Organisational health in schools is essential for creating a positive culture, effective strategy, and overall wellbeing. When a school aligns its beliefs, behaviours, and systems, it fosters an environment where students and staff can thrive. This alignment supports school leaders in navigating today’s complex educational challenges.
Organisational Health: The Overlooked Key to School Improvement
School organisational health lies at the heart of educational success, yet it remains one of the most overlooked factors in school improvement efforts. Given the current educational climate in Australia and globally, it is no wonder.
No one is intentionally trying to make education worse and we all want improvement. However, as Biesta (2021, p. 2) notes, “what counts as improvement and meaningful ways of achieving it vary widely”. Increasingly, education is entangled with political agendas and shaped by the global education measurement industry, which now exerts significant influence over the direction and priorities of education systems (Biesta, 2021, p. 1).
Within this powerful global and national trajectory, Australian government and media narratives remain preoccupied with a perceived ‘crisis in education’. These narratives often focus on teachers being ‘classroom ready’, the urgent need to adopt ‘what works’ through scripted teaching, prescriptive pedagogies and holding principals accountable for poorly performing schools.
Why It Is Time to Re-centre Organisational Health
Amid these external pressures, the opportunity to pause and reflect is rare, yet essential. To recentre education within education policy, schools must go beyond narrow, measurable outcomes and return to the deeper, often neglected elements that enable long-term growth.
At the centre of this work is organisational health, which in schools is inseparable from the culture that shapes how people relate, work and learn together.
Organisational culture is not merely one element of organisational health; it is its foundation. Drawing on Schein’s (2010) framework, culture operates on three interconnected levels:
- Artefacts: the visible structures, routines and behaviours within a school
- Espoused values: the stated goals and strategies guiding decisions
- Underlying assumptions: the deeply held beliefs and norms that often go unspoken but shape everyday actions and perceptions
It is this third level, underlying assumptions, that most strongly determines how a school functions. These deeply embedded beliefs influence how decisions are made, how staff relate and how students experience teaching and learning.
When these assumptions are out of step with a school’s stated values or visible practices, they can exert a corrosive influence on trust, coherence and collective purpose – steadily weakening the cultural conditions needed for meaningful improvement. When they are aligned, they help generate the cultural conditions needed for sustained improvement and collective impact.
The Impact of Systemic Pressure on School Leadership
In the current Australian education policy environment, school principals face enormous burdens that often distract them from this primary mission of leading culture. Compliance demands, rising parental expectations, and the imperative to deliver immediate, quantifiable results have shifted attention away from the broader purposes of education. Many principals find themselves overwhelmed by administrative burdens, struggling in the process to maintain control over the education narrative.
This pressure is also driving dissatisfaction and attrition. In 2022, five percent of teachers reported they intended to leave the profession within a year and 35 percent planned to exit before retirement; up from 26 percent in 2019 (AITSL, 2023). In 2023, more than half of Australian principals surveyed were considering stepping down due to unsustainable workloads, chronic stress and increasing workplace aggression (The Conversation, 2024).
The instability this creates directly impacts organisational health. When leaders are stretched too thin, their ability to nurture school culture and support staff wellbeing diminishes. As a result, efforts at renewal and improvement become even more difficult to achieve.
A New Definition of Organisational Health for Schools
Organisational health is commonly defined as the capacity of an organisation to meet its goals while also supporting the wellbeing of its members (Pretorius & de Villiers, 2020). In schools, however, this definition needs to be expanded to reflect the complex cultural dynamics at play.
Building on Schein’s work, organisational health in schools can be reframed as:
The dynamic alignment between a school’s visible practices (structures, routines), its espoused values (mission, goals) and its underlying cultural assumptions (beliefs, norms and shared meanings), in ways that simultaneously support educational effectiveness and the wellbeing of all members.
This approach positions culture as a living system, not a static background. It must be continuously interpreted, aligned and cultivated by school leaders.
It also offers a foundation for leadership that is strategic, relational and ethical. This perspective aligns with the work of Biesta (2010), Duignan (2006) and Starratt (2004), who argue that leadership must move beyond technical tasks and compliance to embrace moral purpose and cultural stewardship.
Biesta critiques the over – reliance on evidence, based practices that ignore the transformative dimensions of education. Duignan calls for authentic leadership grounded in ethical responsibility and cultural stewardship. Starratt emphasises the need for leaders to act with integrity and presence, fostering learning environments that are inclusive, purposeful, and just.
Leading Cultural Change Through Organisational Health
Investing in the capacity to lead cultural change is one of the most powerful actions a school leader can take. It involves:
- Transparent communication about purpose and expectations
- Clearly defined roles and responsibilities that support accountability without overload
- Adequate time and resources for meaningful dialogue and reflection
- Co-created success indicators that extend beyond test scores to include wellbeing, engagement and community strength
By modelling consistency, building trust and redefining what success means, leaders can reshape the narrative around educational outcomes. This narrative is not driven by performance alone, but by connection, purpose and care.
The Tangible Benefits of Organisational Health
When organisational health is strong, its impact is tangible. Teachers feel valued and empowered to bring their full selves to their work. Students engage more meaningfully with learning. Staff collaboration improves.
Schools with strong organisational health often experience:
- Higher levels of staff retention and satisfaction
- Increased student engagement and attendance
- Fewer behavioural disruptions
- A clearer sense of belonging and collective mission
Most importantly, students come to see school as a place where they are known, valued, and supported to flourish—within a broader educational purpose of enabling young people to live well in a world worth living in (Reimer, Kaukko, Windsor, Mahon, & Kemmis, 2023).
Final Thought
Organisational health can often feel like an abstract idea—but for school leaders, it is a daily, practical responsibility. When principals lead with clarity and care, aligning culture, strategy and wellbeing, they strengthen the conditions for meaningful and sustained improvement. This work is not only strategic—it is deeply human.
At Conscious Education, we support leaders to do this work with clarity and commitment—because strong culture isn’t peripheral to school success; it is fundamental.
Want to learn more?
If you are interested in exploring this conceptual frame further or would like to know more about our Organisational Health workshops and programs for school leaders, please contact us.