Providing the desirable model of organizational culture of education with a social exchange approach

The purpose of this study was to provide an optimal model of organizational culture of education with a social exchange approach. The culmination of organizational culture studies is the end of the two decades of the twentieth century. But at that time, due to the emergence of new technologies and rapid developments, efforts to integrate culture, maintain a competitive advantage, and prepare people to accept the changes were considered by managers of organizations. In the cultural studies of the twenty-first century, the potential role of a variety of organizational culture in the performance of individuals and organizations is considered. Therefore, the mission of organizations is to exploit the experiences, talents and intellectual potential of individuals. The place of organizational culture in the educational institution is wider due to the scope of the operation, the variety of spectrum involved and the high volume of social exchanges from other organizations, So, if we put together the functions of the culture and functions of education, we find that education and training require a serious consideration for organizational culture to carry out its mission and the existence of a rich culture based on the genuine Islamic-national values, taking into account the interests and needs of all stakeholders, is a prerequisite for the missions of education and training. A rich Islamic culture is a culture that, along with finding possible solutions to improve the performance of the organization, can excel the organization and it’s members within a harmony between its genuine and global values. The present study seeks to explore the characteristics and indicators of the optimal model of education culture and provide an organizational culture model. This research was a method of exploratory sequencing of a hybrid strategy and was conducted as a case study in Firoozabad city. The statistical population consisted of formal education teachers with more than 15 years of work experience, using parallel sampling method for quantitative and qualitative sampling. In the qualitative section, snowball sampling was performed and interviews were conducted with 9 teachers to achieve theoretical saturation. To analyze the qualitative data, using the thematic analysis, teachers' opinions about the desirable situation of education in social exchanges were extracted. In a desirable situation, six factors, power base, manager role, decision making, performance criterion, acceptance condition, and focus of the organization  were attended by teachers. With a library study of organizational culture models, the existing definitions and frameworks, and its conformance to the conceptual model derived from the thematic network, four characteristics for the desired organizational culture were developed. Which are the culture of perfectionism, interactivity, developmental, and missionary and  the researcher's model was presented in the framework of competitive values. In the quantitative section, simple random sampling was performed and 30 experts were selected. The tool used in this section was a researcher-made questionnaire based on the characteristics and indicators of the desired organizational culture of education in the qualitative section with 48 items (24 indicators) and the seven-level scale. For example, for the index of “the pattern of managers”, (the adherence of managers to the rules and regulations and the model  of their behavior for other employees) or for “the consensus opinion” index (high trust, participation in decision making, and getting school councils from a stronger decision-making base). The experts confirmed the content validity of the questionnaire. Quantitative data analysis was done using descriptive statistics, single sample t-test and Friedman test. The results of t-test showed that the culture of perfectionism with a mean of 6.44 out of 7 Likert scale had the highest mean and lowest dispersion, and mission with the mean of 6.26 was on the next. Meanwhile, the average of four types of organizational culture was higher than the assumed sociological mean (4), and four types of organizational culture were desirable for high school education. Also, Friedman's test showed that among the 24 indexes of cultures, social status indexes had the highest mean and the risk index was the lowest. Among the 10 top priorities of the experts, the element of power base with a mean of 32/17 by the emphasis on informal status (social and specialized) was confirmed. The role of the director with the most variety and with three types of roles for managers is in the top priorities of the table. The law-fullness index with an average of 14.72, the contributing and supporting with the average of 14.22 and the risk taking with the average of 13.53 were seen. Also, the risk aversion was found with a mean of 7.82, the commitment to processes with an average of 48.8 and the change with an average of 7.7 of the weakest characteristics of the desired organizational culture of education. The most variability in the bottom indices of the table are the criterion for decision-making on consensus with an average of 9.75 and the central assignment with an average of 7.68, indicating the emphasis of the experts on the mission of the organization with an average of 88.81 as the highest decision criterion above the table. The combination of top ten indicators from the perspective of experts indicates that the most desirable culture organizational from the point view of experts is a culture in which employees, with emphasis on meritocracy and social status of teachers, having directors with some degree of discipline, risk taking, staff supporting, while enjoying moral virtues and respect for their rights of all stakeholders in order to excel in pursuing their education mission. The results of this research show that, although in terms of human resources approach, the existing culture of education is a rigorous culture in which the performance of teachers and their response to society's expectations and the demand for an ever-increasing effort to achieve better results and successful students are considered important and in contrast there is little attention to their welfare. However, teachers value realities, beliefs, interactions and practices, human responses and social exchanges in their organization. This research also helps to better understand the organizational culture, especially in educational systems, and can provide further research.