Organizational learning mechanisms and leadership succession: Key elements of planned school change

The growing complexity of schoolwork in the current turbulent and unstable environment requires schools to plan for both structural and pedagogical changes. Planning for school change, however, has been increasingly hindered by leadership succession that dramatically affects organizational stability. Although a common phenomenon in our competitive educational realm, leadership succession during school change process has been under-explored. This article illuminates both processes of leadership succession and Organizational Learning Mechanisms (OLMs) as key elements in planned school change. It is argued that institutionalizing OLMs (arenas where knowledge can be analyzed and shared by individual members and then become the property of the entire organization through dissemination and changes in standard routines and procedures) can support the development and retention of a school's memory; thus sustaining the change efforts subsequent to the departure of the original reformer(s).