The importance of culture of schools in Cyprus for their strategic leadership and management

Contents

Introduction

Leader and Manager – Definitions

Leadership styles

Effective leadership

Culture

Schools in Cyprus

Conclusion

Bibliography

Introduction

Leadership is a way of motivating a group to enable them to achieve their aims. It also involves being responsible for the group as a whole.

A leader is either appointed by the senior levels of management or elected by the group.

However, it has been argued that a leader can not have all the skills required therefore the optimum will be to have as a leader someone who is flexible but when it is required s/he will let the leadership to the others. According to various researches it has been proved that leadership skills are increased when the appropriate educational culture prevails.

The school principal is the leader of the school. It is going to be examined how leadership styles and theory can affect the way schools in Cyprus are managed and their correlation with culture.

According to the Teacher Training Agency (1998) in UK and the National College for School Leadership have emphasized the fact that ‘the key to unlocking the full potential of pupils in our schools lies in the expertise of teachers and headteachers”.

Various researchers have proven that there is a positive correlation between the students’ achievements and the quality of teaching and there is also a positive correlation between the quality of leadership and the quality of teaching. All of these factors are influenced by the culture of the school and the education system.

Leader and Manager – Definitions

Although no ultimate definition of leadership exists (Yuki, 2002), the majority of leadership definitions reflect some basic elements, including “group”, “influence” and “goal” (Bryman, 1992).

A general definition would be that “a leader is someone who influences a group of people towards the achievement of a goal”. There are 3Ps that are related with the term “leader” and these are: People, Purpose and Person. A leader is a person that is deeply committed to the goal and s/he will try to achieve it even if nobody follows him/her.

A leader is someone who has a personal vision and in order to achieve it s/he needs the help of others. The leader should communicate his/her vision in such a way that the followers will share it and the goal will become a common goal.

The leader needs the trust of the followers. Some people are more effective than others at influencing people. This effectiveness has been attributed to leadership styles, persuasion skills and the personal attributes of the leader. A leader is someone that brings big changes and innovations, someone who has handled effectively big crises whereas a manager is someone who improves the effectiveness of an organization at a given place and at a controlled course.

Leadership styles

According to Goleman (2000), the leadership styles are the following:

Coercive. This is the least effective since it erodes employees’ pride. The leader here creates terrifies and demeans the employees at the slightest misstep. As a style it can be used in emergency situations.

Authoritative. The leader has a vision, s/he motivate people by showing them how their work fits in the vision of the organization. This approach fails when the leader has a team of experts but it is a style which is effective in most business situations.

Affiliative. The leader focuses on strong emotional relations and then he receives the benefits i.e. employees loyalty. S/he offers positive feedback. As a style it is positive but it should be better used when the leader wants to improve communication and increase morale.

Democratic. The employees have a say in decisions and how they do their work. As a style, it is positive when the leader is uncertain about the best direction to take and when employees are not competent to offer advice.

Pacesetting. The leader is very demanding and sets high standards. Employees feel overwhelmed. This style should be used sparingly but it can work well when employees are highly competent.

Coaching. The leader encourages the employees and s/he helps them identify their potential. The impact of this style is very positive although from the six styles it is the one used least often. As a style is particularly good when employees are aware of their weaknesses but it does not work well when employees are resistant to change.

Effective leadership

The leader should not follow a particular style. The more styles s/he uses the better results can be achieved. Nowadays, the leadership models do not consider leaders as heroes but as facilitators. Fulop et al(2005) suggests that the leader should help employees in self development and in identifying learning opportunities in problems.

Today’s world is characterized by globalization, information and knowledge sharing through technology developments, these evolutions make authoritative leadership irrelevant. The focus of the new leader should be on motivating followers.

It is very important to have really loyal followers and not followers that seem to be loyal but they would leave the organization as soon as the circumstances change. Loyalty consists of: time, continuity and duration of the connection. Although these may exist, this does not mean that the follower is loyal. Followers may remain in an organization because they feel that the service will be no better elsewhere, so this does not make them loyal.

Real loyalty can be achieved though genuine relationships between leaders and followers. These relationships are emotional bonds that are based on trust, affinity, empathy, caring, commitment and two-way communication. A loyal and satisfied follower is going to tell others about their experience and s/he will recommend the leader. These referrals create an environment where a leader can properly lead.

A successful leader must exceed expectations. S/he should appreciate his/her followers and so the followers will feel that the leader really cares about them. This way the follower will be emotionally attached to the leader and a good relationship will be built. This relationship involves surprising the followers through unexpected positive actions and so the emotional attachment between the leader and the followers will be created.

Culture

All organizations have some sort of culture, but others have stronger cultures. There are many elements both theoretical as well as empirical on the effects on performance of the organizational culture.

Kotter and Heskett (1992) tried to convert the historical experience into systematic and empirical. They made financial analysts to identify companies that they considered more successful and then describe the key factors that separate these companies from the less successful ones. Seventy – four out of the seventy-five analysts have suggested that organizational culture was the main factor. Additionally, Denison (1990) empirically supported the contribution of culture - higher levels of employee involvement connected with better operational efficiency.

Unlike the supportive historical and empirical evidence, it is known (and is a key allegation) that model businesses as identified by Peter and Waterman (1982), did not remain exemplary. The general explanation given for this is that they were unable to attend the trends of times, and they have not changed. Probably, the strength of their culture as well as their past success prevented them from adapting to new demands (Christensen 1997). Paradoxically, this created the need for further research on the impact of corporate culture. More and more evidence show that companies do not remain outstanding for a long time and so the traditional view of culture should be replaced with a different perception about the type and the role of culture and the need to change the culture throughout the life of the company. What is important for long-term success of the company may not be the corporate culture by itself, but the ability to change the management and culture during the years in order to meet the changes and needs of the business.

Schein (1992) argues that leadership is important for the creation, management, and at times for the destruction and restoration of the culture. He says: «the only important thing leaders do is to create and manage culture» (1992:5). Leaders must be able to evaluate how the attributes and culture and when that should be changed. Evaluation and improvement of corporate culture and the determination of when a major cultural change is needed, is important for long-term business success. The diverse types of culture and creating synergies between different types are a challenge for leadership. The effective management of culture is also necessary to ensure that the major strategic and organizational changes will succeed. Essentially, the management culture is a key skill of leadership and management.

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