The Principal Leadership in Islam: Its Traits and Role Model in Shaping Character of School Members

Introduction

Humans are social creatures. In achieving their life goals, they interact with each other and engage in communication with. Through interaction and communication, humans share ideas and views to develop their creativity. The similarity of ideas and views leads people to create a group and even an organization to work together. For instance, they create organizations as a forum that allows them to work together effectively in order to achieve the goals. As a human, we cannot be separated from a group or organization since it involved more than two people to have and attain a particular goal. According to Fritz, an organization can be differentiated into for-profit and non-profit organizations (Fritz, 2019). He defines that a for-profit organization is incorporated with a primary objective of earning economic and monetary benefits either directly or aiding in that process. However, a non-profit is not incorporated to earn some income from its activities rather their primary motive is to enable activities which are generally for aiding or advancement of the society at large. The non-profit organization concerns with a legal institution or public institution. A school can be classified into both of them depending on the purpose and the owner. A school that is established for the sake of advancement of society at large and under the auspices of the government is a non-profit one. Nevertheless, a school that is controlled by a group of people and managed for income is a for-profit one. Regardless of these kinds of organizations, a school is an educational institution that consists of various components. They are educators and educational staffs, infrastructures, curriculums, finances, and students. It is a complex and unique institution. It is complex because a school is an organization that has several dimensions which are interrelated and mutually determined. Meanwhile, it is unique because a school has certain characteristics that are different from other organizations. The main characteristics are teaching and learning process and a place for the cultivation of human life. Because of its complexity and uniqueness, a school as an organization requires a high level of coordination in its management.

In a school, it takes a leader to manage it all. Talking about leader is talk about a leadership because the success of a leader depends on how they manage their organization. Similarly, the success of a school is determined by the success of the principal in leading and directing his school through his role as a leader. Zenger et al, affirm that an effective management cannot effortlessly be separated from an organization and its mission. The norms, cultures and processes of an organization make up the degree on which the management drama is played, and that degree has a massive bearing at the achievement of the leader (Zenger et al., 2000). The success of a principal in carrying out his duties is determined by the principal leadership. The principal leadership is the most important factor in supporting the achievement of school organizational goals. If the principal is able to mobilize, guide, and direct the teachers, education staffs and students appropriately, all activities in the school organization will be accomplished effectively and efficiently. In carrying out the leadership function, the subordinates have to be managed and guided through the management of principal leadership. Therefore, the principal as a supervisor serves to supervise, build, correct, and seek initiatives for the course of all educational activities carried out in the school environment. In addition, the principal as an educational leader functions to create harmonious human relationships in order to foster and develop interpersonal cooperation so that the subordinates simultaneously move towards achieving goals through the willingness to carry out their respective duties.