The Principal:

Creative Leadership for

Excellence in Schools
By Gerald C. Ubben
Larry W. Hughes
Cynthia J. Norris

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1. The Principal: A Creative Blend of

Substance and Style
Social Systems Theory

The School Improvement Plan

The School: The Context for

Leadership
Schools as Machines
Schools as Organisms
Schools as Brains
Reflection
School expectations
Tightly Coupled and Loosely
Coupled Organization
Leadership Perspectives
Single-Loop and DoubleLoop Learning
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Bacon 2007

1.

The Principal: A Creative Blend

of Substance and Style

The Principal: The Role in

Context
Leadership as Philosophy in
Action
Espoused Values and Values in
Use
Leadership from a Values
Perspective
Shared Vision and Authority
Contrasting the Transactional
and Transformational
Ethical Responsibilities of
Transformational Leadership
Management and Leadership
Roles and Functions
Management and Leadership
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2007

A Perspective on
Leadership
The Principal Chapter 1

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Assumptions of
Transactional Leadership

Leadership is a
function of
organizational
position.
Leadership is
goal-centered
and goals are
driven by
organizational
needs.

Leadership is
bound within the
context of the
situation (tasks,
responsibilities,
and presented
problems)
Leadership is
dedicated to goal
achievement.
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Therefore Transactional
Leaders (i.e. Managers):

Control their organizations through the

manipulation of power designed to:
* Make individuals perform (task),
* Feel good about performing
(consideration), and
* Perform at their level of competency
(maturity).
- Foster, W. (1989)
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The Individualistic View of

Leadership Fails to Consider:

That leadership is
always context
bound

* It occurs in a
social community
* It is the result of
human interaction
and
negotiations

That it involves
mutual negotiations
and shared
leadership roles

* It cannot occur
without
followership
* Many times the two
are interchangeable
Foster (1989)

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Power.

Transformational leadership is
accomplished when leaders delegate
and surrender power over people and
events in order to achieve power over
accomplishments and goal achievement
Authentic accountability, the authority
to match responsibility, is granted.

- Sergiovanni (1989)
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Authorship without
power is isolating and
splintering. Power
without authorship can
be dysfunctional and
oppressive.
- Bolman & Deal, Leading With Soul,
1995, p. 108

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Bass First and Second

Order Change Theory
First Order Change
(Transactional):
Determine
subordinates needs
Seek to provide
appropriate
rewards
Respond to selfinterests that match
organizational goals

Second Order
Change
(Transformational):
Raise subordinates
awareness
Encourage
commitment to
organizational goals
Foster a broadening
of subordinates
needs and wants

-Bass (1985, p.20)

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Moral Leadership

Professional Authority (craft

knowledge and personal expertise)
and
Moral Authority (Obligations and duties
resulting from shared values and ideas)
added to
Traditional Authority

Sergiovanni

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Moral Leadership: 4
Substitutes for Leadership
Added

School Norms A
shared covenant
binds members
around common
values and beliefs.
The Professional
Ideal Members
accept responsibility
for their
professional
development and
service to students.

Collegiality
Members join
together in shared
support while still
developing selfmanagement and
self-leadership skills.
Rewarding Work
Members see their
work as meaningful
and are accountable.

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Transformational
Leadership
Such leadership occurs when one or
more persons engage with others in
such a way that leaders and followers
raise one another to high levels of
motivation and morality. Their
purposes, which might have started out
as separate but related become fused.
Burns, J., 1978, Leadership.
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Leadership is More Than

Management for
It is oriented not just toward the
development of more perfect
organizational structures, but
toward a reconceptualization of
life practices where common
ideals of freedom and democracy
stand important.
-Foster, W. (1989, p.52)
Copyright Allyn & Bacon

Transformational
Leaders

Engage with followers but from higher

levels of morality
* Goals and values are enmeshed and
leaders
and followers are raised to
higher levels of
judgment
Ask from followers
Are involved in the creation of new
social realities
- Foster, (1989)
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Such Leadership is Founded

on Moral Relationships:

It critiques social conditions (and followers

roles in maintaining those conditions).

It offers new possibilities (visions) for

social arrangements (and points out
followers roles in changing situations).

