ERIC ED378869: Leadership and Its Functions in Further and Higher Education. Mendip Papers.

29 Pages·1992·0.75 MB·English

by  ERIC

DOCUMENT RESUME
HE 028 018
ED 378 869
Marsh, D. T.
AUTHOR
Leadership and Its Functions in Further and Hier
TITLE
Education. Mendip Papers.
INSTITUTION
Staff Coll., Bristol (England).
REPORT NO
MP-035
PUB DATE
92
NOTE
31p.
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Administrator Effectiveness; Administrators; *College
DESCRIPTORS
Administration; Educational Administration; Foreign
Countries; Leaders; *Leadership; *Leadership
Qualities; Leadership Responsibility; *Leadership
Styles; Postsecondary Education
*Educational Leadership
IDENTIFIERS
ABSTRACT
This paper examines the nature and function of
leadership in the management of postsecondary educational
institutions. It explains the need for studying educational
leadership and reviews various theories on the nature of leadership.
These include the trait, situational, social influence, functional
(or action-centered), contingency, contextual, and strategic
leadership theories. The paper then examines the transformational or
empowering leadership cycle, which can serve as a model for
educational leadership. This cycle emphasizes vision, action, and
reflection. Finally, the paper discusses four dimensions of
educational leadership: symbolic, political, managerial, and
academic. (Contains 26 references.)
(MDM)
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Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made
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E
Leadership and its
functions in further
The
Staff
College
and higher education
D T Marsh
MP
0351
fteartaibarskdoszd.
THIS
"PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE
GRANTED BY
U.S. IMPAIRMENT OF EDUCATION
MATERIAL HAS BEEN
Odic ot Educational Research and improvement
EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION
CENTER (ERIC)
cYlira document has been reproduced as
received from the Person or organization
Originating it
improve
0 Minor Changes have been made to
rproduQtron outlay
Points ot viewer opinions stated in this docu
official
meet do not neceSSanty represent
0E91 position or policy
BEST
Leadership and its
functions in further
and higher education
D T Marsh
The
Staff
College
MP 035
The views expressed in this Mendip Paper
are those of the
contributor(s). They should not be taken
to represent the policy of
The Staff College.
About the author
Derek Marsh Development and Training
Consultant
Spent 12 years in training in the RAF, and
10 years with the Civil Service, in the
Home
Office. Worked for four years
as a head of department in a public school. Joined the Further
Education Staff College (now The Staff College)
in 1978, as a staff tutor. Left in 1990
to
become a private consultant.
Series edited and designed at The Staff College
by Pippa Toogood and Susan Leather,
Publications Department, and produced by the
Reprographics Department.
Published by The Staff College
Coombe Lodge, Blagdon, Bristol BS18 6RG
Telephone [phone]
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The Staff College is registered with the Charity
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© The Staff College 1992
All rights are reserved. No part of this publication
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retrieval system, or transmitted, in
any form or by any means, electronic, electrical,
chemical, optical, photocopying, recording
or otherwise, without the prior permission of
the copyright owner.
4
Leadership and its
functions in further
and higher education
D T Marsh
Contents
Introduction
This Mendip Paper surveys the key concepts
I
Introduction
concerning the behaviour we label as 'leadership',
and explores its role in the management of further
Why do we need to
1
and higher education.
It recounts briefly the
consider leadership?
hypotheses held about the nature of leadership,
suggests a number of models (or maps) which are
3
What explanations are
relevant to the education manager, and suggests
there of leadership?
how the role, and its expectations, of a leader may
be most effectively played. At the end of the paper
Transformational or
14
are references and a selected bibliography.
empowering leadership
cycle: a model for
Why do we need to consider
education
leadership?
Some aspects of education
16
leadership
The recent focus in education management has
been on the three Es of Economy, Efficiency, and
Effectiveness, measured by sets of performance
Conclusion
18
indicators.
However, there are another three:
Excellence, to which some attention is paid in terms
References
18
of 'quality', Envisioning, and Ethos. The first three
are primarily concerned with management and
19
Bibliography
administration; the last three are the concern of
leadership.
When talking in broad terms about 'management',
we need also to refer to leadership: there is a
connection. Leadership certainly seems to be part
of management: a sub-set of specific skills, qualities,
attitudes, flair, and action. There is an expectation
in those being managed that somewhere, effective
leadership should be exercised and visible. Without
it, management seems sterile.
