A number of models have been developed to explain the variety of leadership styles that school administrators need be able to utilize in order to be effective

Leadership Project

To set the climate for a school different types of authority and leadership styles need to be utilized for leaders to be effective decision-makers in ever-changing situations present in schools today. Leadership is situational, you can’t stick with one theory and hope to be successful. Administrators really need to know some of the points made in a number of the models because they might have to resort to something else given unique situations with different types of individuals to be successful. Just as we discussed in lecture, collaboration is not always the key and neither is a bureaucratic path, the same applies here. I have, however, explored the different models of leadership and found that Burn’s (1978) Transactional/Transformational Model most accurately illustrates leadership in my school district. Before I further explore Burn’s model, I will briefly describe each of the other leadership models. Comment by Sarah Morrison: True!

Hersey and Blanchard’s (1984) situational leadership

Hersey and Blanchard’s situational leadership model suggests the idea of there being no one type of leadership style better than another. Instead of putting emphasis on focusing on the factors within the workplace, which for our application would be the school, their model prompts leaders to change their leadership styles to match the followers and their own personal abilities. According to the Hersey-Blanchard model, in order to manage people effectively and be successful leadership needs to be task and relationship-relevant. Comment by Sarah Morrison: Citation? APA?

Fiedler’s (1973) Contingency Model

Fiedler’s contingency model of leadership suggests that your level of effectiveness as a leader is determined by how well your leadership style matches the situation. He uses the least preferred co-worker (LPC) scale to indicate the extent to which an individual sets a higher value on either task-motivation or relationship-motivation (Hoy, W. K, & Miskel, C. G., 2008.) There are three factors that Fielder states determines situational control. The three factors are position power, task structure, and leader-member relations.

House’s (1973, 1996) Path-Goal Theory

In order to accomplish a goal House’s path-goal theory model specifies a leader’s style or behavior that will best fit the employee and work environment (House, Mitchell, 1974.) The overall goal is targeted at increasing motivation, empowerment, and satisfaction. This encourages the employees to be productive contributors in the organization. House took part in defining four kinds of leader styles or behaviors which were determined to be directive, supportive, participative, and achievement.

McGregor’s (1960) Theory X and Theory Y Model

McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y model lays out two different management styles. These styles are authoritarian, Theory X, and participative, Theory Y. Leaders who utilize Theory Y trust in their people to make individual goals and take ownership of their work which leads to accomplishing organizational goals as well. Furthermore, Theory X implies that people are lazy, unmotivated, and will do about anything in hopes of avoiding work. Theory Y implies that people are happy to do their work and will often take on additional responsibilities or duties without being controlled and forced to.

Burn’s (1978) Transactional/Transformational Model

According to Burns, transforming leadership is a process where "leaders and followers help each other to advance to a higher level of morale and motivation." Transactional leadership motivates followers with rewards. It has 3 components, which are contingent reward leadership, active management-by-exception, and passive management-by-exception. An expansion of transactional leadership is transformational leadership. Transformational leadership is a leadership approach that brings about change in individuals and their social systems. Ideally, it can create positive change in individuals with the goal of further developing followers into leaders. Leaders are proactive and inspire followers to achieve high performance outcomes. Transformational leadership holds 4 components: idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration. (His idea broadened to the Full-Range Leadership Continuum which lists 3 types of leadership and 9 factors involved.)

My District Leadership (Reflects Transformational)

"Leaders and followers help each other to advance to a higher level of morale and motivation." This is a description of the transformational leadership process as explained by Burns himself. Burns’ quote immediately makes me think of my current principal. My principal is younger and still short in years as a principal, all of which have been served at our school. He is surrounded by a good collection of teachers who have devoted their whole careers to our school district, a superintendent with many years at many different schools as his superior, and a collection of other established staff. My principal has two small children who attend school, and so he is motivated not only as a principal and leader, but also as a dad with vision to better and refine our school’s aesthetics, culture, academics, and everything in-between. He is innovative and constantly reading and researching to share new knowledge with teachers and staff about many different school related topics. While he is working and making changes, he constantly involves different teachers and staff to weigh in and contribute where they have strengths to do so. The sense of motivation and excitement from all staff to make our school a better environment for students, teachers, staff, and our community is present due to his efforts. This, the 2019-2020 school year, was the first year in my new district and he made a point to ask for my thoughts or insight on everything from the color of new lockers to new curriculum for English K-12th. I know this to be the same for other teachers in the building as well. When your higher-up is inclusive on changes, that certainly contributes to higher levels of morale and motivation to suggest your thoughts openly and respectfully, and request items or opinions from him in return. We all have different backgrounds and experiences that add value and we are also valued enough to feel confirmation in that fact. Our leaders gain much from us and we from them. Comment by Sarah Morrison: Great!

