3 | The Teacher and the Community, School 1
Culture and Organizational Leadership
UNIT 8: Organizational Leadership
8.0 Intended Learning Outcomes
a) Distinguish between leadership and management; and
b) Explain what organizational leadership, situational leadership and servant
leadership are; and
c) Evaluate different organizational leadership styles.
8.1. Introduction
Expected of professional teachers who care for and embark on
continuing professional development is a promotion along the way.
With this in mind, this course won’t be complete without a
discussion of an effective leader and manager for which you will be
in the future. But should you refuse offer for a managerial or
leadership position in school or in the bigger educational
organization because of the love for teaching and learners, this
lesson on organizational leadership won’t be laid to waste because
even as a teacher you are ready a leader and a manager. You are a
teacher and a class or classroom manager.
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8.2 Topics/Discussion (with Assessment/Activities)
Activity 1
A. Draw an object that symbolizes a leader of an organization. Explain your symbol
of leadership and be able to answer the following questions:
1. Who is an organizational leader?
2. What do organizational leaders do?
3. What qualities do they possess?
8.2.1. Organizational Leadership
In organizational leadership, leaders help set strategic goals for the
organization while motivating individuals within the organization to successfully
carry out assignments in order to realize those goals. In the school setting, the school
leader helps set the goals/targets for the school and motivates teachers, parents,
learners, non-teaching personnel and other members of the community to do their
task to realize the school goals.
Organizational leadership works towards what is best for individual members
and what is best for the organization as a group at the same time. Organizational
leadership does not sacrifice the individual members for the sake of the people nor
sacrifice the welfare of the group for the sake of individual members. Both individual
and group are necessary.
Organizational leadership is also an attitude and a work ethic that empowers
an individual in any role to lead from the top, middle, or bottom of an organization.
Applied to the school setting, the school leader helps anyone from the organization
not necessary from the top to lead others. An example of this leadership which does
not necessarily come from the top of the organization is teacher leadership.
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3 | The Teacher and the Community, School 3
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8.2.2. Leadership versus Management
Are leadership and management synonymous? Is a leader a manager or is a
manager a leader? If I am a good leader, does it follow that I am a good manager? Or
if I am a good manager, am I at the same time a good leader? Not necessarily.
School head must be both a leader and a manager, a school head leads the
school and community to formulate the vision, mission, goals, and school
improvement plan. This is a leadership function. The school head sees to it that this
plan gets well implemented on time and so ensures that the resources needed are
there, the persons to do the job are qualified and available. This is a management
function. Imagine if the school head is only a leader. You have the vision, mission,
goals and school plan but no implementation. The plan is good only in paper. If you
do the task of a manager only, you will be focusing on the details of the day-to-day
implementation without the big picture, the vision and mission. So, its big picture for
connect and meaning. This means that it is best that a school leader is both a leader
and a manager.
Table 3. Comparison of Manager and Leader
MANAGERS versus Leaders
MANAGERS LEADERS
Administer Innovate
Their process is transactional; meet Their process is transformational; develop
objectives and delegate tasks. a vision and find a way forward.
Work Focused People Focused
The goal is to get things done. They are The goals include both people and results.
skilled at allocating work. They care about you and want you to
succeed.
Have Subordinates Have Followers
They create circles of power and lead by They create circles of influence and lead by
authority. inspiring.
Do Things Right Do the Right Thing
Managers enact the existing culture and Leaders shape the culture and drive
maintain status quo. integrity.
Table 3. Essentials of Management, Dubrin, Andrew E. (2006) Source adapted from The Teacher and
the Community, School Culture and Organizational Leadership, p.85.
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8.2.3. Types of Skills Demanded of Leaders
Leaders use three (3) broad type of skills: 1) technical, 2) human and 3) conceptual.
Technical skill refers to any type of process or technique like sending e-mail, preparing
a power point presentation. Human skill is the ability to work effectively with people
and to build teamwork. This is also referred to as people skills or soft skills.
Conceptual skill is the ability to think in terms of models, frameworks and broad
relationships such as long-range plans. In short, conceptual skill deals with ideas
while human skill concerns relationship with people and technical skill involves
psychomotor skills and things. The ideal school leader possesses all three.
8.2.4. Leadership Styles
Here are the leadership styles as cited by Prieto, et.al:
1. Autocratic leaders- do decisions making by themselves.
2. Consultative leaders- allow participation of the members of the organization
by consulting them but make the decision themselves. This is what happens in
consultation meetings called by school when they increase tuition fees.
Sometimes education stakeholders get disappointed that their suggestions are
not carried after school leaders have consulted them. They do not understand
that consultation does not necessarily mean approval of stakeholders
suggestions.
