Leadership Agency Research Articles

Leadership Agency in UN Peace Operations

ABSTRACT There is a growing interest in the role of individual mission leaders in UN peace operations in peacekeeping studies. However, the concept of ‘agency’ has remained latent in much of this literature. This omission presents a risk of concept stretching and concept ambiguity as scholars continue to explore this topic. In this paper, I analyse the different ways in which the agency of mission leaders has been (implicitly) conceptualized thus far and argue that the existing literature pays insufficient attention to how the scope for individual agency can be context-dependent. Furthermore, I contend that mission leaders are too rarely seen as real human beings, with personalities, background experiences and values. I build on sociological and principal/agent-theories to develop the concept of ‘personal identity’ and then formulate a set of conditions under which the room for individual agency in UN peace operations is enhanced or reduced. Subsequently, I demonstrate the added value of this approach by conducting an illustrative case study of Patrick Cammaert’s tenure as Commander of MONUC’s Eastern Division between 2005-2007. The article shows that investigating the interaction between structure and real-world agents leads to a more holistic and sophisticated understanding of the behaviour of peacekeeping leadership.

Implementing along a Continuum: Comparing the Embedded Agency of Leaders and the Coupling Orientation of Educational Systems

Implementing along a Continuum: Comparing the Embedded Agency of Leaders and the Coupling Orientation of Educational Systems

The role of the school head in inclusion and culturally responsive leadership

ABSTRACT This paper aimed at exploring the challenges of implementation of culturally responsive leadership in Greek schools. Personal interviews with 10 secondary school principals in the Attica region were used to collect qualitative data. The following main themes emerged: (1) The application of moral values and inclusiveness begins with school leadership agency; (2) Understanding the practical application of culturally responsive leadership contributes substantially to the effective inclusion of ALL students. Therefore, by exploring the perceptions of school leaders we can gauge the nature and philosophy of the school system. In conclusion, recognizing the importance of culturally responsive leadership and its practice in a school environment would significantly contribute to the harmony of the school system and community.

Principal Accompaniment in Australian Faith-Based Schools: A Salutogenesis Approach.

A program designed to provide accompaniment reflects a salutogenesis emphasis aimed at sustaining the professional well-being of experienced principals. A mixed methods pilot study focused on participant (N = 12) orientation, principles of accompaniment, mission-aligned processes, leadership agency, structured conversations, and nominated outcomes. Data were collected over twelve months at three stages using online survey. Australian Catholicprincipals reported a positive orientation experience, professional well-being, the comprehensiveness of the program, and the manageability of its implementation. Discussion confirmed design elements contributed to the wholistic nature of accompaniment linking body, mind, and spirit in conversational processes and the transformative effects of these exchanges on professional practice and well-being.

Agentic Leadership: Principals’ Agency During the COVID-19 Crisis

ABSTRACT This research aimed to examine school principals’ perceptions and practices during the COVID-19 period through the perspective of school leaders’ agency and proactive coping role when facing adversity and crisis. For this purpose, we interviewed 60 principals of elementary, middle, and high schools. Interview analysis yielded five categories of leaders’ agency during the COVID-19 crisis pertaining to principals’ proactive creation of opportunities in the following fields: (1) principalship; (2) pedagogy; (3) professional development; (4) role autonomy; and (5) relationships and connections with various communities. The study expands knowledge identifying the perceptions and practices embodied in leadership agency.

Analisis Bahan Ajar Maharah Qira’ah di SMP Muhammadiyah 3 Yogyakarta Berbasis CEFR

This study aims to analyze the teaching materials of Arabic maharah qira'ah in class IX of SMP Muhammadiyah 3 Yogyakarta. This research is a library research (literature study). In this study, there are two data sources used, namely primary and secondary data sources. The primary data source is taken from the book Arabic Language Education SMP Muhamamdiyah Class IX by Anji Fathunaja, S.Pd.I. and Sugeng Riyanyo, S.Pd.I. published by the Muhammadiyah Central Leadership Agency in 2018 Primary and Secondary Education and European Language Learning Outcomes Standards (CEFR). While secondary data sources are books, journal articles, and sites that discuss the analysis of teaching materials for maharah qira'ah as well as references that support this research. The data analysis technique uses descriptive analysis techniques. After the data obtained then describes systematically the results of the research. The results of the research on the analysis of Arabic maharah qira'ah teaching materials in class IX SMP Muhammadiyah 3 Yogyakarta, state that the Arabic Language Education Book SMP Muhammadiyah 3 Yogyakarta has been arranged systematically and interestingly, so it is suitable to be used as a textbook in Arabic language learning and more specifically in maharah qira'ah, because the book has presented materials related to students' spiritual attitudes and knowledge. In addition, the materials presented are in accordance with the CEFR-based learning outcome standards, and if referring to the CEFR standards, they are included in the A2/ Elementary and B1/Intermediate levels.

