authority, power & politics dr. len elovitz chapters 6 &12 in hoy & miskel

Authority, Power & Politics

Dr. Len ElovitzChapters 6 &12 in Hoy & Miskel

POWER

The ability to influence thought and behavior

The ability for A to get B to do what B would normally not do

Authority

Often used interchangeably with power.

I believe authority needs to be granted by a third party

In this context think of the most powerful individual you know in an organization. What was the source of his/her power? What assumptions did he/she have about

subordinates? What strategies did/he or she employ? What were the consequences of his/her

actions?

Sources of Power – French & Raven

Reward Power – controlling rewards will induce others to comply

Coercive Power – potential of punishment Expert Power – Having knowledge that others

want for themselves compels them to complyLegitimate Power – Holding a position of

authority in the organizationReferent Power – Personal Charisma

Sources of Authority - Sergiovanni

BureaucraticPersonalTechnical-rationalProfessionalMoral

Bureaucratic - Source

HierarchyRules And Regulations MandatesRole Expectation

Teachers Are Expected To Comply Or Face The Consequences

Bureaucratic - Assumptions

Teachers Are SubordinatesTeachers Can’t Be TrustedSupervisors Are TrustworthySupervisors’ And Teachers’ Goals DifferSupervisors Must Be WatchfulSupervisors Know More Than TeachersExternal Accountability Works Best

Bureaucratic - Strategies

Expect and InspectHold teachers to predetermined standardsDirectly supervise and closely monitorDetermine teacher needs and In-service

themFind out how to motivate teacher and get

them to change

Bureaucratic - Consequences

With proper monitoring, teachers respond as technicians in executing predetermined scripts

Teachers’ performance is narrowed

Personal - Source

Motivation technologyInterpersonal skillsHuman relations leadership

Teachers will want to comply because of the congenial climate provided and to reap rewards offered in exchange.

Personal - Assumptions

Supervisors’ And Teachers’ Goals Differ but can be bartered so each gets what they want

Meet teachers’ needs & the work gets doneCongenial climate makes teachers content,

easier to work with & more apt to cooperateSupervisors must be expert at handling

people to increase compliance & performance

Personal - Strategies

Develop a congenial school climate

Expect and rewardWhat gets rewarded gets

done

Personal - Consequences

Teachers respond as required when rewards are available but not otherwise.

Performance is narrowed

Technical Rationality - Source

Evidence by logic and scientific research

Teachers comply in light of what is considered to be the truth

Technical Rationality - Assumptions

Supervision & teaching are applied sciences

Knowledge & research is privilegedScientific knowledge supercedes practice Teachers are skilled techniciansValues, preferences & beliefs don’t count

- facts & objective evidence do

Technical Rationality - Strategies

Use research to identify the best practice

Standardize the work of teachersIn-service teachers in the best

practiceMonitor to insure compliance

Technical Rationality - Consequences

With proper monitoring, teachers respond as technicians in executing predetermined scripts.

Performance is narrowed

Professional - Source

Informed knowledge of craftPersonal expertise

Teacher responds on the basis of professional values, accepted tenets of practice, and internalized expertness

Professional - Assumptions

No one best way existsScientific knowledge is to inform not

to prescribe practiceAcceptance of authority comes from

within the teacherSupervisor is respected for knowledge,

training & experience

Professional - Strategies

Promote a dialogue among teachers to determine accepted practices

Provide teachers with as much discretion as they want or need

Require teachers to hold each other accountableMake available assistance, support &

professional development opportunities

Professional - Consequences

Teachers respond to professional norms and thus little monitoring is required.

Performance is expansive.

Moral - Source

Full obligation and duties derived from widely shared community values, ideas and ideals

Teachers respond to shared commitments and felt interdependence

Moral - Assumptions

Schools are professional learning communities

Schools are defined by their shared values, beliefs & commitments

What is right and good is as important as what works & is effective

Collegiality is a professional virtue

Moral - Strategies

Promote collegialityRely on teachers to respond to their

own sense of duties and obligationsRely on teachers informal norm

system to enforce professional and community values

Moral - Consequences

Teachers respond to community values for moral reasons

Performance is expansive and sustained.

Sergiovanni

Supervision IBureaucraticPersonalTechnical-rational

Supervision IIProfessionalMoral

Politics

Individuals form coalitions in order to influence decision making and procedures

Examples Gender Age Department Ethnic group Internal interests External interests

External Coalitions

Try to bring their own interests and power to bear in the activities and decision making practices

Related Union PTA Band Parents

Unrelated Taxpayers groups Professional Organizations Political (capital P)

Mitzberg (1983)

Dominated External Coalition Powerful coalition that dominates not only

internal coalitions but the school and district leadership as well

Divided External Coalition One or more groups with conflicting opinions

such as conservative v progressive. Can politicize the BOE

Passive External Coalition The number of outside groups increase to the

point where their power becomes defuse and limited

Apathy takes over

Power Game

Hirshman (1970) - Participants have 3 options Leave- find another place – exit Stay and play : try to change the system – voice Stay and contribute as expected- loyalty

Those who leave cease to be influencers, loyals do not participate as active influencers, those who speak out become players in the power game

Is this an oversimplification?Are there other roles that you can think of

in the power game? The destroyer – disloyal The instigator – signifier The nut – who knows

Mitzberg again

“internal politics is typically clandestine and illegitimate because it is designed to benefit the individual or group, usually at the expense of the organization; therefore, the most common consequences of politics are divisiveness and conflict.”

