Culture in Schools: How Cultural Models Influence Educational Leadership

Every school has an official organizational chart – a principal at the top, department heads in the middle, teachers filling out the rows below. But anyone who has spent time in a school knows that this chart only tells part of the story. The real dynamics of how a school functions – how decisions get made, how staff relate to one another, what gets celebrated and what gets quietly ignored – are often shaped by something far less visible: organizational culture. Understanding cultural models of educational management means looking beyond the formal rulebook and asking a deeper question: what are the shared beliefs, symbols, and informal norms that actually drive leadership behavior in schools?

What are cultural models of educational management? 🔗

The cultural model is one of the core frameworks in educational management theory, most thoroughly developed by scholar Tony Bush. According to Bush’s widely cited work, cultural models emphasize the informal aspects of organizations rather than their official elements. They focus on the values, beliefs, and norms of individuals within the organization, and how these individual perceptions come together into shared organizational meanings. Critically, cultural models are manifested by symbols and rituals rather than through the formal structure of the organization.

In practical terms, this means that a school’s culture is not written in its policy documents. It lives in the everyday assumptions staff hold about how things should be done, how students should be treated, and what kind of leader the principal should be. According to the cultural model, the behavior of members of a school is shaped by beliefs, ideas, norms, rituals, symbols, traditions, and values – and these forces can be more powerful than any formal directive from above.

This framework sits in direct contrast to formal or bureaucratic models of management, which assume that organizational behavior is driven primarily by official roles, hierarchical authority, and rational decision-making. The cultural model says: look at what people actually believe and do, not just what the rulebook says.

The role of shared beliefs and norms in shaping management 🔗

At the heart of the cultural model is the concept of shared beliefs and norms – the collective, often unspoken understanding within a school community about what is acceptable, what is valued, and how things are done. Culture emerges from the values, beliefs, and norms of individuals within organizations, and these individual perceptions coalesce into shared organizational meanings, as Tony Bush’s research in the journal Educational Management Administration & Leadership affirms.

These shared beliefs directly shape how leaders manage. A principal who operates within a school culture that places high value on teacher autonomy will naturally make different management choices than one embedded in a culture of top-down compliance – not because of the formal job description, but because of the values embedded in the school’s DNA. Interaction between members of the organization, or its subgroups, eventually leads to behavioral norms that gradually become cultural features of the school. Over time, these norms solidify into what is sometimes described as the unwritten rule – “the way we do things around here.”

How shared norms influence everyday leadership decisions 🔗

Shared norms are not abstract ideals. They translate directly into management behavior. A school culture that prizes collaboration, for example, will see a principal who actively facilitates faculty meetings for collective problem-solving, even if no policy mandates it. In a culture oriented toward academic rigor, teachers may voluntarily extend feedback sessions with students, not because the timetable demands it, but because that is what “good teaching” means in that school’s cultural context.

These norms also set the informal standards by which leadership is judged. If a new principal’s behavior consistently conflicts with established cultural norms – even if technically within their authority – they are likely to face quiet resistance from staff. This is the power of organizational culture: it governs conduct more deeply than formal regulation often can. Leadership is strongly conditioned by the different faces of school culture, even though these can also condition leadership through management strategies that are more or less democratic, as research published in Education Sciences (MDPI) confirms.

Subcultures within a school 🔗

It is also important to recognize that schools rarely have a single, perfectly unified culture. There may be several subcultures based on the professional and personal interests of different groups, each with internal coherence but sometimes in tension with others. The science department may have a very different set of norms from the arts faculty; newer teachers may hold different assumptions from long-serving staff. Effective school leaders need to be aware of these subcultures and navigate them thoughtfully, rather than assuming a single dominant culture governs everyone equally.

Symbols and rituals in education 🔗

If shared beliefs are the invisible core of school culture, symbols and rituals are how that culture becomes visible. They are the outward expressions of what a school community values, and they carry far more meaning than their surface appearance suggests. A rite or ritual is a regular organizational activity that carries more meaning than it does actual purpose – it is easy for leaders to state their values, but rites and rituals openly publicize the values of an organization.

In schools, this plays out in very recognizable ways. Culture is typically expressed through rituals and ceremonies, which are used to support and celebrate beliefs and norms – schools are rich in such symbols as assemblies, prize-givings, and corporate worship, Bush notes. Each of these events communicates something about what the school stands for, often more powerfully than any written mission statement.

What symbols communicate about leadership values 🔗

Consider what happens at a school prize-giving ceremony. The categories of prizes awarded – whether they prioritize academic excellence, community contribution, sporting achievement, or creative talent – tell a clear story about the school’s values. A school that only awards academic prizes signals something very different from one that recognizes kindness or resilience. These symbolic choices are management decisions, even if they are not always recognized as such.

Similarly, morning assemblies can reinforce cultural narratives. A principal who consistently uses assembly time to share stories of student progress, community involvement, or teacher innovation is actively managing the school’s culture – signaling what is important and worthy of recognition. The shared values of individuals at school, symbols, rituals, and traditions form the bases of school culture, as confirmed by research published in IntechOpen’s peer-reviewed volume on school culture and management.

Formal vs. informal school rituals 🔗

Not all rituals are formal occasions. Informal rituals – the way staff greet each other at the start of the day, the tradition of celebrating a teacher’s retirement, the habit of gathering informally after school events – are equally powerful cultural markers. Cultural transfer in the field of education is possible through ritualistic activities, which in educational institutions are formally experienced in educational programs, national days, commemorative and flag-raising ceremonies – but rituals are also observed by students in different styles in in-class or outdoor activities.