Transformational change in a hospital: how time and history constitute leadership agency

ABSTRACT This paper addresses a research gap in showing how the complexity of change leadership in the hospital sector can be understood in the dialectics between local leadership and its near and wider context. Specifically, leadership is connected to the history and temporality of the field as core constituents of leaders’ change agency, and politics and policy are foregrounded as temporal elements in leadership. Presenting a longitudinal study of leaders’ struggles, the paper offers novel theoretical and practical insights that raise questions concerning healthcare manageability and the scope of what is possible in leadership at a given moment in time.

Developing the social identity theory of leadership: Leader agency in leader group prototypicality

AbstractThe social identity theory of leadership is a unique perspective in leadership research in capturing how responses to leadership are informed by how the leader is perceived through the lens of the group identity shared by leaders and followers. I review the theory in broad strokes to make the case that a particularly valuable future development of the theory is to complement the theory's emphasis on group member (follower) perceptions of leader group prototypicality, the extent to which the leader is perceived to embody the group identity, with theory and evidence speaking to leader agency in influencing such perceptions.

Leadership and the Comparative Origin of Pro-developmental Ruling Coalitions in Ethiopia and Rwanda

What does it take to forge a pro-developmental ruling coalition in Africa? This paper answers this question based on a comparative study of the origin of pro-developmental ruling coalitions in Rwanda under Kagame and Ethiopia under Meles. The paper approaches the emergence of pro-developmental ruling coalitions as a collective action problem. It argues that overcoming the two collective action problems of limiting powerful actors` resort to violence in the pursuit of their self-interest; and subordinating their short-term rent-seeking interests to long-term developmental ends, are the sin quo non of forging a pro-developmental ruling coalition. Therefore, to study the origin of pro-developmental coalitions is to study society`s quest to overcome these two collective action problems. The paper maintains that in the quest to overcome these two collective action problems, the agency of leaders is critical because leaders possess a range of ideational, discursive/communicative, and organizational tools that may not be available to other actors. The paper demonstrates this by comparing the role of Meles of Ethiopia and Kagame of Rwanda in the emergence of pro-developmental ruling coalitions in the two countries. The findings of the paper contribute to the literature on coalition formation in Africa and leadership in developing societies.

More than a Number: Aging Leaders in International Politics

Abstract How does leader age affect international politics? Challenging the existing literature's focus on chronological age, we argue that leaders do not age the same in the eyes of their beholders. Combining insights from gerontology on age-related stereotypes and studies of face-to-face diplomacy, we show that judgments about age informed by high-level personal encounters have profound consequences for how elderly leaders are appraised and treated by their counterparts. A leader who betrays indicators of “senility” during face-to-face encounters will elicit harsh judgments by activating negative stereotypes about aging. Older leaders can also surprise their interlocutors: those long thought to be senile may show themselves as mentally and physically fit. Perceptions of age, in turn, shape how observers understand a leader's agency and shape decisions to “engage” or “bypass” the leader in the context of interstate cooperation. We draw on declassified primary documents to compare American views of three elderly leaders in Cold War Asia—Syngman Rhee, Mao Tse-tung, and Chou Enlai—and how such views informed Washington's approach to these leaders, finding powerful support for our arguments. Our findings suggest new insights for the IR research program on leaders as well as lessons for statecraft in an era of aging decision makers.

Breaking Binaries The Brookfield Sustainability Institute: Positioning Polytechnics As A Thought Leadership Strategic Bureau

Throughout the years there has always been a tension between the classification of Colleges with respect to Universities. In the Ontario College system there is an added complexity with a number of Colleges being named Polytechnic Institutions. At George Brown College we have created a thought leadership agency that is called the Brookfield Sustainability Institute. It is a place where global thinking and research is being applied to help solve climate change and build sustainable communities for the future.

