11 Chapter 1 Background of the Study
1.1. Introduction
Leadership is a critical management skill, involving the ability to encourage a group of people towards common goal while leader is a person who influences, directs, and motivates others to perform specific tasks and also inspires his subordinates for efficient performance towards the accomplishment of the stated corporate objectives (Ojokuku, Odetayo & Sajuyigbe, 2012). In the study entitled the relationship between the leadership style and school effectiveness in school under the office of Secondary Education area 20 of Thailand, Boonla and Treputtharat (2013), found a strong
correlation between the leadership style and school effectiveness. Leaders strengthen the value system of the institution, establish organizational culture, inspire employees and transform the organization. They shape institutional strategies including their execution and effectiveness (Ojokuku, Odetayo & Sajuyigbe, 2012).
Significantly, Peterson and Deal (1998) affirmed that school leaders from every level are the key to shaping school culture. It is expected among school leaders that they see the bigger picture of the institution with the current practices and behavior of the people before finally choosing which of these has to remain and be maintained until it has become part of the institutional culture. On the importance of culture, Garstner, the IBM CEO during the time of its apparent downfall wrote ‘I came to see in my time at IBM, that culture isn’t just one aspect of the game - it is the game’ (Collins, 2009) which effectively works for the company in its clock building activity.
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The exploratory studies conducted by Meindl and Ehrlich (1987) revealed the significant role of leadership in the organizational performance. It must never debar the fact that leaders have different styles and adherence to various leadership principles that they perceive to be useful in leading the organization. Consequently, Ojokuku, Odetayo and Sajuyigbe (2012) clarified that leadership style is a key determinant of the success or failure of any organization. By leadership style, they mean the manner and approach of providing direction, implementing plans, and motivating people.
Moreover, Childress (2009) recognized that high performance leadership teams understand that their collective and individual behaviour casts a positive or negative shadow across the entire organization. Leaders are looked into as the standards of the organization from whom role modeling is anticipated by the people. He also observed that when members of the leadership team come into the building and head straight for their offices, head down, not interacting with anyone, that’s the story that gets talked about at the canteen and the pubs, not the speech one of them gave on employee engagement and openness. Likewise, Leitwood and Reihl (2003) emphasized the need to pursue positive interactions with the goals of fostering shared meanings, garnering resources and support and establishing productive inter-organisational relationships.
As such, the success of the organization mirrors the qualities of its leaders and so its failure. Looking at the leadership qualities that may be beneficial to the
institution, this research would zero in on the caring quality of leaders, what this quality entails and how they affect the people in the institute. All these necessitate the
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researcher to conduct a study on the leadership of principals and how it affects the educational institutions and its people. Using the Grounded Theory (GT) approach in order to come up with a model of caring leadership as perceived and experienced by the principal - leaders themselves in their desire to achieve excellence. This is an attempt to explore the phenomenon of care in the life of educational leaders in Basic Education Institutions (BEI’s) and the role it plays in their leadership.
Both organizations and the organizational leaders play complementary roles in the success of the organizations. On one hand, organizations have to create their own systems and culture to ensure development in the pursuit of excellence. On the other hand, organizational leaders are responsible in the promotion of organizational culture through the practice of organizational values. Therefore, leaders must be conscious of both their formal and informal practices that could either be instrumental in building or destroying the healthy culture of the institute. This makes the roles of the leaders crucial in the institutional success as it is largely dependent upon the kind of the leaders the institution has being the mirror of their quality leadership.
Ideally, most schools claim to be aiming at providing quality and excellent education to all the students. This is not the reality, however. There are performing and non-performing schools. This clearly manifests the discrepancy between the activities of the institutions and the institutional vision and mission and between the
organizational culture and the leadership behavior. Consequently, there is a need for the adoption of systems perspective that could instill in the mind of the people the culture of
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excellence and would direct their behavior toward achieving it. Systems are best understood as structures that assist by creating some order out of the chaotic world every organization exists in and so establish a system that moves the organization forward, Simamora (2012) explains. Henard and Roseveare (2012) argue that there must be a well-designed professional development programme for all the institutional drivers of change - the teachers, administrators and heads of the programs - based from a collaborative reflection on the quality of teaching and learning that is aligned with university values, identity and faculty expectations.
This collaborative process not only provides a firm foundation for determining the pedagogical competencies that teachers need to develop and the support they will require but also helps in building collective commitment across faculty to the objective of improving teaching quality (Henard and Roseveare, 2012). In a preliminary attempt to explore the topic, a non-formal and non-structured conversation with an educational leader led to the discovery that an effective organizational culture is when people see that their leaders are caring for them.
It all started from a story of a faculty member who needed to undergo a bypass operation after being diagnosed that some arteries of his heart were already blocked and can no longer transport blood to the rest of his body. The moment the teacher was diagnosed with heart problem the entire family was in trouble as he is the breadwinner of the family. The teacher also has to stop from work as advised by the doctor.
