What sort of organisation is your school?

I teach science at Willsden Primary School one day each fortnight, and as a TRT. The collaborative leadership team consists of the Principal, Deputy Principal, School Counsellor, Literacy and Numeracy Coordinator, Aboriginal Education Coordinator, and Finance Manager (Government of SA: Dept. of Education and Children’s Services, 2017, p. 6). Staff members, including teachers, SSO’s, and ACEO’s, are assigned a mentor and a line manager from within the leadership team. Formal communication generally occurs via email through a weekly bulletin, sent out by the Deputy Principal, and through weekly staff meetings.

Of Mintzberg’s five organisational structures (Kokemuller, 2017), I would say that my school has a Professional structure. I say this because staff, especially teachers, undertake a considerable amount of training, always developing and furthering their skills. In theory, this allows decentralised decision-making to take place amongst staff teams. It is more of a Professional organisation than a Machine because the leadership team are very open to new perspectives and ways of working.

What sort of organisation does the school sit within? How does this organisation and the decisions it makes affect staff at the school level?

The school sits within the South Australian Department for Education. The Department is, without a doubt, a Machine. Of course, it has elements of a Divisional structure – the Department is the central core and each school sits within a partnership or hub (Kokemuller, 2017). However, decisions made by them have a huge impact on staff at the school level. Currently, this is ongoing issue in South Australia, as evidenced by the recent teacher strike on Monday 1 July (ABC News, 2019).

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Having read through a couple of posts on the ETL504 Discussion Forum, I can see that school structures are many and varied, as are the systems in which they exist. I’ve been in the Port Augusta bubble for seven years, and most of the schools in town operate in the same ways, launching the same programs and innovations at the same time.

So, how can these understandings improve relationships in the workplace? I guess, knowing the hierarchical structure of the school and its place in the Education Department’s system is important. In particular, a strong relationship with my line manager and mentor has been very beneficial. With teachers coming together to campaign for better conditions, having strong relationships is more important than ever.

References

Government of SA: Dept. of Education and Children’s Services. (2017). Willsden Primary School Context Statement. Retrieved from https://willsdenps.sa.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/willsden-ps-context-statement-2017.pdf

Kokemuller, N. (2017). Mintzberg’s five types of organizational structure. In Hearst Newspapers: Small business. Retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/mintzbergs-five-types-organizational-structure-60119.html

SA public school teachers vote to go on strike for better pay and conditions. (2019, June 25). ABC News. Retrieved from https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-06-25/public-school-teachers-vote-to-go-on-strike-in-sa/11246306