A culture framework for education: Defining quality values and their impact in U.S. high schools

In this article, we address the relatively unsubstantiated claim that there is an important relationship between organizational culture and the ability to successfully implement Quality Management (QM) programs in schools. This relationship has not been adequately explored in the literature due to the lack of a comprehensive framework for defining and measuring the values and beliefs at the root of specific types of organizational cultures. After presenting some background on organizational culture used in research to date, we outline the specific values and beliefs underlying QM practice in schools. These QM values and the accompanying propositions provide an important step toward future empirical research aimed at understanding the relationship between organizational culture, the implementation of systemic improvement initiatives like QM, and key organizational and individual outcomes. The context of our research is U.S. high schools, but the general principles could be applied to other educational settings as well. The results of our review suggest that some of the quality management culture dimensions are highly consistent with educational research on school improvement, while others are more controversial.