Merging role-negotiation and leadership practices that influence organizational learning.
Published: 2004
Language: eng
Number of pages: 260
Subjects: Teacher-principal relationships.; Educational leadership.; Role playing.
Description: Demands for globally competitive graduating students are causing researchers and practitioners to seek new ways to stimulate school growth/development and bring improvements to the educational system. To address these issues, this study investigated role-negotiation as a learning process whereby principals, through their approach to personalized negotiated roles with teachers, can propel or inhibit organizational learning. The study was conducted in six randomly selected schools within two districts in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. Individually negotiated roles between each school's principal and three teachers illustrated the role negotiation process and accompanying leadership practices that support organizational learning.Results indicated that promoting open communication, shared vision, inclusion, trust, collaboration, shared distributed leadership, individualized support encouragement, a learning focus, professional growth and development, talking about giving supports, maximizing student outcomes, maintaining visibility, modelling involvement, and modelling high performance expectations are leadership practices within role-negotiation that foster organizational learning.Another finding is that a teacher's out-group status with the principal inhibited his/her ability to transfer learning. It confined that person to single-loop learning and he/she was not given the opportunity to contribute his/her knowledge and on-the-job learning to the school. In-group/out-group divisions also limit an organization to single-loop learning. In schools that do not have a highly pronounced separation, double-loop learning is more likely to occur. It is critical for teachers to also establish in-group status with the staff. If this does not occur, the opportunity to contribute their know-how to school change does not materialize.This study showed that in-group teachers can experience double-loop learning and role-routinization that gives them opportunities to receive and contribute their learning to the district level. However, without concentration on specific leadership practices that ensure collaborative processes and a student outcome focus, there may be no carry-over to one's own organization.Leader/member exchange theory, a leadership approach that strays from the average style, served as the study's framework. This theory includes leader/member dyads and in-group/out-group dichotomies. Organizational learning and single-loop/double-loop learning ideas were explored. Role-negotiation processes, including role-taking, role-making and role routinization, were simplified. Role enactment that provides a window to the world of theory-in-use individual learning and organizational performance was clarified.
Notes: Thesis (Ed.D.)--University of Toronto, 2004.

Electronic version licensed for access by U. of T. users.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 66-06, Section: A, page: 2037.