The purpose of this observational study is to establish the place of ethics and emotion in educational leadership. Deploying Michel Foucault’s foundational ethical framework, the authors argue for the necessity of constructing a personal “ethical self,” which facilitates emotionally intelligent educational leadership. The authors build two cases on Australian school principals to state the importance of assessing one’s emotions and relying on ethics when leading an educational institution; the methods of research are, therefore, solely qualitative. The tools used in this research include qualitative interviewing and interview transcripts with subsequent analysis (Niesche & Haase, 2012). Such tools, although susceptible to researcher bias to a certain extent, provide an insightful view of each individual’s experience.
The findings reveal common motives densely intertwined with Foucault’s four-step model of the ethical work a person performs on themselves, namely, ethical substance (the part of a person’s behavior subjected to ethical judgment), the mode of subjection (the way a person recognizes their moral duty), the form of elaboration (physical and mental techniques practiced to become a more ethical person, e.g., self-discipline, meditation, training, etc.), and telos (achievement of a state where a person can refer to themselves as ethical). In other words, the model is focused on creating an image of one’s perfect self and working to achieve this ideal.
One of the motives traced in the participant’s reports is emotional control in the sense of not revealing one’s emotions under any circumstances. The participants believe that, by self-discipline, one can acquire a capability to act cool-headedly and convey the impression of having everything monitored in all situations. Revealing one’s emotions under stressful conditions is believed to be an indicator of a leader’s dilettantism. Such an assumption is consistent with the perceived role of the principal, which both participants report as pace-setting. The leader acts as a role model to the subordinates and thus encourages them to resolve issues and make decisions calmly. As to the children (specifically, in situations related to their misbehavior), an overly emotional attitude has a disruptive effect on the discipline and the overall atmosphere of the scholarly setting.
The most important aspect of educational leadership, therefore, is emotional control and the maintenance of it, achieved through self-training and perseverance. The Foucauldian model is seen as a comprehensive guideline for leaders to build their ethical selves, set clear expectations, and gain self-control. The results of the study correspond with the goals initially set by the researchers and with the hypothesis that an emotional component is perceived by the shareholders as an essential part of educational leadership.
Key Stakeholders’ Perceptions of Effective School
Leadership
The purpose of this mixed-approach study is to provide the views of stakeholders on the essential qualities a leader of an educational establishment should possess. The authors refer to the students, their families, teaching personnel, coaches, and school principals as the stakeholders in question. The authors acknowledge the limited volume of literature in relation to the subject they scrutinize, and the present research paves the way to subsequent studies. The authors maintain that the stakeholders’ determination of the leadership’s qualities and actions are bound to differ; still, a consensus can be reached by singling out the most common motives in the responses, and a theory of the best traits can be formulated from these.
The methods used in the study are mixed: to collect the data from the shareholders, questionnaires were used, where the participants were asked to agree or disagree with statements concerning the key dimensions of school leadership and the desirable outcomes. The open-ended questions were also present, wherein the participants were asked to expand their answers. The researchers chose a Catholic school as a setting. The common motives encountered upon the analysis correlated with school effectiveness measured in terms of the student academic performance, goal-setting to improve this performance, collaboration and teamwork to establish the goals and design strategies to achieve them, professional development promotion, and open communication. Interestingly, distributed leadership and relational leadership were seen as the most effective styles to improve the institution’s performance.
The authors do not provide any explanation to distributed leadership apart from the directive to make teachers feel and act as leaders to enhance cooperation on all tiers. Other authors describe distributed leadership as the style that facilitates the distribution of authority and establishes a dialog between the shareholders to ensure better collective decision-making (Harris, 2013). At the same time, relational leadership refers to a model subsuming the creation of emotional bonds between the employees within an organization. In the context of educational leadership, the connection is to be established between all the shareholders, including the students and their families, as well as the outside community. The components of purpose, inclusion, empowerment, process, and – most importantly – ethics are the constituents of this leadership style. As reported by the participants, ethics and emotional support from the leadership are of great significance to the school’s performance (Odhiambo & Hii, 2012).
The results of the study are correspondent to the purpose, which was to single out the most important qualities of school leadership. Additionally, they surmise the criticality of the emotional component, which affirms the hypothesis.
Restructuring the Organization Within the Vision
Some works on educational leadership suggest that school principals can benefit from learning the corporate leadership principles and implementing their strategies just as successfully (Onorato, 2013). At that, corporations often attempt to unlock their values through structure-strategy alignment and vision implementation. Many multinational organizations floated because they could not build a new strategy around the old structure (Kaplan & Norton, 2006). A good example of timely restructuring would be the Lego case: 12 years ago, the company was on the brink of a massive collapse mainly because it could no longer meet the customers’ expectations. The appointment of Jorgen Vig Knudstorp changed the situation radically. He restructured the organization by bringing fiscal responsibility to the company and implemented the vision in a radically creative manner: Knudstorp, in fact, let the fans develop the products’ design. What was initiated as the classic turnaround, where the sales had to be increased, the debt reduced, and the credibility built, was upscaled into a powerful vision implementation movement (Feloni, 2014).
The company had to realize why it existed, what purpose it served, and why each individual effort mattered, just like every basic plastic Lego brick constituting a structure. The purpose of the Lego company was to provide constructive problems for children (and adult admirers) to solve, developing a highly commendable skill in the 21st century (O’Connell, 2009). With this in mind, the leader sets a directive to employ creative people and empower them to make decisions. The structure of the organization loosened and the top-down management style was dropped in favor of a more relaxed environment with communication running on all tiers.
References
Feloni, R. (2014). How Lego Came Back From The Brink Of Bankruptcy. Web.
Harris, A. (2013). Distributed Leadership: Friend or Foe? Educational Management Administration Leadership, 41(5), 545-554.
Kaplan, R. S., & Norton, D. P. (2006). How to Implement a New Strategy Without Disrupting Your Organization. Web.
Niesche, R., & Haase, M. (2012). Emotions and Ethics: A Foucauldian framework for becoming an ethical educator. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 44(3), 276-288.
O’Connell, A. (2009). Lego CEO Jørgen Vig Knudstorp on leading through survival and growth. Web.
Odhiambo, G., & Hii, A. (2012). Key Stakeholders’ Perceptions of Effective School Leadership. Educational Management Administration Leadership, 40(2), 232-247.
Onorato, M. (2013). Transformational Leadership Style in the Educational Sector: An Empirical Study of Corporate Managers and Educational Leaders. Academy of Educational Leadership Journal, 17(1), 33-47.