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The School and the Community, School 34

Learning Packet 4
Culture, and Organizational Leadership

UNIT 4: ORGANIZATIONAL LEADERSHIP AND SCHOOL-


BASED MANAGEMENT

4.0 Intended Learning Outcomes


By the end of this unit, the students should be able to:
a. Describe different organizational leadership styles;
b. Distinguish between leadership and management; and
c. Explain what organizational leadership is.

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.

4.2 Topics / Discussion


Organizational Leadership
In organizational leadership, leaders help set strategic goals for the organization
while motivating individuals within the organization to successfully carry out
assignments in order to realize those goals. In the school setting, the school leader helps
set goals/targets for the school and motivates teachers, parents, learners, non-teaching
personnel and other members of the community to do their task to realize the school
goals.
Organizational leadership works towards what is best for at the same time.
Organizational leadership does not sacrifice the individual members for the sake of the
people nor sacrifice the welfare of the group for the sake of individual members. Both
individual and group are necessary.
Organizational leadership is also an attitude and a work ethic that empowers an
individual in any role to lead from the top, middle, or bottom of an organization.
Applied to the school setting, the school leader helps anyone from the organization not
leadership which does not necessarily come from the top to lead others. An example of
this leadership which does not necessarily come from the top of the organization is
teacher leadership.

Leadership versus Management


Are leadership and management synonymous? Is a leader a manager or is a
manager a leader? Or if I am a good manager, am I at the same time a good leader?
Not necessarily.
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Culture, and Organizational Leadership

A School Head Must be Both a Leader and a Manager

A school head must be both a leader and a manager. Study the figure below.

Managers versus Leaders


Managers Leaders
Administer Innovate

Work Focused People Focused

Have Subordinates Have Followers

Do Things Right Do the Right Thing

Source: Dubrin, Andrew E. (2006). Essentials of management. Mason, OH 45040.

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

Types of Skills Demanded of Leaders

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

Here are the leadership styles:

Autocratic Consultative Democratic Laissez faire


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Culture, and Organizational Leadership

Autocratic leaders do decision making by themselves. Consultative leaders allow


participation of the members of the organization by consulting them, but make the decision
themselves. This is what happens in consultation meeting called, but schools just decide
when they increase tuition fees. Sometimes, education stakeholders get disappointed that
their suggestions are not understand that consultation does not necessarily mean approval
of stakeholders’ suggestions.
Democratic leaders allow the members of the organizations to fully participate in
decision making. Decisions are arrived at by way of consensus. This is genuine participation
of the members of the organization which is in keeping with school empowerment.
In laissez faire or free-rain leadership style, leaders avoid responsibility and leave
the members of the organization to establish their own work. This leadership style leads to
the kanya-kanya mentality, one weakness of the Filipino character. There will be no problem
if the situation is deal, i.e. each member will do as he/she please even if it is against the
common good.
Which leadership styles are the only ones that allow for participation of the members
of the organization? Between the consultative and democratic styles of leadership, the
democratic style is genuinely participative because it abides by the rule of the majority.

The Situational Leadership Model

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.

Behavior Styles in Situational Leadership

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.
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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)

"The greatest among you shall be your servant." (Matthew 23:11)

"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.
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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

For reforms to transform, the innovations introduced by the transformational leader


must be institutional and sustained, or else, that innovation is simply a passing fad that loses
its flavor after a time. A proof that an innovation introduced has transformed the
organization is that the results or effect of that change persists or ripples even when the
transformative leaders is gone or is transferred to another school or gets promoted in the
organization.
We feel most comfortable with our old pair of shoes. We like to live in our comfort
zones and so sometimes, we do not welcome change. And yet if we want improvement in
the way we do things in our organization, in our school or if we want to improve in life we
must be willing to change. The transformational youth to deal with resistance to change to
succeed. There will always be resisters to change.

Local Governance Code of 1991 (R.A. 7160)


The local Governance Code of 1991 (R.A. 7160) provided for a more responsive local
government structure through a system of decentralization where local governments are
given more power, authority, responsibilities, and resources. Likewise, with the introduction
of School-Based Management in Philippine schools, schools are given more power to direct
their affairs with learning and development of learners as ultimate goal. In this chapter, you
are expected to learn the rewards and challenges in implementing SBM especially on the part
of the school head.

