Abstract
Problem and purpose. Public and private sector organizations are recommending restructuring as the current mode reform to make their organizations more productive. Restructuring involves a pervasive, systemic change which requires the transformation of the organizations culture. The key to organizational change is found in the explicit and implicit norms shared among people in the organization which represent critical dynamics that can be used as powerful tools if transformational change is to occur. This study identified the behavioral norms related to risk taking, decision making, conflict, and collaboration in restructuring and traditional elementary schools in Orange County, California. Methodology. Descriptive and ex post facto research were used in this study. Principals and teachers from forty elementary schools in Orange County, California, responded on a 6-point Likert scale to a questionnaire listing forty-four norms and nine characteristics of restructuring. A 78 percent response was obtained. Frequency distributions, means and percentages, and a two-way analysis of variance were the statistical methods used to analyze the data. Findings and conclusions. The presence of productive norms is more evident in restructuring schools than in traditional schools. Restructuring schools exhibit a high degree of presence of productive norms for risk taking, decision making, and collaboration. The presence of productive conflict norms in restructuring schools is less evident than norms of risk taking, decision making, and collaboration. It was further found that principals and teachers generally see the norms in their respective schools similarly. A focus on the productive norms of risk taking, decision making, conflict, and collaboration would assist organizational leaders in transforming the culture of their organizations moving into restructuring.