Ben van der Hilst

348 The weak connections between teachers are linked to the weak definition of teams in terms of responsibilities and mandate (Proposition P2). The cooperation in the teams lacks commitment. Responsibilities and mandates are either not defined or defined unclearly even in schools where there are so-called ‘self-managing teams’. The number of members in a team depends upon the number of students in the re- levant department and most teams have 15 to 25 members in secondary, higher and higher vocational education. In the 25 MBO schools that participate in a national in- novation project, the implementation process of the external innovation impulse has proven to be difficult. In all schools, the analysis of the organization chart reveals am- biguities with regards to the project structure as well as the organizational structure of the organization itself. The participating project leaders of the schools relate these ambiguities to disruptions in the implementation process. The weakly defined educa- tional program teams form a major obstacle to proper implementation. The unclear or absent connections between different management layers and teams also hamper the implementation process (proposition 3). When researching the effects of the introduction of TOS in ten schools (beta testing), it appears that the manifestation of professional behavior type 2 increased (proposition P4). The rapid increase in the manifestation of professional behavior type 2 indicates that it is not only a matter of learning new behavior, but predominantly concerns inspiring behavior that is already latently present. Although there have not been any major innovations taking place during the research period, an increase in the ease of innovation is reported at all schools (proposition P5). In particular, refe- rence is made to initiatives taken by the education teams with regards to changes in the educational organization. An increase in job satisfaction has been reported as well, although in most schools job satisfaction was supposedly fairly high before the TOS was introduced (proposition P6). The number of spontaneous professional en- counters increased after the introduction of the TOS: teachers consult each other more easily; both within and outside the teams (proposition P7). In the case study of a school that has been working for some time with an organization model comparable to the TOS, the above effects have also been found. The effects appear to be less clear in a case study at a school that introduced the TOS a long time ago, but where a number of important characteristics have shifted towards the traditional structure. These practical studies show that the school leader plays a crucial role in implementing and maintaining the TOS (proposition P8). Both designing and implemen- ting the TOS require the school leader to have specialized knowledge and skills. One finding is that this combination of skill set is present in a limited number of cases, which suggests that intensive training of the school leader is required. Also, it appears difficult for school leaders to adapt to the new conduct required by the TOS. By introducing the TOS, connections in the organizational structure are strengthened. The TOS creates a strong connection between the operating system and the production system, whe-