Investigating Educational Leadership - Essay Example

Investigating Educational Leadership Introduction Educational leadership is of very high importance to schools since it contributes to the quality of education in institutions. Educational leadership has positive and an indirect influence on the outcomes of the school and students. There is interest in knowing the leadership quality in relation to leadership practice and the improved teacher outcomes resulting from good leadership practice. The importance of this paper is to give an overview of the significance of educational leadership in today’s educational organizations. The impacts of educational leadership is studied in depth and analyzed. Various examples of effective leadership on a theory basis are given and explained. Effective leadership is key to success within an education organization at all times. Consequently, the application of organizational theory in practical organizational situations is discussed. It is important for leadership to undergo various innovations and improvements to keep up with the global changes that are taking place in daily activities. There are various examples of systemic change in the educational institutions based on the educational leadership. The various global and local educational issues have also been explained in details. Leadership plays various roles within the educational organizations and it is from these roles that various good outcomes are experienced (Reason, 2009). Significance of educational leadership in today’s educational organizations From research that has been carried out it is evident that educational leadership is very significant in the educational organizations. Education leadership has greatly improved the outcomes of the education organizations and those involved. Education leaders who are capable of transforming the education environments help the education organizations to flourish in various ways. Education leadership that is consistent and strong is essential for any education organization. Good education leadership encourages creation of conditions in the education organizations to help in great outcomes. Education leaders set a direction that individuals within the education organizations can follow. Through shared visions, leaders are able to achieve organizations’ goals. It is through educational leaders that the institutions are able to allocate budgets in the right way and come up with high quality results. Education leaders are transformers within the organizations since they help in achievement of the school’s visions and objectives (Reason, 2011). Educational leadership is important to education organizations since they link the set goals, to the activities of the organization so that the product is success in the organization. Through educational leadership, a framework of collaboration and mutual support is created. Education organizations are able to go through various transformations with support from the educational leadership. Through the leadership, there is achieved control over the various sectors in the organizations. Moreover, with full control over the various sectors the educational programs, services, and products are well developed and shaped. Educational leaders are important in creating organizations that are able to compete with other educational organizations. Examples of effective leadership based on theories Effective leadership based on various theories focuses on the nature of leaders. Several studies have been carried out on effective leadership based on various theories. The various theories that explain effective leadership include trait theory, behavioral theory, contingency theory, leader-member theory, charismatic theory, and substitute theory. The trait theory focuses on the personal traits of effective leaders. The trait theory emphasizes that effective leaders are usually born and cannot be made. This theory examines the physical, social, and mental characteristics of the individuals. The conclusion of the studies is there are no specific traits that separate the effective leaders from other individuals. The behavioral theory approach was a shift from traits theory. The theory was based on a focus that leaders exhibited specific behavior that are of greater importance than their mental, physical, and emotional traits. According to this theory, an effective leader has an employee orientation and is general instead of practicing close supervision. The behavioral theory points out that an effective leader should have certain behavior that is universal for all leaders (Reason, 2011). The situational theory of effective leadership proposes that the organizational context affects the effectiveness of a leader. Situational factors interact with the traits of leaders and behavior thus influencing how effective they are in the end. The theory suggests that if a situation is favorable then the leader will be effective in carrying out tasks. The favorability is determined by the respect that the followers have on the leader, the extent of measuring responsibilities and performance, and the amount of control a leader has on subordinates. The leader member theory emphasizes on one-on –one relationship between subordinates and leaders to achieve effective leadership. The theory has a focus on the relationships that promote effective outcomes. Effective leaders maintain such relationships. According to leader-member theory high quality relationships result to good performance and effective leadership. Transformational or charismatic leadership theory focuses on the leader’s charisma to be an effective leader. Charisma is viewed as an aspect necessary for effective leadership. A leader with charisma is seen as a leader who has qualities to be a high achiever and has an interest for the organization in the long- run. The substitute theory focuses on provision of an explanation for lack of empirical support of a relationship between the traits and behavior of the leader in relation to leadership performance. This theory offers an explanation on why behavior of a leader has an impact on subordinates in some situations. Behavioral model that fits the organization The behavioral model that best fits the education organization is the object oriented behavior model. In