Double-edged Sword of Leader Workaholism: Subordinate Cognitive Appraisals and Work Outcomes

Grounded on the challenge-hindrance stressor framework, this study examines how subordinates appraise work stressors, hence shaping their behaviors toward the organization. We especially argue that leader workaholism is a double-edged sword for employees, such that they may appraise leader workaholism as both a challenge and hindrance, and in turn, leader workaholism will be positively associated with organization-directed organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBO) and negatively related with organization-directed counterproductive work behaviors (CWBO), respectively. Further, we contend that prototypical leader traits, namely trait agency and communion, will moderate the positive relationship between leader workaholism and subordinate challenge appraisal, while moderating the positive association between leader workaholism and subordinate hindrance appraisal. Results suggest that leader workaholism has a positive indirect association with subordinate OCBO via subordinate challenge appraisal, while leader workaholism did not have a significant indirect effect on subordinate CWBO. In addition, the indirect relationship between leader workaholism and subordinate OCBO via challenge appraisals was conditional on both leader agency and communion, while the indirect relationship between leader workaholism and subordinate CWBO via hindrance appraisals was moderated by leader communion.

The Quadratic Pathways Model to Promote Principals' Self-efficacy and Resilience in Low-socioeconomic Schools in Alberta

This paper presents the Quadratic Pathways Model (O’Neill, 2013), which emerged from the findings of a doctoral study that investigated the influences on principals’ self-efficacy and resilience in low-socioeconomic-status (SES) schools. This model was developed to promote principals’ efficacy and resilience while exercising leadership agency in these challenging contexts.
 Principals leading in low-socioeconomic-status (SES) schools experience unique challenges from their counterparts in wealthier contexts. The literature identified that educators cope with students with academic problems, student disengagement, mental health concerns, behavioral issues, and parental disengagement. Additionally, many students lack the basics of life. Principals also contend with many teachers who believe some parents and students do not value education. Consequently, while cognizant of their need to be instructional leaders, some principals believe they cannot fully engage in the instructional aspect of their role due to the many pressures and competing demands on their attention, and the subsequent frustration influences their efficacy.
 This study employed a theoretical framework founded upon Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory (1986, 1997), particularly pertaining to self-efficacy, and also integrated resilience research (Patterson & Kelleher, 2005), leadership theories (Leithwood et al., 2004), and contextual literature, which explored the complexities of low socioeconomic status schools.
 The methodology was mixed methods utilizing questionnaires (n=42) and interviews (n=13) with principals in low-SES schools across the province of Alberta, Canada (Creswell & Guetterman, 2019). Although there were several key themes to emerge from the research, this paper focuses on the synthesis of a new model, the Quadratic Pathways Model, which was designed to inform system leaders of the various components that could enhance and sustain high principal efficacy and resilience in low-SES contexts. It offers principals a template that positively reconceptualises instructional leadership practices that enhance and nurture student success in challenging school contexts.

Succession planning for school principals: System control or leader agency?

Succession planning for school principals: System control or leader agency?

Leadership as Agency

The concept of agency has become widely used in education, social sciences, psychology, and more. This article explores the concept of agency and provides a critical review from two main bodies of work: The social cognitive theory and the structure agency theory. The two are not the same. Structure agency theory was used to illuminate agency from an organizational perspective. Social-cognitive theory was used to better understand leader agency from a social perspective. In order to understand the relationship between structure agency and leader agency, both of these theories are reviewed through the same lens: agency within the workplace, mainly in school structure and school leadership. Conclusions are drawn to a better understanding of how to develop a school leadership agency. We can summarize that the implications of agency in school are the key to effective school leadership.

Nurse leader agency: Creating an environment conducive to support for graduate nurses.

AimThe aim of the study was to gain insight on how nurse leaders manage a culture of safety for graduate nurses.BackgroundCurrent theoretical approaches to safety culture tend towards a checklist approach that focuses on institutional characteristics, failing to examine the quality of interpersonal relationships. These interpersonal interactions are often seen as separate from the institutional realities of resource allocation, nurse–patient ratios, patient acuity or throughput. A theoretical approach is required to illuminate the dialectic between the structure of an organisation and the agency created by nurse leaders to promote patient safety.DesignQualitative exploratory descriptive study.MethodsSemi‐structured interviews were undertaken with 24 nurse leaders from hospital and aged care settings. Thematic analysis and Giddens structuration theory was used to describe the findings.ResultsNurse leaders identified a range of reciprocal communicative and cultural norms and values, decision‐making processes, personal nursing philosophies, strategies and operational procedures to foster patient safety and mentor graduate nurses. The mentoring of graduate nurses included fostering critical thinking, building and affirming formal structural practices such as handover, teamwork, medication protocols and care plans.ConclusionsThe study provides insight into how nurse leaders foster a culture of safety. Emphasis is placed on how agency in nurse leaders creates an environment conducive to learning and support for graduate nurses.Implications for Nursing ManagementNurse leadership functions and decision‐making capacity hinges on multiple factors including practicing agency and aspects of the social structure such as the rules for safe communication, and the various institutional protocols. Nurse leaders enforce these forms of engagement and practice through their legitimation as leaders. They have both allocative and authoritative resources; they can command resources, direct staff to attend to patients and/or clinical tasks, mentor, guide, assign, correct and encourage with the authority vested in them by the formal structure of the organisation. In doing so, they sustain the structure and reinforce it.

