Ben van der Hilst

347 To investigate the effects of the TOS (propositions 4 to 9), an intervention study was carried out at ten schools that just started with the TOS. In this (invasive) intervention study, school leaders were trained to implement the TOS and the effects of implementation of TOS in their schools were investigated afterwards. Data on the effects were obtained from focus groups with teachers and school leaders. A chart was used to score these effects. Case studies were carried out in two schools that introduced the TOS a long time ago. The experiences from the consultancy practice are reported as the fifth par- tial study of the empirical research. It concerns forty consultancy projects relating to the organizational structure of schools, in which the TOS was introduced or conside- red as an alternative. The studies carried out in this research are participative in nature: they also aim to contribute to the better functioning of the participating schools. The schools’ research objectives and yields are included in the report. Research with regards to the theory In order to enrich the findings on the propositions in the research and to place this study in the scientific discourse on school leadership, a number of theo- retical approaches were studied. An important selection criterion for inclusion of an approach is the emphasis on a relationship between organizational structure and the behavior of agents within the organization. As there is hardly any literature that explici- tly addresses this relationship in school settings, four perspectives from general orga- nizational literature have been chosen in addition to two perspectives from the educa- tional literature where this relationship is dealt with indirectly. The six perspectives are: • The teacher as a professional; professionalization of teachers; the professional learning group • Distributed leadership • Modern sociotechnical system theory • The learning organization • Leading self-organization • The school as a social complex adaptive system Empirical Findings All schools studied without TOS exhibit a large number of loose and weak connections in their organizational structure (proposition P1). These weak connections can be related to cumbersome change processes in the school. All the identified potentially weak connections were observed in these schools. Summary Teamgericht organiseren