Hilla Peretz

Leadership Style and Organizational Learning: The Mediate Effect of School Vision.

Purpose – Fundamentally, the success of schools depends on first-rate school leadership, on leaders reinforcing the teachers’ willingness to adhere to the school’s vision, creating a sense of purpose, binding them together and encouraging them to engage in continuous learning. Leadership, vision and organizational learning are considered to be the key to school improvement. However, systematic empirical evidence of a direct relationship between leadership, vision and organizational learning is limited. The present study aims to explore the influence of principals’ leadership style on school organizational learning, using school vision as a mediator. Design/methodology/approach – The data were collected from 1,474 teachers at 104 elementary schools in northern Israel, and aggregated to the school level. Findings – Mediating regression analysis demonstrated that the school vision was a significant predictor of school organizational learning and functioned as a partial mediator only between principals’ transformational leadership style and school organizational learning. Moreover, the principals’ transformational leadership style predicted school organizational vision and school organizational learning processes. In other words, school vision, as shaped by the principal and the staff, is a powerful motivator of the process of organizational learning in school. Research implications/limitations – The research results have implications for the guidance of leadership practice, training, appraisal and professional development. Originality/value – The paper explores the centrality of school vision and its effects on the achievement of the school’s aims by means of organizational learning processes.

National Cultures, Performance Appraisal Practices, and Organizational Absenteeism and Turnover: A Study across 21 Countries.

Performance appraisal (PA) is a key human resource activity in organizations. However, in this global economy, we know little about how societal cultures affect PA practices. In this study, we address this gap by focusing on 2 complementary issues: (a) the influence of societal (national) cultural practices on PA practices adopted by organizations and (b) the contribution of the level of congruence between societal cultural practices and the characteristics of organizational PA practices to absenteeism and turnover. The results, based on a large data set across multiple countries and over 2 time periods, support the hypothesized effects of societal (national) cultural practices on particular PA practices and the interactive effects of societal cultural practices and PA practices on absenteeism and turnover. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of our findings.

Women Principals in a Multicultural Society: New Insights Into Feminist Educational Leadership

This book analyzes intersecting issues of gender, school leadership, and multicultural experiences in accounts of female school principals from diverse ethnic and religious groups in the multicultural society of Israel. It highlights the voices of female principals in ethnic and religious minority groups in a modern country whose place is marginalized. The Jewish and Muslim authors, all citizens of Israel, offer accounts of the life and careers of female principals from Arab, Bedouin, Kibbutzim, liberal, and Ultra-Orthodox Jewish groups. These accounts are complemented by authors from Canada, Hong Kong, and England, who offer theoretical insights derived from multicultural and post-structuralist feminist views of female leadership in multicultural societies. In this sense, the book contributes to our understanding of the influence of cultural scripts and values on female principals’ leadership styles and career development, as well as suggesting an alternative way to interpret dominant feminist conceptualizations of female leadership.

Arab and Jewish Students’ Participatory Action Research at the University of Haifa

National identity and religion have been core issues within the protracted conflict between Jews and Arabs in Israel. The dynamics of identity formation among Arabs and Jews in Israel reflect a complex political and historical context characterized by conflict such as the 1948 war, subsequent wars with neighboring Arab countries, and more recently, the “Intifada” of the Palestinians in the occupied territories. Since 1948, Israel has been a Jewish state with a Jewish majority, maintaining a moderate democracy, with only partial equality of civic rights for the Arab minority (White-Stephan, Hertz-Lazarowitz, Zelniker, & Stephan, 2004; Yiftachel, 2006).

Employee Reactions to HPWS in Multinational Companies: Effects of Subsidiary and Parent Cultures

Research has shown that High-Performance Work Systems (HPWS) are positively related to employee attitudes and performance. However, the boundary conditions of these relationships have been relative...