Leadership and Organizational Performance

Leadership and Organizational Performance Kelley, R. C. , Thornton,  B. , & Daugherty, R. (2005). Relationships between measures of leadership and school climate. Education,  126(1),  17-25. Retrieved November 5, 2007, from Research Library  database. (Document ID:  901917061). This article was a research study that examined the relationship school leaders has on the school’s climate and the effectiveness of the school. The study will be extremely beneficial to the pending research because it specifically examined the effectiveness of the elementary school principal’s leadership styles and reported how their individual leadership style affected school climate. This research is pivotal because it will add additional literature to assist my understanding of leadership styles of elementary school principals. The authors argue that there exists a correlation of an effective school with strong leadership, a climate of expectation, an organized atmosphere, and efficient communication. This research was interesting and in striking contrast to other similar research topics because Kelley, Thornton,  and Daugherty’s research excluded large schools that had both a principal and an assistant principal. In excluding large schools, the study was free to isolate the leadership style of only one school administrator, which was free of the influence of the assistant principal. Lee, Y. Y. (2005). Teachers' perceptions of principals' transformational leadership and teachers' job satisfaction and school commitment. Unpublished doctorial dissertation, Fordham University, New York. Retrieved December 5, 2007, from ProQuest Digital Dissertations database. (Publication No. AAT 3178858). This unpublished doctorial dissertation examined teachers’ perception of transformational leadership behaviors in their school principal. More specifically, the study was conducted to determine if the behaviors of the school principal enhanced the levels of teachers’ motivation and commitment to school reform. Lee’s research used the theoretical construct of Bass and Avolio’s theory of transformational leadership. Similar to other literature within this paper, Lee admits that the quintessence fundamental nature of leadership is engulfed and immersed in the relationships between leaders and follows. The study also claimed that there are also others involved in leader-follow process. Lee demonstrated that there does indeed exist a correlation between transformational leadership behaviors and job satisfactions among teachers. This dissertation is of particular interest to the research I will conduct because, akin to Lee, I will be examining the leadership style of elementary school principals and the impact that leadership style has on teacher motivation. Leonard, L. J. , ; Leonard, P. E. (1999). Reculturing for collaboration and leadership. The Journal of Educational Research. 92(4), 237-42. Retrieved December 27, 2007, from EducationAbs database. Leonard and Leonard conducted research seeking to analyze the primary motivators by which three selected schools were reported as professional learning communities for teacher collaboration. Among the many keywords used in the paper, changing organizational environments was constant. Within a changing organizational environment, Leonard and Leonard implied that the school principals’ may exhibit transformational leadership. The authors further suggested that within that leadership style, six dimensions of quality exists: â€Å"articulation and sharing a vision, fostering group goals, individual support to subordinates, intellectual stimulation, appropriate behavior modeling, and high performance expectations† (p. 2). The research was conducted at three different schools, one high-school and two elementary schools. The research method was a survey questionnaire. Among the questions, teachers were asked to indicate the person whom they felt was the most influential source of change. The responses while varied among each school, the principal, as the researches expected, was the most widely identified as the person with the most influential source of change. Lucks, H. J. (2002). Transformational leadership and teacher motivation across New York City public schools. Unpublished doctorial dissertation, St. John's University, New York. Retrieved December 2, 2007, from ProQuest Digital Dissertations database. (Publication No. AAT 3058275). Lucks’ dissertation research defined transformational leadership from the prospective of noteworthy authors (Arolio & Base, 1988; Burns, 1978; Caldwell, 1997; Hackman & Oldman, 1997; Leithwood, 1999; Ozga & Walker, 1995; Pounder, 1996; Seabring & Bryk, 2000; Sergiovanni, 1987, 1990, 1999; and Yuki, 1998;). This literature is critical to my research topic because it captures wide views of transformational leadership and the contributions made as a result of employing this style of leadership. In contrast to similar literature research, Lucks exposed an opposing view of transactional leadership through the prospective of Avolio and Bass who argue that transactional leadership merely adds value and does not necessarily stimulate change within an organization. Lucks demonstrated there does not exist a relationship between transformational leadership style and teacher motivation. Additionally, Lucks research contained rich, noteworthy and revered literature that expressed a variety of views on relationships between leaders and followers. This research will serve to add information and clarity to my understanding of transactional leadership that will ultimately assist in strengthening the dissertation. Nir, A. E. , & Kranot, N. (2006). School principal's leadership style and teachers' self-efficacy. Planning and Changing,  37(3/4),  205-218. Retrieved November 5, 2007, from Research Library  database via FirstSearch. Document ID:  1224424331). Authors Nir and Kranot conducted research to examine two hypotheses. One, whether personal teacher efficacy varied across different principal leadership styles and two, to examine what the added value of the various principal’s leadership style for personal teacher efficacy when related job factors were statistically controlled. The researchers demonstrated an understanding and clear knowledge of teacher s elf-efficacy and supported the various assertions they made with rich literature. The hypothesis of Nir and Kranot was that there does not exist a link between teacher’s general teacher efficacy and leadership styles and that the leadership style of the transformational leader was likely to be positively correlated with personal teacher efficacy. The research highlights and emphasizes the importance and potential contribution transformational leadership style has for shaping positive job experiences for teachers but does not identify it as a major source of causing personal teacher efficacy or general teacher efficacy. Sergiovanni, T. J. (2005). Strengthening the heartbeat: Leading and learning together in schools. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Sergiovanni’s book aims to offer a fresh perspective to the importance, dynamic, and success sustaining issues of school leadership. The content of the book is organized around eight chapters which clearly demonstrate that today’s school leaders need a new understanding of leadership, how it operates, the nature of its relationship to learning and why school leaders need to practice both leadership and learning together within the schools. Sergiovanni emphasized that value-added leadership can be the catalyst for building teacher capacity, building a learning community and developing a culture of collaboration among all stakeholders involved with the school. He explored the qualities of successful school leaders and used Adlai Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, Illinois, as an example of how principals can turn visions into action statements through effective school leadership. This book is important to my dissertation research because it is a premier source of information on theory and practice of successful school leadership.