Middle-level Leaders Research Articles

Modelling the effects of principal leadership and school capacity on teacher professional learning in Hong Kong primary schools

Over the past 30 years, school principals have been exhorted to articulate a clear vision as a key tool for stimulating the improvement of teaching and learning in their schools. Over the past decade, as school systems have sought to distribute leadership more broadly within schools, the same imperative has applied to middle-level leaders. Indeed, a key assumption underlying the move towards sharing leadership responsibilities more broadly has been the belief that this would strengthen collective efforts and reduce the gap between goals and outcomes. Yet, to date, there have relatively few investigations of the extent to which middle-level leaders are contributing to school improvement efforts. This study sought to understand how shared vision within school management teams (SMTs) impacts teacher commitment and teacher support for students through school alignment and coherence. Dyad survey data were collected from 411 SMT members and 559 teachers at 32 primary schools in Hong Kong. Results indicated that shared vision in SMTs is positively related to teachers' perception of school alignment and coherence, teachers' commitment and teacher support to students. Theoretical and practical implications of findings are discussed.

Leading in middle management in higher education

In this article we discuss the experiences of academics who occupy middle-level leadership roles in higher education. We use the term middle management to describe personnel occupying positions below the level of dean and often referred to as associate deans or heads of school. Practitioners rarely turn their attention to their own organizations, and in this study we focus on Australian universities, including our own, and international university experiences. Our study was designed to gather qualitative data via semi-structured interviews, after which our data were crafted into narrative accounts. In answering our research questions, we found that these middle managers perceive their role as overwhelming, with a sense of huge responsibility and little power. They describe their role as reactive, they feel isolated and they enjoy making a difference in others’ lives. Participants acknowledge the importance of developing support structures by building relationships with colleagues.

Middle Level Leadership in Chinese Universities in a Time of Change

This study explored leadership in higher education based on the researchers’ interpretation of the perspectives of a specific group of participants, which refers to middle level academic leaders (MLL) and an interrogation of leadership literature. There are 32 respondents in total including, deans of faculties, associated deans, heads of schools, associated heads and teachers. The major findings of the research are the multiple conceptions of leadership and educational reforms influence on leadership, which have been identified by examining the importance of the roles and current status of MLLs within the university, the activities undertaken by MLLs and the relative importance of those activities, the ambiguities, conflicts and pressures to which MLLs are subject. A key outcome of the investigation is the tension it revealed between how these academic middle level leaders perceive their management roles against their perceptions of their roles as academics. The research also indicated that the multiple conception of leadership from respondents was strongly influenced by traditional Chinese culture. Meanwhile, the recent higher education reforms affected the leadership styles of MLLs, i.e. the potentially further development of collective leadership.

Bringing life to leadership: the significance of life history in reviewing leadership learning within higher education

This paper argues how the use of life history research can extend a current leader’s understanding of their own practise and that of others. The paper focuses on middle level leaders in higher education drawn from interviews with 18 leader academics. Using a case study approach I have selected four vignettes which together provide a particular grounded view of leadership as practised and perceived by those participating in the research. The individuals whose life histories are presented in this paper have been chosen because of the clarity which they illustrate emergent findings that life history is a process of ‘becoming’; one of self discovery, learning and identity construction. The findings draw attention to how life history can generate alternative ways of seeing, understanding and interpreting life experiences which are important for leadership learning and ultimately effective educational leadership.

A Study on Effectiveness of Leadership in a Public Sector Organization

As the global economy gathers pace, more public sector organizations are realizing that their main assets are their people and that remaining or becoming competitive depends increasingly on the development of a highly skilled workforce. This requires trained and committed leaders but they, in turn, need the leadership of highly effective managers and the support of other senior and middle level leaders and managers. No single leadership is effective in all situations. Many different theories of leadership have been developed through years of research with groups and organizations. It explains that the style a leader chooses depends mostly upon the group's level of readiness. That is, how willing and able the members are to take responsibility as a group. The present research article aims at analyzing the effectiveness of leadership in the public sector. The period of the study was from 2010-2011. The effectiveness of leadership in a public sector insurance giant was analyzed by working out the weighted mean and factor analysis.

A Study on Effectiveness of Leadership in a Public Sector Organization

As the global economy gathers pace, more public sector organizations are realizing that their main assets are their people and that remaining or becoming competitive depends increasingly on the development of a highly skilled workforce. This requires trained and committed leaders but they, in turn, need the leadership of highly effective managers and the support of other senior and middle level leaders and managers. No single leadership is effective in all situations. Many different theories of leadership have been developed through years of research with groups and organizations. It explains that the style a leader chooses depends mostly upon the group's level of readiness. That is, how willing and able the members are to take responsibility as a group. The present research article aims at analyzing the effectiveness of leadership in the public sector. The period of the study was from 2010-2011. The effectiveness of leadership in a public sector insurance giant was analyzed by working out the weighted mean and factor analysis.

