Innovation in Organizations: The Case of Schools

Abstract

Using the literature as a guide, over 30 variables were considered in relation to a measure of the innovativeness of 131 schools. The variables pertain to the role and status characteristics of principals and teachers, level of outside financial and moral support for change, and aspects of the community context and of the schools. Zero order correlations and chi square tests indicated that a school's innovativeness increases with the principal's and teachers' education, teachers' experience, the proportion of teachers who are male, who belong to the local AFT and (with other factors controlled) the NEA, support for change from the local community and (with other factors controlled) from teacher organizations, the number of joint cooperative programs with the community, the number of federal programs in the school, size of city, and size of the school. Innovativeness declines with the level of standardization. A series of regression analyses suggested that teachers' characteristics and contextual characteristics accounted for more of the variance than did principals' characteristics. Also, structural characteristics of the schools seemed to have slightly more explanatory power than the characteristics of the principals. Contextual variables were of primary importance in the low-income problem schools, whereas principals' characteristics were more salient in the middle-class schools. Teachers' characteristics were salient in both settings. Six variables accounted for 29 percent of the variance: teachers' characteristics, number of federal programs in the school, size of city, support from the community, percent of teachers in the NEA and size of the school.