Chapter 4

Principal Behaviour and

Instructional Leadership
Objectives of this Chapter

• Explain how and why behaviour influences school

performance.
• Identify determinants of behaviour:
• Formal role expectations
• Personal dynamics
• Work Environment
• Analyse behaviour
• Strategy
• Centralised vs. Decentralised
• Competitive vs. Collaborative
• Style
• Control of Employees
• Autocratic
• Democratic
• Delegative
• Identify different types of power
• Legitimate
• Coercive
• Reward
• Expert
• Referent
Introduction

• Consider:
• A principal walks into the school dressed in shorts, do
you consider this acceptable? Why have you come to
this conclusion?
• What about if a PE teacher walks into a school dressed
in shorts?
Principal Behaviour
• Influencing school improvement

The expectation is that principals need to lead and

manage in ways that ensure institutional effectiveness.
Determinates of Principal
Behaviour

Personal
Facets

Work Formal
Contexts Role
Formal Role

• The expectations are conveyed to principals by the

school board through the superintendent. These
expectations and expressed through:
• A Job Description
• Performance
• Evaluation Criteria
• Policy Statements
Personal Dynamics
• Consider:
• A principal who does not believe a woman’s place to be in a work
environment. How would he treat his female faculty?
• A principal who does not know or have the expertise to set a plan.

• A principal enters the position with personal characteristics

such as:
• Psychological Needs
• Personal Values
• Philosophical disposition
Personal Dynamics

• Required Skills for administrators

Technical •Methods
•Process

Skills •Procedures
•Techniques

•Understanding behaviour
Human Skills •Engaging in collaboration
•Motivating others

Conceptual •Understanding a school as a social and political system

Skills •Understanding a school as an open system

Strategies and Styles

• Strategy: It is a broad, long term, comprehensive and

collective pattern of behaviour (Organisational Level)
• Style: Is the way of handling work responsibilities.
 Centralisation
Distribution of
Authority
Decentralisation

Strategies

Competition
Employee
Relation
Collaboration
 Styles

Supervisory Control of Employees Influencing Behaviour

Autocratic Democratic Delegative Transactional Transformational

Supervisory Control of Employees

AUTOCRATIC DEMOCRATIC DELEGATIVE

Supervisory Control of Employees

Delegative

Perfect
Leadership

Autocratic Democratic
Transactional vs.
Transformational
• Transactional Behaviour
• Motivate by the exchange process.
• Leader wants to be in control.
• May use coercion.
• Relationship is short term.

• Transformational Behaviour
• Idealised influence
• Inspirational motivation
• Intellectual stimulation
• Individualised consideration
Exercising Power
• It is defined as the ability to influence individuals and
groups.
• Legitimate Power
• Coercive Power
• Reward Power
• Expert Power
• Referent Power
Sources of Power

Legitimate
•“As principal, I am directing
you to change the way you
test your students.”
Sources of Power

Legitimate

Reward
• “As principal, I am recommending that you
change the way you test your students; and if
you comply, I will write a positive letter to
support your application for tenure.”
Sources of Power

Legitimate

Reward

Coercive
• “As principal, I am directing you to change the way
you test your students; and if you refuse, I will
officially issue you with a reprimand for your
disobedience.”
Sources of Power

Legitimate

Reward

Coercive

Expert
• “Based on my experience dealing with this problem, I advise you to
change the way you test your students.”
Instructional Leadership

“The principal of a successful school is not the instructional

leader but the coordinator of teachers as instructional
leaders.”
Carl Glickman, 1991
Instructional Leadership

Supervision v. Evaluation

• Supervision is formative – ideally leading to improved

teaching. This is where professional learning should be
generated.

• Evaluation is summative – leading to a job performance

rating.
Instructional Leadership

• A principals thoughts and beliefs (assumptions), as well as

behaviours, determine his or her overall effectiveness and in
turn the schools effectiveness.

• Page 60 and 61 > Examples

Effective Tools to Improve
Schools
• Consideration of individual school context and culture
• Parental Involvement
• Shared Vision
• External and internal support
• Focus on teaching and learning
• Ongoing, imbedded professional development
• Teacher collaboration – instructional dialogue
• Democratic, collective inquiry – action research
• Coherent improvement efforts
• Data-based feedback on improvement efforts using multiple measures