Lessons from the street: Leading complex work at the front line

Emerging academic commentary asks how people can be prepared for work and leadership under conditions of increasing complexity. It has been noted, however, that treatments of leadership in the management literature have been slow to engage with complexity thinking and also remain largely focused on executive and middle level leadership. This paper explores the implications of complexity thinking for front-line leadership work. It does that, firstly, by considering leadership questions implied by newer theoretical perspectives on complex practice and secondly, by revisiting earlier insights into complex work at street level. Lipsky’s (1980) exploration of street-level bureaucracy suggested that unresolvable paradoxes in public policy have always created significant dilemmas for front-line practitioners and leaders. Policing, education and welfare are prime examples of this space. Indeed, Perez (2011) suggests that operational police and their leaders face uniquely complex dilemmas. Thirdly, then, this paper references research undertaken with 50 serving police officers in Melbourne to focus on key issues for contemporary front-line leadership.

The Role of transformal leadership in local governments’ efficiency

Local governments had to respond to the challenges of the dynamically changing environment. A key element of the rapid adaptation lies in the right leadership. The local governments also recognized that the traditional management principles are found not to be effective in today's economic, political and social challenges.
 The employees of the organizations are successful in the attainment of leadership, which are planning the next year, performance-based, as well as the leading is diplomatic, charismatic-development, group integrators. The investigated local governments’ middle level leaders believe that in the current economic and political situation only those organizations able to keep up, which emphasize the trans-formal leadership.

Lived Experiences of Middle Level Leaders in the Nepali Institutional Schools

This paper explicates the contextually embedded meaning of being middle level leaders in the Nepali institutional schools. Using in-depth interview and protocol writing as the means of data generation, this article unearths the experience of three middle level leaders. Distributed leadership theory (Spillane, 2006) and its constructs of leadership plus aspect and leadership practice aspect provide the theoretical lens to unveil the myths and realities of being middle level leaders. All three participants shared their common acknowledgement about the significance and sensitivity of middle level leadership roles for school administration and effectiveness. Individual essence of being a middle level leader was contingent on the very context where they worked. Their feelings of being relegated and marginalized, helplessness or high exhilaration were subjects to the contextual reality.

Leading inquiry at a teacher level: It’s all about mentorship

Middle-level leaders in schools have a critical role in mentoring teachers as they work with the teaching-as-inquiry process. One-to-one interactions and professional conversations with each teacher largely determine the quality of inquiry, both for an individual teacher and on a school-wide basis. In this article, an experienced senior secondary school leader explores the conditions necessary for school-wide inquiry to flourish, and explains why mentorship needs to be valued and to operate at a range of levels within the school if effective inquiry is to be initiated and sustained.

Lesson study as an instrument for school reform

This article describes the case of a Japanese junior high school that experienced a turn-around in three years from one of the worst schools to one of the best by utilizing lesson study for learning community (LSLC) as a managerial tool. It will focus on how the principal: (i) established a vision of reform, (ii) organized LSLC to involve the entire school and (iii) overcame problems in the process of implementing school reform based on LSLC. The principal placed top priority on making learning more collaborative and on including not only cognitive but also social and ethical aspects. He subsequently implemented LSLC beyond subject boundaries with special attention to joint observation of and reflection on lessons. Further, the principal interacted with the teachers individually and developed both collegiality among the teachers and the capacities of middle-level leaders.

Values sensitive coaching: The DELTA approach to coaching culturally diverse executives.

Executive coaching is a popular intervention to improve the performance of middle and top level leaders. Globalization and the resulting cultural diversification of the workplace have also rapidly increased. Given these two trends, it is becoming increasingly important for executive coaches to understand how cultural values should affect their coaching. Recent research on coaching has suggested the need for a theoretical framework from which to empirically address this issue to provide scientifically rooted guidelines for effective implementation of executive coaching in these culturally diverse contexts. This article proposes a research-based, prescriptive motivational approach to coaching those from culturally diverse backgrounds. Called the DELTA approach, the model includes five components: (a) Determining cultural values, (b) Employing typical coaching techniques, (c) Looking and listening for motivational needs and deficiencies, (d) Tailoring coaching techniques to motivational needs and cultural values, and (e) Assessing the effectiveness of the approaches used. The DELTA model is intended to provide a flexible framework within which coaches can work with, motivate, and develop culturally diverse executives.

