The effects on staff morale of a change of leadership and a period of industrial dispute in a secondary school

This thesis examines changes in staff morale in a secondary school following a change of headteacher and a period of industrial action by teachers. The change of headteacher and management style altered power relationships. Staff who were adversely affected developed discernible patterns of estranged behaviour. Staff at all levels had dissonant expectations of the headteacherchanges in the head's role were acknowledged, but expectations of leadership remained traditional. The period of industrial action significantly undermined the teachers' self concept and adversely affected their morale. The action disrupted developing management strategies and accentuated the differences between stratified sub-groups of staff. senior staff, middle managers; established assistant and junior assistant staff The research provides a framework for analysis of group morale, which extends work by Williams (1984) to demonstrate that morale is more complex than existing models suggest. Morale is affected by membership of different groups within an organisation, and the quality of leadership of those groups at both senior and middle management level. It is possible, therefore, to map the morale of different groups within an organisation. Data was collected using observation, interviews, conversation, questionnaires and school documentation. The researcher claims a position of "privileged" observeran experienced fellow professional used to participating in the environment being researched. Strengths and weaknesses of this "privileged" status are examined in relation to the traditional ethnographic role of a "participant" observer. The research draws on the findings of Lyons, Stenning & McQueeney (1983) and Bolam, McMahon, Pocklington and Weindling (1993) on teachers' preferred management style, Ball (1987) on micro-political conflict in schools. It confirms the analyses by Richardson (1973) on sentience in school management and Nias (1989) on the importance of the self concept and reference groups for teachers. Chapter 1: Setting the Research Context The first four chapters set the research context and review the literature. Chapter 5 reviews the existing work on morale and proposes a new way of examining the morale of different elements of an organisation by adapting the work of Williams (1984). Chapters 6 to 14 report the evidence provided by the data at Hillside School. Chapter 6 explores the effects of a change of headteacher, and leadership style, on the school and its effect on staff at all levels in the school structure. Chapter 7 considers the value and relevance of developing a common set of aims and objectives as a method of developing a sense of purpose amongst the teaching staff Chapters 8-11 examine the way school policy is formulated, and the extent of staff influence on policy-making. Chapter 12 considers the way leaders at senior and middle management level affect the morale of the staff within their teams. It examines the different factors that lead to the development of high or low morale within the school as a whole, and within different teams within the school. Chapter 13 reviews the way different aspects of school management affect morale in the context of meetings, decisionmaking, staff development and welfare, and staff social cohesion. Chapter 14 marks a change in perspective. The industrial action by teachers in the 1980s affected the research significantly. Data collection was disrupted, and the attitudes of staff hardened as they took up more entrenched positions. Having reviewed the data, and analysed it to gain an understanding of the influences that affected the morale of individuals and teams within a school, this chapter explores the increasing influence of external factors on the school, and their effects on the changing role of the headteacher. Teachers' dissonant expectations of a headteacher are explored. The chapter then discusses whether the model of an idealised headteacher is a realisable one in the context of the changes in education generated