Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Unit 4: Organizational Leadership and School-Based Management
Unit 4: Organizational Leadership and School-Based Management
Learning Packet 4
Culture, and Organizational Leadership
4.1 Introduction
Expected of professional teachers who care for and embark on continuing
professional development is a promotion along the way. With this in mind, this course
won't be complete without a discussion of an effective leader and manager for which
you will be in the future. But should you refuse offer for a managerial or leadership
position in school or in the bigger educational organization because of the love for
teaching and learners, this lesson on organizational leadership won't be laid to waste
because even as teacher you are ready a leader and a manager. You are a teacher and a
class or classroom manager.
A school head must be both a leader and a manager. Study the figure below.
A school head leads the school and community to formulate a vision, mission, goals,
and school improvement plan. This is a leadership function. S/he sees to it that this plan gets
well implemented on time and so ensures that the resources needed are there, the persons to
do the job are qualified and available. This is a management function. Imagine if the school
head is only a leader. You have the vision, mission, goals and school plan, but no
implementation. The plan is good only in paper. If you do the task of a manager only, you
will be focusing on the details of the day-to-day implementation without the big picture, the
vision and mission. So, this big picture is for connect and meaning. This means that it is best
that a school leader is both a leader and a manager
Leaders use three (3) board types of skills: 1) technical; 2) human; and 3) conceptual.
Technical skills refer to any type of process or technique like sending e-mail, preparing a
power point presentation. Human skill is the ability to work effectively with people and to
build teamwork. This is also referred to as people skills or soft skills.
Conceptual skill is the ability to think in terms of models, frameworks and broad
relationships such as long-range plans. In short, conceptual skills deal with ideas while
human skill concerns relationships with people and technical skills involves psychomotor
skills and things. The ideal school leader possesses all three.
Leadership Styles
In situational leadership, effective leaders adapt their leadership style to the situation
of the members of the organization, to the readiness and willingness of group members. Paul
Hersey and Kenneth H. Blanchard (1996) characterized leadership style in terms of the
amount task behavior and relationship behavior that the leader provides to their followers.
They categorized all leadership styles into four behavior styles, which they named S1 to S4.
S1 S2 S3 S4
Selling/Directing Telling/Coaching Participating/Supporting Delegating
If the group member is able, willing and confident (high readiness), the leader uses
a delegating leadership style the leader turns over the responsibility for decisions and
implementation to the members. On the other hand, if the group members have low
readiness, i.e. unable and unwilling, the leader resort to telling the group members what to
do.
In short, competent members of the organization require less specific direction than
more competent people.
For a graphic presentation of the Situational Leadership Model, visit:
https://teachthem.files.wordpress.com/2012/situational-leadership-model.jpg
Among these leadership styles, no one style is considered best for all leaders to use
all the time. Effective leaders need to be flexible, and must adapt themselves according to the
situation, the readiness and willingness of the members of the organization.
The School and the Community, School 37
Learning Packet 4
Culture, and Organizational Leadership
Servant Leadership
Robert K. Greenleaf (1977) coined the paradoxical term servant- leadership. How
can one be a leader when he/she is servant? That's the common thinking. But the paradox is
Greenleaf's deliberate and meaningful way of emphasizing the qualities of a servant leader.
He describes the servant
....servant first. It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve. Then
conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. The best test is: do those served grow as
persons: do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous,
more likely themselves to become servants? And, what is the effect on the least
privileged in society; will they benefit, or, at least, not be further deprived? (Greenleaf,
1977/2002, p. 27)
The first desire of the servant leader is to serve. How? By leading. The greatest
teacher of humankind, Jesus Christ, was a servant - leader. He taught his disciples "he who
wants to great must be the servant of all". The life of the Greatest Teacher was a life of total
service to all.
We often hear the term "public servants" to refer to appointed and elected officials of
the government to emphasize the fact that they indeed are servants of the people. Their first
duty is to serve and in serving, they lead. They don't think of more conscious of their
importance felt over their constituents and forget that if ever they are given power it is to
serve their people. Someone said "power corruption". And I need it does, when leaders think
first of their power and forget the very reason why such power was given, i.e. to serve. The
greatest teacher said:
"... and whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave." (Mark
20:27)
"If anyone wants to be first, he must be the last of all and the servant of all"
(Mark 9:35)
"You know how the pagan rules make their powers felt. But, it shall not be
this way among you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you
must be your servant." (Mark 10:43)
His whole life was a life of service. In fact, he wanted to impress this idea of servant
leadership by doing something dramatic in his last days on earth. He washed the feet of his
apostles. Washing the feet was the work of a servant in his time.
He wanted to etch in the memories of his apostles the idea that leaders are supposed
to be "footwashers". Leaders are supposed to be servants of all.
Servant leadership seeks to involve others in decision making, is strongly based in
ethical and caring behavior, and enhances the growth of workers while improving the caring
and quality of organizational life.
The School and the Community, School 38
Learning Packet 4
Culture, and Organizational Leadership
The school head who acts as a servant leader forever remembers that he/she is there
to serve his/her teachers, the students, the parents etc. and NOT the teachers, learners,
parents to serve him/her.
