Abstract
The aim of the current research was to investigate the effect of adaptive organizational culture on the lean behaviors of school principals with the mediation of their coaching leadership. The research population consists of all primary school teachers in Ilam province in academic year 2020-2021, among whom a sample size of 339 teachers was selected by stratified random sampling method and based on the Cochran formula. The research method is quantitative- correlative study type, and the modeling approach is covariance-oriented structural equation. Dennison's adaptive organizational culture questionnaires (2000); the coaching leadership of Peláez Zuberbuhler et al. (2021), and the researcher-made questionnaire of lean behaviors of school principals were used to collect data. The reliability and validity of the questionnaires were checked with Cronbach's alpha techniques, content validity ratio, exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. Structural equation modeling was used for data analysis using Lisrel 10.30 software. The results showed that adaptive organizational culture has a significant positive effect on the lean behaviors of school principals at the level of 0.05; adaptation-oriented organizational culture has a significant positive indirect effect on the lean behaviors of managers at the level of 0.05 due to the coaching-oriented leadership of managers; also, adaptive organizational culture and coaching leadership of principals are able to explain 40% of the variance of lean behaviors of school principals.
Extended Abstract
Introduction
The activity of educational centers has always been associated with a percentage of wastage, which has caused poor performance, delays in the change process, a drop in the quality of education, an increase in costs, and a waste of resources (Hashemi, yari Haj Atalou, Malekiavarsin, 2021:82); therefore, the educational system requires the use of new management tools and approaches. One of these approaches is lean leadership, which, from a behavioral point of view is the behavior whose main characteristic is to help create added value to the organization (Hussein & Al-Zubaydi, 2020: 410).
The emergence and growth of lean behaviors is influenced by various factors, the most important of which are organizational culture (Grigg, Goodyer & Frater, 2020) and coach-oriented leadership style (Berg & Karlsen, 2016). Adaptive organizational culture promotes norms and behaviors used by the organization to be able to discover, translate and interpret environmental symbols and new behaviors. This type of culture provides a favorable environment for the organization to create new opportunities, understand and meet the needs of customers and adapt to environmental changes, and therefore it is believed that it can create a favorable environment for creating and strengthen lean behaviors in the organization. Another factor affecting lean behaviors is coach-oriented leadership style. Examining various researches shows that relationship-oriented leaders pay attention to the needs and motivation of subordinates and improve personal, group, and organizational needs, and provide new opportunities for the organization in order to identify effective methods of working (Fazlail & Moazzami, 2023).
As a social organization, Schools are facing unpredictable environmental complications, among which are the spread of the Covid-19 disease, and the move towards virtual and combined education. Schools need to adapt to these complexities in order to survive. The effectiveness of adaptation requires an adaptive organizational culture on one hand, and pure behaviors on the other. Therefore, the problem of the current research is to answer the question in a scientific way: Can an adaptive organizational culture with the mediation of a coaching leadership lead to lean behaviors of school principals?
Theoretical foundations
Adaptive culture is described as a range of cultural characteristics that enable an organization to be more adaptable to environmental changes by helping organizations anticipate and adapt to those changes (Sharma & et.al, 2021).
The leader's approach of using coaching is a new paradigm (Hagen & Aguilar, 2012). Coaching skills are fundamental behaviors of the leader that help organizations create a competitive advantage (Lee, Idris & Tuckey, 2019). Some researchers believe that coaching leadership refers to a type of positive leadership behavior in which the leader motivates employees through appropriate coaching techniques and provides sufficient resources and support to enhance the employee's ability to study and work (Wang, Yuan & Zhu, 2017: 1656).
Lean behaviors are behaviors whose main feature is helping to create added value for the organization. Among these behaviors, we can mention courtesy, calmness, wisdom, patience, objectivity and trust (Hussein & Al-Zubaydi, 2020:406).
Tortorella et al, (2020) studied the role of organizational culture and leadership styles in lean production. Their findings indicated a meaningful relationship between organizational culture and leadership styles with lean production. Also, in that research, coach-oriented leadership style was identified as an effective style in lean production.
