Cagayan State University

CARIG CAMPUS

College OF Human Kinetics

The Teacher and the Community, School Culture and Organizational Leadership
UNIT 6: Organizational Leadership

Einführung

“The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.” – Ralph
Nader

At the end of this unit, you will be able to:

1. Explain what organizational leadership is and describe the different organizational styles;
2. Distinguish between leadership and management;
3. Discuss how to sustain change in organization.

Expected of professional teachers who care for and embark on continuing professional
development is a promotion along the way. With this mind, this course won’t be complete
without a discussion of an effective leader and manager for which you will in the future. Bu
should you refuse offer for a managerial or leadership position in school or in the bigger
educational organization because of the love for teaching and learners, this lesson on
organizational leadership won’t be laid to waste because even as teacher you are already a
leader a manager. You are a teacher and a class or classroom manager.

A. Definition of Leadership

In organizational leadership, leaders help set strategic goals for the organization while
motivating individuals within the organization to successfully carry out assignments in order
to realize those goals. In the school setting, the school leader helps set the goals or targets
for the school and motivates teachers, parents, learners, non-teaching personnel and other
members of the community to do their task to realize the school goals.

Organizational leadership works towards what is best for individual members and what is
best for the organization as a group at the same time. Organizational leadership does not
sacrifice the individual members for the sake of the people nor sacrifice the welfare of the
group for the sake of individual members. Both individual and group are necessary.

Organizational leadership refers to attitude and work ethic that empowers an individual in
any role to lead from the top, middle, or bottom of an organization. Applied to the school
setting, the school leader helps anyone from the organization not necessarily from the top
to lead others. An example of this leadership which does not necessarily come from the
top of the organization is teacher leadership.

B. Leadership in Education: Theories and Practices

An educational leader serves as a guide and influences other educators in an administrative

setting. In some cases, it may be a team of educational leaders. Leaders in these executive
roles work toward finding ways to improve learning and to improve the process of educating
students. They serve in elementary, secondary, and postsecondary institutions as well as early
childhood education centers. School site leaders, directors, principals, and assistant
administrators are employed to work either as the sole educational leader or in small teams.
Typical positions for educational leaders in administrative settings are:

 Principal
 Superintendent
 Academic dean
 Director
 School Head
 Department/Program chair or
 President
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College OF Human Kinetics

The Teacher and the Community, School Culture and Organizational Leadership

Educational leadership theories borrow from business management principles. In the United
States and other developed nations, leadership models from the business world were adapted
to fit the educational setting. Since schools and their communities are diverse and change over
time, theories regarding the role and function of educational leaders have likewise been
reformed and remodeled.
Researchers continue to investigate leadership in different educational settings. One style of
leadership isn't better than another. Each is more or less effective based on the context of the
setting in which a leader works. Environmental factors such as size, school culture, staff, and
personalities dictate the most suitable leadership style.

Leadership Characteristics
Most theories of educational leadership refer to the type of leader or style of leader based on
essential elements such as capabilities, practices, and approaches. Theory components are
classified into three categories: characteristics, concepts, and practices of educational
leaders. These three components help in understanding leadership types as a theory.

 Characteristics of educational leadership, which include behaviors, styles, and

leadership traits

 Concepts of educational leadership, which include management vs. leadership,

power, coercion, and conceptual frameworks; and

 Activities or practices of educational leaders, which include approaches or ways of

leading

Through an understanding of these components, you can begin to understand yourself as an

educational leader and understand the impact of leadership on student learning.

Leadership Styles

a. Autocratic
Autocratic leaders do decision making by themselves. In this style of leadership, a leader
has complete command and hold over their employees/team. The team cannot put
forward their views even if they are best for the team’s or organizational interests. They
cannot criticize or question the leader’s way of getting things done. The leader himself gets
the things done. The advantage of this style is that it leads to speedy decision-making and
greater productivity under leader’s supervision. Drawbacks of this leadership style are that
it leads to greater employee absenteeism and turnover. This leadership style works only
when the leader is the best in performing or when the job is monotonous, unskilled and
routine in nature or where the project is short-term and risky

b. Bureaucratic
Here the leaders strictly adhere to the organizational rules and policies. Also, they make sure
that the employees/team also strictly follows the rules and procedures. Promotions take
place on the basis of employees’ ability to adhere to organizational rules. This leadership
style gradually develops over time. This leadership style is more suitable when safe work
conditions and quality are required. But this leadership style discourages creativity and does
not make employees self-contented.

c. Laissez Faire
Here, the leader totally trusts their employees/team to perform the job themselves. He just
concentrates on the intellectual/rational aspect of his work and does not focus on the
management aspect of his work. The team/employees are welcomed to share their views
and provide suggestions which are best for organizational interests. This leadership style
works only when the employees are skilled, loyal, experienced and intellectual.
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College OF Human Kinetics

