Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemCompassionate leadership in schools( 1997)This thesis explores two concepts - compassion and leadership - and their relationship to success in suburban schools of an Australian city. Compassion is a concept - an over-arching value - that is, for most people, not immediately associated with leadership. Compassion involves more than sentimental pity for another. It also involves passionate action directed towards the relief of suffering by another. Increasingly, leadership of many organisations is being seen in far more complex terms than personality or a particular situation. The important role that the values an individual brings to their organisation, and the connection of those values to success, is emerging. Compassion is a key value that is thought to be underpinning much successful leadership. The literature underpinning both compassion and leadership are reviewed. The purpose of this study is to find out what it is that principals do in exercising compassion in schools, how that compassion affects success in the school and what life influences may have caused a principal to develop compassion. Compassionate leadership by principals is studied through the development of a model which connects eleven elements of compassion - celebrative, passionately active, justice-making, benevolently loving, creative, non-elitist, networking, transpersonal, pain relieving, transcendent and fun-filled - with the four leadership frames of Bolman and Deal (1991) - the structural, human resource, political and symbolic. A questionnaire developed from this framework provides a quantitative method to find out about compassionate leadership, in particular, how those compassion elements are influenced by the four leadership frames. This quantitative approach augments a qualitative approach which involved eighteen in-depth, semi-structured interviews concerning compassion on the part of the principal during a critical incident in the life of the school. The qualitative approach of Miles and Huberman (1994) is used to better understand the interview transcripts. The quantitative and qualitative data are then synthesised. The compassionate leadership model suggested has strong statistical support that shows the relative contribution of each leadership frame to each compassion element. For example, it is shown that the celebrative element of compassion is contributed to most by the symbolic and political leadership frames and that two of the principals in the study showed clear evidence of acting in both political and symbolic ways when celebrating the lives of dead students. This may be helpful in guiding leaders to improve their compassionate stance. The relative contribution of each element in the model to compassion is suggested, with the four most important compassion elements identified as: transpersonal, pain relieving, passionately active and benevolently loving. Success in each of the schools studied is shown to have been influenced by compassionate action on the part of the principal and a number of compassion-developing influences in the lives of the principals studied are identified, such as key adults, early personal struggle and service to others at an early age. It is recommended that the compassionate leadership model be used by leaders, in conjunction with context-rich qualitative data for specific individuals, to reflect upon, and self-appraise, their own behaviour. The model can also be used as part of course work preparation of potential leaders. Recommendations for future studies include seeking student views on compassionate leadership, investigating gender differences more closely, and finding out about compassionate leadership in other cultural contexts.
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ItemFlexible leader behaviour and change management( 1999)This thesis examines the relationship between flexible leader behaviour and effective and efficient management of change at a middle level within a public sector organisation. The organisation provides programs to assist the English as a Second Language educational and vocational needs of its clients. Three major areas of recent successful change management were identified: tenders, new program provision, and audits as part of a quality assurance system. These three areas provided the context in which leader behaviour, what the middle managers actually did, was examined. The setting was four separate metropolitan centres. Twenty-eight subjects participated, seven from each centre. Theories were developed from the relevant literature about the properties of flexible leader behaviour and factors that promote it. These culminated in the design of a theoretical framework. Its purpose was to illustrate the interrelatedness and interdependence of many of the themes and factors associated with demonstrated flexible behaviour.. Three research questions guided the study. Various data collection modes were used to establish consensus for terms used and to explore leader behaviour. Analysis of the data demonstrated that the use of a Conceptual Framework Grid was appropriate and provided a second dimension in analysis, aligning behaviour with performance outcomes. The findings produced evidence of collaborative leadership in an organisation the culture of which values access and equity for all. However, no causal link was established between behaviour and performance outcomes that would hold for every occasion. Rather, it was found that clusters of factors specific to that organisation enhanced performance outcomes. Intrinsic to these factors was a predisposition for tolerant, empathetic, responsive leader behaviour that was focused on needs. The study illuminated good practice at a level that is becoming increasingly important for management in Australia.
