Impacts of the School Social Unit on Teacher Authority During Work Redesign

Abstract

During a year-long comparative case study, the redesign of teacher work in two schools was examined. A major goal of the redesign effort was teacher empowerment—an increase in the power and authority of the best teachers. The complexities and unanticipated consequences of implementing this general policy are described and explanations grounded in the theoretical and empirical literature on work redesign and social systems are presented. In spite of the expectation that restructured teacher work would improve the appeal of the teaching career and the effectiveness of the work structure in schools, the influence of the school social unit was found to outweigh the strength of individual teachers’ efforts or the formal work structure in its impact on teachers’ assessments of the new structure and on the functions of redesigned work in schools. Implications for educational reform and for structural- and social-systems aspects of work redesign theory are discussed.