The Teacher and the Community, School Culture and Organizational Leadership
d. Democratic
The leaders invite and encourage the team members to play an important role in decision-
making process, though the ultimate decision-making power rests with the leader. The
leader guides the employees on what to perform and how to perform, while the employees
communicate to the leader their experience and the suggestions if any. The advantages
of this leadership style are that it leads to satisfied, motivated and more skilled employees.
It leads to an optimistic work environment and also encourages creativity. This leadership
style has the only drawback that it is time-consuming.

e. Situational Leadership

In situational leadership, effective leaders adapt their leadership style to the situation of the
members of the organization, i.e. to the readiness and willingness of group members. Paul
Hersey and Kenneth Blanchard characterized situational leadership in terms of the amount
of task behavior and relationship behavior that the leader provides to their followers. They
categorized all leadership styles into four behavior styles:

Selling/Directing Telling/Coaching Participating/ Delegating

Supporting
Individuals lack Individuals are Individuals are Individuals are
the specific skills more able to do experienced experienced at
required for the the task, and able to do the task, and
job in hand and however, they the task but lack comfortable
they are willing are demotivated the confidence with their own
to work at the for this job or task. or the willingness ability to do it
task. They are Unwilling to do to take on well. They are
novice but the task. responsibility. able and
enthusiastic. willing to not
only do the
task, but take
responsibility
for the task.

f. Servant Leadership
Robert K. Greenleaf (1977) coined the paradoxical term servant-leadership. How can one
be a leader when he/she is servant? The first desire of the servant leader is to serve. How?
By Leading. The greatest teacher of humankind, Jesus Christ, was a servant-leader. He
taught his disciples “he who wants to be great must be the servant of all” The life of the
Greatest Teacher was a life of total service to all.

Servant leadership seeks to involve others in decision making, is strongly based in ethical
and caring behavior and enhances the growth of workers while improving the caring and
quality of organizational life.

The school head who acts as a servant leader forever remembers that s/he is there to serve
his/her teachers, the students, the parents etc. and NOT the teachers, learners, parents to
serve him/her.

g. Transformational Leadership

The transformational leader is not content with status quo and sees the need to transform
the way the organization thinks, relates and does things. The transformational school
leaders sees the school culture as it could be and should be, not as it is and so plays his/her
role as visionary, engager, learner, collaborator, and instructional leader. As a
transformational leader s/he makes positive changes in the organization by collaboratively
developing new vison for their organization and mobilizing members to work towards that
vision.
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The Teacher and the Community, School Culture and Organizational Leadership
To do this the transformational leader combines charisma, inspirational leadership and
intellectual stimulation to introduce innovation for the transformation of the organization.

C. Leadership vs Management
Are leadership and management synonymous? Is a leader a manager or is a manager
a leader? If I am a good leader, does it follow that I am also a good manager? Or if I
am a good manager, am I at the same time a good leaders? Not necessarily.

The table below provides for the comparison between a manager and leader.

Managers Leaders
Administer Innovate
Their process is transactional; meet Their process is transformational; develop
objectives and delegate tasks. a vision and find a way forward.
Work Focused People Focused
The goal is to get things done. They are The goals include both people and
skilled at allocating work. results. They care about you and want
you to succeed.
Have Subordinates Have Followers
They create circles of power and lead by They create circles of influence and lead
authority. by inspiring.
Do Things Right Do the Right Thing
Managers enact the existing culture and Leaders shape the culture and drive
maintain status quo. integrity.

School Head Must be both a Leader and a Manager

A school head must be both a leader and a manager. A school head leads the school
and community to formulate the vision, mission, goals and school improvement plan.
This is a leadership function. S/he sees to it that this plan gets well implemented on time
and so ensures that the resources needed are there, the persons to do the job are
qualified and available. This is a management function. Imagine if the school head is
only a leader. You have the vision, mission, goals and school plan but no
implementation. The plan is good only in paper. If you do the task of a manager only,
you will be focusing on the details of the day-to-day implementation without the big
picture, the vision and the mission. Hence, an effective and efficient school leader must
exude both the qualities of a leader and manager.

D. Roles and Competencies of Educational Leaders

The role of the educational leader is primarily to:

• collaborate with educators and provide curriculum direction and guidance
• support educators to effectively implement the cycle of planning to enhance
programs and practices
• lead the development and implementation of an effective educational program
in the service
• ensure that children’s learning and development are guided by the learning
outcomes of the approved learning frameworks.

