Leadership in Organizational Functioning Case Paper For this assignment follow the instructions: I attached resources to help. Please no plagerism, no copy

Leadership in Organizational Functioning Case Paper For this assignment follow the instructions: I attached resources to help. Please no plagerism, no copy and paste.

Instructions

Successful organizational functioning begins with effective leadership. Many different forms of leadership exist within organizations, with some leaders being more effective than others. Beginning to understand effective leadership is the first step toward operating a successful organization.

Part I: Utilize the assigned readings for the course and additional applicable scholarly sources to describe, in sufficient detail, supportive references that cite the qualities and practices of leaders needed for effective organizational functioning. Be sure to integrate both the internal or intrinsic mental beliefs, values, feelings, and emotions of leaders as well as the external or explicit behavioral practices of leaders needed for effective organizational functioning.

Part II: Interview a leader you believe to be effective within an educational setting of interest regarding what he/she believes are the qualities and practices of leaders needed for effective organizational functioning and how he or she makes use of the various perceptual roles of structure, human resources, politics, and symbols to support effective organizational functioning. Compare and contrast the results of this interview with your description in Part I of the assignment. Be sure to indicate similarities, differences, and what surprised you as a result of completing this comparison. The essence of this assignment involves an enhanced understanding of leadership needed for effective organizational functioning. Be sure to submit both your written interview questions and written notes from your interviewee’s responses.