this model, operations are distinguished from the behavior that carries out the operation. It is necessary to send messages and ensure they are well delivered within the educational organizations. Operations should be invoked instead of the functions in every step of the model. When the object-oriented model is used in the educational organization then it ensures that there is effective leadership in place and thus realizing of the organization’s goals is much easier. Concentrating on the objects of the organization will help the leaders in promoting success among the subordinates. An object oriented behavioral model will ensure that all the individuals are involved in decision making thus every individual will be satisfied with what is going on in the organization. How organizational theory is applied in practical organizational situation The organizational theory is applied in practical organizational situations in various ways. Organization charts are used in mapping the structure and distribution of responsibilities in the organization. The charts provide a good representation of the hierarchy of authority and give an idea of how labor is divided. General organizational designs are useful to the managers since they are used as templates to design organizational structures. Research has been carried out and it helps organizations in characterizing the designs in relation to concepts of social structure, environment, and technology of the organization. Simple designs are used for the small and simple organizations since their social structure is small. In such small organizations, there is little or no hierarchy and thus delegation or opportunity for specialization is very little. Organizations that are complex and cannot be administered using simple designs use functional designs that can cope with high demands of differentiation. The functional designs maximize the economies of scale because of specialization. The functional designs give the top management control such that they are highly respected in relation to what other people in the organization are doing. If an organization outgrows a functional design it uses a multi divisional design that is structured in such a way that some units report to the headquarters. Additionally the matrix type of design is used in application of the organization’s theory. It intends to combine the efficiency of the functional design with some form of flexibility. In the matrix design, there are two structures where each is a responsibility of different managers groups. Importance of innovation and improvement for leadership According to A cry from the edge (1991) Innovation and improvement is of great importance since they are a response to the trend and competition that exists. Innovation helps the organization in discovering the opportunities that exist and those that might occur in the future. Successful organizations should be able to respond to the current customer needs while anticipating for the future trends. Through innovation and improvement, leaders are able to develop ideas and products or services that will help in meeting the future demands effectively. Through innovation, the organizations are able to be ahead of their competitors. Innovation and improvement captures a lot of value within an organization. Innovation and improvement increases productivity of the organization through creation and execution of processes that are new thus creating differentiation of services and products. Organizations that are innovative and often have improvements are more adaptable to the external environment and they capture more opportunities for the organization. When innovation and improvements are taking place within an organization, then the employees are more motivated and they are highly involved in decision making according to organizational behavior survey. Innovative leaders are good at empowering the subordinates to improve their work processes and boost job satisfaction. Through innovation and improvement, a strong sense of teamwork is created in an organization in an aim to realize the objectives and strategies. Leaders who play the role of innovation and improvement well can attest to increased employee motivation, autonomy, and creativity. Through innovation and improvement, the employees and customers access the available resources easily. Innovation and improvement helps the organizations in utilizing what is already in existence. Through innovation, efficiency is improved since waste is reduced and the profits increase. Through innovation and improvements, the organization is able to attract good staff members and retaining of the existing staff is higher which an important aspect of any organization is. By carrying out innovation and improvement, a unique selling point is created in the organization. Innovation adds value to an organization since it gives it a commercial advantage over other organizations. Most individuals prefer what is latest and improved. Examples of systemic change in educational institutions Systemic change in educational institutions can be of several forms. Some of the examples include changes on the technology that is used to keep records of the students within the education institution. For example, a change from keeping a record in form of a register on a book to record keeping in computer software thus makes them easy to retrieve. The records can also be staff records that initially are stored in books, the change comes, and they are stored in a computer system or software (Andy, 2010). Another example of systemic change is a change on how teaching services are delivered. A change from manual delivery of teaching services to online services is a systemic change that can occur in the education institutions. In addition, a systemic change can occur if the mode in which exams are administered changes within an education system. For example if the delivery of exams changes from being manual to being electronic, then that is considered as a systemic change within the institution. It is also possible to have a systemic change on how learners are admitted into the education institution. Such a change could occur if it changes from being manual to being electronic or online. Examples of global and local educational leadership