The sources of authority for leadership

EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP
Sources Assumptions when use Leadership/Supervis Consequences
IN EDUCATION of this source is primary ory strategy

Bureaucratic Teachers are subordinates “Expect and inspect”

inspect” is With proper
authority: in a hierarchically arranged the overarching rule. monitoring
Hierarchy system. Rely on predetermined teachers
Supervisors are standards, to which respond as
FR. ALAN SCERRI Rules and
regulations trustworthy, but teachers must measure technicians,
subordinates are not. up. executing
(teachers predetermined
comply or face Goals and interests of Identify their needs and
teachers and supervisors “in- scripts, and their
consequences) in-service”
service” them.
M.Ed. (Educational Leadership) are not the same, and Directly supervise and
performance is
supervisors must be narrowed.
closely monitor the
University of Malta watchful. work of teachers, to
Hierarchy equals expertise, ensure compliance.
and so supervisors know Figure out how to
more than teachers do. motivate them and get
External accountability them to change.
1 works best. 2

Supervisors must be
Personal authority The goals and Develop a school Teachers respond as experts in reading
Motivational interests of teachers climate characterized required when needs and in other
technology and supervisors are by high congeniality rewards are available, people-
people-handling
Interpersonal skills not the same but can among teachers and but not otherwise; skills, to barter
Human relations be bartered so that between teachers and their involvement is successfully for
leadership each side gets what it supervisors. calculated and compliance and
wants. “Expect and reward.”
reward.” performance is increases in
(teachers will want to
Teachers have needs, narrowed. performance.
comply because of the
congenial climate and and if they are met at “what gets rewarded
the rewards.) work, the work gets gets done.”
done.”
done as required. Professional Situation of practice Promote a dialogue Teachers respond
Congenial authority are idiosyncratic, and among teachers that to professional
relationships and a Use psychological Informed craft no one best way explicitly states norms; their
harmonious authority in knowledge and exists professional values practice becomes
interpersonal climate combination with personal expertise Scientific knowledge and accepted tenets collective, they
make teachers bureaucratic and and professional of practice. require little
(teachers respond in
content, easier to technical-
technical-relational knowledge are Translate them into monitoring, and
light of common
work with, and more authority. different, with professional their performance
socialization,
apt to cooperate. professional values, professional standards. is expansive.
accepted tenets of knowledge created in Give teachers as
practice and use as teachers much discretion as
3 internalized expertise.) practice. they want and need. 4

Moral authority Schools are Identify and make Teachers respond to

The purpose of Require teachers to
Felt obligation and professional learning explicit the values and community values
scientific knowledge hold one another
duties derived from communities. beliefs that define the for moral reasons;
is to inform, not accountable for
widely shared Communities are centre of the school as their practice
prescribe practice. meeting practice
community values, defined by their a community. becomes collective,
Authority cannot be standards
ideas, and ideals. centres of shared Translate them into and their
external but comes Make assistance, performance is
(teachers respond to values, beliefs and informal norms that
from the context support and expansive and
shared commitments commitments. govern behaviour.
itself and from professional sustained.
within the teacher. development and felt In communities, Promote collegiality as
opportunities interdependence.) what is considered internally felt and
Authority from
available. right and good is as morally driven
context comes from
important as what interdependence.
training and
works and what is Rely on the ability of
experience.
effective; people are community members
Authority from motivated as much to respond to duties
within comes from by emotion and and obligations.
socialization and beliefs as by self-
self-
internalized values Rely on the
interests; and community’
community’s informal
collegiality is a norms to enforce
professional virtue. professional and
community values

