The organizational culture of innovative schools
The organizational culture of innovative schools

The role of the Principal

Summary/Abstract: Social and technological changes demand constant updating, this implies that schools must beprepared to face these changes. As a result, they need to have the capacity to innovate as part oftheir organizational culture. Although it is true, that not all schools are examples of innovativeorganizations, it is possible to identify some that have a more innovative organizational culture thanothers. In the generation of that capacity, the principal’s leadership plays an essential role, they areones called to face the challenge of developing competences and skills to lead the change. Existingresearch confirms the importance of the school’s leadership in the development of educationalcenters, OECD reports already ratified this, stating how vital it is to have good principals to leadschools (2009). In this study, schools have been chosen that have certain characteristics that areconsidered stand out for the Chilean educational system. By applying a questionnaire, the innovativepotential of the centers being studied and their organizational culture to favor this are analyzed,the latter from the point of view of the principal’s actions. The results allow confirming theinnovative potential the studied centers have, the most substantial practices of the principal’sactions that favor innovation are identified, as well as the key role the principal’s leadership playswithin these centers. At the same time, questions arise that limit the development of certaininnovative actions, such as, the search and pressure for results originated essentially fromstandardized testing, like SIMCE, which is applied in Chile.

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