The educational leader also has a significant role in:

• guiding and developing educators and families’ understandings about play and
leisure-based learning, and the significance of the early years in the education
continuum for children
• building the knowledge, skills and professionalism of educators
• building a culture of professional inquiry with educators, coordinators and staff
members to develop professional knowledge, reflect on practice and generate new
ideas.
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College OF Human Kinetics

The Teacher and the Community, School Culture and Organizational Leadership

Types of Skills Demanded of Leaders

Leaders use 3 broad types of skills:

1. Technical Skills – refers to any type of process or technique like sending e-mail,
preparing a powerpoint presentation, and the like.

2. Human Skill – the ability to work effectively with people and to build teamwork. This
is also referred to as people skills or soft skills.

3. Conceptual Skill – the ability to think in terms of models, frameworks and broad
relationships such as long range plans. In short, conceptual skills deal with ideas while
human skill concerns relationship and technical skills involves psychomotor skills. The
ideal school leader possess all three.

Sustaining Change

For reforms to transform, the innovations introduced by the transformational leader must be
institutional and sustained. Or else that innovation is simply a passing fad that loses its flavor
after a time. A proof that an innovation introduced has transformed the organization is that the
result or effect of that change persists or ripples even when the transformative leader is gone
or is transferred to another school or gets promoted in the organization.

We feel most comfortable with our old pair of shoes. We like to live in our comfort zones and so
sometimes we don’t welcome change. And yet if we want improvement in the way we do
things in our organization, in our school or if we want to improve in life we must be willing to
change. The transformational leader ought to deal with resistance to change to succeed.
There will always be resisters to change.

1. Clearly define the change and align it to organizational goals.

It might seem obvious but many organizations miss this first vital step. It’s one thing to articulate
the change required and entirely another to conduct a critical review against organizational
objectives and performance goals to ensure the change will carry your organization in the right
direction strategically, financially, and ethically. This step can also assist you to determine the
value of the change, which will quantify the effort and inputs you should invest.

Key questions:
• What do we need to change?
• Why is this change required?

2. Determine impacts and those affected.

Once you know exactly what you wish to achieve and why, you should then determine the
impacts of the change at various organizational levels. Review the effect on each
organizational unit and how it cascades through the organizational structure to the individual.
This information will start to form the blueprint for where training and support is needed the most
to mitigate the impacts.

Key questions:
• What are the impacts of the change?
• Who will the change affect the most?
• How will the change be received?

3. Develop a communication strategy.

Although all employees should be taken on the change journey, the first two steps will have
highlighted those employees you absolutely must communicate the change to. Determine the
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The Teacher and the Community, School Culture and Organizational Leadership
most effective means of communication for the group or individual that will bring them on
board. The communication strategy should include a timeline for how the change will be
incrementally communicated, key messages, and the communication channels and mediums
you plan to use.

Key questions:
• How will the change be communicated?
• How will feedback be managed?

4. Provide effective training.

With the change message out in the open, it’s important that your people know they will
receive training, structured or informal, to teach the skills and knowledge required to operate
efficiently as the change is rolled out. Training could include a suite of micro-learning online
modules, or a blended learning approach incorporating face-to-face training sessions or on-
the-job coaching and mentoring.

Key questions:
• What behaviors and skills are required to achieve organizational results?
• What training delivery methods will be most effective?

5. Implement a support structure.

Providing a support structure is essential to assist employees to emotionally and practically

adjust to the change and to build proficiency of behaviors and technical skills needed to
achieve desired organizational results. Some change can result in redundancies or restructures,
so you could consider providing support such as counseling services to help people navigate
the situation. To help employees adjust to changes to how a role is performed, a mentorship or
an open-door policy with management to ask questions as they arise could be set up.

Key questions:
• Where is support most required?
• What types of support will be most effective?

6. Measure the change process.

Throughout the change management process, a structure should be put in place to measure
the organizational impact of the changes and ensure that continued reinforcement
opportunities exist to build proficiencies. You should also evaluate your change management
plan to determine its effectiveness and document any lessons learned.

Key questions:
• Did the change assist in achieving organizational goals?
• Was the change management process successful?
• What could have been done differently?

Article for Substantiation

Educational leadership and management: theory, policy, and practice

https://www.ajol.info/index.php/saje/article/view/25107/4321

References:

https://www.managementstudyguide.com/leadership-styles.htm

https://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-educational-leadership-concepts-
theories.html#:~:text=Most%20theories%20of%20educational%20leadership,and%20practices
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The Teacher and the Community, School Culture and Organizational Leadership
%20of%20educational%20leaders.

Prieto, N.,et.al. (2019). The Teacher and the Community, School Culture and Organizational
Leadership
 Cagayan State University
CARIG CAMPUS

College OF Human Kinetics

The Teacher and the Community, School Culture and Organizational Leadership