What is School-Based Management? School-based management is a decentralized


management initiative by developing power or authority to school heads, teachers, parents
and students. (SBM) is a strategy to improve education by transferring significant decision-
making authority from the DepEd Central Office, regional officers, division offices to
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Culture, and Organizational Leadership

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 and the Principle of Subsidiarity

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

The following are strengths of SBM:


1. Allow competent individuals in the schools to make decisions that will improve
learning;
2. Give the entire school community a voice in key decisions;
3. Focus accountability for decisions;
4. Lead to greater creativity in the design of programs;
5. Redirect resources so support the goals developed in each school;
6. Lead to realistic budgeting as parents and teachers become more aware of the
school's financial status, spending limitations, and the cost of its programs; and,
7. Improve morale of teachers and nurture new leadership at all levels.

Through SBM, decisions making authority is devolved to school heads, teachers,


parents and students. This is school empowerment. This reduces bureaucratic controls on
schools and encourage school heads, teachers and parents to use greater initiative in meeting
the needs of students and community. This results in a sense of community school ownership
which makes the school realize its vision and mission.
Involving stakeholders - parents, teachers, students and other members of the
community - is also helpful in the mobilization of local resources to complement public
resources. Concrete proof of this is the number of classrooms built as a result of the strong
partnership between schools and communities and successful school-community programs
like those described in the Chapter on the Schools and the community.
Through SBM, problems and needs at the school level get solved faster and specific
personalities and cultures are taken into considerations. These personalities and cultures are
usually ignored in multi-layered in hierarchical organization like DepEd. In a hierarchical
organization, straight jacket rules, procedures and allocation norms are given and apply to
all. It takes time to solve problems if school have t wait answers from above. As a result,
teachers, parents and students are frustrated due to delays.
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Culture, and Organizational Leadership

In SBM, schools take responsibilities to plan and implement their School


Improvement Plans (SIP). (The table that you scrutinized in the Activity phase of the lesson
is a of a part of a School Improvement Plan). It is the schools themselves, not DepEd higher
offices that know best their problems and the solutions to these problems. It is the schools
that determined the number and kind of teachers they need, the kind of learning materials
and resources they need.
Since schools are given more power to direct themselves, they are made accountable
for results. SBM makes schools accountable to the stakeholders.

Legal Bases of SBM


The Philippine Constitution provides that congress shall enact a local government
code that will institutionalize a system of the decentralization (Article 10, Sec. 3) whereby
local government units shall be extended more power, authority. The Local Government
Code in 1991 is a fulfillment of the Constitutional provision.
This means that long before the Department of Education (DepEd) legally introduced
decentralization in schools through School-Based Management (SBM) in 2001 through the
enactment of RA 9115, local government units were as already empowered for local
governance. RA 9155, Basic Governance Act, transfers the power and authority as well as the
resources to the school heads including teachers, key leaders in the community, parents
know best the root and solution to the problem.

Conditions for the Success 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.

In addition, based on international experiences, the following must be present for


SBM to succeed in schools:
• have basic resources;
• have developed an effective school support system;
• are provided with regular information on their performance;
• are given advice on how they may improve; and
• emphasize the motivational element in the management work of the principle

The success of SBM very much depends on the school head.


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Learning Packet 4
Culture, and Organizational Leadership

Factors of School Effectiveness Based on Research

Effectiveness practices need to be institutionalized for them to become part of the


school culture. To build professional capacity and establish mechanism that supports the
continuing quality improvement of schools is an assurance that effective school even become
more introduced by the Department of Education in the Philippines to continuously work an
effective school. As the term implies, in SBM, schools are given greater autonomy to make
decisions regarding education of children.

