Essay
Introduction
The debate over whether leaders are born or made is never ending. Many people
believe that leaders are born with characters that qualify them to lead. On the other
hand, many people believe that leaders are made by the environment and the vision that
drives them to work hard and emerge as a leader in their society. The world has known
many great leaders who have changed and influenced the world in one way or another.
Having a clear vision and being a visionary leader can be one of the ways for a person to
emerge as a leader. A leader is defined as a person who is in charge of a company or an
organization or even a country (Davies et al., 2005). The difference between one leader
and the other might be the style of leadership that they use. This paper will focus on
three styles of leaderships, and it will discuss their definition, the characteristics of each
style and the difference between them.
this type of leadership is based on the experience and the qualification that a person
has. The promotions in this kind of leadership also depend on the expertise that is
demonstrated by an individual.
In a school setting the teacher report to the head principal who is at the top of the
hierarchical system. According to Tony Bush (2003), all schools are bureaucracies, there
are rules governing the behavior of the members (P.45). The decisions and the goals of
the schools are always decided by the head principle in this style of leadership. Everyone
in the school is goal oriented, and they all work for the common goal. Bureaucracy style
is used in schools by many countries including China, Poland, and many others (Bush,
2003).
hold the
leadership style all the teachers talk and discuss their plans and their preparation for the
lessons and classroom observations are considered normal (Bush, 2003).
Comparing characteristics
All of the leadership styles tend to be normative ( what is accepted as normal) and
can be applied in any school setting (Bush, 2003). The leadership theories tend to be
selective which means that every theory focuses on an element at the expense of other
elements for example; the Bureaucratic focuses on rules at the expense of personal
relations. Another point that all of the leadership styles have in common is that they all
are based on observations, and then they are developed into concepts.
All of the leadership styles have their strength, but they also have their
weaknesses. The bureaucratic leadership style follows the rules strictly which could
ensure that there is an equality in opportunities. The rules and regulations in the
leadership style ensure that everyone is efficient and capable of the task at hand. The
Bureaucratic style is less effective in teams and unlike the collegial and the
transformational style cannot be flexible and therefore it leaves no room for creativity or
innovation The bureaucratic style makes it hard for schools to change their rules and
adapt to the needs of society (Bush, 2003).
On the other hand, the collegial style is based on sharing and democracy that
leads to less conflict in the working space which increase the productivity of the
employees. The main focus of the collegial model is the decision-making process that
only works when the group consists of experts. Furthermore, the transformational
leadership is based on the vision and the motivation of the leader that challenge the
members and make them work harder which improve the productivity in the workplace.
The leaders inspire their team members and always expect them to be the best at what
they do. Nevertheless, the followers may find it hard to follow the leaders vision if they
didnt believe in it. Administrators can struggle and find challenges in all of the three
leadership style (Davies et al., C,2005).
Reflection
In conclusion, each one of the leadership style has it strength and it weaknesses
and in my opinion it is very important to understand each style in order to determine
which style works best in different work settings. As a future teacher and possibly an
administrator, I think that it is not possible to have a perfect leadership style because
there is a flaw in all of them. However, understanding them all in detail make me think of
what kind of a leader I want to be in the future. As a teacher, I want to offer my students
a support system so that they can reach and achieve what they are capable of. I also
want to offer them structures and rules to follow because everyone needs structure. I
want to be the kind of teacher who listen to my colleagues and learn from their
experiences and share my experience with them. In the end, I want to combine all of the
leadership styles and create a leadership style based on the strength of the three
leadership styles that are mentioned in this paper.
References
Bush, T. (2003). Theories of educational leadership and management (3rd ed.). London;
Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.
Davies, B., Ellison, L., & Bowring-Carr, C. (2005). School leadership in the 21st century:
Developing a strategic approach (2nd ed.). London; New York: RoutledgeFalmer.
