An Organizational Contingency Theory for Education

Abstract

The authors describe a theory of organization developed by Lawrence and Lorsch which related organizational differentiation and integration to environmental demands. Several studies which have attempted to employ the theory in school settings are discussed and the paper describes some of the promises and problems asso ciated with and implications for using the theory in educational organizations. In particular, the authors discuss applications of the concepts for studying urban school systems as complex organiza tions. C. Brooklyn Derr is an Assistant Professor and Research Associate at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. John J. Gabarro is an Assistant Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration.

DISSIMILAR STRUCTURAL AND CONTROL PROFILES OF EDUCATIONAL AND TECHNICAL ORGANIZATIONS[1]

“…The results of this study are consistent with published work indicating that educational organizations, in contrast to technical organizations, represent loosely coupled structures (Bidwell, 1965;Derr and Gabarro, 1976;Mintzberg, 1979;Weick, 1976). Because teachers work independently in self-contained classrooms, the technical units which make up the educational organization are not brought together by any clearly delineated structure.…”

Exploring pedagogical competence in a distance education nursing program: A case study

“…According to Yin [31] , using a case study design allowed the researcher to conduct the study and analysis simultaneously. This methodology was useful for describing an intervention and the real-life context in which it occurred [31] with a detailed contextual analysis as a basis for application of the ideas and extension of the methods to the nursing literature. This case study provided an in-depth analysis of the complex issue of pedagogical competence in distance education nursing programs.…”

“…Collecting multiple sources of evidence encourages converging lines of inquiry [31] . The researcher maintained a systematic and comprehensive analytical process to exhaust the data sources related to the phenomena.…”

“…Tentative categories and themes were then extracted. The researcher used an inductive analysis process with patternmatching logic to compare the data with the idealized theoretic patterns to increase the study's internal validity [31] . The researcher then organized the data into categories with related themes describing how leaders ensure faculty have pedagogical skills to teach online and how their program addressed pedagogical competence according to selected national standards.…”

The Organizational Structure of the Secondary School

“…In a review of the rather sparse literature in this area, Derr and Gabarro (1972) find evidence to support the general appropriateness of 'organic' devices in schools which are confronted by a high degree of uncertainty. From studies which they themselves carried out on a sample of schools in the U.S. with a large minority group population, they report that the more effective schools (in terms of attendance, drop-out rates and acts of serious misbehaviour) were characterized by a high degree of structural adaptability.…”