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)

In the Philippines, the developing of more


responsibilities to the schools was done through the
School-Based Management (SBM). SBM was
introduced during the implementation of the Third
Elementary Education Project (TEEP), 1999-2005. In
2005, TEEP conducted a study to determine the effect
of school-based management on student performance
in the Philippines using the administrative dataset of
all public schools in 23 school districts over a 3-year
period, 2003-2005. The results showed that the
introduction of SBM had a statistically significant,
although small, overall positive effect on average
school-level test scores in 23 school districts in the
Philippines.
(Source:http://elibrary.worldbank.org/doi/abs/10.1596/1813-9450-5248). Accessed 9-1-16)

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
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Culture, and Organizational Leadership

and secondary schools... to augment the school fund on Maintenance and Other Operating
Expenses (DO No. 83, S. 2012)

PHILIPPINE ACCREDITATION SYSTEM FOR BASIC EDUCATION (PASBE)

The institutionalization of SBM was strengthen with the introduction of the


Philippine Accreditation System for basic Education (PASBE) which was launched through
DepEd order No. 64, s. 2012. Accreditation is a process of self-evaluation peer-review to
ensure that quality standards agreed upon stakeholders are understood, implemented,
maintained, and enhanced for continuous improvement of learner outcomes (DepEd DO 20,
s. 2013 - The Philippine Accreditation System Basic Education (PASBE) Supplemental
Guidelines to DepEd Order No. 83, S. 2012).
The agreed upon standards of quality or effectiveness schools are grounded on the
four principals of A Child-and-Community-Centered Education System (ACCESs), namely:
(1) principle of collective leadership (2) principle of community-based learning (3) principle
of accountability for performance and results and (4) principle of convergence to harness
resources for education. All of these four principles also apply to SBM.
The school's level of SBM practice can neither be Level I, Developing; Level II,
Maturing; and Level III, Advanced. A school that reaches the highest level of SBM practice
qualifies for an accredited status.
A school in Level I, developing means that the school is developing structures and
mechanisms with acceptable level and extent of community participation and impact on
learning. A school in Level II, described as Maturing means that the school is introducing
and sustaining continuous improvement process that integrates wider community
participation and significantly improve performance and learning outcomes. Level III,
Advanced (Accredited) means that the school is ensuring production of intended
outputs/outcomes and meeting all standards of a system fully integrated in the local
community and is self-renewing and self-sustaining
In conclusion, PASBE is a means to institutionalized SBM, the granting of more
autonomy to schools for them to chart their destiny to grow in effectiveness continuously.

Factors that Contribute to School Effectiveness


Research findings points to the following factors that spell school effectiveness:
1. Human factors - These include a dynamic school head, highly selected competent
and committed teachers, highly motivated pupils with high expectations, and a supportive
community.
2. Non-human factors, processes - These refer to clear and shared vision-mission
(focus), high expectations/ambitious standards, emphasis on accountability, aligned
curriculum, instruction and assessment with DepEd standards, efficiency or optimal
utilization of resources and facilities, development, and global and future orientation.
These factors are exemplified by high performing schools in the Philippines and
abroad and by the best education performing countries in the world.
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Culture, and Organizational Leadership

In the Philippines, the practice of school-based management, gave greater autonomy


to schools to make decisions in collaboration with parents and community towards greater
school effectiveness. The SBM Assessment Tool is an instrument used to assess school’s
effectiveness and its use for accreditation of schools is an assurance that effective practices
get institutional to build the school's culture of excellence. A copy of this SBM Assessment
tool is in APPENDIX A.

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

Lynch, K. (2015, October 21). Global Citizen. Retrieved from www.globalcitizen.org:


www.globalcitizen.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.

Tiongco, K. (2019, June 13). MNLtoday.ph. Retrieved from mnltoday.ph: mnltoday.ph

4.4 Acknowledgement
The images, tables, figures and information contained in the module were taken from
the references cited above.
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Culture, and Organizational Leadership

E V A L U A T I O N (70 points)

Name: ________________________________ Professor: _____________________________

Year Level: ____________________________ Date: _________________________________

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)

5. Here are various methods that leaders employ: (8 points)


• Model the way. Set the example
• Share your vision. Enlist others.
• Challenge the process. Look for ways to grow.
• Enable others to act. Empower others.
• Set goals.
• Build trust.
• Give the direction.
• Encourage the heart. Give positive reinforcement.
Identify the leadership style employed in each method. Explain you answer.

B. Let's Reflect
Directions: Write a brief essay on the following concept. (20 points)

What kind of a leader am I? What should I do to become an effective leader?

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