Contrasts the bureaucratic image of schools with four other possible images based on characteristics of social action in sects, legislatures, hospitals, and under anarchic conditions. Aims at developing a greater variety of ways to think about how schools can be organized. Various educational problems and means to resolve them are considered…

Two competing images present schools as either rational bureaucracies or loosely coupled systems. Teachers in 13 Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) schools were surveyed on two dimensions distinguishing these images: goal consensus and influence centralization. The results suggest that high schools fit the loosely coupled image and elementary schools the…

Organizational cultures are systems of publicly and collectively accepted meanings, beliefs, values, and assumptions that a staff uses to guide its actions and interpret its surroundings. In an effort to suggest concrete ways a principal can change or maintain a culture, three important elements of a school culture are discussed: content, symbols,…