Headmaster leadership in public schools: complexity and change

Why does not the teacher staff act as they are told to according to the school management documents? Why are not the latest curriculum and its contents within public schools carried through? Why do not the rational forms of implementation and management, recommended by management literature, work? (Alvesson & Sveningson 2003); Bartunek 2006; Brunsson 2007; Morrison 2002; Pye 2006; Weick & Sutcliffe 2001; Weisly). Furthermore they are used for managing Swedish public School. Managing Swedish public organizations, as for example public schools, has been discussed and there are controversies as to why actions as management models, laws and other regulations do not give the intended results as expected (Scherp and Scherp 2007). The article, with its empirical material and theoretical issue, is meant to give a comprehension and explanation of why logic and contents of management sometimes fail to correspond to logic and contents in practice. To answer questions about implementation and management this article sets out from what actually happens within organizations, and not what is expected to happen. You cannot explain a rule by another one; a rule needs to be explained by its practice.