockhood (2012), argues that the philosophy of each school’s movement is cohesive, overarching, and holistic rather than being a collection of disconnected and incremental changes. Underlying the mission and vision statements are the values that the school holds to determine what philosophies and standards the individual will assimilate and incorporate into his or her everyday work performance (Rhodes, Stevens & Hemmings, 2011:83). Therefore, the value and mission of the school should be based on the shared philosophy that provides unity and direction to all the members of the school.
The school’s central philosophy determines the culture of the school (lindombo, 2014: 31). Schools that have a school philosophy and understand what it means are most likely to perform better than schools without a central philosophy. Xaba and Janson (2013:140) state that well-performing schools emphasise academic achievement by having a philosophy of striving for excellence. It can be asserted that the type of philosophy the school members share will influence the culture of the school. School discipline is another manifestation that reflects the philosophy of the school. How the teachers and learners understand discipline and fairness indicates the philosophy of the school that determines the school culture.
2.6.2 Overall school strategy
According to Lockhood (2012:15), the school’s overall strategy is the central design that will direct the behaviours in the school. It is the plan used to direct the behaviour of the school members to create a positive school culture. This suggests that, after the school has established their philosophy, a strategy to reach their objectives is required, ensuring that local flexibility, adaptation, and variations are encouraged to meet local needs within the boundaries of the strategy (Bush, 2015). Ultimately, the
48
school principal needs to involve all the members of the school in the development and design of the school strategy. This inclusive approach will increase the chances, of both teachers and learners involved in the development, of a shared positive school organisational culture (Confeld, 2016:7).
The overall strategy of the school mainly focuses on the overall aims and objectives of the school to ensure learner achievement, school and teacher performance, and maintaining the school culture. For this reason, Spaulding (2016) reasons that school leaders who are trying to break the cycle of low achievement at their high-poverty schools must understand that continuous evaluation of school strategies are required along with distributing leadership responsibilities to other staff members. Spaulding (2016) further emphasises that schools’ overall strategies are designed to ensure pursuit of attainable goals; foster a sense of responsibility in learners and create a collective sense of responsibility for school improvement; align instruction to the standards of state and district assessments; create opportunities for teachers to collaborate; and receive needed resources and professional development.
Strategy ensures a clear direction that the school needs to direct their behaviours to reach their goals and objectives (Lockhood, 2012:18). The school’s rules and regulations can be used as a strategy to communicate and share the culture of the school with all the members of the school. In essence, the overall strategy of the school can influence the school culture through the rules and regulations of the school. The rules and regulations at the school indicate the way people should behave (Xaba in print). Primarily, the school’s rules and regulations as verbal manifestations, are accepted and form part of the school’s internalised norms and values. Therefore, strategies are needed more to directly address the culture of the organisation (lindombo, 2014:26).
2.6.3 Community involvement
According to Lockhood (2012:18), there are two ways the community can be involved in the functioning of a school. Firstly, the community can contribute local resources to a school and through voluntary participation in school activities.
Secondly, school and community relationships can be improved by building a bond and increasing security for both the school and the community. A positive school culture offers a welcoming community, an opportunity to develop new abilities to
49
better society in the future, and the privilege to establish healthy and supportive relationships (Confeld, 2016:28).
Salient factors in building a culture of school success requires developing a sense of community through relationship building and promoting high achievement (Lockhood, 2012:22). Change that moves the needle on many well-known challenges that school systems face can be engendered through collaboration in shaping organisational culture in schools (Teasley, 2016:4). This collaboration may include the relationship the school has with other local schools and the relationship the school has with the local community.
The local community can be influenced by school culture in a number of ways.
These ways include school ceremonies that are accepted by the community, which usually becomes known traditions. School ceremonies include assemblies, prize- giving functions, induction ceremonies for Representative Councils of Learners (RCLs) and matric farewell functions (Xaba & Janson, 2012:136). During these ceremonies, the school works hand-in-hand with the community. This allows the community to learn and understand the values, beliefs, philosophies, and convictions of the school. Chisum (2018:44) asserts that these ceremonies develop a strong foundation for a collaborative community. Furthermore, all these cultural behaviours centred on shared values and beliefs establish important traditions that are generational to sustaining school organisational culture (Chisum, 2018:31). This can also be seen when schools conduct annual prize-giving events and invites the parents and all relevant stakeholders to motivate the learners and parents to work together to achieve academic excellence.