It helps to raise the followers

consciousness regarding what is and
what could be.
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2007

Four Criteria for the

Practice of Leadership

Leadership must be critical

Leadership must be transformative

Leadership must be educative

Leadership must be ethical

- Foster, (1989)
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Leadership as Educative

Fosters an analysis
* Considers organizational history, purpose, and
power distribution
* Reflects on institutional arrangements

Stimulates a vision
* Encourages consideration of alternative ways
of operating
* Raises followers consciousness of social
conditions

Leadership as Critical

Examines previous conditions of

social life and subjects them to
critiqueQuestions their
appropriateness for all individuals..

Views human beings as capable of

reordering their present conditions
(i.e. constructing their own reality)
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Leadership as Ethical

Is founded on the fact of moral

relationships
Is intended to elevate people to new
levels of morality
Is oriented toward democratic values
within community
Promotes self-reflection and yet
interdependent membership within
community.
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Leadership as
Transformative
Is

oriented toward social

change

Raises

human consciousness

Requires

believers

a community of
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Transformational
Leadership is:

A transforming practice
* It is and must be socially critical

An empowerment of followers
* It does not reside in one individual but in
the relationship between individuals

A vehicle for organizational change

* It is oriented toward social vision and
change
not simply organizational goals.
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Transformation

It happens in
It is not a radical
restructuring of a
everyday events
social order; rather
When
it is (observed) in
commonplace
small doses in the
leaders exert
activities of
some effect on
various groups and
their situations
individuals who
hope to make
some sort of
- Foster, W. (1989,
difference.
pp. 52-53).
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Cooperation
There is no enduring cooperation
without the creation of faith, the
catalyst by which human effort is
enabled
Cooperation, not leadership, is the
creative process; but leadership is
the indispensable fulminator of its
forces.
- Barnard, (1968, p.259)
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Leaders Lead By

Challenging the Process

Inspiring a Shared
Vision
Enabling Others to Act
Modeling the Way
Encouraging the Heart
- Kouzes. J. and Posner,
B., 1987,
The Leadership Challenges,
p. 8.

Copyright Allyn & Bacon 2007

Leadership, in the final analysis, is the

ability of humans to relate deeply to each
other in the search for a more perfect
union. Leadership is a consensual task, a
sharing of ideas and a sharing of
responsibilities, where a leader is a
leader for the moment only, where the
leadership exerted must be validated by
the consent of the followers, and where
leadership lies in the struggles of a
community to find meaning for itself.
- Foster, (1989, p.61)

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Leadership:
A Creative
Process
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Personal Pathways to
Leadership

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Leadership

Fosters the
Is a matter of art
rather than science
creative side of the
organization which
Is aesthetic and
is cooperation.
moral rather than
logical
Leadership is:
- Chester Barnard,
Feeling
The Functions of
Judgment
the Executive,
Sense
1968.

Balance
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The Artistry of
Leadership
Leadership is an art, a performing art.
And in the art of leadership, the artists
instrument is the self. Ultimately,
leadership development is a process of
self-discovery and development.
Leadership artistry is an awareness of and
faith in ones own values, beliefs, and
abilities which form the basis for
mobilizing others toward higher purposes
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Vertical (LHB) Thinking

1. The method of science experimentation and
induction
A. A stepwise process. One step follows another in
an unbroken sequence.
B. Must be correct at every step. This is of the
essence.
C. Selects and deals with what is relevant.
2. Analogy is that of digging the same hole deeper.
3. Highly esteemed and very valuable in scientific
and technical matters.
4. View as the development of a structure.
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1.

Lateral thinking- The

Opposite of Vertical
Thinking (RHB)
Is Not Sequential. Common method here is to
3

begin at the solution end rather than the

beginning end of the process. Jump to different
points and allow the fragments to coalesce.

2.

Does Not Have To Be Correct at Each Stage .

Judgment is suspended. The end may justify the
means. May be wrong within the frame of
reference in order to update it.

3.

