Leadership is considered to be significant for creating a developing and learning school organisation. In Sweden, distributed leadership and teacher teams are an "institutionalised practice"; despite this, sustainable school improvement is difficult to achieve. This article presents findings from a case study of three schools that…

Cross-culture educational leadership researchers have shown in their research that national boundaries make a difference. What works in one nation may not work in another one because of different cultures in schools and across nations. This study aims to better understand the similarities and differences between American and Chinese high school…

Distributed leadership (DL) is an emerging form of power distribution in schools which extends authority and influence to groups or individuals in a way which is at least partly contrary to hierarchical arrangements. In this article, the author presents the findings of his study that aimed to answer two questions: (1) What do headteachers do to…

Ways in which roles are being redefined as school systems move toward organizational structures based on shared decision making are described in this paper. Specifically, teachers need training to function as effective decision makers and principals must learn to be instructional facilitators. Principals acting as facilitators must possess skills…

Although, theoretically, an organizational vision can unite school-community members, it can also destroy organizational culture without the consensus of those members. This publication offers guidelines for creating a collaborative vision--one that gives all members the opportunity to help create the vision. Each school should choose a strategy…

Empowerment, also referred to as shared decsion making and site-based decision-making, is essential to school reform and to the preparation of students for the changing demands of a global and technological world. This paper describes the role of the principal in facilitating empowerment in the school. The principal is the building leader who…

Purpose: The contingency model theory suggests that the effects of a leadership style cannot be studied without explicit attention to the given situation. Accordingly, the authors propose a model that allows them to examine simultaneously the relative impact of participative leadership and directive leadership on teachers' performance through the…

A restructured school setting necessitates a major change in the principal's role. For example, the principal must not only espouse certain values, but practice them at the "in-use" level as well. This paper compares and contrasts the leadership styles of two principals who participated in the implementation of a restructuring effort, the…

This paper presents findings of a study that examined the change process in 28 schools, with a focus on how principals went about transforming traditional school-work cultures into quality systems. The principals had participated in Managing Productive Schools (MPS), a comprehensive systems-approach program based on quality management concepts.…

This paper describes the positive changes in the organizational climate and the role of the principal in one high school during four years of implementing the Spencerport (New York) Effective Schools/Teaching Project. A gradual increase in the building level commitment of the project has led to a redefinition of leadership to include the Building…

Intended for use by graduate students in educational administration and supervision as well as by practicing school administrators, this book is a guide to the most effective practices surrounding the school principalship. Ideas in the book reflect current views of good management, including systems approaches, participative and collaborative…