How Clan Culture Impairs Functions of Instructional Leadership: The Case of Israel

Clan culture is a family-like work environment with strong bonds of loyalty and close relationships. The current study seeks to understand how this organizational culture, prevalent in the Israeli education system, influences instructional leadership implementation. Participants of this qualitative study were 36 Israeli school principals. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews. Findings identified three functions of instructional leadership that were weakened when Israeli principals were influenced by clan culture: supervising and evaluating instruction, protecting instructional time, and providing teachers incentives. This study fills a gap by exploring educational leadership’s application in different societies through the prism of the national context.