“Getting on the Balcony to See the Patterns on the Dance Floor Below”: Considering Organizational Culture in a University–School–Community Collaboration

Organizational issues are of particular importance in the planning of university–school–community partnerships because in their efforts to pool resources for the attainment of mutually agreed-on ends, it is evident that partnership participants commonly operate in diverse living, schooling, and working environments. This qualitative study sought to learn how differences in organizational cultures affect a university–school–community partnership as it seeks to achieve mutually agreed-on goals. Guided by Schein's (1990b) theoretical framework, the findings indicate that the partnership was significantly affected by the diversity of its partners’ cultural artifacts, values, and basic underlying assumptions and that leadership plays a vital role in negotiating these differences.