Fabio Bento
NORENSE funding: 100.000 NOK in 2014 

Background and motivation for the project The objective of this study is to contribute to the debate about organizational change in Waldorf schools by analysing narratives of decision-making process told by formal leaders and teachers in one Norwegian school. Therefore, the present study departs from an organizational perspective to investigate perceptions of decision-making processes in Waldorf schools in Norway. Recent waves of educational policy reform in Western countries have aimed at altering school governance by increasingly promoting a shift from a traditional character based on principles of professional authority and consensual decision-making towards more a hierarchical configuration incorporating elements usually associated to managerial/bureaucratic structures. In this context, Norwegian Waldorf schools have faced the challenge to address not only complex external demands, but also internal perceptions of limitations of a once established decision-making model usually associated with flat structures and consensual decision-making.

Research questions
How do narratives of decision-making processes in Waldorf schools illustrate process of organizational change?

Sources, methods and theoretical perspectives I articulate complexity in way that it provides a conceptual framework to investigate and discuss decision-making processes in organizations. By analysing organizations as complex systems, it means that we look at them as networks of interactions among interdependent agents who are connected to a cooperative dynamic by a shared goal, perspective or necessity. A presentation of a frame of reference offered by complexity that embeds a choice of research methods that takes into account contextuality, temporality and human agency. The study followed a narrative approach by gathering and analysing stories of decision-making processes presented by six staff members in one Waldorf school in Norway.

Results and conclusions
 The findings here present a multi-layered social reality related to decision-making composed by a mosaic of narratives illustrating mechanisms of interaction presented in relation to an overall structure. The narratives illustrate a complex relation between perceptions of rationality, conflicts between different interest groups and individuals, and cultural appropriateness related to decision-making. The analysis of such multi-layered reality questions simplistic notions equating, on one hand flat decisional structures with democracy and participation, and on other hand, those equating top-down approaches with rationality and control. Such findings raises questions regarding the limitations of regarding organizations such as schools as living organisms.

Publication
Bento, Fabio. (2015). Complexity and change in Waldorf schools: A narrative study into perceptions of decision-making processes. Research on Steiner Education (RoSE), 6(2), 78-94. Link to pdf.