How school leaders create an organisational culture that ensures improved performance for Māori.

Improving Māori achievement is one of the most important aims of the New Zealand educational system. The benefits of raising the achievement of Māori students have a wide range of positive outcomes for the whole country. In the last ten years many schools have been engaged in initiatives designed to improve the success of Māori learners; but does this work continue when the support and funding is no longer there? This research is designed to identify factors that can sustain these initiatives. Organisational culture creates the conditions in schools so they can continually develop and evolve. But in 21st century society this can happen in complex ways, so schools and their leaders need to understand how to manage that complexity. Leadership is a crucial part of this process, but it is not traditional styles of leadership that are required but new types such as adaptive and authentic leadership. These styles of leadership rely on building relational trust through clear communication and actions which engage and empower others. The recommendations form a framework for school leaders to create a successful organisational culture which could be applied to improving the performance of Māori, but it could also be applied to other school change initiatives