Gr.
12 Leadership
School Organizational Culture
Assignment
We are going to build on our understanding of organizational culture and getting the
‘environment right’ by exploring strategy execution at our school. As society
progresses and our school grows it is important to reevaluate our values and goals to
ensure future success.
Strategy execution is the implementation of a strategic plan in an effort to reach
organizational goals. It comprises the daily structures, systems, and operational goals
that set your team up for success.
As we move forward in the course, our school initiatives and events will serve as a form
of strategy execution to help us reach our organizational goals and preferred culture.
Complete the following questions below. Make sure to explain your responses with
detail and provide specific examples.
PART A
1. What do you believe our current school culture is? Use specific examples to
explain why?
I believe that our current school culture is market culture. The market culture
emphasizes competition, the goal is to get down to business, get work done, and
achieve results. I think this is shown in many ways at our school through clubs, teams,
grades, jobs, etc. Everyone at our school is striving to be the best. Although this
competitiveness is important in a school community so that everyone can better
themselves, it is also important that competition is not the only thing students are
worried about. It is important that students also form some sort of connection with
their peers and are not only focused on themselves and their accomplishments. Market
culture also emphasizes completion of work, which is very prominent in our school.
Teachers urge/push students to complete their work on time, and although this is an
important learning skill, students often put the completion of their work/homework
over their mental health.
2. What do you believe our preferred school culture should be? Use specific
examples to explain why?
In my opinion, I believe that our preferred school culture should be a
combination of clan culture and market culture. When I think of a successful/healthy
organization I think of a family. Family can have their occasional issues but at the end of
the day, they are a team. They trust one another, they work together, they are
close-knit and they put each other's needs first. I think this is how a school community
should be. Students should feel safe at school, they should feel as though they trust
their peers and teachers, they should feel as though everyone is their friend and that if
they needed it, someone else would help them out. However, like any family there
should be a sense of competition, everyone should be working hard to get their jobs
done, there should be competition and achievements should be valued. That is how
our school community should be as well. If there is no friendly competition between
peers then no one will be putting their best foot forward, no one will be working their
absolute hardest to get the job done right. That is why I feel as though a healthy mix
between clan and market culture would create an amazing school atmosphere.
3. As a student leader, how can you apply a ‘Host’ approach to leadership in our
class and school community?
We can apply a “host” leadership philosophy to SJAM by creating events and
initiatives that will continue for years. As a school, we are constantly growing and
evolving and we need to recognize that SJAM has its problems. SJAM is not a perfect
school, however by adopting a “host” philosophy we can work on these problems. A
“host” philosophy does not require one person to fix all of SJAMs problems, it requires
everyone to work together as a team. We need to stop relying on one person/teacher
to be a leader and instead work to bring out the leader in everyone. Leadership at
SJAM should be organized, it should have flexibility and collaboration. As host leaders,
we can organize behind-the-scenes initiatives, for example, painting the washrooms,
starting the best buddies program, running a school assembly. These are small
behind-the-scenes activities that will make our school a better place. By running these
activities, we can bring out leadership within a lot of people and have the whole school
involved, also these activities could continue on for years and years allowing SJAM to
continue evolving.
Success Criteria
Reflections demonstrate a clear understanding of the course content and make
strong connections to lessons, articles, videos & activities.
Ideas are supported with relevant and specific examples.
Ideas are communicated effectively with proper grammar & adequate detail.
Incomplete 1- 1 1+ 2- 2 2+ 3- 3 3+ 4- 4 4+ 4++
50% 56 59 62 66 69 72 76 79 84 89 95 100%
PART B
4. Complete and submit a detailed SWOT Analysis of our school community (650
Laurelwood Drive) and submit it here!