Johannsen, M. (2014, March 9). Types Of Leadership Styles. Retrieved Septemper 17,
2015, from legacee: https://www.legacee.com/types-of-leadership-styles/
Hoy, W. K., & Miskel, C. G. (2001). Educational administration: Theory, research, and
practice (6th ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill.
Tomlinson, H. (2004). Educational management. London: RoutledgeFalmer.
1. Name and describe a leader that you know. What did they do to make a positive
change or have a positive influence in the world or their community? Name three
qualities that you think they have.
There are a lot of leaders that I knew in my life. The first leader was an example for us as
Emiratis people he was Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan - Allah mercy him - . As local people we
proud to say we are from UAE and our leader was Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan - Allah mercy
him because he taught us how to love him and how to be proud and how to act to be
similar to him. He just acts as a leader and makes all that developments in our country
and changes it from a desert to paradise. He was characterized by most qualities of
leadership, including compassion, tender, future vision, honesty, love of people,
participation of the people in the joys and sorrows, helps them morally and materially,
encouraged by the positive imitate him and walking in his footsteps. He impact in our
hearts before it affects our minds. Also, Sheikha Bent Saeed principles school, she was a
great example as a leader and I noted that during my practicum and she always said and
wants everybody around her to remember that to follow Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan - Allah
mercy him steps.
2. Read the student essay Leadership in Education and answer the questions.
I.
She talked about bureaucratic style of leadership, collegial style of leadership and
transformation style of leadership.
II.
The essay states The bureaucratic style of leadership is one of the most
important formal models that consider an organization as a hierarchical system
(Bush, 2003). Explain the meaning of hierarchy in your own words.
The bureaucratic model has the main aim to measure the efficiency through
rational approach to management and encourage the communications with the
person in charge at the top of the hieratical.
V.
Principal, vice principal, the administer staff, teachers, students, bus supervisor, cleaners
canteen workers, bus drivers.
VI.
This style are limited the formal approach. I mean it depends on the balancing equally
between the co-workers and the authority. In this style they care about lets everybody
know about decisions and heard about it and all their work as a group work.
VII.
The essay states This type of leadership (Collegial) relies on the decentralization
of the authority by distributing the power or the authority away from the center
and to others (Tomlinson, 2004). Explain what this means when applied to a
school and give one example.
It means that the authority are communicates with workers directly and they skips the
borders between each others and it works as a group by discuss and divided the orders
between each other equally.
VIII.
This is through motivate the workers to work harder and beyond the expectations
because their main characteristics by motivation the members, and they have a special
charisma that shows their vision throughout their working and they always tries to
enhance and promote their stimulate intellectual between members.
IX.
What are the three qualities described that a Transformational Leader must have?
First, the transformational leader has to always motivate his followers in order to achieve
the highest levels of performance possible by transforming their beliefs, attitudes and
values. Second, they have a charisma that sets a vision and instill trust and pride while
working. The vision of the transformational leader is what guides the members of this
leadership style. Finally, they always try to stimulate intellectual and offer it to their
followers to get the best possible results
X.
Considering transformational leadership, the essay presents the idea that The
teachers and the administrators lead by example in the school to achieve the
highest result possible. In an educational setting this type of leadership helps the
XI.
Bureaucratic Leadership
Collegial leadership
Transformational leadership
Based on observations,
and then they are
developed into concepts.
3. In your opinion do you think it is possible for aspects of all three leadership styles
to be used in a school in UAE? Explain your reasons and give examples to justify.
In my opinion, I am totally agreed in using this style in the schools because it helps to
build the positive environment which leads to develop and improve all aspects and all
chain commands members. This is suitable to support the different aspects and different
personalities at work. For example, using the bureaucratic Leadership style works better
with government facilities like State civil defense and Government agencies that rely on
law enforcement and includes strict laws. On the other hand as a school community, the
leader needs to integrate the three styles to deals with different situations that you may
encounter. Anyway, the successful leaders must be flexible in dealing with all situations
and be dedicate their self to achieve justice.