Interview Length: 2 pages, including 10 interview questions and response notes

Analysis/Reflection Length: 4 pages

Total Assignment Length: 7 pages, not including title and reference pages

References: Minimum of 5 scholarly resources

Your response should demonstrate thoughtful consideration of the ideas and concepts presented in the course by providing new thoughts and insights relating directly to this topic. Your response should reflect scholarly writing and current APA standards. STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP IN SCHOOLS
HENRY S . WILLIAMS
Central Washington University
TERYL L . JOHNSON, TEACHER
Kittitas Secondary
Strategic leadership is built upon traits and actions that encompass the
successful execution of all leadership styles. In a world that is rapidly
changing, strategic leadership in schools guides school leader through
assuring constant improvement process by anticipating future trends and
planning for them and noting that plans must be flexible to respond to
changes. All planning and change processes must be guided by a strong
school vision. To determine how strategic leadership is perceived by
teachers in their school, a survey was administered to thirty candidates
in a school administration. Based on the analysis of the data, it can be
concluded that more work needs to be done by our school leaders to
effectively communicate the purpose of strategic plans.
Introduction
From their earliest beginnings, schools have
had the need for change and improvement.
The extent and nature of change have varied
with the needs of the time. The Industrial
Revolution led to schools adapting to produce
students ready to work in industry. Today society demands students ready to work infieldsof
technology, the sciences, worid commerce, and
other fields that demand employees who can
compete in the world marketplace. The United
States Government demands that schools and
students meet broad criteria in order that No
Child be Left Behind. The world is r^idly
changing, and schools have governmental,
public, and moral mandates to prepare their
students to be successful.
Key to schools keeping pace with the times
is Strategic Leadership. Modem educational
theory on student and school success is based
upon the fundamentals of strategic leadership
and planning. There are a number of basic
principles and tenets that define strategic
leadership, which are in harmony with many
modem principles of successful school leadership. This writing will seek to define strategic
leadership and explore the elements of it.
John J. Mauriel (1989) defines strategic
leadership by identifying some ofthe traits of
those who practice it: First, strategic leaders
have a clear vision of where their organization
should be going and can express that vision
to others and motivate them to embrace it
as well. Their zeal for the vision inspires
others within and without the organization.
Second, they listen to members of the organization to determine where things are at and
to evaluate where things need to go. Third,
strategic leaders are analysts and assessors of
their situations in terms of politics, markets,
and finances. They understand the value
and impact of the services provided by their
organization, and they know how to use that
information to adjust the mission and vision,
to mobilize resources, and to generate action.
Leadership can be defined in many categories, including symbolic, transformational,
learning-centered, constructional ist, emotional, ethical, distributed, and sustainable leadership. The term “strategic leadership” is not
a leadership category exclusive of others, but
is a “key dimension of any leadership activity
350
strategic Leadership in Schools / 351
(Davies & Davies, 2006). In other words, it is
not a leadership style in and of itself, but is a
framework upon which all successful leadership style categories should be built.
Strategic leaders begins with an organizational vision. The fundamental question
for formulation of a vision is “what will
success look like (Calder 2006, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa4057/is_200610/
ai nl719870)?” The ideal vision is authored
by all the members of an organization. It
represents important personal values, speaks
to the heart, and should be short enough so
that everyone can state it and remember it
(Mauriel, 1989). The process ofthe creation
of a vision for a school is as important as the
product, because ideally every stakeholder
should be involved.
A characteristic of strategic leadership is
that the vision is based upon what the school
needs to do to best respond to future needs for
its stakeholders. Because the future is uncertain, the vision at times needs to be adapted
or completely altered to meet the needs of
a changing world. When a vision needs to
be formed or altered, the experts need to do
this work. The experts in a school are those
whose work determines the most important
outcome, which is student leaming. These
people should be involved in deciding where
the school needs to go to improve the quality
of service provided to the students so that they
can leam and be better prepared for successful
futures. It is not a leader’s job, nor is it within
a leader’s capacity, to determine the best possible vision statement for a school. An effective leader facilitates the process of creating a
vision by the aforementioned experts.
A vision statement is like a banner toward
which efforts are directed. It is a standard by
which pohcies and decisions are measured.
Mauriel (1989), gives examples of vision
statements that changed the world: Martin
Luther King, Jr.’s statement that one day, “All
God’s children will be free at last” became
the vision ofthe Civil Rights Movement; Our
Pledge of Allegiance, which students recite
every morning in school, is a vision statement
of our national aim to become “one nation,
under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all;” Abraham Lincohi stated that
“government ofthe people, by the people, and
for the people shall not perish from the earth .
A clear, powerfiilly stated vision is vital.
Calder repeats the “universal rule of education,”
“You wuJ never be greater than the vision that
guides you (2006).” He ñirther asserts that a
school has to know what path it is on-its mission-and where this path is taking them-its
