The current study examines senior school leaders' theories of action driving their decision-making around how they manage departments and distribute leadership to department heads. Based on a thematic analysis of transcripts of interviews with the principal, head of the curriculum unit, and two department heads from nine high schools, four…

Purpose: This study examines the social organizational structure of one early childhood education (ECE) center in Finland and the relationship between this structure and the roles and the responsibilities of the members of the organization. Design/methodology/approach: The research is a qualitative case study with ethnographic features. Its…

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between school structure, distributed leadership and accountability of school administrators. Relational survey design was adopted in the study. 444 elementary school teachers working in Aziziye, Palandöken and Yakutiye in Erzurum participated in the study. In sample selection, stratified…

Rural schools are a distinctive feature in the autonomous community of Aragon, as state-run rural schools are the main cultural institution in small towns. This research was conducted in four grouped rural schools (hereafter referred to by their Spanish acronym, CRAs) in the province of Teruel in 2017. Our objectives included analising the views…

This article considers distributed leadership in the context of the extensive literature on post-bureaucratic organisations. It suggests that both distributed leadership and bureaucracy are ideal types. It outlines the development of bureaucracy as an organisational form, challenges the often-stereotypical criticisms that have damned the theory…

This article is a case study describing the University College of the North's (UCN) response to the COVID-19 pandemic, outlining pandemic planning and management processes at UCN from March 11, 2020, to September 30, 2021. UCN's planning processes evolved from a top-down approach led by administration to an approach that saw greater shared…

This book contains vital information on the historical, philosophical, and legal foundations for shared governance, and it makes the link between fundamentals of law and policy as related to professional practice in student affairs. Practical insights and suggestions for student affairs are offered for practitioners at all levels to ensure…

Tribal nations have entered an era of nation building or the process by which a native nation enhances its foundational capacity for effective self-governance and self-determination. While many tribal nations have become more economically secure in recent years, legitimacy has remained elusive for some. Successful tribal nations, alongside…

A much greater understanding is needed of power in the practice of distributed leadership. This article explores how the concept of social authority might be helpful in achieving this. It suggests that the practice of distributed leadership is characterized by multiple authorities which are constructed in the interactions between people. Rather…

Purpose: This paper explores religious education (RE) in South Australia from 1968-1980. It focuses especially on the collapse of the RE settlement from 1968-1972 and the controversial legislation and subsequent curricula emerging from changes to the Education Act in 1972. Design/methodology/approach: This paper draws upon archival materials,…

This paper reports on findings from a Leadership Foundation for Higher Education funded project exploring the role of associate deans in UK universities. While the number of associate deans leading cross-curricular and inter-disciplinary initiatives appears to be on the increase, there has been very little research focusing on the exact nature of…

The current study aims at identifying the reality of administrative empowerment among administrators recently employed in the intermediate schools of Riyadh Al-Khabra city, Saudi Arabia, from their perspective. The descriptive survey and comparative approach were applied to (89) administrators recently employed in the intermediate schools of…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present and discuss the findings from research on the relationship between leadership theory and policy reform in Malaysia. Distributed leadership is normatively preferred in the Malaysia Education Blueprint (MEB), the country's major policy reform document. The research was conducted in two dissimilar…

Leadership in the post-incorporation English further education system has not been distributed in nature, but transactional, driven by the external demands of funding and inspection regimes. However, in the light of the current rhetoric of localism in further education policy there is a view that distributed leadership would be an appropriate…

This study examines the dynamics of collaborative work that promote leadership as an outcome of team processes. Through an in-depth exploration of a community college that developed an organizational model of shared leadership over a period of seven months, this study aims to contribute to our qualitative understanding of how a vision of shared…