Strengths Weaknesses
-Diverse school environment -Disrespect for the school environment
-Many course options (business, English, from students (destroying the
STEM, arts) washrooms, wrecking supplies)
-Options to complete SHSM (business, -Increased violence between students
tech, arts) lot of help from teachers -Need for academic validation (students
-Lots of extracurriculars and clubs care more about their grades than mental
-Welcoming school environment health)
-Involved teachers (well involved in -Difficulty receiving information regarding
running clubs and working with students) clubs, extracurriculars, guidance
-Big/well-equipped gym and library -Hard to change courses
-Healthy relationship between most -Lack of communication between
students teachers and students (students have
-Development of new online resources difficulty getting extra help, finding out
-Talented and well-educated teachers their grades, discussing grades with
teachers)
-Difficulty getting help with work that
does not directly involve SJAM (
international universities, transferring
schools, exchange programs)
-Students do not like coming to school
anymore (school has no more
socialization and fun, students feel like
they are only working nonstop)
Opportunities Threats
-Open up the cafeteria and provide -Overpopulation
healthy, cheap options -Covid-19 (pandemic, lockdown, online
-Become more involved in our learning)
community (cards for seniors, food drives, -Mental Health (students are feeling
etc.) overworked and under a lot of pressure,
-Run more spirit events (bring up morale their mental health is coming to a
within the school, make the students breaking point)
closer with one another, make students -Losing privileges from the neighboring
excited to come to school) plaza (violence and disrespect had led to
-More student voices (more chances for anger from our plaza)
students to share their thoughts and -Lack of funds for extra events and
opinions) initiatives
-Mental health/days (days when students -Reduced students engagement (less
can take a break and recoup, catch up on involvement with extracurriculars, clubs,
work) and teams)
-Lot’s of traffic coming into school
Success Criteria
5-8 points are included for each of the four categories and clearly explained.
(can be point form)
Ideas are supported with relevant and specific examples.
SWOT is professional, organized & detailed.
Incomplete 1- 1 1+ 2- 2 2+ 3- 3 3+ 4- 4 4+ 4++
50% 56 59 62 66 69 72 76 79 84 89 95 100%
PART C
5. Explain 5 operational strategies/ recommendations our school could implement
to help our future growth and achieve our preferred culture?
1. Painting the washrooms (I think painting the washrooms fun/bright colors and
adding murals and decorations would help morale a lot. I think by doing this we can
make the washrooms feel like a much more calming, happy, safe environment. I think if
people are stressed, struggling with school, or just having a rough mental health day it
would be nice to be able to go into a washroom that is happy instead of gloomy.)
2. Best Buddies program (I participated in the best buddies program at my elementary
school and I think it is a great way to get students involved in a well worthy activity. The
best buddies program is where students go down for 30 mins to an hour once a week
to play games and get involved in activities with the special education program. I think
this is a great initiative that will get more community involvement within our school.)
3. Highlander Holler (I think we need to bring back the highlander holler. A huge
problem within our school is lack of communication, it is fairly difficult to find out about
events, clubs, teams, and activities. I think having some sort of weekly or daily
announcements either on the t.v., over the p.a., or on Instagram could help students
get more involved and find out about fun things they want to be a part of.)
4. End of the year event. (I think having some sort of end-of-the-year event such as a
barbeque, drive-in movie, assembly, games day, carnival could boost student morale
and make students more excited to come to school, especially as we are reaching the
end of the year. Most students at our school have never experienced an in-person end
of the year, therefore having some sort of big event could help a lot with mental health
and could be something fun and exciting that the grass will remember when they move
on from SJAM)
5. Grad Breakfast (I believe that a grad breakfast would be a great opportunity for the
graduating students at SJAM to regroup and be able to hang out together and have a
memorable event before they leave SJAM. The graduating students have shown great
interest in having a grad breakfast, therefore I believe it would be very popular. It is
also a way to get everyone involved and boost morale amongst students.)
Success Criteria
Operational strategies demonstrate a clear understanding of the course content
and make strong connections to lessons, articles, videos & activities.
Ideas are supported with relevant and specific examples.
Ideas are communicated effectively with adequate detail.
Incomplete 1- 1 1+ 2- 2 2+ 3- 3 3+ 4- 4 4+ 4++
50% 56 59 62 66 69 72 76 79 84 89 95 100%
Overall (average from part A, B & C)
Incomplete 1- 1 1+ 2- 2 2+ 3- 3 3+ 4- 4 4+ 4++
50% 56 59 62 66 69 72 76 79 84 89 95 100%
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