Search results for "leaders"
showing 10 items of 643 documents
Narratives on access to higher education : educational leadership looking beyond barriers
2017
This research aims to understand the social, economic and political complexities that surround a learner’s access to higher education in South Africa. The objective of the study is therefore to particularly examine the enabling and constraining factors in accessing higher education for the participants in the study. The study looks at the experiences of four young men and women (two men and two women) from South Africa that led to their educational achievements. It weaves their success stories through the complex interwoven social, familial, school and community environments. The narratives have been observed in con-text to existing key educational leadership theories and mainly by evaluati…
Information systems and strategy design
1999
Abstract Strategic thinking forms a wide-ranking, complex area of thought. It also seems to be an extremely interesting and important field in both management practice and literature. Recently, the areas that the different functions (like accounting, marketing, production and information systems) of firm and strategic thinking have in common have been lively discussed. In this paper, the applicability of information systems thinking to strategic thinking is outlined. For that purpose, three modes of strategy-making are explicated: strategy-making as management process, as game-playing and as leadership. In each of these three modes, the strategy design phase and especially the essentials of…
Indicators of improved learning contexts : a collaborative perspective on educational leadership
2015
The aim of this paper is to illustrate indicators for improved learning contexts based on the notion of collaborative leadership. Collaborative leadership refers to synergetic educational leadership practices through co-performance and a continuous and shared learning process. We argue that the indicators could serve as a bridge between education and the complex and increasing change within the social life and world of work. For finding the indicators, we combined two intertwining dimensions: ‘leadership in education’ and ‘education for leadership’. They were studied by a tested model describing collaborative leadership by a set of attributes. We then applied these attributes to a curriculu…
A meta-analysis of distributed leadership from 2002 to 2013 : Theory development, empirical evidence and future research focus
2015
This article provides a meta-analysis of research conducted on distributed leadership from 2002 to 2013. It continues the review of distributed leadership commissioned by the English National College for School Leadership (NCSL) ( Distributed Leadership: A Desk Study, Bennett et al., 2003), which identified two gaps in the research during the 1996–2002 period. The review found that the studies had been unable to conceptualise distributed leadership or empirically outline its application. The two research gaps identified by Bennett et al. (2003) constitute the focus of the present review, which attempts to determine whether recent research has been able to fill these gaps. Based on the find…
Symbolic leadership and leadership culture in one unified comprehensive school in Finland
2012
The research presented in this article is a description of the symbolic leadership and leadership culture in one unified comprehensive school in Finland. The study is a phenomenological qualitative case study based on triangulation. Leadership is studied through its functional, verbal and material dimensions. Leadership culture is regarded as one of the part cultures of the organisation culture. It is a product of the meaning and interpretation process which forms itself through the symbols of the principal's leadership. According to the present study, the leadership culture of the unified comprehensive school can be described as consisting of respect, communality, equality and humour.
A systematic narrative review of prosociality in educational leadership
2018
Organizational scholars have vigorously and long studied being prosocial in defining ‘prosociality’ as motivation, behavior, and impact to help or benefit others. This study attempts to provide an overview of previous studies that have approached the elements of being prosocial in educational leadership contexts. However, most of the prosocial elements in education are not explicitly defined as prosociality and have not yet been systematically studied. Thus, this study explored the research questions: (a) What elements could be involved in prosociality within educational leadership? (b) Who could be involved in the process of prosociality in educational leadership? The final corpus of this …
Work-related stress of elementary school principals in Finland: Coping strategies and support
2021
The present study aimed to investigate elementary school principals’ self-reported causes of work-related stress, their coping strategies to deal with stress and the support they need for their leadership. Seventy-six principals filled in the questionnaire, which included open-ended questions. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyse the data. The results showed that the main sources of stress were workload, interpersonal conflicts, a lack of resources and internal pressures. Moreover, principals used emotion-focused, problem-focused and social coping to deal with stress. Additionally, principals reported a need for problem-focused support and social support for their leadership. T…
Elementary school principals’ work from the ecological systems perspective: Evidence from Finland
2022
The present study aimed to investigate elementary school principals’ work from the ecological systems perspective and which elements of their work are experienced as demands or resources. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 22 principals. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyse the data. The results show that the way principals experience their work is individual and influenced by several internal and external factors. Some of the most extensive demands appear to be related to interaction with different stakeholders in situations where principals have the role of mediator in solving conflicting situations. Challenges also seem to arise in dealing with elements or issues…
The relationship between interdisciplinarity and distinct modes of university-industry interaction
2019
Abstract Interdisciplinary research (IDR) has raised increasing expectations among scholars and policymakers about its potential to produce ground-breaking scientific contributions and satisfy societal demands. While existing research highlights that novel connections across fields is beneficial for scientific contributions with high academic impact, comparatively less is known about whether IDR is positively associated to scientists’ engagement with non-academic actors. To investigate this, we examine whether there is a systematic relationship between scientists’ IDR-orientation and their interactions with industry. We conceptually distinguish four stylized modes of interaction (firm creat…
Experience discrepancy in leadership succession: Does it matter? Evidence from the Elite European Soccer Clubs (1994-2015)
2018
International audience; The level of profile similarity between the new leader and the former one matters and will affect subsequent strategic change and thus performance. An excess of exploration as well as an excess of exploitation are detrimental to future performance. When replacing a leader, owners should take into consideration the profile and experience dissimilarities between the predecessor and the successor.