3. Democratic leaders- allow the members of the organization to fully participate
in decision making. Decisions are arrived at by way of consensus. This is
genuine participation of the members of the organization which is in keeping
with school empowerment.
4. Laissez-faire or free-rein leadership style- leaders avoid responsibility and
leave the members of the organization to establish their own work. This
leadership style leads to the kanya-kanya mentality, one weakness of the
Filipino character. There will be no problem if the situation is dealt with., i.e.
each member of the organization has reached a level of maturity and so if the
members are left to themselves they will do only what is good for the
organization. On the other hand, it will be chaos if each member will do as one
please even if it is against the common good.
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Culture and Organizational Leadership
Which leadership styles are participative? The consultative and
democratic leadership styles are the only ones that allow for participation of
the members of the organization. Between the consultative and democratic
styles of leadership, the democratic style is genuinely participative because it
abides by the rule of the majority.
• The Situational Leadership Model
In situational leadership, effective leaders adapt their leadership style to the
situation of the members of the organization,.e.i., to the readiness and
willingness of group members. Paul Hersey and Kenneth H. Blanchard (1996)
characterized leadership style in terms of the amount of the task behavior and
relationship behavior that the leader provides to their followers. They
categorized all leadership styles into four behavior styles, which they name S1
to S 4, as cited by Prieto, et.al.
Table 4. Behavior Styles in Situational Leadership
S1 S2 S3 S4
Selling/Directing Telling/Coaching Participating/ Delegating
Supporting
Individuals lack the Individuals are Individuals are Individuals are
specific skills required more able to do experienced and experienced at the
for the job in hand and the task; however, able to do the task task, and
they are willing to they are but lack the comfortable with
work at the task. They demotivated for confidence or the their own ability to
are novice but this job or task. willingness to take do it well. They are
enthusiastic. Unwilling to do on responsibility. able and willing to
the task. not only do the
task, but to take
the responsibility
for the task.
Table 4. Behavior Styles in Situational Leadership, Source adapted from The Teacher and the Community,
School Culture and Organizational Leadership, p.87.
If the group member is able, willing and confident (high readiness), the leader
uses a delegating leadership style. The leader turns over the responsibility for
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Culture and Organizational Leadership
decisions and implementation to the members. On the other hand, if the group
members have low readiness, i.e. unable and unwilling, the leader resort to
telling the group members what to do. In short, competent members of the
organization require less competent members. Less competent people need
more specific direction than more competent people. Among these leadership
styles, no one style is considered best for all leaders to use at all time. Effective
leaders need to be flexible, and must adapt themselves according to the
situation, the readiness and willingness of the members of the organization.
• Servant Leadership
Robert K. Greenleaf (1977), as cited by Prieto, et.al, coined the paradoxical term
servant-leadership. How can be a leader when one is a servant? That’s the
common thinking. But the paradox is Greenleaf’s deliberate and meaningful
way of emphasizing the qualities of a servant leader. He describes the servant…
servant first. It begins with natural feeling that one wants to serve. Then
conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. The best test is: do those served
grow as persons: do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer,
more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants? And, what is
the effect on the least privileged in society; will they benefit, or, at least, not be
further deprived? (Greenleaf,2002, as cited by Prieto, et.al, p.87-88)
We often hear the term “public servants” to refer to appointed and elected
officials of the government to emphasize the fact that they indeed are servants
of the people. Their first duty is to serve and serving, they lead. They don’t
think of their power as leaders first. If they do, they tend to become more
conscious of their importance felt over their constituents and tend to impose
that power or make their importance felt over their constituents and forget that
if ever they are given power it is to serve their people.
Servant leaders seeks to involve others in decision making, is strongly based in
ethical and caring behavior, and enhances the growth of workers while
improving the caring and quality of organizational life. The school head who
acts as a servant leader forever remembers that one is there to serve one’s
teachers, the students, the parents, etc. and NOT the teachers, learners, parents
to serve the school head.
• Transformational Leadership
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Robert Kennedy once said: “Some men see things as they are, and ask why. I
dream of things that never were, and ask why not.” Those who dream of things that
never were and ask “why not” are not transformational leaders. The transformational
leader is not content with status quo and sees the need to transform the way the
organization thinks, relates and does things. The transformational school leaders see
school culture as it could be and should be, not as it is and so plays one’s role as
visionary, engager, learner, collaborator, and instructional leader. As a
transformational leader, one makes positive changes in the organization by
collaboratively developing new vision for the organization and mobilizing members
to work towards that vision. To do this the transformational leader combines
charisma, inspirational leadership and intellectual stimulation to introduce
innovation for the transformation of the organization.
8.2.3. Sustaining Change
For reforms to transform, the innovations introduced by the transformational
leader must be institutional and sustained. Or else that innovation is simply a passing
fad that loses its flavor after a time. A proof that an innovation introduced has
when the transformative leader is gone or is transferred to another school or gets
promoted in the organization.