issues Several global and local educational leadership issues face the educational organizations. One of the major issues is security of the organization. Violence has highly increased within the culture thus causing high levels of insecurities in the education institutions. In the past, the levels of security were high in most education institutions but today every educational institution has to worry about its security. The low levels of securities have been caused by high levels of shootings and thefts around schools and even within the schools. The leaders are faced with a challenge of ensuring security is provided within the institutions. Issues of racism, ethnicity, and equality are also common in most education institutions. No matter how much research is done to put an end to these issues they remain major issues in education system locally and globally. Leaders are looked down upon depending on their race, ethnicity, and equality. Consequently, the issue of private institutions versus public institutions highly affects the education system. Some individuals despise the public institutions while others despise the private institutions. The fact that private schools outperform the public schools has always raised an issue in the education system both locally and globally. The leaders are left to deal with the issue of explaining why the difference exists. In addition, politics and the stability of the government highly affect the education institutions. When the government is politically stable, the education institutions are also stable but when there is instability within the government the education, organizations are adversely affected. It is difficult for the leaders to control political instability effects in the institutions. The role of leadership in a typical educational organization Leadership in educational organizations plays various roles. One of the roles is laying out strategies for the organization. Leadership in educational organizations is responsible for creating strategies inclusive of the hierarchical, transformational, and facilitative strategies. The leaders are able to balance between the long term and short term needs to serve the organization’s values. Secondly, the leadership is in charge of transformation within the organizations. Leaders in educational organizations are responsible for transforming the organizations and enhancing improvement. The leader is in control of how successful the organization becomes through the leadership skills that he or she applies. The third role of leadership in educational organizations is to facilitate development. Through carrying out research, the leaders are able to tell where attention is necessary to enhance development. With the current changing trends in terms of technology, leadership plays a huge role in ensuring the educational organizations are consistent with the change of technology and that they access the latest technology (Ted, 2010). The fourth role of the leadership is to help the organizations in achieving their visions. Every educational organization has a vision that it aims at achieving and with the help of leadership this vision is achieved. The leaders help in defining the visions, developing them and in ensuring they are achieved. The fifth role of leadership in educational organizations is to solve ethical issues within the organizations as they arise. The leaders need to know the ethical standards of the organizations, and tell when they are violated. The responsibility of controlling ethical standards of the organizations is fully that of the leaders. They are able to reframe the ethical issues and solve them as soon as they arise. Leaders in education organizations also play the role of mentoring the individuals or students within the organizations. They help the individuals succeed in what they are pursuing by offering mentor programs and training programs to them and those under them. In general, they are responsible for improvement of the organization and creation of organizations where learning is well-implemented (Razik et.al, 2010). Conclusion In conclusion, leadership within educational organizations is very crucial. Educational leadership plays a significant role in ensuring the success of the education system. Educational leaders play the role of allocating budgets in the institutions to help in achieving high quality results. Educational leadership links set goals to the organization’s activities. Effective leadership is based on various theories that focus on the nature of leaders. The various theories that explain effective leadership include trait theory, behavioral theory, contingency theory, leader-member theory, charismatic theory, and substitute theory. The organizational theory is applicable to practical organizational situations through various designs depending on the different organizations. Innovation and improvement is a very important role for leadership in educational organizations at any given time. The educational institutions are faced with several leadership issues that can be solved through effective leadership. References Organizational Behavior Survey. Retrieved from: http://www.nwlink.com/donclark/leader/obsurvey.html  Document/Other Razik, T. A., Swanson, A. D., & Razik, T. A. (2010). Fundamental concepts of educational leadership and management Boston: Allyn & Bacon.  Reason, C. (2009). Leading a Learning Organization: The Science of Working with Others. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree, ISBN: 978-1934009574 Reason, C. (2011). 100 days to Leadership Impact. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree. ISBN: 9780982702925 Reason, C. (2011). Mirror Images: New Reflections on Teacher Leadership. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin. ISBN: 978-1412994040 Video: A cry from the edge (1991). Films Media Group. Retrieved from: http://proxy1.ncu.edu/login?url=http://digital.films.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx?aid=6281&xtid=3163&loid=44812  Video: Andy Hargreaves: Systems Thinking in Action Conference Preview (2010). Mark Alpert. Retrieved from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8HmCZ3BH4s  Video: TED-Educational Design and System Thinking. 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