2.6.4 Funding and resources
According to Lockhood (2012:15), in most developing countries where school resources are below the threshold to sustain regular schooling programmes, additional resources must be found. This is because the limited resources of the school become a contributing factor in limiting the effectiveness of the school and such limited resources can be found through the government, private institutions’
donations, and the local community. In line with this the statement, Niemann (2010:8) states that these resources can come from the community and parental efforts as well as the national budget.
50
School facilities express the visual manifestation of the school’s organisational culture. Xaba and Janson (2012:136) state that the impact of facilities lies in the impression that they create and the meaning they convey about the school. The values the school holds to determine what philosophies and standards individuals will assimilate and incorporate into their everyday teaching and learning underlie the mission and vision statements of schools (Rhodes, Stevens & Hemmings, 2011:83).
Through facilities, these values and philosophies will be expressed. The architecture of buildings significantly affect human behaviour in terms of how people’s interactios, communications, and performance of tasks (Xaba & Janson, 2012:136).
Therefore, it can be concluded that facilities and school resources influence school culture. Teasley (2016:4) indicates that school resources can facilitate different purposes that include patterns of professional and teacher-learner interactions, planned events that contribute and influence school culture, the learner population, parents, and surrounding communities and finances needed to support learners’
academic achievements, and plans to make self-improvements.
2.6.5 Emotional Intelligence
According to Goleman (2009), emotional intelligence is the ability to motivate oneself and survive frustration, control impulse and not exaggerate pleasure, regulate moods, and manage the stress burden to not cripple the ability to think, empathise, and pray. School leaders that possess a high level of emotional intelligence have a vital foundational component to create a positive school culture (Lee & Shute, 2010:30). Emotionally intelligent school leaders, those at the base definition, understand and can manage their and other’s emotions, and create relationships with staff and the community that lead to a positive culture within the school (Greenockle, 2010:19).
Leadership and organisational culture are intertwined and cannot be isolated (Schein, 2011:22). This means that school leaders are the main drivers of school organisational culture. Confeld (2016:34) asserts that the school leadership is key in promoting and developing a positive school culture. Xaba and Janson (2013:136) state that school organisational culture is influenced by leadership styles and orientation. Possessing emotional intelligence allows school leaders to meet the demands in a manner which fosters relationships and develops a respectful, trusting
51
culture where the school community, learners, and school staff are committed to learner achievement (Lee & Shute, 2010:32; Noe, 2012:40). Those relationships that are built allow for the creation of an environment of respect, confidence, and optimistic purpose for everyone in the school being successful (Noe, 2012: 40). This will help the schools to create a positive school culture where all the members of the school feel safe and cared for by the school (Lee & Shute, 2010:32).
Emotional intelligence can give effect to school effectiveness (Rahayu & Uifatin, 2017:55). Therefore, it can be asserted that emotional intelligence is a contributing factor in the development of school culture. To ensure a positive school culture, an understanding that the school has a set of commonly held aims, which are understood by teachers and learners. Collective values should be founded upon the belief that all individuals are worthy of respect (Greenockle, 2010:19). This means that school leaders, as drivers of the school culture, need to pay special attention to the emotional element of teachers, learners, and overall staff members of the school (Greenockle, 2010:19).
2.6.6 Empowerment
A principal emphasis is placed on empowering teachers, learners, parents, and the community to take responsibility for making educational decisions and for the consequences of those decisions (Lockhood, 2012:15). To this end, it can be asserted that this is the basis for a positive school organisational climate in that it spells the foundational aspects of collaboration that is fit for purpose – academic achievement of learners and high school performance. This will increase effective communication, and everyone will be involved in accomplishing the mission and vision of the school. With empowerment as a cornerstone, this implies creating conditions for initiative and creativity and points to a positive organisational culture.
In this regard, Najjari, Farzad and Kermani (2014:192) point out that work performance is enhanced when people believe they have autonomy over how their work is to be accomplished and in relation to impact, individuals who believe they can influence outcomes at work are more likely to actually have an impact, and hence be more effective. Impact results in more effort and greater persistence in the face of obstacles. These are factors facilitative of a positive organisational culture. In fact, Toporek (2016) asserts that empowerment requires organisational decision-
52
makers to share information, resources, and power so that employees make decisions and solve problems on the spot because empowerment is about giving them the freedom and authority to adapt and respond in real-time with solutions that help the customer. Though referring to the business sector, this can equally apply to the education sector, where empowerment of educators and other stakeholders makes them free to take decision on the spot for the good of the school and learners.