mission (2006). A vision is where the school
needs to go, and the mission is how it intends
to get there. The vision is the moral purpose or
compass that guides the direction of decisions,
poUcies, actions, and efforts of a school.
Connecting the vision again to strategic leadership is the concept that “strategy
translates the vision and moral purpose into
action”, http://ema.sagepub.com/cgi/content/
abstract/34/1/121
Putting the strategy into action requires a
number of steps. Firstly, the strategy should
be developed in concert with the staff, because again, they share the expertise on their
students. Then it should be communicated to
the staff by reiterating the strategy and helping them find ways they can contribute. Strategy does not deal with the immediate future
or the far-distant future, but the space in time
that lies in between. It deals with the time in
which we have a reasonable idea what is coming and need to set our direction now so our
work can respond to what is coming before it
arrives (Davies & Davies, 2006). Liken it to
navigating a very large seagoing vessel. The
captain has to be able to look ahead and plan
course and velocity adjustments well before
the actions must be taken in order to steer the
ship through safe waters. Keeping the ship
on course to the desired destination is very
difficult if corrections are made at the time
352 / Education Vol. 133 No. 3
that obstacles arise. Successful navigation
requires course changes to be planned prior so
the bulky vessel will begin to change course
before the obstacle arrives.
Secondly, the staff needs to build “a
common understanding of what is possible.”
There has to be an agreement within the
school of what the product of changes will
look like. An agreement has to be built that
the way the school is going is not adequate if
the school wants to be effective in the future
(Davies & Davies, 2006).
Thirdly, leadership needs to create a mental
map of or to the fiiture. Strategic leaders step
back and point out the makeup of the current
organization, and then lead others in defining
what the fiiture of the school will be. The necessity of change and motivation to do so must
come about through strategic conversations
that use information fi-om within and outside
of the school to analyze what directions need
to be taken (Davies & Davies, 2006).
Fourth, leadership needs to define what
the desired outcomes are and the steps that
need to be taken to reach them. These definitions will be developed through the processes
of working through steps one through three
(Davies & Davies, 2006).
The study
Effective strategic leaders focus on areas
of need as determined by their schools’ current state and fiiture trends. They work with
their constituencies to develop school-wide
change targets and empower individuals and
departments within the school to develop
their own smaller-scale targets to steer the
school toward the larger ones. When changes in ways to reach targets need to be made,
or when targets need to be adapted, strategic
leaders respond to the need by making adjustments in direction, while keeping the vision.
To determine how strategic leadership
is perceived by teachers in their school districts, a survey was adapted fi-om “Improving
Strategic Planning: A McKinsey Survey” and
administered to twenty candidates in a school
administration. The survey instrument has six
broad questions with listed items. The six
broad questions are: (1) Which choice best
describes the way important strategic decisions are made in your school? This question
has 6 variables. (2) How would you describe
the role that the strategic planning process
plays in developing your school’s strategic
plan? This question has five variables to
select fiom. (3) Which of the following role
does the school board play in your school
district? This question has five variables. (4)
Of the following potential changes in your
school’s approach to strategy development,
which would you choose to implement if you
could? This question has nine variables on
a rating scale. (5) As a school leader, which
of the characteristics will define your school’s
formal strategic planning process? This question has nine variables on a rating scale.
(6) Which of the following statements accurately characterize the discussions that take
place among participants during your school’s
strategic planning process? This question has
seven variables on a rating scale. (7) Which of
the following activities are performed by the
person or group making strategic decisions in
your school district? This question has seven
variables on a rating scale. After the administration of the survey to the subjects, the data
was entered in Statistical Package for Social
Science (SPSS) for a frequency analysis.
Results
In reference to question (1), which choice
best describes the way important strategic decisions are made in your school? Forty percent of
the subjects said, with formal strategic-planning
process, and another 40% said by the principal.
For question (2) how would you describe the
role ¿lat the strategic planning process plays in
developing your school’s strategic plan? Forty
percent oftíiesubject said, it is extremely signif-
Strategic Leadership in Schools / 353
I will
not
choose
Improve sehool alignment
with Strategie plan
90%
10%
Develop method to motiitor
progress against strategic plan
80%
20%
Improve identification of the focus
on important strategic issues
80%
20%
Improve quality of strategydevelopment discussions
90%
10%
Reduee inappropriate influence of
persona! agendas
70%
30%
Increase discussions among
business units
30%
70%
Improve efliciency of panning process
60%
40%
Increase involvement of
superinËndent and advisory board
40%
40%
Increase involvement from all
levels of school
60%
40%
Exemplary
extent
I will
choose
Responses to question 5.
Sufficient extent
Responses to potential changes
in your school’s strategy
development…
Table 2.
Some extent
Table 1.
5. As a future school leader, which of the
characteristics will define your school’s formal strategic-planning process? See results in
Table 2 below.
Leads to strategic decisions that
allow the school
to meet its goals
and challenges
20%
50%
30%
Assesses AYP
risks as well as
benefits
20%
60%
20%
Little extent
icant, 20% said veiy significant^ and 30% said
somewhat significant On question (3) Which of
