Leadership in Schools

Managerial Work

Mintzberg Study (1982)

Consuming and complex work setting requiring long hours, and is highly unpredictable Work is done in offices Work is fragmented Work is done verbally; most of the business of the organization remains unrecorded and is stored in the administrator memory Manage by talking to others Work covers a wide range of tasks; it fills in the blank what others in the school do not want to do Managers are overloaded with exclusive knowledge about the school organization and are overburdened by it.

Leadership

What is Leadership, what makes a certain behavior a leadership behavior? What is the role that a leader should play? Why do we study Leadership and Leadership behavior? What are the dimensions/characteristics of Leadership? What are the factors that impact Leadership?

AUTHORITY

Leadership Behavior in a Bureaucracy

Power & Control

Make all decisions Depend on exercising authority over people to get compliance Coerce when necessary Keep own ideas and feelings private; withhold information Feel rewarded by own achievement only Evaluate others and sanction them

Leadership is like beauty it is hard to define, but you know it when you see it. (Bennis, 1989) The key to understanding Leadership, lies in understanding your own concept of the human nature of followers and how leaders relate to them. (Owens,1998)

What is Leadership?

Definition:

There are more than 350 definitions (Bennis & Nanus, 1985) Leadership is an influence relationship among Leaders and followers who intend real changes that reflect their mutual interest. (Rost, 1991)

Four components:

Influence and Power Mutual interest Interactive relationship Change is central to the role

Elements of Leadership

Occurs in a group, and is based in interaction and building relationships

Involves intentional attempts at influencing others

Is based on the use of various kinds of power

Leading power vs command/ oppressive power Different types of power: position, coercive/reward, expert, referent, legitimate. Power as voluntarily granted by followers because

When they see the leader as representing their values and defending them When they believe the leader can be their advocate and can protect their right and safeguard/support their actions as they attempt to achieve their goals

Power and Leadership

Power is the capacity to influence others There are Different sources of Power:

Reward, coercive, expert, referent, legitimate

The strength depends on the range and diversity of the persons power sources.

The exercise of power is a reciprocal relationship between the power holder and those who are expected to follow. Ranges from:

Coercion and oppression Voluntarily granted Power can be voluntarily granted by followers because
When they see the leader as representing their values and defending them When they believe the leader can be their advocate and can protect their right and safeguard/support their actions as they attempt to achieve their goals

What are Leaders Trying to do?

Motivate people around them to unite with others on sharing a vision on where they need to go Arouse their commitment to the effort to bring the vision of a better future into being. Organize the working environment so that:

The envisioned goals become central values in the organization The assets that everyone bring is invested toward achieving the vision

Facilitate the work through providing resources and continuous support to those involved in achieving the goals

What Shapes Leadership Behavior?

A set of assumptions on:

The Organizational model they adopt for our organization [political, professional, bureaucratic, learning organization] Human nature:

Can adult people learn?, do they care about it? What motivates them? What are their work ethics and their capacity for commitment? What work conditions they prefer to work under? How they can be motivated to achieve goals What is their role/contribution toward setting the goals What is their level and capacity for autonomy

Nature of followers

Where does critical knowledge resides in the organization

Change in leadership theory

Traditional Bureaucratic View
Downward exercise of power and authority (No personal growth or development) e.g. Lone Ranger

Transforming Leadership
Respect and concern for the followers. Ability to see them as powerful sources of knowledge, creativity and energy

Progression of Leadership
Moral Leadersh Transformin ip g leadership Transactional leadership

Exercis e of power

Psychological Theories of Leadership

Trait Theory

Focused on the personal traits and attributes of effective leaders

Cognitive abilities Honesty, integrity, and responsibility High level of energy and strong desire to lead Self-Confidence Task relevant Knowledge Ability to envision, energize and enable others

Helped inform recruitment strategies Inwardly focus, give a partial view of Leadership

Behavioral and Functional Theories

Focused on behavioral styles and patterns that individuals can develop through training Viewed leadership and management as synonymous terms Michigan Studies. Two leader orientations:

Initiating structure; focus on goals and tasks Consideration for others; focus on needs, and satisfaction Effective leadership is being high on both dimensions Focus on the effect of leadership on followers behavior Postulates that peoples behavior can be placed on an immaturity-maturity continuum Attributed workers immature behavior for the existing structures that inhibits their development toward maturity

Maturity Immaturity Theory (Argyris)

Contingency Theories

Advocate flexibility in leadership styles and behaviors Require good understanding of the situation and context leaders are operating under Fiedlers Contingency Theory

Effectiveness depends on the degree of fit between Leadership style and the organizational conditions [outside environment not included] Based on three situational variables: task structure, leadermember relations, position power of leader Effective leaders can range from task-oriented to consideration oriented based on those variables Style is static ranges between authoritarian [under very favorable and very unfavorable conditions] and democraticconsiderate [under moderately favorable conditions] Under stress leaders rely on previous experiences and avoid cognitively guided diagnostic approaches

Second-Generation Contingency Theories

Path Goal Theories Function of the leader lies in determining the particular organizational path that lead to goal valued by the subordinates [goal achievement with motivation] Leadership style varies as situations within an organization change Four differing types of Leadership:

Directive, Supportive, achievement-oriented, and participative Leadership Locus of control, degree of authoritarianism, ability, maturity. Task, formal authority, and primary work group.

