RESEARCHING ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE – A CASE FROM SLOVENIA Dr. Justina Erčulj National School for Leadership in Education, Slovenia University of Primorska, Faculty of Management Koper, Slovenia

The researcher 30 years in education Teacher, deputy head teacher, head teacher, lecturer, co-ordinator of international projects… Mother of two adult children

The structure of my presentation Why such a research was done? Two aspects of organisational culture Two aspects – two research paradigms Challenges for qualitative research in Slovenia Steps in the research Researchers dilemmas Key findings 3

Why the research was done? The feeling of culture – me as a teacher, a deputy head teacher, a parent… Culture as a vague concept – me as a small- scale researcher Culture in situ – me as a lecturer in schools Culture and the claim for recipes – me as a head teachers trainer

Two aspects of organisational culture Culture as something an organisation HAS – managerial view Culture as something an organisation IS – anthropological view

Managerial aspect Shared assumptions, systems, values Behavioural regularities Common set of rules Strong and weak cultures Typologies

Anthropological aspect Uniqueness of an organisation Emerging from collective interaction Dynamic relationships Organisations as multiple identities

Two aspects – two paradigms Managerial aspect – the pressure for certainty (Simons 1996): questionnaires, diagnostic tools, existing : preferred, ranking, figures - quantitative Anthropological aspect – narrative analysis (Hammersley and Gromm 2000): observations, interviews, interpretation - qualitative

Challenges for qualitative research in Slovenia Scientific knowledge understood in Popperian sense: the world of objective theories, objective problems, and objective arguments (Popper 1979: 108) In 1982 first qualitative (action) research published in Slovenia followed by some other action research studies (randomly qualitative)

Challenges for qualitative research in Slovenia Attributes related to qualitative studies in Slovenia: alternative methodological principles (Toš 1999), pseudoscience (Kirn 1996), private matter that allows [researchers] an individual opinion (Ule 2000) Qualitative and quantitative paradigms as complementary – but: Hypotheses that have been developed during research process in an inductive way should be tested in a theoretical way with the help of external theory in a deductive way (Sagadin 2001)

Case study as the selected research method It recognises the complexity and embeddedness of social truths (Adelman 1980) and is related to emphasis on interpretation (Stake 1995). 2 schools: E (effective), S (silent)

Structure of the research E and S school head teacher teachersartefacts

My challenges Stuggling with my own understanding of reality The laden-I (Peshkin 1988) Validity of my research in a quantitatively- oriented research community Ethical concerns – S school

Data collection Documentary analysis (school brochures, schools annual plans) Observation (final ceremony, the first school day) Interviews

The problem of validity Uniqueness of the case study – little (no?) capacity for generalisation The issue of the relationship between the researcher, the researched and the reader Internal validity: triangulation of data, reflexivity on my bias

Schools in public documents tables and figures language of quantification universalism bureaucratic nature of the school

Schools in public events perfect organisation projection of unified beliefs less about what [schools] are like than about what they should be like (Parker, 2000)

Schools in teachers stories diversity of patterns issue-specific coalitions (Martin, 1992) stories influenced by teachers personal and professional experiences – local stories

Schools in head teachers stories E School: control, external accountability, economy of performance S School: powerlessness, metaphors BUT Cultural gatekeepers Little consideration of teachers voices

Two cultures of schools PRIVATE CULTURE PUBLIC CULTURE symbols publication rituals rules building meanings

Questions for discussion What are current challenges for research in your country? How would you approach studying organisational culture?