The Type of Culture at a High Performance Schools and Low Performance School in the State of Kedah

This research aims to identify the type of culture at a High Performance School (HPS) and Low Performance School (LPS) in the state of Kedah. The research instrument used to measure the type of organizational culture was adapted from Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (Cameron & Quinn, 2006) based on Competing Values Framework Quinn and Rohrbaugh (1983) Model. Two HPSs and two LPSs representing 129 teachers were chosen as research samples. Research findings showed that the current dominant culture in both HPS and LPS is Hierarchy (M=36.76, M=30.63 & SD = 8.23, SD=7.83) consecutively. Both types of schools practice Market culture and the average scores for both types of schools are the same whereby HPS (M=25.7, SD=8.56) and LPS (M=25.94, SD=8.32). However, HPS practices less Clan culture (M=21.15, SD=8.74) compared to LPS (M=24.18, SD=6.97). The Clan culture is more prominent in LPS compared to HPS. Both types of schools practice Adhocracy less which are (M=17.75, SD=6.94) in HPS and (M=19.81, SD=6.78) in LPS respectively. The findings showed that teachers in both types of schools would like to have the Clan culture practiced in their schools with the same average scores, M=34.89, SD=8.22. HPS prefers the Market culture (M=26.01, SD=6.32) compared to LPS Market culture (M=23.01, SD=.22). However they accepted Adhocracy less in HPS (M=20.02, SD=8.31) and LPS (M=21.58, SD=7.89). Nevertheless, Hierarchy culture in HPS (M=19.32, SD=6.45) and in LPS (M=21.05, SD=6.68) are widely practiced. From the comparisons made, it can be concluded that both types of schools widely practice the Hierarchy and Market cultures in schools. The recommendations for further studies were also suggested.


Introduction
School performance is related closely to organizational culture practiced in a school.School culture plays a role in driving the school administration towards achieving the goal set by the school (Seshore, 2009).Organizational culture of a school also influences the working culture of the school community and the academic achievements of students.Organizational culture can be defined as a value system whereby members of an organization follow the same organizational culture even though they are from different backgrounds and at different levels in the organization (Robbins & Sanghi, 2007).Majority of the community in HPS uphold and practice strong beliefs and values of the organization.
The Malaysian system of Education is faced with multitude of issues which affect the effort to improve the quality of education.The Kedah Education State Department (2010) has identified several main issues which influence the state education achievement, among others, are administration and management issues of educational organizations.As a unit responsible in organizing and managing an organization, the school administration should be vigilant and always seek for new strategies to improve performance and service qualities (Marzono, Water, & McNulty, 2005).Thus, the school administration must have the tenacity and resilience to overcome all kinds of pressure and challenges.Therefore, failure of the administration to make decisions and take appropriate actions will affect the credibility of the whole education system because the society always have high expectations of schools.
School leadership is also responsible for students' achievements.There are still principals and head teachers who fail in practicing instructional leadership which lead to the quality of the education achievement being compromised at the state level.Furthermore, school leadership plays a very important role in the formation and maintaining positive organizational culture in schools.Practising positive school culture will contribute to healthy environment and hence improve school performance.Therefore, this research is geared towards studying organizational culture practices in HPS which is a model school and become a benchmark of high standard in order to compete at an international level.

Theoretical Framework
Research in organizational cultural practices in primary level HPS and LPS in Kedah is developed based on Competing Value Framework Model (CVF) developed by Quinn and Rohrbaugh (1983).The conceptual framework was developed based on research objectives and questions.The instrument used in this research is Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI) which was also developed by Cameron andQuinn (1999, 2006).There are four types of culture highlighted in this model which are Clan, Adhocracy, Market and Hierarchy.This research focused on 6 cultural dimensions, namely main features, organizational leadership, employee management, organizational bonding, strategic emphasis and success criteria.
The CVF model is an organization model that is very influential and is widely used in the field of organizational research (Tianyuan, 2009).Compared to other organization models, CVF and the instrument used in this model which is the OCAI has high validity and reliability values.There are four types of organizational cultures in this model which are the Clan, Adhocracy, Market and Hierarchy (Cameron & Quinn, 2006) cultures.There is a vast difference between these four organizational cultures.The left side of this framework graph shows that the organization is more internally focussed while the right side represents external focus.The top part of the graph represents flexible and free organization while the bottom part represents organization that is stable and under control.Four types of culture which are categorised in the CVF model are Clan, Adhocracy, Market and Hierarchy cultures.
The organizations that practice the Clan culture share a lot of private information and resemble a big family whereby the leaders in the organization are seen as advisers, facilitators and team builders.They are united through loyalty or tradition and the commitment of the members towards the organizations is high.The organizations also emphasize long term benefits in human resource management and organizational success is defined as sensitivity towards customers and care for other people.Adhocracy culture emphasizes output production that is innovative and implements transformation.The organization displays a dynamic and creative place.Members of the organization are ready to take risks and its leadership has high innovative visions.This organization is focused on growth and needs new resources.The organizational success is defined as success in obtaining new and unique products or services.
Market culture emphasizes on perfection in completing any tasks.Members of organizations are competitive in achieving goals.The organizations that practice this culture put much emphasis on winning.They are concerned with reputation and success in achieving goals and targets.Hierarchy culture is a formal and structured organisation where maintaining smoothness of organisations is the priority.Formal rules and policies in many ways unite the organisation.Success is defined by smooth scheduling, task implementation which is under control and low cost human resource management which emphasizes job guarantees.Based on CVF, Cameron andQuinn (1999, 2006) has developed a measurement scale that is approriate which is OCAI (Tianyuan, 2009).