the following role does the school board play in
your school district? This question is answered
by selecting “little extent”, “some extent”, “sufficient extenf’, and “exemplary extenf’. (a) sçproval offinalstrategic plan, 60% of the subject
said to a sufficient extent; challenges emerging
strategic plans, 80% said some extent; monitors
performance against plans, 60% of the subject
said to some extent, and 40% said to a sufficient
extent. About identifying key strategic issues,
50% said to some extent, and 40% said to sufficient. When it comes to help develop strategic
content, 80% said to some extent, 10% said sufficient extent, and another 10% said exemplary
extent.
In reference to question 4, “Of the following potential changes in your school’s approach to strategy development, which would
you choose to implement if you could?” See
results in Table 1.
Is fact based
60%
30%
Ensures that
those who carry
out strategy are
involved in
making it
20%
30%
50%
Ensures that participants receive
worthwhile analyses, information
at right times in
process
20%
40%
40%
Incorporates
priorities of employees from all
levels of school
10%
20%
60%
10%
Emphasizes
substantive discussion of issues,
not process
10%
30%
40%
20%
Builds shared
understanding of
market dynamics
20%
40%
30%
Focuses on most
important strategic issues facing
school, not
tactical issues
20%
60%
20%
354 / Education Vol. 133 No. 3
Sufficient
extent
20%
40%
30%
Exemplary
extent
Some extent
10%
Exemplary
extent
Little extent
Discussions inelude the most
knowledgeable
and influential
participants
Sufficient
extent
Responses to question 6
Responses to question 7.
Some extent
Table 3.
Table 4.
Little extent
In reference to question 6, “Which of the
following statements accurately characterize
the discussions that take place among participants during your school’s strategic-planning
process? See response in Table 3.
Identifying key
strategic issues
for senior
management
team
10%
20%
50%
20%
Developing
content for
Strategie plans
10%
10%
50%
30%
20%
. 30%
30%
Preparing
extemal^oard
presentations
Discussions
stimulate and
challenge
participants’
thinking
20%
Discussions
result in
progress toward
an effective
strategy
20%
20%
60%
40%
50%
20%
40%
20%
Participants
feel free to
discuss difficult
issues openly
and honestly
10%
Participants are
willing to put
aside their personal agendas
10%
20%
40%
30%
Discussions
stimulate and
ehaltenge
participants’
thinking
10%
10%
50%
30%
Diseussions arc
lively
10%
20%
40%
30%
Question 7 asked “Which of the following activities are performed by the person
or group making strategic decisions in your
schools? See results in Table 7 below.
Managing
process of
developing
strategy
10%
10%
60%
20%
Engaging
in internal
consulting
activities
10%
40%
40%
10%
Developing
metries, measuring strategic
performance
10%
30%
40%
20%
According to Marion “Strategic planning
is a rational approach to planned change”
(2005, p. 263). In our current environment,
being an effective school leader has never
been easy. As the educational environment
becomes more complex and the demands on
schools increase, the solution cannot be longer and more detailed school plans (Davies
& Ellison, 1998). To create flexibility and
strengthen operations, especially in times of
turbulence, the focus should not only shift to
leaming outcomes, support for quality teaching and leaming, but also on management that
reinforces them, and above all, center operations around the school’s articulated vision.
In short, schools on all levels plan activities,
set a time frame for them, determine who
Strategie Leadership in Schools / 355
will be responsible for the execution of the
activities, and what they will cost-with this
fi-amework occurring on all levels within the
organization (Davies & Ellison, 1998).
In conclusion, strategic leadership is vital to the successful operation and progress
of schools. Educational operations have to
change in response to changing times. Responses to change need to be determined
by planning processes that anticipate future
trends. Plans that respond to trends have
to be built around an articulated vision that
is developed, fostered, and embraced by the
stakeholders in the school. Strategic plans
have to be specific enough to provide strong
direction, but must be flexible enough to be
adapted to turbulence, or rapid change, because no one can predict exactly what the
future will be. The vision is the compass that
keeps the school on the right course.
References
Calder, Berry Wm. (2006). Educational leadership
with a vision. Retrieved March 7, 2010, from http://
findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa4057/is
200610/
ai nl719870
Caldwell, Brian J. (2004). A strategic view of efforts to
lead the transformation of schools. School Leadership & Management. 24(1). 81-99.
Caldwell, Brian J. (1999). Education for the public good:
strategic intentions for the 21st Century. In Marsh,
David B. (Ed.), 1999 ASCD Yearbook: Preparing
Our Schools For the 21st Century (pp. 45-64). Alexandra, VA: ACSD.
Davies, Barbara ¡. & Davies, Brent J. (2006). Educational management administration & leadership.
Retrieved March 7, 2010, from http://ema.sagepub.
com/cgi/content/abstract/34/1/121
Davies, Brent & Ellison, Linda. (1998). Strategic planning in schools: an oxymoron? School Leadership
& Management, 18(4). 461-473.
Dimmock, Clive & Walker, Allan (2004). A new approach to strategic leadership: leaming-centredness,
connectivity and cultural context in school design.
School Leadership & Management, 24(1), 39-56.
Glanz, Jefi&ey. (2006). What Every Principal Should
Know About Strategic Leadership.
Retrieved
March 2, 2010, from http:/^ooks.google.com/
booksid=abTZUbfUNccC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_navlinks_s#vonepageáiq=&f=false
Guthrie, J.W. & Schuermann, P. J. (2010). Suceessful
School Leadership, Planning. Politics, performance,
and Power. Allyn & Bacon, Boston.
Lieber, Ralph H. (1984). Your mission: deploy strategic
planning in schools. The Executive Educator. 6(3).
26-27, 29.
Mauriel, John J. Strategic leadership for schools. San
Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Russ, Marion. (2005). Leadership in Education. Waveland Press, Inc. Long Grove, Illinois. The McKinsey
Quarterly (July/Aug. 2006). Quarterly survey of
business executives.
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