School sports organizations as learning organizations: Good practice examples in two management issues

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Mihaila, Constanta-Valentina^{a; b} | Paraschiva, Gabriela Alina^{c; d; *} | Grigore, Vasilica^a | Mihaila, Laurentiu Mihai^e

Affiliations: [a] Faculty of Physical Education and Sport, National University of Physical Education and Sports, Bucharest, Romania | [b] Romanian Quality Assurance Agency in the Pre-University Education, Romania | [c] Faculty of Management in Production and Transportation, Politehnica University Timisoara, Timisoara, Romania | [d] Accreditation Department, Romanian Quality Assurance Agency in the Pre-University Education, Romania | [e] Valahia University, Targoviste, Romania

Correspondence: [*] Corresponding author: Gabriela Alina Paraschiva, PhD. Student, Politehnica University Timisoara, Faculty of Management in Production and Transportation, 14 Remus str., 300191 Timisoara, Romania. E-mail: [email protected].

Abstract: BACKGROUND:Finding solutions to increase the efficiency of school organizations is needed in Romanian national education system. In this context, a previous general theoretical approach on school as learning organization (SLO) has been developed based on the literature review. Most, the article debates the case of the sport schools (whether they are school sports clubs or schools with integrated sports program) in the context of the pre-university education system. Due to the proximity to performances in competitions and the pressures they exert, this type of schools should be much more willing to collaborate and keen to learn and adapt. Therefore, it is more likely to develop elements specific to the concept of learning organization. OBJECTIVE:The research aims to establish to what extent certain key-characteristics specific to the integrated model of school as learning organization are identifiable at the level of the sport schools’ organization. METHODS:The research is based on data collected in a diachronic way, from two consecutive school years and from two samples with a total of 471 urban and rural schools, out of which 34 are school sports organizations. The data were collected from 471 external quality audit reports of the schools. Statistical checks using z parameter tests (two-tail) were developed to determine whether the results of each sample are reliable and whether the two samples could be concatenated. RESULTS:At the samples’ level, the minimum levels of incidence of several key-characteristics of SLO’s can be identified, these varying between 55.88% and 85.29% for school sports organizations and between 50.74% and 71.76% for school organizations without a sports program. These results were only for three action-oriented dimensions of the proposed SLO integrated model: “creating and supporting continuous learning opportunities for all staff”, “embedding systems for collecting and exchanging knowledge and learning” and “learning with and from the external environment and larger learning system”. CONCLUSIONS:The research results are related to two management practices regarding “cooperation and collaboration inside and outside school boundaries” and “support that is provided to continuous learning opportunities for all staff”. Thus, the results will be used to provide evidence to support the implementation of the SLO model at Romanian national level and, in the long run, to help increase the schools’ efficiency.

Keywords: School as leaning organization, school sports organizations, management, efficiency of school organizations

DOI: 10.3233/HSM-201071

Journal: Human Systems Management, vol. 40, no. 4, pp. 593-604, 2021