Institutional complexity and multiple accountability tensions: A conceptual framework for analyzing school leaders’ interpretation of competing demands

Abstract

While many studies on external accountability forms have illustrated the impact on the prevailing conceptions and values about the nature of school organizations, still little is known about the active role of school leaders as sense-makers who deal with conflicting accountability demands. We argue that while multiple external accountability forms driven by policies often manifest in apparently conflicting ways in school organizations, recent findings suggest that some school leaders have come to understand and adapt strategically and reconcile these logics in practice over time. In this article, we seek to highlight the institutional complexity that school leaders face when attempting to make sense of, interpret reconcile and/or counterbalance competing accountability demands from multiple and incompatible logics while considering their schools’ needs and conditions. We develop a conceptual framework that unpacks the intersection of the institutional complexity triggered by multiple institutional logics and school leaders’ sense-making about reform. This framework could illuminate how and why the multiple logics in the institutional environment shape and are being shaped by school leaders’ sense-making in the complex policy implementation processes that lead to different policy outcomes.