Mindset Over Method: Exploring the Compatibility of Dialogic OD and Culture-based Leadership

Abstract

Significant education reform has remained elusive for the better part of the past 50 years in the United States. While this resistance to change has been explored from various perspectives, there is little research exploring educational change leadership through the lens of planned change and organization development. This paper aims to explore education change leadership through the lens of organization development and its potential for supporting culture-based approaches to school leadership. Two comparative analyses are offered, one comparing Quantz et al.’s (2017) theory of Culture-based leadership to the construct of Dialogic Organization Development (OD) and a similar analysis comparing Culture-based Leadership to a popular Dialogic OD model, Appreciative Inquiry (AI). The analyses are made along four points of comparison: Ontology, Theory of Change, Focus of Change, and Change Agency. Findings indicate a moderate-to-strong congruence between Culture-based Leadership and Dialogic OD, but only low-to-moderate congruence when comparing Culture-based Leadership to AI. A discussion of the implications of these findings and future areas of study is offered.