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This paper seeks to describe the Swedish compulsory school system and explore a hypothesis about the relationship between structure, culture and leadership as preconditions for successful principalship.

On the basis of earlier research, argues that a principal's success depends on how he or she alters school structures and cultures so as to foster school improvement. A successful school is defined in Swedish law and policy documents as a school that shows high performance both in academic and social goals. Based on this definition, three schools were chosen for this study. All three had increased their academic results in the last four years.

Findings from the study support the hypothesis that principals contribute to the improvement of academic and social goals of their schools by the strategic work they do to change school structure and culture. Furthermore, the principals changed their schools' structures and cultures in directions that were consistent with the opinions and cultures of the school district. Being able to read and work with the culture and structure of the school district was vital for principal success.

Provides information on the important relationship between structure, culture and leadership as preconditions for successful principalship.

This paper explores the emergence and shift in critical theories and problems-of-practice over the last 50 years.

Quipu is an Incan record-keeping system used across the Andes. Using multiple strings of different colors, hundreds of different knots were used to count, record historical events. The underlying idea of Quipu was that the intersection of knots and strings is a way of making memory tangible. I use the image of Quipu as a framework to organize my analytic memories and interpretation of research on school organization across spaces, people and generations.

I explore my own research and that of others who have influenced me, linking the strings of organizational theory to the knots representing changes in the educational environment that motivate research.

The paper is, in part, not only a reflective review of the literature but also a summation of the problems-of-practice that have engaged me and other scholars over a relatively long period of time.

The establishment of new plants in greenfield sites is a strategic organisational initiative providing the opportunity to develop alternative systems of staff values and beliefs which may be more appropriate for capitalising on external product market opportunities. Explores whether an alternative organisational culture can be established at a greenfield site within a New Zealand food processing plant. This case organisation utilised the provisions of the Employment Contracts Act 1991 to establish alternative employment conditions in the greenfield site to those of its brownfield site. A comparative analysis was made utilising quantitative organisational culture data from Human Synergistic’s Organisation Culture Inventory. The data reveal the similarities and differences between the greenfield and brownfield sites and provide the basis for discussion of whether culture can be managed through the mechanism of a greenfield site. Critical elements in creating a desired culture are identified.

A large extant literature examines the association between unemployment and self-rated health. Most of these studies reveal that unemployment diminishes self-rated health. Another strand of this literature, albeit sparse, suggests that the relationship between unemployment and self-rated health is gendered. The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to examine whether unemployment is correlated with self-rated health in Ghana; and second, to explore whether and to what extent men differ from women on the basis of this relationship.

The authors used data from the Wave 6 of World Values Survey in Ghana (n=1552) and probit and instrumental variable probit regressions to empirically examine the association between unemployment and self-rated health in Ghana.

The results confirm that unemployment is negatively correlated with self-rated health among Ghanaians. Specifically, the unemployed are about 6.84–7.20 percent less likely to report good health status in a pooled sample. Further, after correcting for endogeneity, unemployed men are about 26.68 percent less likely to report good health. However, the association is not statistically significant for unemployed women.

The study contributes to the literature by providing empirical evidence from Ghana.