Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Essay.
Introduction
The debate over whether leaders are born or made is never ending. Many people
believe that leaders are born with characters that qualifies 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 way 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.
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).
Collegial style of leadership
The second leadership style is the collegial and it describes a work environment where
the authority and the responsibility of the work is shared equally between the co-workers who
have a clear understanding of the aim of the institution (Bush, 2003). This type of leadership
relies on the decentralization of the authority by distributing the power or the authority away
from the center and to others (Tomlinson, 2004). This type of leadership is normative, and the
decision-making process is made through a discussion that end with the consensus of all the
members involved. The decisions that are being made are normally based on democratic
principles (Bush, 2003). The collegial style adopts a common set of values that the members of
an organization share while socializing during the training period or in the early professional
practice (Bush, 2003). Everyone involved in the decision-making process agrees on the
common goal that limits the conflict and the division in the work. The size of the decision-making
group is an essential element in the collegial style, the group must be relatively small to enable
everyone to be heard and it must consist of people who are expert in their fields (Tomlinson,
2004).
The collegial leadership style was first used in schools in the 1980s and 1990s when it
was viewed as the most appropriate style (Bush, 2003). In a school setting this type of
leadership is defined as teachers discussing and collaborating with other teachers to meet a
common target or goal (Tomlinson, 2004). The teachers hold the authority of expertise and can
be autonomous while making decisions. However, teachers must collaborate and share their
experiences to teach and learn. In this leadership style all the teachers talk and discuss their
plans and their preparation for the lessons and classroom observations are considered normal
(Bush, 2003).
Transformation style of leadership
The third type of leadership style is the transformational leadership that was introduced
by Dr. James Burns (Bush, 2003). This type of leadership emphasizes on the commitments and
capability of the members of the organization. The characters of the transformational leadership
are divided into four main characters that are labeled as the four Is (Johannsen, 2014). The
first character of this leadership style is the individual consideration that provides personal
attention to other that need it. The second is intellectual stimulation where the leader
encourages others to be involved in several brainstorming sessions. The third character is the
idealized influence where the leader is the role model for the others, and everyone is expected
to use the leader as an example. The final character is the inspirational motivation where the
leader expects high performance from everyone involved by motivating them (Bush, 2003).
This style of leadership was adopted by many scholars because it encourages the
members to perform beyond their expectations (Hoy et al., 2001). There are three basic function
that a transformative 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 (Bush, 2003).
In the school setting, the role of the administrators is to focus their attention on facilitative
power to help the teachers in the school to reach their possible potential. 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 teachers growth and development and it is
very effective in problem solving (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.
Mohammed bin Rashid is one of the best leaders and he is a very
unique and special in everything. He made a lot of changes and he
always looking for change as positive, he is very inspiring person. He
develop Dubai a lot in terms on many sectors; such as he develop the
police system and education system. He has three qualities that made
him very powerful person which is good listener, always want to
develop and very inspiring person and always encourage the people.
2. Read the student essay Leadership in Education and answer the
questions.
I. What are the 3 styles of leadership presented in the essay?
Bureaucratic style of leadership
Collegial style of leadership
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.
Hierarchy is like a pyramid and it means the person at the top always
have the power and the authority to do anything her/she want.
Moreover, the person at the top just giving rules and orders to the rest
of the individuals under him/her and they have to follow with taking
their opinions.
III.
IV.
The bureaucratic model has the main aim of oriented with the person
in charge at the top of the hieratical pyramid
V.
VI.
VII.
It means that this type of leadership spreading the power; for example,
they giving small jobs for the teachers to do and discuss with them
about it and they make the teachers as leaders; they have to lead the
school and discuss and share their opinions and what they think.
VIII.
What are the three qualities described that a Transformational Leader must
have?
X.
XI.
effective in teams
effective in teams
Flexible