In dealing with the case, it is essential to consider that the principal is moving into a school which has some challenges, and which is also going through some transition. Thus, it is necessary for the principle to adopt a leadership theory which will help the school in the transformational process. The principal has provided her managerial skills, with her performance at a previous school having been praised for its easygoing and adaptable nature. Also, she has a handbook for classroom management, an indication that she is highly skilled in the management field. So, as the new principal at the new school, she should adopt a facilitative leadership style, as this would help her facilitate the change needed in the school, and in particular improve the quality of education in the school.
Facilitative Leadership Style
The facilitative leadership, unlike the old fashioned authoritative leadership, appears to be preferred by many organizational managers today. Indeed, facilitative leadership is new theory being used in organizations. If a manager needs to inspire their workers or team members or employees towards a shared goal, rather than providing them with detailed and strict directions to follow. Facilitative leadership necessitates the leader to have compassion in their communication, which comprises open listening to the non-verbal and verbal communication of the group members, juniors and customers without condemnation or judgment of any kind (Reilly, 2017). Facilitative style is non-authoritative and welcomes open recommendations and positive feedback from other people to ensure that everybody involved can share their opinions and thoughts.
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In this form of setup, opinions or suggestions are debated, discussed and thought of openly in a healthy setting. Everybody including employees, team members, management, stakeholders or any related parties have the opportunity to share ownership of ideas once their clarity and collective agreement in the direction in which the organization is leading. There is a sense of shared responsibility for organizational growth (Reilly, 2017). Without any doubt, this leadership style will establish powerful fundamental positive emotions which will give them a strong sense of appreciation and respect for themselves as well as towards the organization. Indeed, this empowers allied parties and of course motivates them to better themselves in supportive areas of their skills that lead to a more united and productive team supporting the creativity, growth, and expansion of the organization.
It is motivating to know that facilitative leadership allows appreciation and understanding to emerge between the management, employees and team members. The openness and permission to sift through useful ideas offer a clearer vision of the organization's direction. More significantly, the employees will be unafraid to let the organization know when the organization is not going in the right direction (Reilly, 2017). This leadership style differs from other styles whereby the leader is viewed as always being right and in control together with ensuring that no party openly disobeys their instructions.
Principally, the old autocratic leader leads with fear, limiting team members or workers' freedom of speech as well as actions, thereby restraining their growth and creativity. This approach does not empower employees, the management or team members, even though the leaders seem to be in power. Given that collaboration is vital and beneficial for all forms of organizations to attain its vision, why should organizations not motivate and permit creativity, opinions, and ideas to flow as a kind of support? It encourages well-being and harmony both for the organization and minimizes the stress for the people involved.
In essence, effective facilitation entails the use of tools and processes for maximizing the collective intelligence of people in an organization for determining the right action course and to then create a template for acting on the decisions they make. Facilitative leadership is a result, quality and people-centered driven process of supporting and developing a workplace culture which facilitates goal attainment via effective interpersonal processes. In particular, facilitative leadership is crucial to change management, effective teamwork, group process, and workplace culture in the workplace.
How the Principle can use Facilitative Leadership
The style could use this theory as a starting point for the much needed organizational change in the school through facilitative the change. Overall, this style of leadership would be the most appropriate for the principal to adopt. By using the approach, the principal will be able to motivate the school staff and other stakeholders towards the common goal of improving the quality of education in the school – reducing the student dropout rate that is now at 51% and raising, and increasing the student graduation rate that is now at just 46%. Since this leadership style is non-authoritative and welcomes open recommendations and constructive feedback from other people, all relevant stakeholders will be involved to share their opinions and thoughts on how to enhance the school's education quality.
By using this style, the principal will allow for the debating and discussion of opinions or suggestions regarding the best ways the school could work towards achieving high-quality education. Everybody including employees, team members, management, stakeholders or any related parties will have the opportunity to share ownership of ideas once their clarity and collective agreement in the direction in which the organization is leading. There will also be a sense of shared responsibility for organizational growth.
Fundamentally, the principal will have to distinguish between her management responsibilities and leadership responsibilities. Management entails controlling or dealing with people or things. However, the focus tends to be on things instead of people. As a manager, the principal will be responsible for planning, organizing, and coordinating (Waddock, 2007). Conversely, leadership is the act of leading a team towards a shared goal. As a leader, the principal will inspire people in the school to share their vision, motivate them to act and encourage them and assist the employees and the school management in overcoming challenges in the search for the school's vision.
In a wide construct of the ethical role of the principle as a manager, leading and managing could be said to be integrally ethics-laden tasks as all management decisions impact either the natural environment or people in a way – and such effects required to be considered in the decision-making process. Ethical leadership is a blend of being a moral individual as well as being an ethical manager. Being an ethical individual rests on a range of important traits like trustworthiness, honesty, and integrity (Waddock, 2007). Additionally, being a moral individual encompasses acts like doing the right thing, being open, concern for individuals and personal integrity standards. Thus, in her decision-making as the principal, she should act with honesty, integrity, and trustworthiness, ensuring that she does the right thing, especially under difficult situations. She should always acknowledge the ethical aspects which are fixated in her daily job functions as both a leader and manager of the school.
In general, the principal will need to assess how things are done in the school, and what needs to be done differently to see a change in the organization. Mainly, the role of the principal will be change management – overseeing the necessary change in the school for better and quality education. In order to implement the facilitative style, the principal will require to change some changes to the school's management to change how things have been done previously. Further, the principal will need to hold meetings with the school staff to discuss, debate and deliberate on the best course of action.
In conclusion, through the use of facilitative leadership, the principal could turn around how the school is run, and ultimately improve the school's performance. There are various factors which could be looked at to find the results of adopting the theory. The bottom-line will be to the student dropout rate and graduation rate. A fall in the rate of dropout and increase in graduation rate will be used to look at the outcomes of adopting the facilitative leadership style.
References
Reilly, S. (2017). The facilitative leader: Managing performance without controlling people .
Waddock, S. (2007). Ethical Role of the Manager ‘. Encyclopedia of Business Ethics and Society. Ed.