Competencies, Roles and Effective Academic Leadership in World Class University

How an academic leader can become more effective? This research question is examined in the context of middle level leadership in research universities that includes the Deans and Head of Departments.  It is based on a review of literature that focuses on the investigation of effective academic leadership. In the present situation of globalization, academic excellence is often related to being World Class University. Leadership effectiveness is more related to situational leadership style in research universities and in a global context. Hence situational leadership models such as Hersey and Blanchard and Yetton-Vroom are analyzed. It is suggested that effective academic leaders use the four styles proposed by Hersey and Blanchard that includes “telling, selling, participating and delegating”. These styles should be used in relation to ability and willingness of followers to perform the assigned tasks. The review also indicated that to be effective, academic leaders require certain competencies and perform the necessary roles in order to lead. Effective academic leaders need the skills and abilities to lead research universities towards excellence. Roles of academic leaders are examined in relation to Mintzberg leadership roles. The ten roles identified by Mintzberg are categorized into three major roles of interpersonal contact, information processing and decision making. To summarize, effective academic leaders utilized various leadership styles according to certain situations, possessed the required competencies and assumed certain roles when appointed as Deans and Head of Departments in research universities. As such it is important that a systematic leadership development programs should be developed to ensure academic leadership effectiveness.

Confirming a Middle Grades Leadership Model and Instrument

The purpose of this replication study was to confirm a model of middle grades principal leadership, Developmentally Responsive Middle Level Leadership (DRMLL), proposed by Brown and Anfara (2002) through the validation of the Middle Level Leadership Questionnaire (MLLQ), which was developed by Anfara, Roney, Smarkola, DuCette, and Gross (2006) to measure DRMLL. In this study, the principal form of the MLLQ was administered to middle grades principals in the State of Georgia. A factor analysis indicated the constructs of the principal form of the MLLQ support DRMLL, providing further confirmation of this model of leadership. However, the results of this study indicate principal responses and constructs may differ from those of teachers. The principal form of the MLLQ may provide an effective research tool to examine how antecedents, such as professional development, affect principal practice and how principal practice affects mediating factors to student achievement, such as teacher efficacy.

North Korea's Nuclear Policy towards the U.S.: The Bureaucratic Politics Model

IntroductionNorth Korean foreign policy has been formulated and implemented with priority given to policy towards the U.S. after the North Korean nuclear crisis of the early 1990s. North Korea assumes that it can survive only under the guarantee of the U.S. for its national security. This attitude was substantially formed after the normalization of South Korean relations with the Soviet Union in 1990 and China in 1992. North Korean relations with China, in particular, were regarded as a blood alliance forged in the Korean War. However, the nature of Sino-North Korean relations changed after the normalization of South Korea-China relations. Moreover, China has begun to value international norms and law as it has grown into a power state in the international community and is apt to treat North Korea as a normal rather than special state. These circumstances forced the North to concentrate its efforts on foreign policy towards the U.S.As for the nuclear program, North Korea believes that nuclear weapons can protect it from external invasion and has therefore developed long-range missiles and nuclear warheads. The North Korean intention to develop nuclear weapons runs against the American foreign policy of emphasizing the nonproliferation of nuclear warheads. The conflict between North Korea and the U.S. on the nuclear program led North Korea to formulate and implement its nuclear policy with prudence and the involvement of many government departments.Most studies on North Korean foreign policy have focused on the influence of the top leader's perception and rational action. This paper conducts research from a different perspective by examining the North's foreign policy in terms of the bureaucratic politics model. Analysts argue that North Korean foreign policies have mostly been made by the top decision-maker. In contrast to such previous studies, this article focuses on the decision-making process under the top leader and argues that the pulling and hauling among North Korean bureaucrats to establish foreign policies has significantly affected North Korean foreign policies. Different policy preferences have been identified by U.S. negotiators who participated in the North Korea-U.S. talks held in 1993 and 1994 and by analysts who interviewed North Korean officials. This research is conducted by analyzing those policy preferences and the process of reaching compromise between bureaucratic groups in North Korea.Making Foreign Policy in North Korea and Bureaucratic Politics ModelUntil the demise of the Cold War, analysts who specialized in North Korean foreign policy mostly inquired into the role of the top leader and the Juche (self-reliance) ideology. Since then, such studies have mainly covered its historical changes and its characteristics in the era of Kim Jong-il. Some studies expanded their scope to examine the structure and process of North Korean foreign policy on the basis of theoretical frameworks.1 Theory-based studies must be increased as they provide us with a deeper understanding and thus improve predictability of North Korean foreign policy. Nevertheless, it is hard to find research cases conducted on the basis of theoretical frameworks such as the cognitive model, the rational actor approach and the bureaucratic politics model, which are key approaches in foreign policy analysis. In particular, the bureaucratic politics model was not used to examine North Korean foreign policy for two reasons. First, analysts have doubted that the bureaucratic politics model can be applied to North Korea's socialistic and authoritarian system. Second, research concerning the bureaucratic politics model needs in-depth examination and analysis of the process of making foreign policy. The difficulty in gathering materials concerning North Korean foreign policy-making has been an obstacle to studies in this direction.Every political system has a hierarchical order comprising top leaders, middlelevel leaders and numerous bureaucrats. …