Mendip Papers
to empower people to participate;
In our personal models of managers we may see
6.
them as policemen, referees, devil's advocates,
to give people responsibility and authority for
7.
dispassionate analysers, or decision-makers; as
tasks delegated to them.
saying 'yes' or saying 'no', stopping, starting,
controlling, and as administrators of the processes
We also know that when we are appointed leader of
set up by institutions. Our models of leaders, on the
a group, be it course team, chair of an academic
other hand, will be perhaps of cheer leaders,
board sub-committee, or working party, the fact
enthusiasts, hero finders, nurturers of champions.
subtly alters our relationship with that group. In
coaches, facilitators, builders, exciters, and the ones
their eyes, we may be seen as potential controllers
who get us out of trouble and into new pastures.
and dominators. We will then face a set of defence
Managers are wealth consumers; leaders are wealth
mechanisms expressed in a wide variety of
creators. Management appears to be about path
behaviours from members of the group, forexample,
following and doing the right things, whilst
resistance, defiance, resentment, hostility,
leadership is about path finding and doing things
aggression, negativity, ridiculing, submission,
blaming, withdrawing, fantasising, forming
right.
This may occur
alliances, and courting favour.
Managers are appointed; so, too, are leaders.
even though we have no intention of using any
Whereas being appointed a manager in one sense
In one sense leadership is
power and authority.
makes us one, being an appointed leader certainly
already lost; many leaders remain in this situation,
does not make us into a leader. Indeed, the first task
functioning after a fashion in spite of that change in
of an appointed leader is survival - not to lose the
relationship.
leadership position. Frequently, appointed leaders
forget that the responsible leader is the one who is
The second problem, having overcome the first, is
accountable, the effective leader the one who is
to earn a following, to establish influence and to
widely taken up, and the psychological leader is ts
begin to meet and satisfy other people's needs. At
one with whom we most identify emotionally; these
one level these are basic: survival to satisfy needs or
three aspects of leadership are not necessarily
relieve tensions, and the means to satisfy those
invested in the same person. We generally do what
needs (food, tools, money, knowledge et al). At a
managers require, but we always follow good
higher, more complex level, human beings have a
leaders.
desire to satisfy their needs in relationships with
other people, or groups, upon which we rely heavily.
Our expectations of the 'leader in manager' suggest
Oddly enough, we then find that effective leaders
that. We follow those who have vision; who have
act like good group members, and good group
ways of reaching desired, mutually perceived
members begin to act like effective leaders. We
outcomes; who get people to do worthwhile things
join and stay with groups if our needs are met; we
whether they particularly want to or not; and who
leave, psychologically orphysically, if they are not.
can resolve those issues others cannot. Research by
We accept the influence and direction of a leader if
McGregor (1966) suggests that followers require
we regard him or her as a person through whom we
seven things of leaders (or managers who exercise
will satisfy our needs.
leadership):
We may leave a group, and a leader, because the
to create the appropriate and most effective
leader is not going anywhere interesting, or he/she
1.
atmosphere in which to achieve the task;
may upset the group definition of an equitable cost/
benefit ratio - getting most of what we need in
to possess knowledge essential to the
2.
relation to the amount of energy or cost devoted to
followers for task achievement;
the task. We are all familiar with the new leader
to give forewarning of any major change
3.
who, through personal insecurity or an unhelpful
likely to occur,
conceptual model ofleadership, postures as vigilant
to uphold and enforce discipline; to do so
4.
overseer, upsetting the ratio through over-
fairly, consistently, and without favour (i.e.
supervising and becoming a bureaucratic manager
to establish and hold clear boundaries);
by:
to provide, as far as possible, physical and
5.
requiring group members to seek approval
-
psychological security;
before sending out letters, implementing
Mendip Papers
2
plans, or making decisions;
Already we can see distinctions bet.ween behaviour
labelled 'leadership' and behaviour labelled
requiting detailed activity orprogress reports
-
'management'. They actually co-exist, like the
(and reading them);
proverbial horse and carriage; you can't have one
taking over tasks ascribed to others to make
-
without the other. Or, to take another song title, 'it
sure they are 'done properly'; and
ain't what you do, it's the way that you do it'.
- making members go through the leader
before making contact with people or
institutions outside the group.
What explanations are there of
leadership?
