Ranking and In-Depth Explanation of the Contextual Factors Underlying Organizational Failure in Non-Governmental Secondary Schools: An Explanatory Mixed-Methods Study

Abstract

This study aimed to rank the environmental-market, structural-resource, managerial-leadership, and cultural-social factors underlying organizational failure and to explain their mechanisms in non-governmental secondary schools in Tehran. This applied study employed an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design. In the quantitative phase, 107 teachers, administrative employees, deputies, and managers working in non-governmental secondary schools in Tehran during the 2022–2023 academic year were selected through convenience sampling. Data were collected using a researcher-developed 33-item questionnaire assessing contextual factors and organizational failure. Content validity was confirmed using the content validity ratio and content validity index, while internal consistency was assessed using Cronbach’s alpha. Quantitative data were analyzed through Pearson correlation and stepwise multiple linear regression in SPSS version 26. In the qualitative phase, 15 participants whose organizational failure scores were in the highest quartile were selected through purposive extreme-case sampling. Semi-structured interviews were conducted until theoretical saturation, and the data were analyzed using six-phase thematic analysis in MAXQDA version 24. All four contextual factors were positively and significantly associated with organizational failure. Structural-resource factors had the strongest correlation with organizational failure, followed by managerial-leadership, environmental-market, and cultural-social factors. The regression model showed that the four predictors collectively explained 66.9% of the variance in organizational failure. Structural-resource factors ranked first with a standardized coefficient of β = .330, managerial-leadership factors ranked second with β = .303, environmental-market factors ranked third with β = .242, and cultural-social factors ranked fourth with β = .167. The qualitative analysis identified four corresponding themes: structural fragility and resource erosion, reactive leadership and owner-centered governance, environmental pressure and educational market instability, and cultural fragmentation and declining social capital. Organizational failure in non-governmental secondary schools is a multidimensional and reinforcing process in which structural-resource fragility plays the central role and is intensified by reactive leadership, environmental instability, and cultural fragmentation. Prevention therefore requires simultaneous improvement of financial and human resource structures, participatory leadership, organizational learning, stakeholder trust, and adaptive capacity.