School LeadersThe heads in the study had deliberately chosen a form of leadership to move the school forward, empowering others to lead and distributed leadership activity throughout the school. According to Leithwood this leadership covers similar traits of transformational leadership. James McGregor Burns's "transformational leader" is firmly identified with the transforming of organizations via the communication of clear vision to people who are empowered to deliver that vision. As Burns acknowledges, such leaders are rare but they do change organizations in major ways. The head teachers in the study had adopted Yukl's guidelines for becoming a transformational leader such as: *Developing a sense of vision of what the organization could accomplish or become that is both clear and highly appealing to the followers. According to Harris the heads in the study communicated their personal vision and belief systems by direction, words and deeds, which helped them to communicate a sense of direction for the school. *Express confidence in followers' capacity to carry out the strategy for accomplishing the vision. The head teachers in the study communicated their vision through relationships with staff and students and they built those around core values. However, it could be argued that head teachers' leadership style was more of a democratic than transformational nature. The findings from the research suggest that leadership of schools in difficulty is defined by individual values such as equity, empowerment and moral purpose. This reflects a form of leadership that is democratic and mainly concerned with giving others the responsibility to lead. According to Mullins research studies tend to indicate that democratic styles of leadership are more likely to produce effective group performance. During the inspection phase, though, supportive leadership style was used in order to help staff through the process of change towards improvement. According to House that style of leadership involves a friendly and approachable manner and displaying concern for the needs and welfare of subordinates. Through achievement - oriented leadership the head teachers in the study encouraged subordinates to take risks and rewarded them for innovative thinking. The various leadership styles of head teachers we have seen so far are supported by the path-goal theory, which suggests that the same person can practice the different types of behavior at different times in varying situations. By using any of those styles the manager tries to influence subordinates' perceptions and motivation and make easier achieving their goals. However, this theory can be criticized because not in all schools or organizations the transition from one leadership style to another can be easily practiced. According to Yukl the weakness is in the use of expectancy theory as the main basis for explaining leadership. It provides an unrealistic description of human behavior. The theory treats each type of leadership style separately "without addressing likely interactions among the behaviors or interactions with more than one type of situational variable". The research findings in this report highlight the intensity and complexity of the leadership role of schools in difficulty. The head teachers shared high expectations and a determination to achieve the highest possible standards. The research found that effective leaders in SFCC adopted different leadership styles in different circumstances; they were people-centered, invested in various forms of teacher leadership as well as promoted collaboration amongst colleagues, teamwork and participation in decision-making. It could be argued, though, that not all head teachers can and will be willing to adopt these measures and different styles of leadership, because to do this they have to change their core beliefs, moral values and attitudes, which is difficult in practice and sometimes even impossible. Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com
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