Introduction
This chapter focuses on traditional, human, and universal components of leadership in companies. An organization can be described as an association of people who tend to have the same goal in mind-Razik and Sawson. Various pioneers came up with a list of elements that they thought were necessary for running an organization. In the study from this week, we will evaluate the essential elements while managing a school.
We should note that each organization chooses to follow a different behavior from other competitors. Though certain behaviors may appear once in a while in different institutions, the reason being, there is always that one dominant element at every particular stage. Different schools have different principles that they decide to adopt; therefore, some elements, such as having a management team that manages, can be identified across all institutions. Institutions should elect a team that makes decisions about various activities that may define their institution’s existence.
Chapter 3
Fundamental Concepts of Education Leadership And Management
In general, institutions were created to meet the needs of human beings but not vice versa. Therefore institutions should acknowledge that the outside environment highly affects how the organization will run in an environment with more skilled and educated individuals. Businesses such as schools are prone to flourish as people respect education. Therefore, institutions have to develop formal and informal structures that control interactions within and outside the environment. Formal structures mostly involve written procedures that have to be followed by those interacting with the school either from inside or outside. Informal structures are the unwritten fundamentals that are essential for organizations that make the organization more authentic.
Adopting the use of managers to oversee activities in the organization critically influences the completion of duties. The main functions of management are organizing, giving directives, coordination, and control. The accuracy of duty completion depends on the level to which the manager believes in his employees. Managers have been classified to either understand that workers (Erdem, 2016, p.719), if given independence, can perform and the other type that believes in constant monitoring of employees. Ensuring that employees in an institution like a school are constantly educated through training and compensation from the company’s wealth is constantly done to remind them of their value.
Various theories about organizations have been invented. The first one states that organizations are structures, management facilities, and an organization is a human relation facility. The last theory reasons that an organization is a collection of processes that interact with an environment. Change has increased the level of uncertainty; therefore, traditional decision-making methods where conclusions were based on personal experiences only limit the extent to which one can understand their environment. Therefore thinking about what is happening to organizations in the present would help understand organizations further.
Systems thinking can be used to answer various questions on awareness and improvement. These answers can be helpful in both administrative and guidance situations. For example, system thinking answers why teachers retire early in the United States while replacing them impacts the institutions budgets seriously. After identifying reasons, incentives to make teachers stick to their careers have been adopted. The methods include transforming the school to mainly fit their employees, ensuring that the appropriate personnel is hired, building relationships with other educational communities, and creating bonds with the larger population.
Encompassing learning in an institution, especially a school, is highly important, as it increases the knowledge of the staff’s environment of operation. An institution such as a school involves continuous learning. Therefore adopting a culture of learning new ideas frequently among the workers is necessary. There are five keys to introducing a learning organization: individual mastering, creating a team-driven vision, using intellectual replicas, group education, and systems intelligence. Learning institutions tend to have a couple of similarities. They all provide educational opportunities for their employees, use education to achieve their desired goals, and link n individual to organizational performance. Therefore, institutions should commit to change by ensuring that this drive flows from the chain’s top.
Internal processes in an organization encompass five activities: decision-making, leadership, communications, and change.
Decision Making
Decision making can be defined as the art of taking action in an organization. Most people think that decision-making is a responsibility that can be controlled only by the managers (Gafni & Charles, 2017, p.55), but I’m afraid that’s not right. Decision making involves a wide variety of players in the organization.
Leadership
Leadership can be defined as adopting methods or strategies that propel the organization to its future goals. Leadership is a team effort that requires every level in the organization to play its role.
Communications
Communication in organizations during the classic era was described as an up-down movement; this has changed as now in the modern era, communications happen naturally based on individual relationships. Factors such as social, structural (Christopher & Goodenow, 2012, p.9), and functional channels affect communication in organizations in the modern era.
Change
An organization gets to a stage where it experiences metamorphosis or transition. These cycles address development, maturity, and any declines. Change is described as a three-stage process that involves freezing, change, and unfreezing.
Other factors also affect how organizations function. These factors are:
Power-Power is obtained when an organization defines its ultimate purpose that they are known for by customers.
Culture-This is a system of beliefs, morals, laws, customs, and habits that people pick up in their surrounding environment. Once an organization has adopted a specific cultural way of conducting its activities, it now governs how interactions are made internally and externally.
Size, Structure, and Complexity-The structure of an organization can either be simple or complex. In the simple structure, the senior subordinates dominate the organization and make all managerial decisions. In a more complex structure, bureaucracy is adopted and decentralized; therefore, every individual in an organization has the right to give their opinion, giving each individual a high sense of purpose.
Organizational health and the effectiveness-A healthy organization has to satisfy the individuals around their environment, described as a personal-environment fit. Therefore, the customer’s level of satisfaction will define the extent to which the organization is effective. A more satisfied customer means that the institution is more effective than a less satisfied customer.
Different various metaphors can describe organizations.
The Machine Metaphor-Organizations here are related to machines as they are mainly product-driven. Other characters such as straightforwardness, accuracy, slow, control, consistency, and management are by the higher ranks, and lastly, communication can be described as top-down.
