Educational Administration Quarterly

Currently school organizations are under pressure to achieve excellence. To accomplish this, organizational transformations must occur which require in-depth changes in the organizational culture of schools. This perspective addresses the study of organizational cultures and focuses on the ways that beliefs and values are structured in school organizations. An analogy between cognitive systems and organizational belief systems is constructed to conduct this analysis.

This article offers a systematic critical response to the values-oriented, non-positivist conception of administration and philosophy of administration recently advanced by Christopher Hodgkinson. It argues that Hodgkinson 's theory of value is seriously flawed, and that his philosophy is, in key respects, much closer to the positivism espoused by H. A. Simon. This positivism is criticized and an alter-native, non-positivist basis for values in administrative theory is proposed.

Big-city school systems have been described as rigid, ponderous, hierarchical bureaucracies. They have also been called loosely coupled systems virtually out of control. Which are they-tight or loose? A study of Chicago principals reveals that the system does indeed exert powerful hierarchical control, but it does so not through a muscular apparatus of directives but rather through a not-so-subtle enforcement of loyalties, values, and unspoken expectations.

Building principals and district administrators were surveyed regarding procedures used to evaluate the performance of principals. Results suggest specific areas in which commonly used procedures could be improved. Differences of opinion between principals and their supervisors are discussed and implications are explored.

The study of administrator preparation programs, processes, and associated outcomes has proceeded in a theoretical vacuum, and has focused primarily on technical knowledge and skill associated with the school administrator's role. This article presents a theoretical framework for the study of preparation practices and outcomes, and discusses the moral socialization of school administrators, a neglected but critical dimension of administrator preparation.

Organizational theorists have been constrained by the overuse of dichotomies. Complex social phenomena cannot adequately be represented through these simplifications of reality as constituted in only two parts. This propensity of theorists to dichotomize is investigated and countered by the advocation of the application of disciplined naivete in the study of educational organizations.