A Rasch investigation on the relationship between distributed leadership practices and cultural work values of middle managers in Singapore schools
Authors:   , Lim Simon Qing Wei 
Published: October 2024

In the contemporary school climate, the intricacies of school functions and operational demands have led to the evolution of leadership practices. School leaders can no longer effectively lead the school fraternity on their own, but instead, they need to involve other incumbents particularly those in the middle leadership positions, to meet the growing demands. From an in-depth review of the extant leadership literature such as distributed leadership, it has unfortunately revealed the dearth of research in attempting to understand how middle managers would perceive leadership practices especially in an Asian context (e.g., Singapore). Notwithstanding that cultural factors may influence leadership practices, very little is known about how distributed leadership is practised in non-Western contexts. Furthermore, distributed leadership appears to be an elusive construct which contains conceptualization, operationalization, and methodological issues. To address these concerns, this study is set to establish a better understanding of distributed leadership practices by determining its factor structure and to examine whether the dimensions of distributed leadership practices may be related to Singapore middle managers' cultural work values. From the comprehensive analysis of distributed leadership literature, six plausible dimensions of distributed leadership practices were identified, namely: empowerment, shared decisions, collective engagement, leadership development, shared vision, and supportive culture. Hofstede's cultural work values framework was adopted as a guide to investigate the relationships between the two constructs. The dimensions include individualism versus collectivism, high versus low power distance, high versus low uncertainty avoidance, assertiveness versus consideration, long-term versus short-term orientation, and indulgence versus restraint. Using these dimensions as theoretical 'signposts', the study began by interviewing 20 middle managers individually to obtain nuanced understanding on their distributed leadership practices and cultural work values. These insights were subsequently used to guide the development of two rating scales for measuring middle managers' perceptions of distributed leadership and cultural work values. A total of 123 middle managers responded to the survey, and their responses were used to establish the factor structure of distributed leadership practices and its relationship with cultural work values. The analyses show that distributed leadership construct is indeed made up of six factors, namely: measured empowerment, shared decisions, collective engagement, leadership development, shared vision, and supportive culture. These distributed leadership dimensions were found to be significantly correlated with five cultural work values which comprise individualism versus collectivism, high versus low power distance, long-term versus short-term orientation, high versus low uncertainty avoidance, and indulgence versus restraint. Interestingly, Singapore middle managers would engage in distributed leadership practices differently from what were asserted in Western literature. Such disparities can be explained by cultural differences between societies. As cultural work values are always evolving because of globalization, it is not surprising that middle managers did not indicate cultural work values that are on one extreme end of the continuum. Instead, they indicated cultural work values that exist along the continuum. To a large extent, they do tend to promote collectivism among staff and respect for hierarchy, while acknowledging the need for strategic pragmatism to ensure the effectiveness and efficiency of school administration in Singapore.