The Influence of Positive Organizational Practices on School Climate in Middle School

The present study investigated how positive organizational practices could be applied and used in a middle school classroom setting. We examined how homeroom practices, which provide opportunities for student engagement and autonomy in the classroom, was related to school climate, as well as how this relationship may be moderated by students’ race and gender. Data were drawn from a subsample of a larger study of academic and socioemotional development in middle school (n = 513 in Wave 2, Mage = 11.96 years old (SD = .93), 46.8% female, 50.5% male, and 1.8% preferred not to answer). This study also explored whether race moderated the relationship between homeroom practices and school climate. We measured the relationship of homeroom practices and school climate both concurrently and longitudinally. Results indicated that homeroom practices were positively associated with and positively predicts school climate. Race but not gender significantly moderated the relationship between homeroom practices and school climate. Implications for future research and practice and in different classroom settings are discussed. POSITIVE PRACTICES AND SCHOOL CLIMATE IN MIDDLE SCHOOL 3 The Influence of Positive Organizational Practices on School Climate in Middle School Middle school can be a difficult time for a developing adolescent. The middle school years are filled with changing friendships, physical characteristics, and academic interests (Kim et al., 2014). In addition, adolescence is the key stage where students are moving from childhood to adulthood, and are developing a keen sense of identity (Marcia, 1980). Because this is such a transitional time in the students’ lives, it is of upmost importance that students feel at home and safe in their surroundings. Organizations and institutions – including religious institutions, athletic teams and clubs, family units, and school classrooms, among others – all socialize and shape and create the actions and lives of adolescents (Zimmerman, Welsh, & Posick, 2014 & Li et al., 2015). Instead of being a draining and stressful environment, middle school classrooms can be places with a positive atmosphere, an enjoyable place to learn and form relationships with students and teachers, so that the environment can have a positive impact on the lives of students. Given that students spend a large amount of time in the classroom, around 900-1000 hours per year (Hull, 2001), it is critical to understand the practices that help classroom time support positive well-being among youth. Literature Review Current research on organizations focuses on the impact of positive organizational practices within the contexts of organizations specific to adults, such as the workplace. This research looks at improving the climate within a workplace so that a worker’s well-being is improved, which contributes to their ability to work more efficiently and productively (Cameron et al., 2011). Positive practices stem from positive “Big 5 Personality Traits,” including conscientiousness, emotional stability, extroversion, agreeableness, and openness, and how these traits are related to happiness (Luthans & Youseff, 2007). Positive practices help humans utilize POSITIVE PRACTICES AND SCHOOL CLIMATE IN MIDDLE SCHOOL 4 these traits to promote well-being within an organization, as these personality traits have been shown to be related to other positive aspects among humans (Luthans & Youseff, 2007). As an extension of this research on positive organizational practices and the influence they have on adults, I examine how positive practices might improve school climate in middle schools. In addition, I explore how these practices influenced by the students’ demographics, such as race and gender. A school is a type of organization, and an incredibly influential one, on both the lives of students and teachers (Brand et al., 2003). Previous research has shown that positive organizational practices positively relate to aspects of organizational climate in adult (i.e., work) settings, such as employee retention, work environment, and personal influence (Cameron et al., 2011). In this thesis, I examined whether organizational (i.e., teaching) practices in schools supported positive experiences for students. In Cameron et al.’s (2011) study, an important aspect of positive organizational practices is how much autonomy an employee feels he or she has in his or her work, the amount that one is in charge of decision-making. In the current project, I examine homeroom practices, which involve the extent to which students are engaged in classroom rule-setting and how often they participate in class; these are ways that students can exert agency in their school environment. The program from which the homeroom practices are derived designed these practices to emphasize engagement, autonomy, and decision-making among youth in schools. Therefore, I expected that such practices would be linked to positive outcomes among youth (i.e., their views of the school's climate). The current study differs from previous studies in that it applies a framework for understanding positive organizational practices that is traditionally used in businesses and forprofit organizations to examine how practices in a middle school classroom in the Midwest. This POSITIVE PRACTICES AND SCHOOL CLIMATE IN MIDDLE SCHOOL 5 study draws parallels between practices within an organization and teacher practices. Using a positive organizational psychology perspective, I examine how particular practices can promote positive outcomes in the classroom, instead of focusing on avoidance of negative outcomes, and how these processes might be influenced by the students’ race and gender. Positive Organizational Practices Positive organizational practices play a leading role in research about organizational management. It derives from the field of positive psychology, where researchers have sought to achieve and study positive behavioral outcomes instead of avoiding negative behavioral outcomes (Steele, 2010). Positive organizational practices, often labeled as positive organizational scholarship, was developed to study the positive outcomes, practices, and attributes within organizations and the members of that organization (Cameron, 2008). The aim of positive psychology is to discover how individuals can “flourish,” implying that the individual is at optimal level of behavioral functioning (Dutton & Sonenshein, 2007), or that individuals are performing and acting at the best level that they can achieve. In positive organizational psychology, the aim of the approach is to measure how organizations promote certain types of outcomes: researchers look at the outcomes that exceed expectations or expected performance. Some scholars have condemned organizational studies research as being too negative and assuming that organizations lack morality (Hackman, 2009). However, this position has been marginalized and is no longer widely held. Positive organizational psychology, in particular, is based on the assumption that actions guide happiness, that all humans have an inclination towards goodness for its intrinsic value and internal worth, and that organizations can support this process (Cameron, 2008). Part of the credibility of this new field stems from the effect that positive organizational POSITIVE PRACTICES AND SCHOOL CLIMATE IN MIDDLE SCHOOL 6 practices has had on organizational change and performance (Harter, Schmidt, & Keyes, 2002). It has been found that this field of study has an actual effect on other aspects within an organization and its members, including positive affect, well-being, organizational citizenship and prosocial behavior, positive identity, engagement, psychological capital, and satisfaction (Harter, Schmidt, & Keyes, 2002). Cameron et al. (2011) demonstrated a chain of reactions within positive organizational practices in this way: “Positive organizational practices lead to positive affect in members of an organization, which then produces positive individual behavior and, in turn, creates effective behavior within an organization” (p. 268). To measure positive organizational practices, Cameron et al. (2011) differentiated a variety of dimensions: caring, compassionate support, forgiveness, inspiration, meaning, respect, integrity, and gratitude. Cameron et al. (2011) noted that there was no overarching theory used to derive the list of positive practices, but rather that they were chosen because these practices had appeared in prior research, represented behavioral practices or activities, and possessed one or more positive connotations (Cameron et al., 2011). Cameron et al. (2011) created a study of the behaviors and attributes that characterize positivity in organizations, and to which outcomes these positive practices were associated. It was found that there was a statistically significant association between positive practices and work environment, managerial effectiveness, and employee retention (Cameron et al., 2011). It was also concluded that positive practices create positive affect within individuals in the target organization, such that it becomes self-reinforcing, fosters resiliency against negative and challenging obstacles, and possesses attributes towards the inherent tendency toward positive energy (Cameron et al., 2011). To my knowledge, there is no current research using a positive organizational psychology framework in school classrooms. However, there are some recent studies on the relationship POSITIVE PRACTICES AND SCHOOL CLIMATE IN MIDDLE SCHOOL 7 between positive psychology and students in the educational system and the impact that positive psychology has on the school as an organization. Bradshaw et al. (2008) conducted a study on how positive behavioral interventions and supports reduce disruptive behavior problems in school to determine how training staff on school-wide positive behavioral impacts the staff members’ perceptions o