Subordinate characteristics contingencies:

Environmental factors contingencies:

Attribution Theory

Focus on the process leaders and subordinates use to create particular reality in which leadership occurs. Pointed at the importance of followers perceptions and expectations Linked these perceptions to the way leaders behave Postulated that there is more power attributed to leaders than they actually have

Exchange Theory

Leadership as a mutual exchange between leader and followers. Leaders provide followers with psychic and material rewards in exchange for their support and loyalty Leaders give the group a sense of accomplishment and direction and the followers provide the leader with a sense of power and control

Political Theories of Leadership

Selznik Theory:

Leaders are concerned with critical [vs routine] decisions; Critical decisions involve the definition of purpose Leadership involves interactions that occurs in a social context Leadership is not just holding an office or making decisions Leaders are experts in the promotion and protection of values

Burns Theory:

Leadership is viewed as a special kind of power, and power as the utilization of resources in order to achieve valued goals Leadership over human beings is exercised when persons with certain motives and purposes mobilize, in competition or conflict with others, institutional, political, psychological and other resources so as to arouse, engage, and satisfy the motives of others.

Transforming leadership
It does not merely obtain the compliance of followers, it evokes their personal commitment as they embrace the goals to achieved as their very own, seeing them as an opportunity for a willing investment of their effort.(Owens, R.G. 1998) Never ending process of growth & development Process of building human capital in the organization

What are Values?

Values are a set of ethics & beliefs that all employees hold in common & put in practice in order to achieve the schools goals. Values shape the schools vision. Values in a school answer the question,

How qualitatively and behaviorally do we want to

achieve our strategic goals?

Where we are & where we are going?

Leadership requires vision. Visionary leadership is dynamic and involves a three stage process:
o

Visionary Leadership

o
o

An image of the desired future for the organization (vision) is Communicated (shared) which serves to Empower team members so that they can enact the vision Is a bottom-up organization.

Shared leadership
Communicate and collaborate with colleagues to achieve organizational goals while still meeting the needs of individuals:
o

State and share the schools mission and its strategy with the school directors and teachers in operational terms Make the strategy everyones job by collaborating with teachers in developing and aligning their own personal objectives with the schools strategy (collaborative way of working together) Provide continuous evaluation and feedback on the implementation of the schools strategy and on teachers commitment

Empowerment
Ability to lead is widely distributed throughout the organization. It is then important for leader to empower others to participate fully in the unending processes of creating and refining a vision of the mission of the school:
o

Teachers contribute their knowledge and ideas to the development of the school vision in an ongoing dialogue (active participants) Greater ownership thus greater sense of personal commitment to the values (inner motivation) Increase awareness of schools mission and their own daily mundane work to achieve that mission

None of us is as good as all of us

Distributed Leadership

Leadership used in organizations that purposefully empower teams and individuals to make important decisions.

How many leaders he/she leaves behind who can go even further? (Fullan)
Best implemented by using the concept of a professional learning community (PLC) & through parental involvement.

Professional learning community

Members together develop or revise the mission, values, and values of the school that results in a collective commitment to its principles and future direction. 3 Cs to transform school into PLC:

Communication Collaboration Culture

Sustainable Leadership
Preserves and develops deep learning for all that spreads and lasts, in ways that do not harm and indeed create positive benefit for others around us, now and in the future. (Hargreaves & Fink)

Distributed Leadership

Todays Effective Leadership

Sustainable Leadership

Leadership is.

Engaging others toward building democratic communities Mobilizing others to tackle and solve tough problems Teaching Bringing diverse people to work toward a moral common cause that all believes in Engaging people in the achievement of mutually agreed on goals that leads to significant change Developing followers into leaders Setting visions, beliefs, and values and helping the organization become the standards it declared for itself.

 Command Leadership has its place. Heavy doses may be necessary in schools where teachers are incompetent, indifferent, or just disabled by the circumstances they face when practiced as the dominant strategy, rather than supporting one, it can breed dependency in teachers and cast them in roles of subordinates.

(Sergiovanni, 2007, p. 49)