Introduction: Leadership in the XXI Century and the Related Concerns
Choosing a leadership approach is a very responsible and, therefore, complicated task. It is especially hard to decide on the leadership model in educational setting, seeing hw the choice of the model affects the students’ performance, as well as their attitude towards learning (Clawson, 2006). Despite the fact that each model has its doubtless advantages, the transformational one seems to be more reasonable to choose, since it allows for shaping students’ attitude towards studying (Tichy & Devanna, 1986).
People-Oriented Leadership: When the Students Are the Key Priority
One of the first leadership theories to mention, the people-oriented one presupposes that the focus should be on people’s individual needs. Unfortunately, in educational setting, the given approach can hardly be possible.
Task- Oriented Leadership: Performance in the Limelight
Task-oriented leadership theory, on the contrary, points at the necessity to consider the lesson goals as the key priority. Thus, the communication process between students and a teacher can suffer greatly once the given model is applied.
Transactional Leadership: What the Teacher Says
Presupposing that the students’ actions should deepen on the teacher’s guidelines, transactional leadership style does not seem to develop academic independence in students.
Bureaucratic Leadership: The Letter of the Law
As the name indicates, bureaucratic leadership is based on following the prescriptions instead of dealing with actual problems. A truly by-the-book approach, it can hardly help in dealing with real-life situations. Therefore, when it comes to learning, bureaucratic approach can hardly be considered as a legitimate strategy (Wren, 1995).
Autocratic Leadership: Obedience Before Performance
In educational setting, the idea of having a tight control over the learning process might seem inspiring. However, when it comes to analyzing the results that the use of autocratic leadership strategy leas to, the phenomenon of students developing lack of confidence and low self-esteem can be observed (Yuki, 2006).
Democratic Leadership: the Voice of the Majority
Although it is important to introduce democratic principles into the learning process, basing every single decision on the voice of the majority seems unreasonable in classroom settings, since in some cases, students might be unaware of the educational opportunities that they might miss.
Laissez-Faire Leadership: When too Much Freedom Causes Troubles
In contrast to the authoritative type of leadership, the given strategy presupposes that the students should solve minor issues on their own. However, in practice, excessive freedom leads to students developing lack of confidence and fear of making mistakes. Therefore, it is reasonable that the given strategy should be supported by another one that will allow a close supervision of students’ performance.
Charismatic Leadership: Following into the Leader’s Footsteps
The idea of having a live role model for students to follow seems rather alluring, and the introduction of charismatic leadership into the list of a teacher’s strategies seems acceptable. However, relying on the charismatic leadership strategy presupposes that the students should learn to develop a specific set of qualities instead of analyzing their own assets and coming to grips with their own selves, which means that charismatic leadership should be used together with another leadership style (Avolio & Yammarino, 2002).
Transformational Leadership: Recognizing the Necessity to Change
Perhaps, one of the most recent and by far the most popular theory of leadership, the transformational model seems the most fortunate invention of the XX century. It is remarkable that the transformational model, though often used in business as the means to encourage employees deliver the top performance, is also quite popular in the field of education, seeing how it allows for providing students with motivation. The latter being the key to students’ success and performance improvement, it is obvious that the transformational model can and must be used in all educational establishments as the guiding principle for teachers and students. When analyzing the benefits and disadvantages of the transformational leadership model, one must mention the following features:
Target
While the rest of the leadership strategies are aimed at having certain result produced, e.g., a specific set of data acquired, or particular skills learned, the given leadership theory is aimed at reinventing the students’ perception of what learning is and what they need it for. It is crucial that in the process, students’ motivation shapes, which means that the teacher has to appeal to each student’s personal needs and ambitions.
Therefore, while with the rest of leadership types, the effects are most likely to disappear as soon as the leader steps down, the students guided by the principles of transformational leadership are likely to be able to continue the learning process by using the principles of self-education. Therefore, in some way, transformational leadership theory creates the premises for students developing tendencies for lifelong learning.
Ethics
As it has been stressed above, the key peculiarity of the transformational theory concerns the fact that it changes not the learning process, but the students’ attitude towards the learning process, therefore, shaping the organizational behavior of the former and introducing a new set of ethical principles to them. In that sense, transformational theory comes very close to the people-oriented, or, as it is often called, relations-oriented theory of leadership, which is also focused on shaping organizational behavior in order to promote better cooperation between the members of a specific team or organization. The transformation model, however, works through the enhancement of the moral code accepted in an organization, whereas a relations-oriented leadership theory focuses on the way in which the postulates of this moral code are put into practice.
Motivation
It is important to stress that the transformational model is aimed at helping students to understand why it is important for them to excel in their academic life. In contrast to the other models listed above, which presume that the students already are motivated enough and only need guidance, the transformational model allows for starting from scratch, which is especially important for the students who need to improve their score (Jossey-Bass Publishers, 2000).
Outcomes
As it has been stressed, what makes the given theory so effective and perfect for using in any settings, whether business or educational, is the fact that it leads to the transformation in attitude and, therefore, in personality. Apart from being taught to shape their attitude towards the job that they have to do or the information that they have to learn, students are most likely to get the instructions on the process of self-education, therefore, being given an opportunity to become lifelong students. That being said, it must be admitted that, of all possible leadership models that can be used in educational setting, the transformational model makes the most sense.
A Look into the Future: The Possible Avenues of Leadership Theories Evolution
Despite the fact that transformational leadership itself cannot be considered a panacea that can help deal with any educational issues without actually resorting to making any kind of effort, it still proves to be an efficient means to encourage students to learn more and take responsible approach towards studying. Therefore, transformational leadership should be adopted statewide as the basic principle that a typical learning process must be based on.
Reference List
Avolio, B. J., & Yammarino, F. J. (2002). Transformational and charismatic leadership: The road ahead. San Diego, CA: Emerald.
Clawson, J. (2006). Level three leadership: Getting below the surface (1st ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc. A Pearson Education Company.
Jossey-Bass Publishers (2000). The Jossey-Bass reader on educational leadership. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Tichy, M. N. & Devanna, M. A. (1986).The transformational leader: The key to global competitiveness (1st ed.). New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Wren, J. T. (1995). The leader’s companion: Insights on leadership through the ages. New York, NY: The Free Press.
Yuki, G. A. (2006). Leadership in organizations. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.