Cheng believes that leadership is influencing others behaviour and goal development and achievement.
Traditional leadership (transactional) theories focus on management techniques and interpersonal skills. They assume that the goals of an organisation are a given, and encourage leaders to adapt their behaviour to circumstances to work towards these goals. Largely focused on how people interact in terms of setting tasks. This is more of a manager than a leader.
A transformational perspective sees the leader as not only adapting to circumstances, but transforming them, working to shape organisation members' beliefs, values and attitudes. Organisational goals, rather than being fixed, are seen as ambiguous in a changing environment. The leader is not only focused on goal achievement, but also on goal development and organisational culture building. More concerned with setting the agenda, looking at goals and helping to facilitate the movement in new directions. Successful leaders will help their staff raise their level of awareness about certain outcomes, looking beyond their own interests to that of the team and look beyond their fixed role to seek out new and meaningful tasks.
Such observations are obvious if one works in a dynamic organisation, but I can imagine traditionally-centred organisations are not orientated to look beyond the specific roles of individuals.
P. 58 has a table that outlines the different domains and dimensions of this kind of leadership, covering everything from "Motivate members to love students and education and have a strong passion to pursue excellence in teaching and learning" to "Interpret the conflicts in a constructive way and value the importance of win-win solution".
Cheng then goes on to discuss the challenges for leaders in a climate of debate over educational quality and reform of educational practice. See p. 61 for a table that summarises different strategies for achieving education quality, including "Encourage participation and promote social interactions and positive classroom and institutional climate" and "Establish a strategic plan for institutional development".
Strategic management in educational organisations is becoming a necessity in a rapidly changing environment. Strategic leadership can be seen as leadership that allows the strategic management process, which keeps the organisation continually improving and developing, to work efficiently.
The changing educational environment is also leading to an emphasis on organisational learning. The essential question is how can leadership facilitate teachers' continuous reflection on actions and learning to improve their teaching and daily practice?
So what have I learned from this reading. It is a very hard task to do leadership well. Like many things, to do just a so-so job is not too hard, but to do it right takes commitment. I wonder how many of these leadership domains and dimensions are intuitive for experienced leaders? They may not be able to articulate exactly what they're doing and why, but I think a lot of Principals are aware of the pressures on schools and teachers, and instinctively know that they have to do more than just say "mush! mush!" and keep everyone's nose to the grindstone. They have to make what happens within schools a meaningful experience for both staff and students.
For schools to successfully manage change from print to digital environments Principals have to be committed and proactive transformational leaders. They require the long-term vision to motivate staff to embrace learning technologies rather than be managers of change.
Cheng uses other theorists' dimensions of leadership to form his own. These include:
- human leadership - develops positive social relationships
- structural leadership - develops clear goals and policies
- political leadership - builds alliances and coalitions
- cultural leadership - transforms existing values and norms of staff in the institution
- educational leadership - provides direction and advice on developments of teaching and learning.
Cheng, Y.C. (2002). Leadership and Strategy. In T. Bush & L. Bell (Eds.) The Principles and Practice of Educational Management (pp.51-69). London: Paul Chapman Publishing.
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