Schools as Organisations

When I hear of a place being an ‘organisation’, I think of a formalised and structured enterprise with business suits and brief cases. A school is not my immediate thought. But after reading Bennett (2001) I have definitely changed my perspective. Schools fit the criteria to be an organisation: they have members (staff and students), a purpose (school mission and faculty plans), resources (monetary and materialistic), and structure (policies, procedures, curriculum, and tasks within that structure). Of course, it is dependent on the way an organisation is led that affects the type of organisation it is.

I believe schools are a mixture of rational and open systems of organisation. The rational systems stem from the rules, teaching standards, code of ethics, etc., that generally govern all schools. All schools are expected to teach their students specific subjects within specified timeframes. The open systems of school organisation branch from the outside influences that affect the way the school is controlled and managed. For example, a small government school in a remote community would be managed completely different to a catholic senior school in a capital city. Both communities would have different expectations of the school and their children, and these expectations directly affect all aspects of the school’s organisation from bell times to the curriculum.