Turnaround Insights from the Organizational Sciences: A Review of the Empirical Evidence and the Development of a Staged Model of Recovery with Potential Implications for the PK–12 Education Sector

Abstract

In this article, we review research from the organizational sciences to develop lessons for educators and policy makers. The approach is an integrative review of the literature. We employ a comprehensive process to unpack and make sense of the turnaround literature from the organizational sciences. We rely on strategies appropriate for document analysis, and borrow analytic strategies (e.g., memoing, coding) employed with interview data. We capture insights from the five major research pathways for studying organizational turnaround. We blend research findings into seven dimensions within the two-stage model of retrenchment and recovery. We then outline more explicitly four macro-level conclusions for educators and policymakers. We posit that the literature on turning around failing organizations in sectors outside of education provides blueprints for recovery activity in failing schools. The implications for turnaround leadership are particularly strong. This is the first systematic effort to mine research in the corporate, nonprofit, and public sectors to develop a staged framework for shaping efforts to turn around failing schools.