Top level management often take it for granted that the employees will quickly and easily interpret and implement all decisions made by them. In reality, it requires integration and efforts at three levels: that of the leaders, the groups, and the individuals. There are many documented failures in organizational management due to the inadequacy to address all three levels (e.g., Greaves and Sorenson 1999; Elkjaer 2001; Hernandez and Leslie 2001; Thorne 2000).
However, organizational health should not be understood solely in terms of indicators such as absenteeism, employee turnover, employee satisfaction, or productivity. These static individual-level indicators do not capture the developmental and dynamic nature of organizational health (NHS 2009). These factors sometimes are helpful to identify unhealthy organizations, but their absence merely does not equate to good organizational health (Argyris 1958; Goldman Schuyler 2004). For example, if the employees attend work even when they are ill or injured, the sick absenteeism may get reduced, but that does not signify positive change (Caverley et al. 2007).
Another key consideration is the relationship between organizational health and performance. The construct of ambidextrous organization which is “aligned and efficient in management of today’s business demands while simultaneously adapting to changes in the environment” (Raisch & Birkinshaw 2008), helps to relate organizational health with performance. Like ambidexterity which means being able to use both right and left hand equally, an organization should be able to use both exploitation and exploration techniques to be successful. Exploitation means being able to perform well against operational targets in the present whilst exploration means having an eye for the future to innovate to gain momentum towards a clear strategic goal. There is a strong need for balance between different components of an organization (Raisch & Birkinshaw 2008, Gibson & Birkinshaw 2004).
Nevertheless, some criticisms have been made of the ambidexterity literature from the perspective of organizational health. In particular, the understanding of change implicit in the conceptualization of an organization’s strategic future may be over-simplified, giving insufficient consideration to the complexity of change which might disrupt the understanding of the framework within which the organization is present.
1.3.3 Educational Institution Context
The topic of organizational health has been of great importance in the field of education (particularly for schools) and generated much interest from researcher and education practitioners.
Matthew Miles (1969) was the first one to coin the term organizational health and he defined a healthy organization as the one which is not static in its existing setting, but is ever-developing itself and its skills to handle and carry on (Miles, 1969: 376). The organization that is healthy should not only survive in its surrounding, but also grow and develop in the long run. The concept of performing in both, the present and the future, is the key element for an organization to be healthy. Miles developed his 10 dimensions to describe the organizational health. His dimensions are discussed in the following section.
The term “organizational health” was also defined by Parsons, Bales, and Shils (1953), Hoy and Tarter (1997), and Hoy and Miskel (1991) as the ability of an organization to adapt to its environment, to create harmony among its members, and to achieve to its goals.
Parsons, Bales and Shils (1953, in Freiberg 1999:86) identified that educational institutions like schools needed to solve four basic problems of adaptation, attaining objectives, integration and latency, to be able to exist, grow and thrive. According to Parsons (in Hoy & Miskel 1987:237; Hoy, Tarter & Bliss 1990:263; Freiberg 1999:86) schools, like all organizations, have three distinct levels of control over these needs – the technical, managerial and institutional.
Applied to schools and education, the three organizational levels imply the following:
The technical level
This level is concerned with the teaching-learning activity, for which the teaching staff are responsible.
The management level
The persons at these levels are responsible for administrative control of the organization. The principal is the primary administrator of the school. The administration controls and services the technical subsystem in two important ways: first, it mediates between the teachers and those receiving the services – students and parents; and second, it procures the necessary resources for effective teaching. Thus, teacher needs are a basic concern of the administration (Hoy & Miskel 1987:238; Freiberg 1999:87)
The institutional level
This level connects the organization with its environment. The school should be well accepted and have close relations with the local community. The staff and the administrators should be able to do their work without external pressure or meddling. The superintendent and the governing board are responsible for supporting and upholding the sovereignty of the school (Hoy & Miskel 1987:238).
Thus, a healthy school is one in which the technical, managerial, and institutional levels are in harmony; and the school meets both instrumental and expressive needs as it successfully copes with disruptive external forces and directs its energies toward its mission (Hoy & Miskel 1987:238; Freiberg 1999:87).
Van der Westhuizen (2002:152; Hoy & Miskel 1987:241) stated that a school with a healthy organizational structure is not subjected to undue pressure from the community, has a principal who gives dynamic guidance, a teaching staff who are dedicated and learners who are motivated, has goals that are attainable and have sufficient resources. Thus, organizational health refers to the “manner in which the members of the organization (school) manage to optimally utilize the resources at their disposal within their working environment.”
Clark & Fairman (1983) regarded organizational health as a significant force in planning change. Childer and Fairman (1986) emphasized that counselors at schools may play the role of facilitators in improving organizational health. Ash (1992) analyzed the relationship between organizational health and the opinions of teachers on innovation. Hoy, Tarter, and Bliss (1990) compared the effectiveness of organizational climate and organizational health. As Hoy and Miskel (1991) and Hoy and Tarter (1997) state, in a healthy school, the technical, managerial and personnel institutional levels are in harmony, and the harmony between these three levels should be made manifesting teaching and student learning (Korkmaz, 2004: 477).
School organizational health is a metaphor that is employed to capture the tone of a school (Tsui and Cheng 1999). Korkmaz (2007) claimed that healthy schools adapt themselves to the environment successfully and promote common values among their staff.