Principals who are strong, effective, responsive leaders help to inspire and enhance the abilities of their teachers and other school staff to do excellent work. Such principals also tend to retain great teachers and create opportunities for them to take on new leadership roles. This leads to the following key question: What can state policymakers…

The significance of effective leadership and management for successful school and student outcomes is increasingly being recognised. This has led to consideration of the nature of preparation and development required to promote good leadership. There is now widespread acknowledgement of the need for specialised training for school principals. This…

This article provides management educators with a comprehensive, research-based set of concepts they can use to enrich students' understanding of how to create healthy workplaces. To assist with that endeavor, learning objectives related to creating healthy workplaces are provided. Work environment stressors are discussed along with human and…

Mentorship is often considered one of the best ways to develop leadership potential in new library and information professionals. Mentors act as teacher, role model, and cheerleader, but there are potentially serious aspects to mentorships that will negatively impact the protege. Such negatives include mentors sabotaging or taking credit for a…

Teachers have the greatest school-based effect on the achievement of any child in their classrooms, but highly effective principals can positively affect the achievement of every student in their schools. The difference between a highly effective principal and an average one is equal to two-to-seven months of extra learning per year for each child…

There is no shared understanding of what school leaders are expected to do. Schools have many external as well as internal stakeholders and each of them has different expectations as to leadership practice. Thus school leadership is a "fluid signifier". This article first outlines external expectations that school leaders are faced with…

Educators and policy makers have placed leadership development at the top of the school reform agenda, believing that aspiring and new school leaders can learn the necessary skills to improve the most challenging schools. Leadership development builds the capacity of educators (teachers and administrators) to be effective in leadership roles or…

Describes the steps involved in a performance improvement program in the context of a large multinational corporation. Highlights include a training program for managers that explained performance improvement; performance matrices; divisionwide implementation, including strategic planning; organizationwide training of all personnel; and the…

Academic leaders face particular challenges when they assume formal leadership roles in higher education. For the most part, they have had little prior engagement with the political, economic and strategic context of their institution and limited leadership networks on which to draw. The University of Western Australia has trialled a number of…

Describes the ideas and principles involved in the Management Charter Initiative work on management competence in the United Kingdom. Occupational standards and the National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) are discussed; units of performance and performance criteria are described; and personal competence and developing competence are considered.…

Describes an experiential exercise designed to demonstrate how a good match between environmental characteristics and organizational solutions is critical for the performance of an organization. Use of the game by students and practitioners in production and operations management is explained, and adaptation of the game to other applications is…

Stating that management training programs usually contribute little to organization results because they focus on improving personal characteristics, the authors describe a training and development strategy and training design to produce performance-improvement results. Programs using this strategy are described. (MF)

Presents a case study describing a training intervention that involved management taking on the role of cofacilitators in a supervisory development program. Discusses the performance analysis that revealed a lack of communication and leadership; management developing as a team during the process; and positive results. (LRW)

Describes the application of computer based instruction (CBI) to prepare adult learners for new roles as managers in the acquisition of major defense systems. CBI efficiency and effectiveness are considered in terms of their potential to contribute to organizational performance needs and goals. (MER)

Summarizes a study of several types of consulting groups in the Bell System and describes characteristics which are associated with high-impact consulting. A strategy which is designed for internal consulting organizations to maximize the likelihood of both initial success and long-term survival of the group is proposed. (Author/MER)