Authentic Leadership and Budget-Building: Superintendents Reveal Origins, Strategies, and Connections

ABSTRACT Superintendent leadership style and budget-building practices were studied in six southern states. Analyses reveal that leadership authenticity is positively and significantly correlated with budget-building transparency and information management. Fast-rising career patterns and superintendent self-described leadership styles were not found to be correlated with their budget-building practices. Several demographic factors were examined but only superintendent educational background, size of school district, and school district socioeconomic status were associated with budget-building transparency. Finally, superintendents in fiscally dependent school districts were found to be more transparent than superintendents in fiscally independent districts. Implications of these findings and recommendations for future inquiry are discussed. INTRODUCTION The intersection of leadership style and organizational practices reveals a great deal about how school superintendents attempt to influence their district's progress. The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationships among superintendent leadership authenticity and the transparency, information processing, and staffing dynamics involved in budget-building processes. We surveyed public school district superintendents in six southeastern states concerning their leadership styles and the budget-building processes they employ in their administrations. While the literature surrounding leadership is voluminous, research about how school leaders create and implement processes leading to annual budget adoption is much more limited. Understanding the antecedents and consequences of these basic components of school operations is important because it will inform university preparation programs, practicing superintendents, school district professional development programs, and school board executive selection and evaluation practices. Leadership Practicing school executives can turn to a vast amount of both scholarly and popular literature about the study of leadership. Private sector business literature in general and more specifically, positive organizational scholarship (Cameron, Dutton, & Quinn, 2003a, b; Spreitzer, 2006; Verbos, Gerard, Forshey, Harding, & Miller, 2007), point to the importance of the leader's talent in an organization's success (Kahn, 1990; Marzano, Waters, & McNulty, 2005; Ostrem & Wheeler, 2006). While leadership style literature ranges far and wide, recently the concept of authentic leadership has received attention (Avolio, 2007; Avolio & Gardner, 2005; Avolio, Gardner, Walumbwa, Luthans, & May, 2004; Begley, 2001; Blausten, 2009; Champy, 2009; Endrissat, Muller, & Kaudela-Baum, 2007; Gardner & Schermerhorn, 2004; George, Sims, McLean, & Mayer, 2007; Goffe & Jones, 2005; Goffe & Jones, 2007; flies, Morgeson, & Nahrgang, 2005; Jensen & Luthans, 2006; Kellert, Humphrey, & Sleeth, 2006; Luthans & Avolio, 2003; Marshall & Heffes, 2004; Masarech, 2001; May, Chan, Hodges, & Avolio, 2003; Michie & Gooty, 2005; Palmer & Fleig-Palmer, 2006; Price, 2003; Shamir & Eilam, 2005; Sparrowe, 2005; Tate, 2008; Toor & Ofori, 2008; Yammarino, Dionne, Schriesheim, & Dansereau, 2008). Salient characteristics of authentic leaders include self-awareness, confidence, resiliency, and optimism. Authentic leaders are future oriented and have a proclivity for action. They establish long-term, meaningful, and transparent relationships with followers. Authentic leaders have a passion for their purpose and practice their moral/ethical values consistently. They have the ability to empathize with different types of people and situations and they build on the strengths of followers. Walumbwa, Avolio, Gardner, Wernsing, & Peterson (2008) operationalized authentic leadership for study by developing a questionnaire containing four fundamental elements: self-awareness, relational transparency, balanced processing, and moral integrity. …