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ItemCollaborative leadership in inner city schools of Melbourne( 1994)This thesis examines leadership and its links to success in inner city schools of Melbourne, reflecting the view that the role of leaders and the process of leadership are significant contributing factors in the achievement of successful school improvement. In Victoria at the present time there is relentless change at both the school and system level. Schools are in a constant state of reorganisation with the dismantling of centralised authorities, including support services and standard operational procedures and processes. Roles and responsibilities of school principals are being revised. Many schools are being closed down as part of the government's rationalisation policy. Others are being amalgamated. Many members of staff are being required to transfer to different schools, whilst others are taking financial "packages" and early retirement. Moreover, inner city schools are confronted with further responsibilities. Students in these schools often come from low socio-economic, non-English speaking backgrounds and have special social welfare and educational needs. Staffing arrangements must serve the specific needs of transient migrant groups and innovative curriculum provision is a necessity to target the requirements of an inner city clientele. Clearly, then, skilful and imaginative leadership is imperative to cope with such a context and to bring about success. The purpose of the investigation is to establish what it is that leaders do in these schools to achieve success and school improvement, despite the prevailing difficulties. The focus is on the notion of collaborative leadership, developed and defined in this thesis as one which is transformational and encompasses distinctive elements of collaboration. Collaborative leadership is interpreted and analysed through the four central frames of leadership - structural, human resource, political and symbolic - of the Bolman and Deal (1991) typology. A qualitative approach was seen as an appropriate means of investigation, firstly, in order to provide full descriptions and explanations of the primary data and, secondly, to capture the critical features of what it was that leaders did in their daily practice to bring success to their schools. The qualitative approach described by Miles and Huberman (1984) incorporating data reduction, data display and data collection and conclusions drawing/verifying, was adopted. The findings clearly indicate that specific collaborative leader behaviour, using a repertoire of structural, human resource, political and symbolic dimensions, can lead to success in schools. Leaders used structural arrangements to establish democratic procedures which were inclusive rather than exclusive, seeing the operation of the school as a collective responsibility of teachers, parents, and, where appropriate, students. Human resource elements brought mutual respect, as well as professional and community cooperation and support. Political leadership behaviour centred around empowerment, open and frank discussion, and a striving for consensus. Symbolic dimensions contained the beliefs, values, attitudes and norms of behaviour of leaders, denoting and directing fundamental purposes and processes. In addition, the researcher has extended these findings into hypothesised causal links, which when synthesised, offer four distinctive factors as fundamental to a fully functioning collaborative culture, namely, development of educational potential, professional development of teachers, good organisational health and institutionalisation of vision. This thesis contains no material which has been accepted for the award of any other degree or graduate diploma in any tertiary institution and, to the best of my knowledge and belief, contains no material previously published or written by any other person, except where reference is made in the text.
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ItemWe don't need another hero!: an action research study into effective leadership development in adults within a non-profit organisation( 1999)This research is a qualitative action research study to establish a framework for more effective development of leadership within adults in a non-profit organisation. It is focused upon a Leadership Community from a local parish within the Uniting Church in Australia. An initial Leadership Framework (developed from the previous experience of the researcher and from relevant scholarship) was established and as a guide for the development of leadership, in fieldwork amongst the Leadership Community. The insights and learnings from the fieldwork were then applied to re-conceptualise the Framework for further use within the wider Church, beyond the confines of this research. The fieldwork consisted in the Leadership Community's participation in eleven workshops over a period of four months. In the initial workshops, a variety of conceptual and informational approaches to teaching leadership, supported by interactive activities, was offered. Reflection upon the experiences within these workshops and additional scholarship led to a change in perspective in the subsequent workshops. Where the earlier sessions were teacher-centred and concept-driven, the later approach was participant-focused and practice-embedded. Concluding reflections and some further scholarship contributed to the reconceptualised Leadership Framework, where the notion of communities of practice became significant, as did the related notion of participation pathways and leadership identity pathways. The study therefore establishes the significance of the community learning approach, in which, the capacities of the participants are developed along with particular aspects of leadership, all embedded within the local practice of the participants. The once-lauded approach to leadership as the domain of the 'hero' is challenged by the exploration of the development of a density of 'participative' leadership practice, in which all members of a community can find legitimate leadership participation.