2.5 The school organisational culture
2.5.1 School organisational culture and main school functionality areas
2.5.1.3 School culture and teacher performance
For the purpose of this study, the definition of teacher performance is grounded in teachers’ effectiveness. In essence, an effective, high-quality teacher is a performing teacher (Banks, 2017:33). Effective teachers would be those who facilitated a year of the learners’ growth each academic school year and fostered improved academic outcomes for learners from diverse backgrounds (Banks, 2017:34). Perker (2017:19) states that, “obviously the definition involves someone who can increase learners’
knowledge” and is the extent to which a teacher consistently achieves goals that focus on learners learning (Banks, 2017:33). For the purpose of this study, it is important to understand the influence of school culture on teacher performance.
The organisational culture of a school reflects the way things are done at the school.
Its relationship with teacher performance is based on how teacher experience this way of doing things. To this end, Everlyne and Iravo (2015:125) point out that factors that reflect a school’s culture include achievement orientation, a shared ideology or mission, as well as cohesion and collaboration among teachers, which are considered as crucial features of effective performance. For this reason, Everlyne and Iravo (2015:125) advance that staff members have to work as a team to ensure a sense of unity and consistency in their relationship with learners and that their input in decision-making would reflect a participatory approach, which is likely to
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enhance commitment and collaboration. Because a shared vision and goals are essential aspects of the intangible manifestation of organisational culture, it is reasonable to state that organisational culture with elements cited by Everlyne and Iravo (2015:125) will influence teacher performance. To his end, these scholars argue that cohesion, collaboration, consensus, communications, and collegiality’ are crucial features of effective schools and by implication, organisational cultures. In this regard, Fitria (2018:86) asserts that organisational culture has a direct, positive effect on teacher performance, which means that conducive school organisational culture will lead to the increased performance of teachers.
It is, therefore, apparent that the type of organisational culture of the school does have a relationship with teacher performance. In other words, a strong, positive culture will result in strong and positive teacher performance. Arifin, Troena, Djumahir and Rahayu (2014:25) make the point that work engagement is the main indicator of teacher performance and that organisational culture positively related to teacher performance, and as such, strong and relevant corporate culture leads the behaviours of members towards reaching goals which ultimately improve performance. These scholars argue, therefore, that “schools aiming to increase work engagement can focus and pay attention to teachers’ perceptions of organisational culture, wherein the aspects of communication-objective orientation, achievement orientation, rationality, control-formalisation, and autonomy are important considerations”.
It is important to create an organisational culture that encourages high-quality practices and that both enables and motivates people to achieve high-performance levels (Immordino, 2010:84), which will create a standard of performance for both teachers and learners. Organisational culture creates an accepted way of doing things, which constitutes the school’s culture. For example, where teachers have knowledge and understanding that the school has a reputation of high performance, it will motivate them to perform better to keep up with the school’s reputation.
Therefore, it is imperative that teachers work in a school culture that embraces collaborative teamwork; school leaders should reinforce common academic and social goals within teacher teams; have experienced teachers serve as mentors to new and younger teachers; promote workplace cooperation; and initiate the sharing of teacher best practices among colleagues (Keyser-Fanick, 2019:31).
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In contrast, organisational culture can erode as a result of a poorly shared vision, poor communication, continual conflict and poor teamwork, thus, challenging the strength of the organisational unit (Chisum, 2018:33). When individual organisation members move, they adjust their paradigms to the culture of the new environment;
when organisation members move as groups, the culture shifts along with them (Chisum, 2018:35). Therefore, for teachers to perform and produce quality results, they need to be directed by the school culture. The school leader should value the development of individuals and strive to achieve organisational goals by being open and fair and building the skill-set of their staff (lindombo, 2014:83). Banks (2017:42) emphasises that it is important to understand the role that the school’s culture does or does not play in influencing the ability of a teacher to deliver at least a year of academic growth per year of instruction, in other words, to be effective.
There is strong agreement that effective teaching matters in performing schools and may be the single most important factor in learner achievement (Perker, 2017:19).
Teachers are usually drivers of teaching within the school (Keyser-Fanick, 2019:31).
Therefore, to ensure effective teaching, the school’s culture must be clearly understood by teachers. For example, teachers use discipline to ensure order and control in their classrooms, creating a culture of good discipline and assist teachers to do their jobs effectively. This statement is supported by Xaba and Janson (2013:135) who state that discipline is a feature of every schools’ organisational culture. Each teacher’s ability to enforce effective discipline by keeping order and being consistent in enforcing fair, clear, and well-understood rules contribute to the effectiveness of the school (Xaba & Janson, 2013:135).
School leaders should make room for opportunities for teachers’ growth and development (Immordino, 2010:84). Qualities such as experience, certification, advanced degrees, and learners’ test scores can be aspects that influence teacher performance (Perker, 2017:19; Kythreotis et al., 2010:226). Ideally it becomes imperative for school leaders to create a culture of growth and inspiration amongst teachers. Teasley (2016:3) states that a school’s organisational culture provides a sense of identity, promotes achievement orientation, helps shape standards and patterns of behaviour, creates distinct ways of doing things, and determines direction for future growth. In this regard, it can be concluded that school leaders’ abilities to
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create a culture where teachers inspire each other, learn from one another, and work together, can improve teachers’ overall performance.