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It is often assumed that administrators exert an influence on the performance of their organizational units. While there is mounting evidence regarding the influence exerted by principals on the academic performance of schools, little attention has been paid to examining the influence exerted by superintendents on the academic performance of school districts. In this study, a sample of California school districts was employed to estimate the influence of superintendents, controlling for environmental and district factors, on the performance of sixth and twelfth grade students on the mathematics and reading sections of the standardized achievement test of the California Assessment Program. An analysis of the components of variation was conducted to determine the relative percent of variance attributable to environmental and district factors and to superintendents. It was found that superintendents exerted a small influence on the academic performance of school districts. Further, it was found that superintendents had a relatively greater influence on sixth grade test scores than they had on twelfth grade test scores.

A sample of elementary schools and a sample of high schools were employed in a replication of a study conducted on corporations to determine the influence exerted by principals on the instructional performance of schools. An analysis of the components of variation was conducted to estimate principals' effects while controlling for environmental and organizational factors. It was found that principals exert a small but important influence on school performance, as measured by standardized achievement tests.

The purpose of this paper is for the author to recount how his use of organizational theory to understand educational reform in the USA led to a change of mind.

My shift resulted from my conclusion, derived from the new institutionalism, that only marginal changes can be made in schools and, thus, fundamental change requires the design and construction of new systems.

I moved from applying organization theory to find ways in which schools could improve academic outcomes for students, generally, and students from underserved communities, specifically to using organization theory to develop conditions that support efforts to design new systems to support learning.

This paper’s contribution is that it encourages students of school organization to consider applying their theoretical perspectives to designing innovative social arrangements to foster learning and teaching.

This article brings together the issues of leadership and organization. We begin by discussing the concept of leadership, emphasizing the importance of the context in which leadership occurs. Because the type of leadership addressed in this paper occurs in the context of formal organizations, we revisit the concept of “loose‐coupling”, which reveals the rational and institutional dimensions of organization, explaining how each dimension provides a different form of determinacy on and through which leadership can act. We end by drawing on a study in which we are currently engaged to examine the forms that leadership may take in the rational and institutional dimensions of organizations.

Examines the implications of institutional theory in the study of instructional leadership within the school organization. Outlines the implementation of this theory with the school, at the boundary between the school and the environment and also the organization of the institutional environment to which schools respond. Claims that theory enhances the administration of the school by the adoption of structures embodying cultural rules, and that it helps teachers to precipitate work‐related activity.

The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize the relationship between business and education and thereby offer a research agenda for examining the influence of business on education. Educational research has given relatively limited attention to the impact of business on education.

This paper describes a theoretical framework drawn from organization theory that identifies five types of influence of business on education. The emerging literature on business‐school relations is accessed not to present a comprehensive review of research on the impact of business on education, but rather to identify issues regarding the impact of business on education that bear the scrutiny of researchers and educational and business leaders and policy makers.

The types of influence include business consuming the outputs of schools, supplying inputs to schools, competing with public schools for students and state funding, shaping educational policy at various levels, and distributing wealth in ways that indirectly affects education.

This paper identifies an issue that requires further research and policy attention and offers a conceptual framework and research agenda.

This paper explores the increased complexity that school‐based management introduces between schools and their external environments, and considers how principals respond. The two cases reported here reveal that principals rely on different sources of legitimacy in making two kinds of decisions. Factual decisions legitimize principals’ use of legal and bureaucratic control without requiring the investment of much social capital. Values‐based decisions are legitimized by the use of social capital without the benefit of much legal and bureaucratic control.

The purpose of this paper is to explain how value is co-created in a many-to-many (MTM) context. The authors use a case study of a non-governmental service delivery consortium engaging multiple actors to examine how value is co-created beyond the buyer-supplier dyad.

An explanatory case study of a consortium of seven UK non-governmental organisations (NGOs) delivering public service contracts is presented. Multiple data collection methods are combined; semi-structured interviews (n=30) and focus groups with internal stakeholders (n=5), participant observations (n=4) and document analysis.

The authors use three illustrative empirical examples to show how different sources, types, enablers and mechanisms of VCC are evident during service provision activities. The findings show how different service provision activities utilise different dimensions, leading the authors to suggest that dimensions of VCC may be context dependent.

As consortia differ in their context and function, the findings may not be generalisable. Nevertheless, they provide specific examples of sources, types, enablers and mechanisms of value co-creation (VCC) that may be applicable to private, public and NGOs.

Understanding how value is co-created with multiple stakeholders can offer competitive advantages likely to lead to improved sustainability, impact and performance.

The empirical study offers a reconceptualisation of VCC in a MTM context. The paper combines disparate perspectives of VCC to offer a more holistic perspective.