Transformational Leadership
Robert Kennedy once said: "Some men see things as they are, and ask why. I dream
of things that never were, and ask why not." Those who never were and ask "why not" ate
not transformational leaders. The transformational leader is not content with status qou and
sees the need to transform the way the organization thinks, relates, and does things. The
transformational school leaders see school culture as it could be and should be, not as it is
and so play his/ her role visionary, engager, learner, collaborator, and instructional leader.
As a transformational leader he/she makes positive changes in the organization by
collaboratively developing new vision for the organization and mobilizing members to work
towards that vision.
To do this the transformational leader combines charisma, inspirational leadership
and intellectual stimulation to introduce innovation for the transformation of the
organization.
Sustaining Change
individual schools. SBM provides principals, teachers, students, and parents greater control
over education process by giving them responsibility for decisions about the budget,
personnel, and the curriculum. Through the involvement of teachers, parents, and other
community members in this key decision, SBM can create more effective learning
environments for children.
SBM is in keeping with the principle pf subsidiarity which states that it is the people
at the lowest level who will know best their problems and so are in the best position to
address the same. This tenet holds that "nothing should be done by a larger and more
complex organization which can be done as well by a smaller and simpler organization. In
other words, any activity which can be performed by a more decentralized entity should be
done by that more decentralized entity." https://action.org/pub/religion-liberty/volume-
6number-4/principle-subsidiarity) Those in the higher echelon are far removed from the
scene and are therefore not as involved and as informed as those from those below.
Advantages of SBM
• Teachers, school heads must be given the opportunity to make choices They must
actively participate in school improvement planning.
• The involvement of parents and teachers must be strongly encouraged and highly
welcomed.
• Stake holders must participate in the development of a School Improvement Plan.
They must have a say on resource allocation to meet specific needs.
• Higher authorities must actively encourage thoughtful experimentation and
innovation in an atmosphere where mistakes are viewed as learning experiences.
They must be willing to share their authority with the academic and the larger
community.
• Teachers must develop reflection, problem solving.
Their research finding of OECD confirms "that school autonomy has a positive
relationship with student performance when accountability measures are in place and/or
when school principals and teachers collaborate in school management" (OECD, 2012). China
and Singapore have been developing more responsibilities to the school level". (Stewart,
2008). In Finland, accountability rests on the trust placed by families and government in the
professional competence of teachers (Stewart, 2008)
With SBM, significant decisions-making authority was transferred from state and
district offices to individual schools. SBM provided principals, teachers, students, and
parents greater control over the education process by giving them responsibility for decisions
about the budget, personnel, and the curriculum. Through the involvement of teachers,
parents, and other and other community members in these key decisions, SBM can create
more effective learning environments for children. (Source: Office of Research
Education/Consumer Guide). To further strengthen the school-based management (SBM)
practice and re-emphasize the certainly of the learners and the involvement of relevant
community in basic education service delivery, the Department of Educations (DepEd)
embark on revisiting the SBM framework, assessment process and tool to improve on already
recognized successfully SBM practices across the regions (DO 83, s. 2012). To institutional
decentralization efforts at the school level and in line with Republic Act No. 9155 also known
as Governance of Basic Education Act of 2001, the Department of Education (DepEd)
provided School-Based Management (SBM) Grants as additional funds to public elementary
The School and the Community, School 42
Learning Packet 4
Culture, and Organizational Leadership
and secondary schools... to augment the school fund on Maintenance and Other Operating
Expenses (DO No. 83, S. 2012)
The heart of all these elements, both human and non-human is the school head, the
school leader. This means that all this factors that contribute to school effectiveness come
forth only with a dynamic and a transformational school leader.
4.3 References
AFT, T. (2021). Texas AFT A of Professionals. Retrieved from actionnetwork.org: Union
actionnetwork.org
Pawilen, G.T., Reyes, E.M., Rivera, J.A.A., Sison, T. M. J. (2019). The School and the
Community, School Culture, and Organizational Leadership. REX Books Store
Prieto, N. G., Arcangel, C. N., Corpuz, B.B. (2019). The Teacher and the Community, School
Culture and Organizational Leadership, LORIMAR Publishing Inc.
4.4 Acknowledgement
The images, tables, figures and information contained in the module were taken from
the references cited above.
The School and the Community, School 44
Learning Packet 4
Culture, and Organizational Leadership
E V A L U A T I O N (70 points)
A. 1. Based on the lesson and by means of an acrostic, give qualities or specific behaviors of
good leaders. See example. (12 points)
L-
E-
A-
D-
E-
R-
S - Servant. He is servant first before a leader.
2. You are assigned as a school head in a low - performing school. Students are poorly
motivated, parents and community are not very cooperative, and teachers have low
morale. As a leader, what should you do? Outline your steps. (10 points)
3. You are introducing an innovation in school. Sociologically, Filipinos are known for the
"ningas-cogon" mentality. How does this mentality affect school innovation? As a leader,
how will you counteract it? (10 points)
4. Two (2) of your teachers are doing very well. Four (4) strongly resist Continuing
Professional Development. Two (2) are about to retire and are simply waiting to retire.
To make your school perform, as a school head, what moves will you take? Explain. (10
points)
B. Let's Reflect
Directions: Write a brief essay on the following concept. (20 points)