Values are essential factors in expressing cultural structures because individuals in an organization come together to share values, social ideals, and beliefs, which are reflected through symbolic structures such as legends, myths, stories, and rituals. In a school where teachers routinely stay back after hours to support students, that informal practice becomes a cultural symbol of dedication – and it sets a norm that new staff absorb simply by being present in that environment.

Cultural models vs. formal structures: understanding informal influences on leadership 🔗

One of the most important insights of the cultural model is that formal and informal structures do not always align – and when they diverge, informal culture often wins. Every school has a formal organizational structure: designated roles, official decision-making channels, written policies, and a clear chain of command. But one cannot crudely distinguish between teachers and leaders, especially middle managers and more informal leaders – teachers themselves can act with agency and leadership, formally or informally, as research published in the journal Prospects (National Library of Medicine) points out.

This means that in many schools, the person with the most cultural influence may not hold the most senior formal title. A long-serving head of department, deeply respected by colleagues, may shape staff behavior and attitudes more powerfully than a newly appointed assistant principal. This person operates as an informal leader – someone whose authority derives not from their position in the hierarchy, but from their embodiment of the school’s cultural values.

Where formal structures fall short 🔗

Formal management structures are designed to bring consistency and accountability. They define who is responsible for what and establish processes for decision-making. However, they are inherently limited in their ability to capture the full complexity of how a school actually operates. The differentiation approach highlights the pluralistic and composite nature of school organization, stimulating an exploration of the disconnect between formal structure and action, fundamental to understanding the everyday dynamics of schools and their processes of innovation and change.

A school policy might state that all discipline issues should be escalated to the deputy principal. But in practice, a culturally embedded norm of teachers handling minor conflicts within the classroom – and being respected for doing so – may mean the formal procedure is rarely invoked. Neither the formal policy nor the informal norm is necessarily wrong. But understanding both is essential for anyone seeking to lead that school effectively.

Why leaders must understand both layers 🔗

School leaders occupy an intermediate place in the school system, situated between the macrolevel of educational policies and the microlevel of the classroom, bringing them to a central position as active actors in the interpretation and recreation of specific dynamics, as the Journal of Research on Leadership Education notes. This in-between position is precisely why cultural awareness is indispensable for school leaders.

Leaders who rely exclusively on formal authority – position power, policy enforcement, and top-down directives – without attending to cultural dynamics often find their efforts undermined by the very culture they have not acknowledged. Conversely, leaders who are culturally attuned know how to work with the school’s existing values and norms, using them as levers for positive change rather than barriers to overcome. As Edgar Schein – whose three-level model of organizational culture (artifacts, espoused values, and underlying assumptions) remains foundational to this field – argued, if leaders do not become conscious of the cultures in which they are embedded, those cultures will manage them.

Integrating cultural insight into school leadership practice 🔗

Practically speaking, culturally aware school leaders do several things differently. They pay attention to what gets celebrated – and what gets ignored. They listen carefully to the informal conversations happening in staffrooms and corridors. They understand that a new initiative, however well-designed, will struggle if it conflicts with deeply held cultural assumptions. And they recognize that culturally responsive leaders understand the dimensions and impact of cultural constructs and continuously cultivate their own understanding of how culture shapes their approach to leadership, as The Leadership Academy’s framework for school leaders affirms.

This does not mean that formal structures are unimportant – they provide essential scaffolding for accountability and consistency. But the cultural model of educational management asks leaders to see those formal structures as one layer of reality, not the whole picture. The beliefs people hold, the symbols they respond to, and the informal norms they follow day-to-day are equally – sometimes more – determinative of how a school actually runs.

Why this matters for educational management today 🔗

In an era of rapid change – curriculum reform, shifts in technology, evolving community demographics – understanding school culture is not a soft, peripheral concern. It is central to sustainable leadership. Various changes in the spheres of education policy and school management over recent decades have sparked a renewed interest in the issue of school culture and its potential to understand processes of leadership and academic performance. Schools that navigate change successfully tend to be those whose leaders understand and actively steward their organizational culture, rather than simply issuing new directives and expecting compliance.

The cultural model ultimately reminds us that schools are human institutions, not machines. They are held together by meaning – by shared stories, common values, and the quiet rituals that signal what the community stands for. Leaders who understand this are equipped to build schools where staff feel genuinely aligned with the institution’s mission, and where management is not something imposed from above, but something grown from within.

What do you think? In your experience of schools – as a student, teacher, or leader – which has had more influence on daily behavior: the formal rules and structures, or the informal cultural norms? And if a school’s stated values and its actual cultural practices are out of step with each other, whose responsibility is it to close that gap?

References

1. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1066693.pdf
2. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/300048835_Theories_of_Educational_Management_and_Leadership_A_Review
3. https://doi.org/10.1177/1741143220983063
4. https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/12/4/254
5. https://crln.acrl.org/index.php/crlnews/article/view/8779/9346
6. https://www.intechopen.com/chapters/57356
7. https://cdn.intechopen.com/pdfs/57356.pdf
8. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9628287/
9. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13603124.2023.2234859
10. https://ia800805.us.archive.org/9/items/EdgarHScheinOrganizationalCultureAndLeadership/Edgar_H_Schein_Organizational_culture_and_leadership.pdf
11. https://www.leadershipacademy.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Culturally-Responsive-Leadership-Actions-2020.pdf