We feel most comfortable with our old pair of shoes. We like to live in our
comfort zones and so sometimes we don’t welcome change. And yet if we want
improvement in the way we do things in our organization, in our school or if we want
to improve in life we must be willing to change. The transformational leader ought to
deal with resistance to change to succeed. There will always be resisters to change. To
ensure that the innovation one introduces leads to the transformation of the
organization, Morato of ABS-CBN, (2011) gives the following advice, as cited by
Prieto,et.al:
1. Seek the support of the stakeholders – the leaders must build a “strong coalition
of allies in order to push for any meaningful change that would yield results.
Innovation cannot be forced upon the teachers, the students, parents, the
community… without serious consequences.”
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2. Get people involved early and often – resistance drops off in proportion to the
involvement of participants. You may not to expect 100-percent support from
any individual who was not personally involved in a change that affected one’s
work. It is best to set up networks to reach out to as many people as possible.
3. Plan a communications campaign to “sell” the innovation – Morato (2011)< as
cited by Prieto, asserts: “The change envisioned must cascade downwards to
the last lesson plan and ripple side wards to win the support of major
stakeholders.”
4. Ensure that the innovation is understood by all – the benefits and cost must be
appreciated and weighed carefully.
5. Consider timing and phasing – these are highly critical; missteps might backfire
and lack of sensitivity to stakeholders might lead to resistance.
Assessment:
C. M. D. Hamo-ay
3 | The Teacher and the Community, School 9
Culture and Organizational Leadership
After your thorough reading and understanding of the discussion,
answer the following questions by choosing the letter of the correct answer;
1. Which is the essence of servant-leadership?
A. Leading is serving.
B. Leading is making your subordinates feel your power over them.
C. Leading is ensuring that yourself is the first.
D. Leading is changing.
2. What is the message of situational leadership?
A. A leader is first a servant.
B. A leader must fit leadership style to the follower’s level of readiness and
willingness.
C. A leader can choose leadership style that fits oneself most.
D. Authoritarian leadership is best because organization accomplishes much.
3. Who is most interested in improving the present status of an organization?
A. The authoritarian leader
B. The laissez fair type of leader
C. The transformational leader
D. The servant leader
4. What must a leader do if he wants an innovation to affect substantially and
positively school culture?
A. Sustain the innovation
B. Introduce innovation one after another
C. Ensure that innovation is welcomed by all, no exception
D. School head is the origin of innovation
5. Is a manager also a good leader?
A. Yes
B. It depends on the person.
C. Not necessarily.
D. It depends on the type of organization.
Assignment
C. M. D. Hamo-ay
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Culture and Organizational Leadership
Write T if the statement is true and F if it is false.
______ 1. Leadership is interchangeable with management because they mean
the same.
______ 2. A leader cannot be a manager and a manager cannot be a leader
at the same time.
______ 3. In the laissez fair leadership style, the leader fully interferes
in the decision-making of one’s followers.
______ 4. In the consultative style of leadership, members of the organization arrive
at a decision by way of consensus.
______ 5. In the democratic style of leadership, the members of the organization
are consulted in decision-making.
______ 6. The autocratic leader consults one’s followers.
______ 7. A transformational leader is content with status quo.
______ 8. In situational leadership, if followers are “unwilling and unable” to do
the job, the leader must resort to delegating.
______ 9. In situational leadership, if followers are “willing and able” to do the job,
the leader must resort to telling.
______ 10. Transformational leadership is focused on innovation.
______ 11. Innovations when relevant do not need to be sustained.
8.3. References
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Bilbao, Purita P., et.al. (2015), The Teaching Profession,
Quezon City, Metro Manila: Lorimar Publishing, Inc
Prieto, Nelia G., et.al. (2019), The Teacher and the Community, School Culture and
Organizational Leadership, 10-B Boston Street, Brgy. Kaunlaran, Cubao
Quezon City: LORIMAR Publishing Inc.
Pawilen, Greg T. ,et. al.,(2019), The School and the Community, School Culture,
and Organizational Leadership, Sampaloc, Manila: Rex Book Store, Inc.
Vega, Violeta A., et al,(2015), Social Dimensions of Education
Quezon City, Metro Manila: Lorimar Publishing, Inc
8.4 Acknowledgment
The images, tables, figures and information contained in this module were
taken from the references cited above.
DISCLAIMER:
This module is not for commercial, and this is only for educational purposes.
Some technical terminologies and phrases were not changed, but the author of this
module ensures that all the in-text citations are in the reference section. Even photos
or figures are with in-text citations to abide by the intellectual property law.
C. M. D. Hamo-ay
