Title: Turnaround Insights from the Organizational Sciences: A Review of the Empirical Evidence and the Development of a Staged Model of Recovery with Potential Implications for the PK-12 Education Sector
Author: Murphy, Joseph
Year: 2008
Publication Information: Leadership and Policy in Schools, v7 n4 p331-357
ERIC number: EJ810909
Abstract: This extensive review of the organizational literature on turnaround leadership provides substantiation for the use of turnaround strategies in the field of education, specifically failing schools. The review used analytic strategies, including document analysis and coding and memoing, to mine the research from the corporate, nonprofit, and public sectors. The conclusions were organized into seven dimensions, with a two-stage model of retrenchment and recovery. Under retrenchment, the literature pointed to the need to get the right leadership, diagnose the situation, and take emergency action. Under recovery, the literature pointed to the need to develop an operational vision, capture organizational efficiencies, craft organizational structures and processes, and rebuild organizational capacity. The article summarizes the lessons that can be drawn from the literature for schools: change leadership, focus on efficiencies first, and attend to context.
