TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF THE ORGANIZATIONAL PROFILE OF THEIR SCHOOL

This article is a part of a wide-scope research examining teachers’ perceptions of the organizational profile of the school in which they work. The participants were asked about nine parameters (criteria) which comprise the school’s organizational structure (Chen-Levi, 2015).
The article examines the school’s organizational structure from a never-before-examined, unique perspective. Even though there is a great deal of research on the topic, a school’s organizational profile has not yet been determined based the perceptions of the school’s faculty, and the importance and interpretation they assign various criteria, such as: teamwork, delegation, feeling of stress and overload, flexibility in study time and curriculum content, and participation in creating the school’s policies and vision.

The manner in which these parameters are perceived among people with different roles in the organization is important when we come to understand the managerial-organizational behavior that is derived from the school’s organizational profile. Therefore, the central research question for this article is how do the three roles perceive the organizational profile of the school? What is the importance given each of the parameters that comprise its organizational profile? Additionally, a loglinear analysis also tested to see whether the three groups differed in the way they relate to these parameters.

The framework selected to answer these questions is that of the qualitative analysis. The research hypothesis assumed that differences or similarities in the perception of the faculty will have implications on the staff’s internal cohesion, and the quality of communication, the motivation of staff members to contribute to change-related tasks that require a long-term view, and their readiness to take responsibility and commit.

Analysis of the teachers’ responses presented a picture, according to which the criteria they regard as central to the school’s organizational structure are: curriculum content and teaching methods, and innovation and changes in the organization. These areas are cornerstones in education and teachers, therefore, attributed significant importance to them. They stressed the need to expose those entering the school to a rich and varied education, to encourage curiosity and challenge in many disciplines with creative means, and the need for constant innovation.