In the end such a leader literally becomes a one-
person operation. But there can be no leadership
There appear to be seven m ajor concepts discernible
without followers. Leaders do not operate from
from the literature on leadership.
offices because they cannot lead from there (where
they would only become managers, w.io can operate
The trait theory
thus): leadership occurs only when other people are
about. Administrators need computers and papers;
The first and possibly oldest analysis of leadership
for them, people are problems.
is that it is the property of me individual. Success
lies in the possession of a core set of personal
Somehow we know that excellence does not derive
.; and abilities. We all have models, or
qual;
from plodding along well-laid and trodden paths.
scripts, concerning our view of leaders, and it is
Indeed, creating excellence seems to require six
easy to identify those qualities which have either
human qualities ensconced in leadership behaviour
been present or absent in leaders with whom we
(Hickman and Silva, 1986):
have had a good or a bad experience. We tend to
ascribe success or failure to personal qualities such
1. creative insight
from asking the right questions;
as integrity, sense of justice, confidence, courage,
empathising with the other
2. sensitivity
energy, enthusiasm, creativity, loyalty, bearing,
person's position;
knowledge, decisiveness, etc.
3. vision
about creating the future;
4. versatility
Stodgill (1974) suggests that research demonstrates
anticipating change, responding
that leaders, compared with their followers, have
with a wide repertoire of options;
better, more or a greater degree of the factors shown
5. focus
concentrating on the key decision
in Figure 1.
without being distracted;
6. patience
looking for long-term rather than
What is interesting in the list is that some factors are
short-term gains;
within the individual's control (e.g. social activity,
speech, appearance, knowledge) and can thus be
Figure 1: Perceived leadership qualities
Height
Responsibility
Scholarship
Social skills
Weight
Integrity
Knowledge
Popularity
Physical powers
Self-confidence
Judgement
Prestige
Appearance
Mood control
Insight
Co-operation
Speech
Socio-economic status
Originality
Initiative
Intelligence
Social activity
Adaptability
Dominance
Stodgill, 1974
MelLpli Papers LJ
7
soon lead to the conclusion that many did not
developed, while many are not (e.g. height,
possess any of the desired sets and that most were
intelligence, insight) so cannot be developed and
mavericks.
against which the individual may only mitigate.
Hence, we derive the concept of the charismatic
A further issue is that since leadership depends
leader, the one who possesses those magical skills
upon having a following, most of these qualities are
and the cognitive capacity with which to influence
essential also for the follower. The ideal qualities
people and situations.
for a leader are the ideal qualities for the follower as
well, so it is not a helpful theory in establishing (or
The concept of an ideal se* of traits still lies at the
training for) leadership.
centre of many processes of selection for posts or
promotion. But the trait theory may not be very
Finally, are the desired core traits the same for all
helpful since it raises a number of questions which
situations? History is full of people who were
ate difficult to answer satisfactorily. Canthe qualities
successful in one situation, but failed in another.
be identified? How do we measure them? If we can
So perhaps leadership has something to do with the
measure them, for example, by tests, are the tests
circumstances of the situation requiring leadership.
robust predictors of future skills and achievement?
What is the ideal set of qualities? It is impossible to
The situational theory
find any significant degree of agreement in lists
produced by various organisations.
Different circumstances require different
characteristics, approaches, and interactions.
Indeed, the opinion is still held in some quarters that
these qualities are socially, if not genetically,
Leadership effectiveness is therefore a function of
We know that leadership is
transmitted, so that leaders can only emerge from
leadership style.
certain social groups or from certain kinds of
somehow a connection between the leader and the
group. A simple model, based on the Harvard
educational processes. The trait theory is pessimistic
Business School continuum (Tannenbaum and
for those who do not possess these qualities since
few of them can be acquired by tihining (so how do
Schmidt, 1958), suggests that the effective leader
adopts a style, or set of behaviours, ;.long a
we train leaders?), and the probability is that no
continuum ranging from one extreme
single set of abilities is characteristic of all successful
-
Investigation of successful leaders can
leaders.
Figure 2: Leadership styles and levels of responsibility
Degree of
100%
autocracy
Area of ise
of authority
Area of freed
by the leader
OM
for the group
100%
Degree of
0%
democracy
Leadership style:
Abdicate
Delegate
Discuss
Consult
Sell
Tell
Adapted from Tannenbaum and S chmid t (1958)
Mendip Papers
4
all those attributes generally measured by
authoritarianism - to anotherextreme of laissez-faire,
or even abdication (see Figure 2).
psychometric tests).