However, poverty hindered them from finding immediate solution to the problem as it
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entailed a lot of money. When the school principal learned about it, he asked the family how much money they have in their account and promised to shoulder the rest of the bills from the hospital to home care. The wife humbly admitted they only have more or less 30,000 pesos in their savings. When the principal learned about it, he told the family to have the operation scheduled the soonest possible time and pray that
everything would be fine with the grace of God so that the teacher may be able to work again for the family.
The successful operation happened few years prior to the exodus of teachers from private schools to public schools. This is due to attractive compensation package that public schools offer beginning from S.Y. 2016 – 2017. Out of fear that he might also lose his people, the principal called for a consultative meeting. During the meeting, the principal informed the teachers that if anyone of them is planning to transfer to public school, he will never hold him/her as it is his/her right. He also promised that he would never be an obstruction because he knew that the school has nothing to offer them but avowed to sustain educational and leisure trips for faculty and staff that he initiated.
The principal has received a very quick and positive response from his people right there and then. Some of them stood and said, they will stay in the institution.
Others said, our commitment belongs to this school. Still others who said, they will never leave him. When asked why they prefer to stay, many of them recalled what he
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has done to one of their co-workers. This story has given an idea to the researcher that it would be more inspiring to collaborate if the leaders are caring.
This encounter moved the researcher to look into the value of caring leadership in the process of collaboration between principal - leaders and teachers. This study has explored the vitality of the culture of care in educational institutions as it has not been the focus of extant literatures although its effectiveness is affirmed in health institutes (Cara, 2003; Watson, 2005; 2008). This has also attempted to bring caring leaders to educational institutions as it is in health institutions and studied its implications to educational leadership and its effectiveness.
Modelling Leadership provided a rich source of valuable insights for principal - leaders. It demonstrates the skills and abilities of caring principal - leaders in
developing and nurturing teachers and affecting organizational effectiveness. It also sought to explain the emergent caring educational leader model that could really change the organizational culture. By returning to the roots of human caring, principal - leaders can make a significant impact in their own lives, as well as in the lives of all educational partners - the teachers and staff, the students, parents, alumni and school benefactors.
To facilitate the conduct of this study on being caring educational leader, this grand tour question was raised: “Could you please tell me what educational leader is for you?”
Eventually, this led to a series of questions when the interview with the principal - participants was conducted. The decision of the researcher to stop from looking for research participant is moved by the attainment of what Glaser (2014) calls as
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theoretical sensitivity. This is when the emergent theory relative to modelling leadership has been formulated and no new emergent concept from the principal-participant has come out.
Further, this research study has explored the following areas pertinent to being caring educational leaders such as:
- How these caring principal - leaders perform in school leadership and, - How schools perform with the caring principal - leaders.
This study was conducted using the Grounded Theory approach (Glaser, 1978; 2014).
This was used in order to arrive at a substantive explanation and the comprehensive model of caring educational leadership. In addition, the GT enabled the researcher to penetrate into this school leadership phenomenon, the subject of the study, through extensive and repetitive process of data collection and analysis. Likewise, the concurring patterns of social behavior emerging from the data was defined through conceptualization. Glaser (2014) clarified how behavior patterns transcend the borders of units through the process of abstraction. As such, this was studied using GTM. This study has generated a conceptual theory that accounted for a pattern of behaviour that is relevant and problematic for those principal-participants involved (Glaser, 1978). This has also moved towards conceptual integration, the goal of classic grounded theory.
Objectives of the Study
This research explored the vitality of the culture of care in educational institutions. This is due to the fact that health institute has been affirming and confirming the significance
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of care. However, this has not become the focus of education related studies.
“Modelling Leadership” is a good point of reference in coming up with new insights in educational leadership. Consequently, the purpose of this study was to develop a grounded theory that discovers the main concern of principal - leaders in BEI’s and to explain conceptually how this concern is continually resolved in school leadership. It pursued to answer the questions based from the CGT formulas relative to the substantive area, such as:
* What is going on with principal – leaders in the action scene?
* What is the main concern of the principal - leaders in BEI’s?
* How is this concern processed or resolved?
It attempted to bring caring leaders to educational institutions as it was in health institutions and investigated its implications to educational leadership and its
effectiveness. It aimed to develop a grounded theory that demonstrates the skills and abilities of caring principal - leaders in developing and nurturing both the teachers and the learners. It also sought to explain a grounded caring principal - leader model that could change the organizational culture and behavior.
Significance of the Study
The researcher utilized grounded theory methodology in order to generate a substantive theory on becoming caring educational leader in BEI’s. It defined the behaviour or behaviour patterns based from the data and not as a result of verification inquiry. Rather, the process of abstraction (Glaser, 2014) is observed.
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Modelling Leadership is a rich source of valuable insights for principal - leaders in BEI’s that could be the basis of authentic caring educational leadership in Higher Educational Institutions (HEI’s). This involved the very practical use of a caring leadership model in developing transformative educational leaders. This created a new approach to developing educational leaders by incorporating evidence-based
educational leadership principles and theory-based caring principles. This research further spelled out how these blended principles, when taught and practiced, changed the entire culture of an educational institution.