Transformational leadership is an expansion of transactional leadership that goes beyond simple exchanges and agreements (Hoy and Miskel 2008.) Transformational leadership arouses change within teachers/staff and in the school system. My principal is proactive, he is constantly educating himself as well as our teaching staff on up-and-coming technology, ways to enhance our safety procedures, and the like. I feel the way he stays up to date on new laws concerning education, technologies, and how he chooses to share that knowledge and how it may or will affect us is a great example of being proactive. When all of the pandemic began this year he was already informed and ready to plan before we were even out for spring break, he was meeting with us to enlighten us on his own research and to answer the “what-ifs.” I feel he really tries to connect and stay in touch with teachers through being aware of our interests and engaging in conversations that excite and motivate us by his plans or ideas for us as individuals. At my previous school I lead a social media group and he approached me about introducing SKORDLE to our school which is essentially a school’s own personal TV channel for sports and events that is student lead, and of course I was thrilled to have the chance to engage with students through this unique platform. He knew to come to me because of my experience but also my interest in social media and broadcasting even though I teach English. Being that I am working towards my masters, my principal has helped me achieve high-performance within my job and outside of work into my person educational goals.

When interviewing my principal and the school counselor both trust in the opinions of employees, but when making decisions both are quick to seek a small group’s opinion before channeling outside perspectives. The principal, counselor, and CFO all work very closely and trust each other inside and outside of school, before any moves are made, they each agree to quickly seeking advice and opinions from each other before bringing it publicly. My principal commented saying, “Personally, I am very critical and don’t want to be overly critical if concerning a matter with an employee, so I always turn to my trusted crew to level my critical nature.” He is always looking long-term in every decision or implementation made as to be prepared for the future, he expressed. I feel this statement is consistent with my views of his leadership. As for the critical side, I missed the mark there, he is very good at masking his critical nature, but I do see after our conversation where I would miss that because he weeds out his critical nature through conversation with a small group. My counselor was very similar, and I interviewed both together, they work well together so I see the compatibility in their responses. She is big about seeking validation from others before making decisions that affect the school and how employees will perceive those decisions is important to her, “It is greatly of importance to me that I weigh others’ opinions to be considerate and sustain the positive work balance we so successfully retain.” I asked what sets our school apart from others, and their response supports my views of their leadership, both responded with our teachers and culture, but Mr. Johnson said, “Our teachers are true leaders and motivators of students in their classrooms and for us in leadership positions. We have a highly successful learning environment due to the culture created by our teachers’ commitment to producing successful, life-long learners and good people, period.” Comment by Sarah Morrison: Great idea!

To sum up what our textbook tells us about Burn’s model, transformational leadership in its ideal form, creates valuable and positive change in the followers with the end goal of developing followers into leaders. Enacted in its authentic form, transformational leadership enhances the motivation, morale and performance of followers through a variety of mechanisms. Including connecting the follower's sense of identity and self to the mission and the collective identity of the organization; being a role model for followers that inspires them; challenging followers to take greater ownership for their work, and understanding the strengths and weaknesses of followers, so the leader can align followers with tasks that optimize their performance (Hoy and Miskel 2008.) Burn’s model most closely represents the leadership in my district. Our leadership inspires and motivates, encourages and cultivates our ideas and inputs, and truly produces better leaders in our classrooms and community through his work and leadership. Factors that affect outcomes in the transactional/transformational model are perceptions of school characteristics, teacher commitment to change, and organizational learning; I confidently state that outcomes within our school system are successful in regards to this model due to positive perceptions of the school and its characteristics, teachers are committed to change and innovation, and as a whole we seek organizational learning opportunities, all thanks to highly respected and motivated leaders.

References

Burns, J.M. (1978). Leadership. New York: Harper & Row.

Fiedler, F.E. (1973). The Contingency Model and the Dynamics of the Leadership Process. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 11, 60-112.

House, R, J., and Mitchell, T. R. (1974). Path-Goal Theory of Leadership. Contemporary Business, 3, 81-98.

Hoy, W.K, & Miskel, C. G. (2008). Educational Administration (8th ed.). Boston, MA: McGraw Hill.

Kenton, W. (2020, February 5). What the Hersey-Blanchard Model Tells Us. Retrieved June 9, 2020, from https://www.investopedia.com/terms/h/hersey-and-blanchard-model.asp

Midgie, Michele, Mind Tools Content Team, Mind Tools Content Team, & Mind Tools Content Team. (n.d.). Theory X and Theory Y: Understanding People's Motivations. Retrieved June 9, 2020, from https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_74.htm

Path-Goal Leadership Theory. (n.d.). Retrieved June 8, 2020, from http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/leader/lead_path_goal.html

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