Is Not Restricted To Relevant Information . Uses

random or irrelevant information to perturb the
system- something that cannot normally happen
within the system itself.
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constructive,
synthesizing,
unifying, and
interpretive, to that
extent does it
descend upon the
internal of the
individual
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Leadership
A Summary of the Principles
of Transformational
Leadership Based on William
Foster, Paradigms and
Promises, 1989
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Views of Leadership

Transactional
Transformational

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Transactional Leadership

Leadership is a function of organizational

position
Leadership is goal-centered and goals are
driven by organizational needs
Leadership is bound within the context of
the situation (tasks, responsibilities,
problems)
Leadership is dedicated to goal
achievement
Copyright Allyn & Bacon

Transformational
Leadership

Is oriented toward social change

Raises human consciousness
Requires a community of believers
(Foster, 1989)

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Leadership always has one face

turned toward change and change
involves the critical assessment of
current situations and the
awareness of future possibilities.
(Foster, p. 52 )

Copyright Allyn & Bacon

2007

Leadership is More Than

Management for
It is oriented not just toward the
development of more perfect
organizational structures, but
toward a reconceptualization of life
practices where common ideals of
freedom and democracy stand
important. (Foster, p. 52 )

Copyright Allyn &

Contrasting Leadership
Views

Transactional

Exchange
relationship
between leaders
and followers
Designed to gain
support of
followers through

Concession
Negotiations
Accommodations

Transformational

Envisions new
social conditions
Communicates
vision through

Inspiring
Transforming

Challenges
followers toward
greater human
concern
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Four Transformational
Leadership Criteria

Leaders must be
Critical
Educative
Transformative
Ethical

(Foster, 1989)l

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Critical Leaders

Examine current social conditions

and question the appropriateness of
those conditions for all individuals
Believe that individuals are capable
of improving their present
conditions

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Educative Leaders

Encourage an analysis of the

organization
Raise the consciousness of followers
Inspire a vision of alternative
organizational structures and power
distributiion

Ethical Leaders

Operate from moral relationships

Elevate followers to higher levels of
morality
Foster democratic values through
community
Encourage self-reflection and
interdependence

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Transformational
Leaders

Engage with followers from higher

levels of morality
Goals and values are enmeshed
Leaders and followers are raised to
higher levels of judgment

Ask from followers

Are involved in the creation of new
social realities

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Principal Roles

Instructional Leader
Staff Developer
Student Advocate
Community
Representative
Building Manager
Networker
YOU (Your Own
Understanding)

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Skills for School

Principals
NASSP

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Assessment Dimensions of the National

Association of Secondary School
Principals:
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.
6.

Problem Analysis
Judgment
Organizational
Ability
Decisiveness
Leadership
Sensitivity

7.

Stress Tolerance
8.
Oral
Communication
9. Written
Communication
10. Range of Interest
11. Personal
Motivation
12. Educational
Values
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Survival skills needed by

beginning school administrators:
1. Leadership
2. Planning
3. Instruction
4. Personnel
5. Law
6. Finance
7. Facilities
8. Community
Relations
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Performance domains identified by

the National Commission for the
Principalship:

Functional domains

Leadership
Information collection
Problem analysis
Judgment
Organizational
oversight
Implementation
Delegation

Programmatic
domains

Instructional
program
Curriculum design
Student guidance
and development
Staff development
Measurement and
evaluation
Resource allocation
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Performance domains identified by

the National Commission for the
Principalship:

Interpersonal
domains

Motivating others
Sensitivity
Oral expression
Written
expression

Contextual
domains

Philosophical and
cultural values
Legal and
regulatory
applications
Policy and
political influences
Public and media
relationships
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Curriculum is
Shaped by
Structure

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Structure
Philosophy
Policies
Procedures
Practices

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Part of our failure

stems from a great
irony. Those who still
live in the past
confidently set the
norms for those who
will live in the future
Goodlad, 1983
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Custodial vs. Creative

Leadership
WHAT? HOW?
Transactional
leaders focus on
improvement by
tightly coupling
(managing)
objectives,
curriculum,
teaching strategies
and evaluation.

WHY?
Transformational
leaders coordinate
through shared
values and beliefs.
They understand
that autonomy in
classrooms is
necessary for
fundamental change
to occur.
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Reform I
School District
Tightly Coupled:
What? How?
Top Down Mission
Top Down Goals

School A
What?
How?

School B
What?
How?

School C
What?
How?

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Reform II
School District
Tightly Coupled:
Why?
Shared Mission
Shared Purpose

School A
Why?

School B
Why?

School C
Why?

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