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• Follow me leadership:
• it cannot work without some external force that pushes or pulls • Instead of relying on rules and interpersonal
people in a desired direction
• It requires follow up in the form of monitoring, to ensure that skills, leaders will be able to rely on standards of
the desired movement continue.
• Skilfully practised it gets people to cooperate, but it cannot
practice and professional norms as reasons for
inspire the kind of commitment that will make schools work well doing things. Leadership itself will become less
as it tends to induce some sense of subordination.
• Moral leadership:
direct and intense as standards and norms take
• Leadership is based on moral authority. Teachers are expected hold (Sergiovanni
(Sergiovanni,, 1992)
to respond to shared commitments and felt interdependence.
• Instead of asking the “why?” or “who to follow?” question in • The norms and values associated with
doing things, the members start asking “what to follow?” – the professionalism as well as the norms and values
shared values and beliefs that define us as community and the
ideals that define us as professionals. that define the school as a learning community,
• Than we will ask “why?”, because it is morally right to do so. It will become substitutes for leadership.
is our duty and obligation.
• “Whom to follow?” – ourselves as morally conscious and
committed people.
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The Head, Heart and Hand of Leadership Moral authority or covenant of shared values
• The heart the head the hand • From Moral or Sacred authority are derived values as
(what I value (my mindscape (my decisions, purposing, or building a covenant of shared values, one
and believe) of how the world actions and that bonds people in a common cause and transforms a
works) behaviour)
behaviour) school from an organization into a community.
• Schools based on a value system:
¾ They all focus on a particular group of people, ‘a
• The head of leadership has to do with the mindscapes, or chosen people’
people’. Membership automatically provides
theories of practice, that leaders develop over time, and with emotional security.
their ability in light of these theories to reflect on the situation
situation ¾ They all promote a particular way of organizing society,
they face. a belief that provides an emotional identity.
• Reflection combined with personal vision and an internal system ¾ They all require an emotional stimulus, such as a
of values, becomes the basis of leadership strategies and actions.
actions. mission, a sense of purpose or a covenant of shared
• If the heart and the head are separated from the hand, then the values which represents the core that defines the group
leader’
leader’s actions, decisions and behaviour cannot be understood. as a community.
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EmileDurkheim:
EmileDurkheim: “The Division of Labour in • In communities it is the authority of virtue not
society”
society” the power of position that licenses one to lead.
• “When we are without values, goals and norms we become Virtue is embedded in what a community shares
alienated from ourselves, from others and ultimately from
society, with all the imaginable negative consequences”
consequences”. and in its collective wisdom.
• Involvement in community has three elements:
¾ Duty; implying a sense of self-
self-constraint through duty to • Plato – ‘Utopia’
Utopia’:
collectivity
¾ Attachment,
¾ “Until…
Until…political greatness (leadership) and
Attachment, involving a sense of membership, commitment
and identity with the collectivity.
collectivity. wisdom meet in one, and those commoner
¾ Self-
Self-determination,
determination, involving knowledge, and a rational sense natures who pursue either to the exclusion of
of awareness regarding the reasons for duty and attachment to
the collectivity the other are compelled to stand aside, cities will
• When the collective conscience is lost, we are deprived of never have rest from their evils – no nor the
opportunities to respond to duty, to become attached, to express
self-
self-determination. This leads to a sense of normlessness and human race.”
race.”
disconnectedness.
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The notion of “Covenant”
Covenant” in schools
• Purposing involves both the vision of school leaders
and the covenant that the school shares…
shares….A covenant
provides the added dimension of values and moral
authority to make purposing count.
• The school’
school’s covenant;
covenant; it is not enough for schools to
be successful to have worked out what people stands
for and what is to be accomplished. A binding and
solemn agreement must emerge, one that represents a
value system for living together and forms the basis for
decisions and actions.
• A covenantal relationship rests on a shared
commitment to ideas, to issues, to values to goals.
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Leader as servant
• One dimension of the professional virtue is the
caring ethic. Caring places teachers and
administrators in the service to others.
• As servant, the school fully accepts its
responsibility to do everything it can to care for
the full range of needs of its students, teachers
and parents.
• Students are served in many ways. One way to
respect and serve them is to share time with
them. Since time is a scarce resource, how it is
used communicates powerful messages.
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• The leader understands that serving others is
important but that the most important thing is
to serve the values and ideas that help shape the
school as a covenantal community. In this sense
all the members of a community share the
burden of servant leadership.
• The effectiveness of a leader lies in his ability to
make activity meaningful for those in his role set
– not to change behavior but to give others a
sense of understanding what they are doing and
especially to articulate it so that they can
communicate about the meaning of their
behavior?
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• “covenants are solemn and binding agreements
between tow or more parties that provide
reciprocal rights, duties, and obligations on the
one hand, and guidelines for action, on the
other. They define how one should live as an
individual and one’
one’s collective life as a member
of the community”
community” (Sergiovanni,
Sergiovanni, 1992)
• Covenant must be built from the bottom up, up, as
the school strives to complete the
transformation from organization to
community.
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The Leader: the one who serves
• The caring ethic. Caring places teachers and
administrators in service to others. As servant, the
school fully accepts its responsibility to do everything it
can to care for the full range of needs of its students,
teachers and parents.
• One way to respect and serve students is to share time
with them. Since time is a scarce resource, how it is
used communicates powerful messages.
• Invites participation from all members of the school
community in shaping decisions that concerns the
school, therefore their role as part of the school
community.
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• Principals have special stewardship obligations
1. They must plant the seeds of community
2. Nurture budding community and protect the
community once it emerges. To do this:
¾ They lead by following
¾ They lead by serving
¾ They lead by inviting others to share in the
burdens of leadership
¾ They lead by knowing
¾ They lead by being
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• What do principles do in schools that are
becoming communities of leaders?

• Many things. They preach and teach, they

encourage, they help, and sometimes they even
yell and tell. But mostly they serve.

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