Perspectives on leadership – gender conflicts

Monica Söderberg Forslund

fil.dr., universitetslektor

Institutionen för pedagogik och didaktik

Stockholms universitet

Perspectives on and ways of explaining successful

leadership has shifted during the 1900s

The leaders personal characteristics

Leadership style

Situational influence

Social interaction – the importance of delegation and communication

Personal characteristicsThe orientation towards personal attributes is established in the early 1900s. ”Leaders are born, not made”

Either you have the right qualities and possess the ability to practice leadership, or you lack them and is less suitable as a leader.

An instrumental approach to governance and management of work processes - an authoritarian and hierarchical leadership.

The employee is regarded as an object, immaterial to the organization´s success and development.

Style

Interest in leadership style and behavior was established in the mid-1900s.

Leadership is a human ability that can be learned.

It is now about finding the right style that generates the most effective leadership with the greatest impact on work satisfaction and work performance.

The employee is seen as a social being rather than just a logical cog in a big machinery.

Situational influence

Interest in situational leadership gained ground during the 1960s.

Attention is given to various situations as important for how to organize and motivate employees.

Leadership is now seen as a relationship - not only as a position.

The successful leadership depends on the leader´s responsiveness, formed in the breakpoint between a relational dimension and a task dimension.

From personal characteristics”Leaders are born, not made”

……..

the employee is regarded as an object, immaterial to the organization´s success and development.

. . . . . to

today´s perspective on leadership as a socially

constructed practice

. . . where the questions of the distribution of power and influence and the degree of

participation is of importance.

Leaders and followers are seen as interacting individuals in a social process - in which the

leadership is constructed.

The employee is transformed from logical cog in a machinery to a social being central to the organization´s success and development.

Criticism of the traditional perspectives

Focus on the individual and the formal manager.

Leadership is not dependent on its context.

Too strong focus on leadership content, like characteristics and style.

A narrow view of what it means to be a human being and to work and function together with other people.

The myth of the heroThe traditional perspectives on leadership also

included the myth of the hero.

Notions of "the great man" and the lonely, strong and charismatic leader who provides visions and reality definitions to his followers.

Based on traditionally masculine leadership ideals with military origin.

There is also a cultural attraction linked to understandings of leadership and masculinity. (Alvesson 2001, p. 213).

Leadership is by definition male.

Female school leadership through history

Can and should women work as school leaders?

Why are the female headteachers so few?

What are the differences between male and female school leaders?

Why are the female headteachers so many and what are the consequences?

Social constructionismThe concepts of masculinities and femininities (as

well as leadership is used to describe social and cultural beliefs without connecting these very closely to men and women.

Masculine and feminine meanings may therefore be traced in language, acts and artefacts.

Gender is not given by nature and predetermined, not something we are but something we do, constantly changing and in motion, and can always be done in new ways.

Notions of gender shapes our self-understanding and how we understand who we are - which in turn determines how we act.

Conflict between leadership ideals and discourses

School leadership in a new eraDemocratic and Communicative leadership - arises

and takes place in and through human interaction and dialogue, dependent and organized in networks for everyone's participation and influence in both directions

Distributed leadership - focused on participation and collaboration, delegated throughout the organization and sanctioned at all levels.

Learning-oriented leadership - focusing on objectives, results and the creation of a learning environment in support of knowledge development and growth of the organization as a whole and its members - leaders who create opportunities for work-integrated learning.

Expectations on sucessful school leadership in Sweden

”For principals to have an opportunity to successfully lead and develop their schools required a democratic, learning and communicative leadership.” (Ministry of Education, 2001, s. 11)

. . . in mutual conversation where you listen, embrace arguments and respect others' thoughts, there is no definite truths.

The dialogue becomes instead a way to from different perspectives, together find solutions.

New Public ManagementNew ideas about governance and management

in public sectors was needed, in order to innovate and make public organizations more business like.

Imports of private business theory and language - often with military origins.

E.g. will schools now be market controlled with the help of key words like strategies and operational management, conquer markets and win over their competitors.

The need for a more cost-effective public sector in order to have a better functioning overall economy.

Strengthening of the leader's control and responsibility.

A more efficient and consumer-oriented public service production.

Increased pressure on performance and results.

Critics claim that the use of language and rhetoric looks good, but lacks

bearing on the core activities.

Strategic coordination erodes the culture of collaboration that is essential for learning organizations (and democracy).

Promotes self interest at the expense of collective goals.

Focuses on simple measurable statistics such as ratings and "customer satisfaction", while interest in the big picture is reduced, and Democracy mandate, fostransuppdraget and the social and ethical issues likely to be sidelined.

ResearchMany of the value conflicts school leaders´experienced

involved core activities of teaching and learning against various other new activities of a more operational nature which school leaders felt compelled to emphasize over pedagogical ones.

Women were caught up in two related, yet contrasting leadership discourses, that of ”The grand old man” of their predecessors of many years, and the ”Modern Viking” who entered the public scene soon after they entered headship. While the market emphasis had negative impact on all the school leaders, this political situation made it particularly difficult for the women to be authentic leaders (Lárusdóttir, 2014).

A comparative study of Headteachers in Sweden and

England

The English headeteachers have greater personal responsibility for the school’s overall performance and are more focused on providing leadership in teaching and learning.

Several Swedish principals lacked knowledge of their mission as pedagogical leaders, or even claimed they lacked the skills for such a leadership role, and first of all saw themselves as accountable for the school´s finances. (Rapp 2010)