Research Problems
Corporate culture and organizational achievement are closely related.The achievement of any organization is largely influenced by the culture practiced in that particular organization.Culture is a value and belief that are shared together to achieve organizational goals.If the culture can be accepted by all members and they work together to increase the performance of the organization, then the culture practiced in the organization is positive.There have been many studies conducted by researchers on the relationship between organizational culture and organizational achievements.Carroll (2008) has conducted a study on the relationships between organizational culture, human resource management and achievements of firms using the CVF model.The research findings conclude that the type of organizational culture has a significant relationship with employee achievements.Three firms were used to study the organizational achievement while two were for financial achievements.The Clan and Adhocracy culture showed a positive relationship with the achievements in the three firms, while the Market and Hierarchy culture showed a negative relationship with the achievements in the three firms.Clan and Market cultures are found to have relationships between management-workers' achievement and worker management-operational performance.Financial performance has a positive significant relationship with the Adhocracy culture and a negative significant relationship with the Hierarchy culture.There are proof that financial performance is indirectly influenced by the relationship between Clan and Market cultures with workers' performance.
On the other hand, research discussion conducted by Gomez et al. (2011) concluded that their research findings contribute to the understanding of educational process and performance at the secondary level.The research findings suppport the model developed by Heck and Harlinger (1996) regarding the effect of organizational process which includes organizational cultural effects on school performance through teachers in K-8 schools.More over, the findings also identified that the academic achievements of schools and social culture relate positively with students' performance.The research results enhanced the validity and reliability of the research model in reflecting the educational process and achievements in the types of schools mentioned above.The research outcome proved that there is indirect effect of organizational values and climates towards school achievements.There is also direct effects of teachers' behaviour with school achievements.On the whole, the research outcomes provide guidance regarding the components in the organizational culture which requires actions from schools to improve achievements.

Research Design
This is a descriptive survey which used questionaires taken from the OCAI (Cameron & Quinn, 2006).A set of questionaires was prepared based on cultural dimensions.The four types of cultures which are divided in the CVF model are Clan, Adhocracy, Market and Hierarchy.The questionnaires were distributed to respondents to two HPS and two LPS selected and was administered by the researcher.

Population and Sampling
The research design is based on simple random sampling whereby teachers from HPSs and LPSs in the Kubang Pasu and Kota Setar districts were selected as samples representing teachers' population in Kedah.There are two HPSs in Kubang Pasu District, namely HPS1 consisting of 50 teachers and 79 teachers in HPS2.To represent LPS, a total of 100 primary school teachers from two LPSs in the Kubang Pasu district were selected as research samples.Hence, the total sample of 227 is approriate to represent HPS and LPS teachers in Kedah.

Research Instruments
The research instrument used to study organizational cultural practices in HPS and LPS in Kedah were taken from OCAI (Cameron & Quinn, 1999, 2006) instrument based on CVF model which was developed for the first time by Quinn and Rohrbaugh (1983).There are four types of culture in the CVF model which are Clan, Adhocracy, Market and Hierarchy.This questionaire consisted of two parts, A and B. Part A required respondents to fill in their personal information.Part B was the section to identify the type of organizational culture based on the six dimensions of culture.The 6 questions were based on perceptions of respondents on current cultural features in their organizations which are organizational leadership, workers' management, organizational bond, strategic emphasis and success criteria.Respondents were also asked to state their expectations on cultural features in their organizations for 5 years to come.Each question has 4 options A,B,C and D. 100 points are divided among the 4 options based on the most accurate alternative answer that reflects the respondent's organization.

Results and Discussions
Based on the research inquiry the results of the findings are as follows: What is the cultural practices of HPSs in Kedah?
What is the type of current culture practiced in HPSs in Kedah?
What is the type of culture expected by teachers in HPSs in Kedah in five years to come?www.ccsenOne organizational culture is not necessarily better than the others.The proper culture for each organization depends on the organization's industry and strategy.Gregory, Harris, Armenakis, and Shook (2009) found a positive relationship between clan cultures and patient satisfaction in healthcare facilities.However, a different study (Cameron & Freeman, 1985) found that organizational effectiveness in institutions of higher education was highest in organizations that emphasized both the adhocracy and hierarchy cultures.

Conclusions
Overall, organizational culture is a main tool to start and preserve an organization (Fox, 2013).Studies on organizational culture are needed to identify the kind of cultures practiced and can help an organization to manage its culture and manage the change in culture.The instruments used can also become the tool to study the kinds of culture and the relationship between culture and other variables.Results of the studies can also provide clearer understanding on an organization's cultural profile apart from enabling various parties to increase their achievements and quality of the organization towards achieving their objectives.Studies on the cultural organization can also be used as reference for future studies.An organizational culture which is both strong and appropriate with the aspirations of the members in the organization can help preserve excellence in the organization and help in achieving aims and objectives.Apart from that, it becomes the basis for the development of education systems at various levels and helps accomplish basic and realization of government objectives of providing quality education for citizens.It is recommended that schools employ all four dimensions sparingly (i.e., market, clan, adhocracy and hierarchy) in order to enhance school performances.