The Organism Metaphor-In this metaphor, the organization’s measure of output is different from the latter metaphor. In this stage, the output is measured using factors such as effectiveness quality and levels of satisfaction.
The Brain Metaphor-This metaphor describes that the whole thing is greater than individual parts brought together, encouraging employees to think in a similar term.
Metaphors of New Science-In, in the current management trend, most organizations take information to the management team to process rather than later. The middle workers process the information. Lastly, the junior workers get the opportunity to process the information. This method is not the most effective for all individuals. Irrespective of their hierarchical position, they may have an important point. Therefore, organizations should compare information from all levels in the organization.
The self-Organizing Organizations-This metaphor can be described as a method of using this order to create order. Systems that are adopted in this metaphor are not systemic structures that have been set before so that organizations can operate. These systems are solutions that are arrived after involving all the necessary parties: teachers, students, and learning in decision making. Outside partners such as the parents, society, government, and agencies are also welcome for support.
Reflections on Organizational Theory and Practice
Schools operate under standard procedures that have been set by the authority. These procedures, though, have not guaranteed success in schools. Therefore institutions should adopt new criteria’s that propel excellence among the performance of students. Factors such as culture are highly affecting the education sector. Adapting to traditional culture has made education restricting, confining, and objective-oriented, therefore losing touch with the current teachers, students, and society. With the use of organizational development, schools should switch direction, adapt to a system that involves all parties, and minimize administration roles. Leaders in various institutions must possess an evolving purpose in education and increase equality during decision making.
Chapter 4
Designing School Systems for All Students
The Current Reality Facing School Leaders
Most leaders are individuals with a high sense of fear and no idea of the odds against them-Robert Jarvik. The current danger that schools are facing is that leaders in institutions are willing to train their students on how to pass examinations instead of teaching them skills that they will require in their future. Leaders of institutions should remember that slow, critical, and thoughtful learning involves the child fully emphasizing growth in their education and servant skills.
Opportunities Emerging for New Educational
School leaders are equipped with skills that have enabled them to find the balance between leadership and management, to prepare for the ever-changing environment. The government has also involved itself by subsidizing fees, requiring a certain standard of performance; otherwise, the institution may face closure. Institution leaders have to meet community needs (Mogaji & Jain, 2020, p.22), give resources, and get over obstacles during their functioning period.
New Leadership for the 21st Century
Institution leaders should lead their people with vision, audacity, belief, determination, and the ability to survey the culture that his institution lives in. People are a greater investment than buildings; therefore, employees should make sure that customers are treated with the utmost respect. On the other hand, employees should be valued when both parents and employees are happy; they can result in a complete system change.
Vision Making
Institutions now have created visions. Visions help stakeholders focus on the key values of the institution.
A View from 30,000 Feet
Skilled institution leaders create a designed vision that aligns with the organization’s vision and later assembles a party of the required elements to achieve that vision.
Collaboration and Collegiality
Institution leaders have to lead across various systems. Leaders have to create a relationship based on trust with other stakeholders and discover how to share leadership.
Different Skills for A Different Century
Leaders have to create a team learning environment where people think and act as a team.
Building Powerful Relationships
Institutions should encourage strong bonds within departments, which will help control the organization’s number of problems.
Inquiry: An Essential Skill for Building Relationships and Shared Vision.
Implementing values such as respect and trust requires leaders to be patient and let these values build up over time.
Root cause analysis, creating a guiding idea on keys to consistency and purpose, raising the bar beyond no child left behind, Innovation (Berginc, 2014, p. 46), and change are also factors essential to institutions during building leadership.
Chapter 5
The Principalship: New Roles in a Professional Learning Community
Professional Learning Community (PLC) is a method that emphasizes the performance of all students available in an institution as opposed to other methods of learning where the focus is only placed on the individuals performing. Louise and the principal made a major amendment to their institution by adopting PLC (Shekhawat, 2012, p.28). A principal who wants to implement PLC must have the following qualities: student, building culture, and an activist.
As an institutional leader, one has to know the three leadership sources: External factors, Internal and The principle himself/herself. External Sources that can Influence Your School include; other administrators, policymakers (school boards), and constituents (religious groups, PTA). Internal Sources are Teachers, Students, Secretaries, and Custodians. Both external and internal factors positively influence principal leadership. Various pieces of literature are out there that speak on leadership. Population literature is written by employees and has no peer reviews. Professional literature is literature found in libraries (Margalef & Roblin, 2018, p.55), and they are from professional bodies. Scholarly literature is the type of literature reviewed by peers and released out to the field for credibility tests.
Research on Leadership. Six approaches of looking at traits for a leader are behaviors, contingency plans in the event of a situation, leadership as a relationship, and his leadership as an organizational feature and moral leadership skills.
Summary
A school should have a set vision. The mission mainly propels the vision; therefore, when principals create a vision, they have to have a personal one. However, other parties may challenge your vision. Principals should constantly communicate their vision to ensure that the vision is understood and achieved.