There are two problems raised by the idea of
For example, some people are basically taskoriented,
flexibility of response by the leader according to a
while others are people and relationships oriented,
situation, ranging from circumstances which require
producing the dilemma every leader faces at some
the leader to be authoritarian and autocratic in order
time of how best to reconcile the two in certain
to achieve results, to the total delegation of
situations. According to how we respond, we may
responsibility and authority to the group in order to
be said to have a leadership style.
Blake and
achieve results and to gain the commitment of the
Mouton (1964) and Reddin (1987, identify the five
group to those results.
major styles as set out in Figure 3.
The first is that most humati beings operate in a
Some followers will respond to one style; others
narrow band of behaviours. Few use the wide
will not. So perhaps leadership is principally a
repertoire which may be available to them or are as
social process.
skilled in one part of the continuum as in others
- we
usually have a preferred best set of behaviours.
The social influence theory
Secondly, we have that preferred set largely due to
our personality. On the one hand, there are extreme
Leadership is a term describing a relationship. It is
authoritarian personalities (Adomo et al, 1950) and
about getting things done through other people, and
on the other, open-minded as opposed to closed-
part of the requirement of leadership, if it is to be
minded personalities Cpersonality' refers here to
Figure 3: Leadership styles and orientation
High
Goodwill,
Executive win-win style;
avoids conflict,
- ideal
few results;
- developer
Compromiser
Apathetic,
Performance,
abdicates,
results,
over-delegate;
lack of human understanding,
- bureaucrat
benevolen;
- autocrat
)111"
Low
Task-centred
High
Blake and Mouton (1964) and Reddin (1987)
Mendip Papers
5
9
expert', the 'social engineer', the 'organisational
exercised effectively, is the possession of power
engineer', the 'change agent', or the 'politician'.
and authority.
In the social exchange and influence concept,
leadership is the capacity to influence people beyond
In education this is a vexed question since leaders
legal approval to gain commitment, and a capacity
authority in
possess an esoteric form of power and
acceptable
to influence people to strive for a mutually
its legitimate form. Some powers am laid down by
sometimes referred to
goal. This is
as
Acts of Parliament, Department of Education and
transformational or inspirational leadership where
Science (DES) Circulars, local education authority
the leader influences other people because he/she
delegation, and the articles and instruments of
of the
can make clear and mange well six aspects
these
government in colleges and polytechnics. But
needs of the group and th, leader. They are:
and
are limited, unclear in certain respects
surrounded with difficulties so that it is often
1. the meaning of the institution, its objectives
ambiguous on what basis of power and authority (if
and its business;
any) a leader may act. Hence education leadership
is generally exercised through varying forms of
2. the symbolic presentation of the required
power.
impression both to the institution and the outside
world;
the kind of power an individual is able to
Referent:
exercise simply because he or she is the
3. the meeting of mutual expectations of
person 11,. or she is.
interaction between the leader, the group and
the task;
leadership canbe exercised with the group
Expert:
through the leader's possession of
4. the creation and maintenance of participation
specialist knowledge and skills not
and involvement;
otherwise available to the group.
5. the provision of the necessary intellectual
influence is exerted because the leader has
Reward:
stimulation; and
in his orher control rewards which groups
and individuals would like: these may be
6. the clear possession and articulation of a vision
real, such as pay and promotion, or
which meets everybody's needs and is to their
psychological, as in status, autonomy,
satisfaction.
intrinsic job interest and the ability to
influence decision-making.
Within colleges critical issues may be those
concerned with who holds power, who wields it and
Coercive: the leader has the authority and power to
in what ways to what ends, along with precisely
coerce others into work by withholding
where and when a leader can exert influence. These
reward or giving some form of punishment
lead to another concept an educational leader might
(e.g. an awkward timetable, a difficult
do well to examine carefully; the question not only
group)
of where and when leadership can be exercised
effectively, but also of what the leader can actually
the leader can exert moral pressure to
Moral:
do on those relatively sparse and public occasions.
conform through personal power, or
Since education clearly does not totally work through
perhaps through group norms, and appeal
leaders exercising strong power and authority,
of
to people's morality (e.g. for the good
another explanation of leadership in this context is
the students).
required.
Dynastic: today little of this remains, though some
people may have power through long
connections with the institution or local
authority beyond their position.
will
How these forms of leadership are exerted
determine other leadership styles - the 'efficiency
1 0
Mendip Papers
6