Kołodziejczak (2015) studied the role of coaching in organizational culture in the study titled "Coaching Along Organizational Culture". The results showed that the use of coaching in organization management can gradually model or change the organizational culture. Also, the findings indicated that in favorable conditions, coaching may provide the possibility of changing from traditional culture to innovative one. This change is possible because coaching creates changes in people's behavior; stimulates their creativity; and has a positive effect on employee motivation.
Methodology
The research community consists of all primary school teachers in Ilam province in the academic year 2021-2022 as many as 2909 people; (1907 women and 1002 men). Cochran's formula was used to determine the sample size consisting 339 teachers (222 women and 117 men). Proportional stratified random sampling method was used. Dennison's adaptive organizational culture questionnaires (2000); the coaching leadership of Pilaz Zuborbuehler et al. (2021); and the researcher-made questionnaire of lean behaviors of school principals were used to collect data.
Findings
In order to check research hypotheses and data analysis, structural equation modeling was used using Lisrel 10.30 software. The results of the correlation matrix analysis showed that the variables of adaptive organizational culture of schools (0.65) and educational leadership of school principals (0.63) have a positive and significant relationship with the variable of lean behaviors of school principals at the level of 0.05. Adaptable organizational culture variable has a positive and significant relationship with school principals' educational leadership variable (0.72) at the 0.05 level. The results of the analysis of structural equations show that: the adaptive organizational culture variable with path coefficient of 0.41 and t value of 7.18 has a positive and significant effect on the variable of lean behavior of school principals at the level of 0.05; the variable of adaptive organizational culture of schools with path coefficient of 0.52 and t value of 19.50 has a positive and significant effect on the educational leadership variable of school principals at the level of 0.05; the educational leadership variable of school principals with path coefficient of 0.34 and t-value of 5.93 has a positive and significant effect on the lean behavior variable of school principals at the level of 0.05; and the adaptive organizational culture variable of schools has a positive and significant effect on the lean behavior variable of school principals at the level of 0.05 due to the pedagogical leadership of school principals (0.1768) and the T value of 5.66. Also, the results of the analysis of structural equations showed that: adaptive organizational culture of schools has a positive direct effect (0.41), a positive indirect effect (0.1768), and a significant positive total effect (0.5868) on the lean behaviors of school principals at the level of 0.5. Also, the variables of adaptive organizational culture of schools and educational leadership of school principals are able to explain 40% of the variance of the variable of lean behavior of school principals; the amount of explained variance of pure behavior of school principals according to its t value (10.56) is significant at the level of 0.05.
Conclusion
The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of adaptive organizational culture on the lean behaviors of school principals with the mediation of their pedagogical leadership. The results regarding the positive relationship between adaptive organizational culture and the lean behaviors of school administrators are aligned with research results of Tortorella et al, (2020), Paro & Gerolamo (2017), De Castro Freitas et al, (2017), and Bortolotti, Boscari & Danese (2015). Research studies show that lean behaviors can maximize cost reduction in any organizational culture environment (Tortorella et.al, 2020). The adaptive organizational culture of schools and the coaching leadership of principals are able to explain 40% of the variance of lean behaviors of school principals. This finding is consistent with the results of the studies of Tortorella et al, (2020), De Castro Freitas et al, (2017), Kołodziejczak (2015) and Bortolotti, Boscari & Danese (2015); while contradict with the study results of Paro & Gerolamo (2017). The existence of an adaptive (flexible) organizational culture and an inspiring leader can lead to the emergence and strengthening of lean behaviors in the organization. Coach-oriented leaders help employees reduce wastage and rework, reduce waste, and contribute to transparency in the organization through questions and answers, provide useful and constructive feedbacks, and plan for improvement, and this is what Lean is looking for. The adaptive organizational culture of schools has an indirect positive effect on managers' lean behaviors through the coaching leadership of managers. This finding is in line with the results of the study of Tortorella et al, (2020). From a theoretical point of view, there is a conceptual connection between organizational culture and coaching. If there are underlying assumptions and support for the benefits of a manager's use of a coaching style, then we would expect to see evidence of the coaching style being used (Nieminen, Biermeier-Hanson & Denison, 2013). According to the results of the research, the following suggestions are presented: encouraging the spirit of accepting the criticism and avoiding partisanship in decision-making, attention of the officials of the educational system to teachers through intelligent questions and providing feedback to them, reviving the spirit of law in the body of the organization and transparency in doing things.