Effect of Middle-level Leader and Teacher Emotional Intelligence on School Teachers’ Job Satisfaction

Emotional intelligence (EI) has been an emerging topic for educational, psychological and management researchers and consultants in recent years. Despite the emerging consensus of its definition and evidence reported in business organizations, relatively little empirical evidence have been reported in the education literature. We conducted two studies to investigate the impact of middle-level leader and teacher EI on teachers’ job outcomes. In Study 1, 107 teachers were asked to list the attributes of successful middle-level leaders in their schools. In Study 2, 3866 school teachers and middle-level leaders were surveyed on their EI and job satisfaction level. Results provide supports concerning the impact of teacher and middle-level leader EI on school teachers’ job satisfaction. Implications are discussed.

Redesigning Health Systems for Quality: Lessons from Emerging Practices

It has been five years since the Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, Crossing the Quality Chasm, proposed systemwide changes to transform our health care system. What progress has been made? What lessons have been learned? How should we move forward? Semistructured telephone interviews were conducted with 16 health care providers and researchers at organizations involved in system redesign. The findings were supplemented with a focused literature review and discussions from a national expert meeting. Many promising and innovative examples of redesign were identified. However, even delivery systems that are redesigning care in pursuit of the six IOM aims face daunting challenges, reflecting the need to align system changes across multiple levels and to integrate redesign efforts with ongoing system features. Four success factors were reported by providers as crucial in overcoming redesign barriers: (1) directly involving top and middle-level leaders, (2) strategically aligning and integrating improvement efforts with organizational priorities, (3) systematically establishing infrastructure, process, and performance appraisal systems for continuous improvement, and (4) actively developing champions, teams, and staff. A framework that integrates these success factors to facilitate a systems approach to redesigning health care organizations and delivery systems for improved performance is provided. Successful system redesign requires coordinating and managing a complex set of changes across multiple levels rather than isolated projects.

‘What We’re Doing, We Do Musically’

In English schools, many responsibilities have been delegated downwards to ‘middle level leaders’. National standards for subject leadership assume that middle leadership skills are generic and the literature largely agrees with this view. This article presents data from the first pilot enquiry within ARTSLAMP (Arts Leadership and Management in Schools Project), launched by the authors in summer 2003, which challenges this assumption and suggests that there may be differences in skills required for leading and managing different subjects. It draws on interviews with four subject leaders of music in secondary schools. Participants were asked about their roles and responsibilities, professional development and perceptions of the requirements of their jobs, specifically focusing on subject specialism. They identified several ways in which they perceived their leadership and management roles to be uniquely linked to their specialist subject.

Leaders and Leadership in Middle Level Schools

An online survey of more than 1,400 middle level leaders (grades 5-9) was conducted as part of a national study. This article reports the findings; compares the results with previous studies conducted in 1965, 1980, and 1992; and discusses the implications and recommendations for recruiting initial training, and continuing professional development offuture middle level principals.

Leadership, decision-making and cultural context: Event management within chinese joint ventures

Two studies are presented of the ways in which middle-level leaders within enterprises in mainland China handle work events. A sample of Chinese managers reported much stronger reliance on widespread beliefs as a source of guidance than had been found in other nations in earlier studies. This effect was stronger in state enterprises than in joint ventures. In the second study, management of nine work events by Chinese leaders in joint venture hotels was investigated. Events were more frequently problematic when working with Western or Japanese partners than with ethnic Chinese. Respondents' reports of how they handled work events did not vary in relation to the overseas partner with whom they worked. However they did show awareness that agreement about how best to handle events does vary in relation to who is one's partner. The results are discussed in terms of the skills required of leaders working across cultural boundaries.