The authors propose the necessity to consider educational leadership as a process within complex, unexpected, and continuous changes of 21st century society. They suggest that the source of the educational leadership process consists of expanding learning and personal authority. The process is situated and develops within human relationships, and its main elements are synergy, shared power in terms of empowerment and shared responsibility, and transformation. They studied two long-term educational leadership processes within two large Western educational organizations through qualitative content analysis. They determined that the most influential factor between the educational leadership process and the societal change process is tensions which result in either blocks or solutions. The kind of educational leadership process that is capable of producing solutions was found to entail reciprocity of expanding learning and personal authority. Importantly, within a successful educational leadership process, there is a tight interconnection between synergy, shared power, and transformation.
TopIntroduction
Prominent scholars in the organizational field (e.g., Langley, Smallman, Tsoukas, & Van de Ven, 2013) argue that the rapidly changing social context of today requires a process perspective toward the examined phenomenon. Accordingly, in this chapter, we propose that likewise educational leadership should be examined from this perspective. The fact is that educational leadership must cope with a social change process that is complex (e.g., many simultaneously influencing factors related to culture, language, and other social issues), unexpected (e.g., the current ‘COVID-19’ situation), and continuous (e.g., the development of technology and digitalization).
Educational leadership studies that suggest applying the process perspective exist. However, existing studies concentrate on individual or collective roles, duties, positions, characteristics, practices, and results (Barnett & McCormick, 2012; Battilana et al., 2010; Van De Mieroop et al., 2019; Leigh et al., 2010). In contrast, we have examined educational leadership itself as a process to understand its inner nature.
Using a basis of many theories, for example, collaborative and relational ones (e.g., Bandura, 2000; Cloutier & Langley, 2020; Kramer & Cresby, 2011; Uhl-Bien, 2006), we first suggest that the source of the process of educational leadership is a combination of expanding learning (the collective side of the process) and personal authority (the individual side of the process). Our second conception is that the space of the process is situated and develops amid the people involved, through their relationships (Cunliffe & Eriksen, 2011; DeRue, Nahrgang, & Ashford, 2015; Uhl-Bien, 2006). This means that nobody owns or can individually control the process, although the stakeholders in an educational organization are deeply involved within it and provide the process the necessary energy. Third, we propose that the main elements from which a successful process emerges are synergy, shared power, and transformation interconnected.
Educational leadership is manifold kind of process. It is about continuous co-growth involving motivated and determined efforts to achieve something together that cannot be realized alone by any individual. It is about synergetic and collective intelligence, understanding, will, and emotions (Slater, 2005; Surowiecki, 2004). Moreover, the process is about the formulation and expression of the combined capacity of the individuals, groups, and teams within an educational organization to achieve a common good. Finally, the process is about the goal-oriented and creative development of new mindsets and attitudes in terms of shared vision, direction, opinions, ideas, aims, and objectives; these subsequently manifest as goal-oriented and purposeful activities.
Our theoretical aim is to describe the inner nature of educational leadership itself as a process: its source, space and main elements of synergy, shared power, and transformation. Our empirical aim was to examine how the theoretical frame can be realized in educational life. Importantly, we wished to find influential factors that appear to hinder the educational leadership process from proceeding, as well as factors that seem to enable an organization to successfully respond to the demands arising from complex societal change.