Understanding of assignment and responsibility through learning process within organizational change/development

Understanding of assignment and responsibility through learning process within organizational change/development Anette Oxenswärdh, Phd Uppsala University /Campus Gotland anette.oxenswardh@angstrom.uu.se Cramérgatan 3, 621 67 Visby, Sweden Abstract The starting point of this study is the changed governance of schools in Sweden. Decentralization has not only increased the freedom of schools but also responsibility at the different levels of the school system. This in turn has given greater scope for interpreting the assignment. In recent years, however, a certain return to regulation has been evident. Methodology/Approach Theoretically the concept of responsibility is elucidated as a term in philosophy, organization theory, and psychology-education. Responsibility in school can be described as a relationship between the commissioner’s exaction of responsibility and the contrac- tor’s assumption of responsibility. This can cause uncertainty in matters of responsibility. Active school measures may be viewed as a way to clarify responsibility issues. Two models of school development have been selected in order to study how they affect the school actors’ understanding of assignment and responsibility. Two case studies examine a number of conceptual dimensions that illustrate different aspects of the assumption of responsibility. Findings The results show that these two development models and the active measures to which they give rise shape in various ways the actors’ understanding of assignment and responsibility. These can be considered to place the emphasis on different parts of the control system. The Scope for Action Model emphasizes the role of the local school with the aid of a bottom-up strategy as regards the school’s assumption of responsibility. The Effective Schools Model emphasizes the political level in a more top-down strategy. The main results show that the school development models contributed to increased cooperation between professionals, partly by