This paper examines the ways in which a small number of school principals in England and Wales are making changes in their management structures and processes to cope with an increasingly turbulent environment. Using evidence on a comparative basis from organizations outside education, this paper looks at the way in which a number of principals are adopting radically new approaches to leadership and to organizational design. Evidence is presented from detailed case studies undertaken in six secondary schools that are known to have made significant changes in their management structures and systems. The first section concerns the changing leadership context. The second section, on the "new organizations" outside education, details the key characteristics of leadership, empowerment and teams, customer orientation and quality, integrity, and response to change--topics explored in the context of secondary schools. Six schools are used to illustrate the abandonment of heroic leadership, an emerging trend of empowerment and teams, a concern with customers and quality, strong instructional leadership, fair and caring leaders, and empowerment for change. (Contains 28 references.) (RR)