EDU-608 Educational Management 3(3-0)

Scope of Educational Leadership

Leadership is not about what someone at a position in a war or having a high position can be
counted as does in an organization, but it is about the responsibilities that keep the organization
functioning, developing & effective; and about the functions of leadership. Leadership means
effecting, leading and changing the thoughts, behaviors and intentions. It can also be defined as
effective group and leading the members to achieve shared goals collaboratively. Leadership
under certain conditions can also be defined as a process during which one effects and leads
others’ behaviors and actions to reach a personal or shared goal.
A leader is one or more people who selects, equips, trains and influences one or more follower(s)
who have diverse gifts, abilities, and skills and focuses the follower(s) to the organization’s
mission and objectives causing the follower(s) to willingly and enthusiastically expend spiritual,
emotional and physical energy in a concerted coordinated effort to achieve the organizational
mission and objectives.
According to Leithwood & Reihl (2003) and Leithwood et al. (2006) the educational leader has
to:
1. Create a vision and establish directions: identify and formulate a vision, to create joint
meaning and expectations of a high level of performance amongst members of the group, foster
nurturing goals, and the ability for follow-up of the organization's performance.
2. Understand and develop people: The ability to provide intellectual stimulation and
leadership through providing an example and establishing the skills that the teachers and the
other members of the staff need to realize the school's goals of the school: open, guide,
compensate.
3. Re-design the organization: Create cultures and processes based on the principal's
cooperation to administer his environment and the work conditions; and all this while preserving
the productive and sustainable relations with the parents and community, the school and the
extended environment.
4. Managing the education system and the learning: Creating the productive work conditions
for both the staff and the students, nurturing organizational stability for effective leadership that
focuses on learning.
Definition of Leadership

 Leadership is the process by which an individual mobilizes people and resources to

achieve a goal.

 Leadership is a process by which an executive can direct, guide and influence the
behavior and work of others towards accomplishment of specific goals in a given
 situation. Leadership is the ability of a manager to induce the subordinates to work with
confidence and zeal.
 Leadership is the potential to influence behaviour of others. It is also defined as the
capacity to influence a group towards the realization of a goal. Leaders are required to
develop future visions, and to motivate the organizational members to want to achieve the
visions.
 According to Keith Davis, “Leadership is the ability to persuade others to seek defined
objectives enthusiastically. It is the human factor which binds a group together and
motivates it towards goals.”

Types of leadership
Throughout history, great leaders have emerged with particular leadership styles in providing
direction, implementing plans and motivating people. These can be broadly grouped into 5
different categories:
 Authoritarian Leadership
 Participative Leadership
 Delegative Leadership
 Transactional Leadership
 Transformational Leadership