Educational Administration



Educational Administration

Introduction

Vision can provide both a corporate sense of being and a sense of enduring purpose. While incorporating a measure of today's success, vision transcends day-to-day issues. And, by providing meaning in both the present and the future, vision can empower and encourage leaders and followers to implement change (Sullivan & Harper 1996).

Leader's role in Change Environment

Change is absolutely necessary for the survival of individuals and organizations. The question isn't whether or not to implement change. Over the long run, you have no choice unless you are willing to become irrelevant. The strategic environment, over which you have little or no control, is in a state of constant change and it's your job to sense when changes in the organization are going to be necessary.

Therefore, the first real question is what role are you going to assume?

Domain defender?

Reluctant reactor?

Anxious analyzer? Or,

enthusiastic prospector?

If you choose to play only one role and that in a fixed manner over time, then you and your organization will survive for as long as the environment tolerates that role. A successful strategic leader knows which role to play at what time, and he/she knows when to change roles. Once the role is sorted out, you can ask the other really important questions: What changes are necessary and desirable? How do you go about managing change?

Strategic Leader Roles in Response to the Environment (Goffee and Jones, 1996)

Domain defender

•perceive little or no uncertainty in the environment.

Reluctant reactor

•perceive some change and uncertainty.

•not likely to make substantial adjustments until forced to do so

• may survive, but at the margins.

Anxious analyzer

•perceive a good deal of change and uncertainty.

•wait until competitors develop a response and then adopt it.

•likely to survive, if not first overrun

Enthusiastic Prospector

•perceive continually change and lots of uncertainty.

•regularly experiments with potential responses to trends,

•survives and prospers over the long run.

Leadership Theories in School Administration

The concept of management overlaps with two similar terms, leadership and administration. "Management" is widely used in Britain, Europe, and Africa, for example, while

"Administration" is preferred in the United States, Canada, and Australia. "Leadership" is of great contemporary interest in most countries in the developed World. Dimmock (1999) differentiates these concepts whilst also acknowledging that there are competing definitions:

School leaders [experience] tensions between competing elements of leadership, management and administration.

Irrespective of how these terms are defined, school leaders experience difficulty in deciding the balance between higher order tasks designed ...