摘要：Social and technological changes demand constant updating, this implies that schools must be prepared to face these changes. As a result, they need to have the capacity to innovate as part of their organizational culture. Although it is true, that not all schools are examples of innovative organizations, it is possible to identify some that have a more innovative organizational culture than others. In the generation of that capacity, the principal’s leadership plays an essential role, they are ones called to face the challenge of developing competences and skills to lead the change. Existing research confirms the importance of the school’s leadership in the development of educational centers, OECD reports already ratified this, stating how vital it is to have good principals to lead schools (2009). In this study, schools have been chosen that have certain characteristics that are considered stand out for the Chilean educational system. By applying a questionnaire, the innovative potential of the centers being studied and their organizational culture to favor this are analyzed, the latter from the point of view of the principal’s actions. The results allow confirming the innovative potential the studied centers have, the most substantial practices of the principal’s actions that favor innovation are identified, as well as the key role the principal’s leadership plays within these centers. At the same time, questions arise that limit the development of certain innovative actions, such as, the search and pressure for results originated essentially from standardized testing, like SIMCE, which is applied in Chile.
关键词：Leadership for innovation; Innovative schools; Organizational culture
