Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Chapter 4 Blog
Chapter 4 is a paradigm shift in leadership and management theory. It speaks of management in the linear (traditional) and non-linear mode. Reflect on the leadership you are currently involved with in your school. Is he or she a linear or non-linear manager, or both? Give examples of how he or she manifests his or her mode based on issues such as getting and maintaining compliance, planning for school improvement and motivating teachers to achieve goals.
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9 comments:
My principal is, for the most part, a non-linear manager especially when it comes to compliance, school improvement and motivation. With compliance and motivation, he does an excellent job building relations with us so that he knows what motivates us and how he can get us all on the same track...working for the same purpose. He cares and it is obvious that we are all working as a team to meet the children's needs. Sometimes "leader" is thought of as someone who rules. At our school, he guides us thought his leasdership. In school imporvement, he asks for our input. We all analyze the available data and resources and work together to write our school goals.
"Team player" is a word used often by our guidance department, when we are all called upon to play different roles during SOL testing. We are also asked to show flexibility in allowing remediation and re-testing of our students during instructional time, with the understanding that it is for the success of those particular students and the school. I would also say my school environment is one of high professional expectations- we are called upon to step up to the plate and do what is best and what is asked for, regardless of whether we fully understand the situation. I would say that our principal encourages our guidance department, special education teachers, ELL teachers, core teachers, and specialty teachers to all work in a non-linear environment to ensure that each student is being served and given the best chance for success. Our principal is also good at choosing staff and designating staff to work in these roles that require flexibility and creativity.
However, some linear, traditional management is required in any institutional environment (including ours) to insure consistency and compliance with law and policy.
For the most part, I think my principal is a traditional leader. She announces goals and uses them to decide what needs to be done. She often says that she chooses her staff so that we are in many ways the same. So that we do things alike and see things alike. She is not threatening really, but she also has been known to say things like "if you really do not want to change grade levels like I want you to, then I can help you find a new school, because I am putting you where I think you will benefit our school the most". Teachers really do not have a say so in what grade they are teaching. She does see herself as the leader and does not want to get too close to her staff. She has said that she really wishes she could be our friends but she has to be our boss.
My administrator is a teacher at heart. He guides us the same way an older, leader teacher might guide a younger teacher. He is young himself, but he has the ability to model teaching and model being a teacher. He does an excellent job leading not through telling what to do but by working to help teachers any way he can and by showing how to be an effective teacher. He is not a manager, he involves all teacher and faculty in a way that everyone feels their special talents are being utilized and they are only working on project that they have a connection to. He creates and atmosphere where teachers want to be involved in things, they are not forced.
JONATHAN PAIT'S BLOG:
I find my administrator to be a linear manager of the school. He tends to go by set guidelines and procedures. To gain compliance, he frequently uses strategies that are associated with bartering. He believes in discipline, order, and schedules. Only in glimpses do you see non-linear behavior. He is flexible when an immediate, pressing need presents itself.
My principal displays more of a linear type leadership. She is very traditional when it comes to school improvement. Although she may ask for our opinions at first, she gets very defensive when someone suggests trying something new and reminds us that "this is the way" she learned how to do it. Managing chaos, which happens frequently in elementary schools, is not one of her strong points. She tends to hire people who have a personal connection to her instead of the best person for the job. She and the assistant principal have really started forcing penalties upon teachers and aides, some of which are unfounded. Their goals to ensure everyone completes their tasks at hand tend to backfire because people are intimidated or forced to do something they are not interested in doing.
I can see my principal in both the linear and non-linear modes. He sets goals for our school and follows county policy and procedure strictly. However, he also delegates a lot of responsibilty throughout the school community. He empowers the AP's, Guidance Department, regular and special education teachers, and other school staff. With this responsibility comes accountability. He expects us to work hard and do our best in promoting the success of every student.
My school principal is non-linear, being that a linear manager is not good at adapting to many changes, or going outside of established norms, that type of person would have a hard time being successful in this particular school environment. He at most times plays the role of guide, and I have never seen him in the role of dictator, or one who was not open to suggestions or change. At our school its what works that has to be applied not what is most practiced.
My principal has characteristics of both. He relies on research and data to make many of his decisions, and likes a well-structured environment. That being said, though, he is able to "think outside the box" when the situation calls for it.
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