Transformational change in a hospital: Agency, structure, temporality and history in leadership

The paper sets out to build an understanding of how managers experience and navigate difficult organizational transition in the establishment of a new acute care department. Applying Bourdieu’s theoretical ideas and focusing on the intimate connection between political processes, historical conditions of the field and local attempts at change implementation, the study pays attention to power and agency in leadership. The study applies a longitudinal research design and focuses on the experiences of leaders in conducting their leadership in the context of field level change and development. The paper analyses leaders’ feelings of powerlessness as hysteresis that develops in a mismatch between field and habitus at a particular moment in time and demonstrates that leadership emerges and is made possible or impossible in relation to institutionalised capital and political objectives in the field. The study has important implication for the way in which we can understand leadership agency and the results may hold useful lessons for policy makers and leaders across private and public sectors.

What role can professional learning frameworks play in developing teacher agency in subject leadership in primary science?

ABSTRACT Frameworks for professional learning offer models of progression that analyse and describe changes in learner behaviours and practices. This paper argues that frameworks for teacher professional learning offer theoretical models that can enhance teachers’ agency in their own development. Teachers’ use of two primary science frameworks are considered: the Trajectory of Professional Development (TOPD) for subject leadership, and the Teacher Assessment in Primary Science (TAPS) for assessment leadership. Analysis of teacher survey data on use of the frameworks identified teacher agency and the impact of shared professional language as key themes. The paper’s conclusions build on the work of Kennedy, in suggesting frameworks offer malleable tools for reflective dialogue between teachers. The authors discuss how the explicit identification of progression in behaviours and practices within the two frameworks supported teachers to develop a shared language and understanding of subject leadership, identifying next steps for their own professional learning. They make the case that the frameworks are not sufficient on their own, they can only offer non-situated explanations of development, and that for them to be of greatest benefit they need to stimulate professional dialogue and exemplification in relation to the learner’s own context.

An exploration of the relationship between distributed leadership, teacher agency, and professional learning in Turkey

ABSTRACT This paper investigates how professional learning of teachers might be improved by two key factors: distributed leadership and teacher agency. Designed as a cross-sectional survey, this study used data from a total of 283 teachers working in a mix of public primary, secondary, and high schools across nine provinces in the eastern, central, and western regions of Turkey. The results showed a very small direct relationship between distributed leadership and teacher professional learning, while teacher agency played a significant mediation role with a moderate effect size. These results extend prior research by providing evidence that distributed leadership may not have a large direct influence on teacher learning; instead, its influence is rather indirect through improving teachers’ sense of agency.

How are empowering leadership, self‐efficacy and innovative behavior related to nurses' agency in distributed leadership in Denmark, Italy and Israel?

The purpose of the study was to introduce the concept of distributed leadership to international nursing management by conducting a cross-national investigation of its relationships with empowering nursing leadership, nurses' work self-efficacy and nurses' innovative behaviour. Distributed leadership theory suggests that when more people lead processes together, innovation will be superior to solo leadership. However, we need knowledge about how nurse managers may enhance nurses' distributed leadership agency (DLA), and whether such results are generalizable across countries. The cross-national survey with an overall purposeful sampling method used questionnaire data from hospital nurses from Israel (n=239), Italy (n=226) and Denmark (n=709). We used validated scales measuring Empowering Leadership, Self-efficacy, Innovative Work Behavior and DLA. The results from all three countries showed that empowering leadership and work self-efficacy were positively related to DLA, which, in turn, was also related to more innovation. The results may imply that nursing managers can increase workplace innovativeness by adopting an empowering leadership style that supports nurses' self-efficacy and distributes leadership tasks. The cross-country robustness of the results may encourage further research in distributed leadership in nurse management, notably with a focus on causal mechanisms.