Wartime Leadership as a Bridge Over Troubled Waters: A Representative Bureaucracy Perspective on Ethnically Homogeneous and Heterogeneous Schools

The representative bureaucracy literature asserts that minority personnel in public organizations can promote their social group either through their own behavior or by influencing other staff members or focal citizens. However, these phenomena have not been examined in wartime settings in ethnically homogeneous and heterogeneous organizations. Through the qualitative paradigm, we compare ethnically homogeneous schools (with only Jewish or Arab students and staff) and ethnically mixed schools (comprising Jewish and Arab students and/or staff) in Israel regarding the challenges they faced during the Israel-Hamas war that erupted on October 7, 2023. We reveal that both types of organizations faced five main challenges: staff shortages, maintaining routine, providing emotional support, ensuring safety, and offering ad-hoc solutions. However, two identity-related themes emerged only in ethnically heterogeneous schools: maintaining sensitivity to diverse populations and promoting values of tolerance and inclusion. The study highlights how wartime serves as a mechanism for triggering representational behavior.