Journal of Cases in Educational Leadership

 

Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Barry, W.
Right arrow Articles by Byars, J.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati  
What's this?
Journal of Cases in Educational Leadership, Vol. 9, No. 2, 17-22 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/1555458906287806

The Mold That Almost Ate the Principal

Wayne Barry

University of Virginia, wayne.barry{at}doe.virginia.gov

Chuck Bishop

University of Virginia

Jennifer Byars

University of Virginia

New-building mold was a bane for many home construction companies and new homeowners during the 1990s. It was not unusual to read or watch the news and see the tragedy played out in one’s local community. Untold, however, is the story of the toll new-building mold can take on school systems and their principals, especially as these mold problems might be a smokescreen or lightning rod for other things that go on in the daily life of a learning community. Griswold Elementary School’s problem with mold illustrates several phenomena for school administrators, namely, that organizations can be unwieldy and unpredictable at times, schools are highly symbolic and political structures, school reform involves the whole community, context is important for understanding and guiding organizational problem-solving efforts, effective communication is critical to effective organizational functioning, authority structures are important for accomplishing many tasks, and thankfully, organizations can learn from their own behavior.

Key Words: organizational behavior • organizations learning from prior behaviors • environmental problems related to new school construction • new school buildings • mold and other environmental threats • structural contingency theory • organizational ecology


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?