Do you agree?

Political Tactics

Ingratiating – Gain favors by doing favorsNetworking – Gain influence by courting

individualsInformation Management – Manipulate

information to one’s advantageImpression Management – Create a

positive image by appearence

Coalition Building – Band together with others to achieve mutual goals

Scapegoating – Shift the blame to others for bad outcomes (circle of blame)

Increasing Indispensability – Make oneself indispensable to the organization

LEADERSHIP

Copyright (c) Allyn & Bacon 2007 38

Leadership Defined

“Leadership is a process of social influence in which one person is able to enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task.”

Martin Chemers


Power and Leadership

Leadership is a group function: it occurs only when 2 or more people interact.

Leaders intentionally seek to influence the behavior of others.

Are leadership and administration synonymous?

Administrators are concerned with efficiency and stability.

Leaders are concerned with change and gaining consensus on what needs to be done


Leadership and Management

Are these terms are mutually exclusive? One manages things, not people, and one

leads people, not things. We manage finances, inventories and programs, but

we lead people. Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus have said that

“managers are people who do things right and leaders are people who do the right thing.”

ELCC Standard 2 vs. 3


Leadership and Management (continued)

Nevertheless, school leaders must be both managers and leaders.

Bureaucracies, using the factory model, were and still are typically managed, not led.

Many schools were and still are managed, not led. US schools are generally in need of better leadership. Leaders empower followers and do not play Theory X

soft games.


Adaptive Leadership

Leaders need to deal with two types of circumstances: Technical problems—clear cut.

The busses are lateTeacher quits

Adaptive problems—complex issues.Curriculum changeRestructuring of grade levels


Leadership as a Relationship With Followers

Leaders (not authority figures) relate to followers in ways that: Motivate them to unite in a shared vision. Arouse their personal commitment to the vision. Organize the working environment to make the

envisioned goals central in the organization. Facilitate the work of followers to transform the

vision into reality.


Leadership as a Relationship With Followers (continued)

How leaders do these things is defined in terms of the character and quality of the relationship between leaders and followers.

Leaders who accept Theory X assumptions about followers are traditional “bosses”. e.g. Machiavelli’s The Prince. e.g. Max Weber’s “bureaucracy”.

Leaders who accept Theory Y assumptions about followers see leadership as collaborating with others to reach organizational goals, thus creating a growth enhancing environment.


Transforming Leadership

James MacGregor Burns published Leadership in 1978. This work has influenced most scholars of leadership ever since.

Burns distinguished: Transactional leadership results in quid pro quo

transactions between leaders and followers.

Transformational leadership seeks to satisfy higher order needs of followers and engages them fully, elevating them into leaders.


Moral Leadership

The concept of moral leadership contains three related ideas: There is a genuine sharing of mutual needs,

aspirations, and values. Followers have the latitude in responding to the

initiatives of leaders, and that they have the ability to make informed choices. They voluntarily grant power to the leaders.

Leaders take responsibility for delivering on commitments and representations made to followers.


A Progression

A progression inherent in transforming leadership: At the lowest level, is the exercise of power by leaders, which

is not leadership at all. Transactional leadership is entry-level leadership where leader

bargain with followers. In transforming (or transformational) leadership followers

engage in a common cause with leaders. At the highest level, moral leadership involves shared vision, a

sense of mutual purpose, and shared values woven into daily life to inspire new and higher levels of commitment and involvement.


A Process of Growth and Development

Transformational and moral leadership increasingly draw on higher levels of motivation of followers, which leads to not only compliance, but also of personal commitment to the goals of the organization.

In Dan Lortie’s famous Schoolteacher research, he concludes that teachers are motivated by feeling successful and effective in their teaching.

Implications for leaders

Foster a culture that facilitates teaching and enhances the likelihood that one will be successful at it.

Energize and applaud the efforts of teachers

Reward and support success in teachingCelebrate teaching as the central value of

the school


Leadership and Vision

One of the pivotal tasks of leadership is to engage constantly in a dynamic process of stating a vision of things to come, revising in light of new ideas and restating the vision of “where we are and where we are going”. Examples: Winston Churchill, Martin Luther King,

Abraham Lincoln. Reflective practice in visioning is rethinking

assumptions, beliefs, and values and either reaffirming or revising them. As opposed to

Reflexive – Do it as we always do it


Whose Vision Is It, Anyway?

Leaders have something important to say about the vision and should have a clearly thought-out vision of the future.

Yet, leaders should avoid imposing their own prepared statements for ratification.

Leaders must demonstrate convincingly their interest in collegiality and shared leadership to shift the norms of the school’s culture from traditional to collaborative.


Manipulation and Empowerment

Critical theory is a form of social criticism that holds that institutionalized oppression of groups of people in society is often supported by those oppressed as they are led to believe that the system operates in their best interest. (Stockholm syndrome?)

Critical theorists have applied their theories to schools, principals, and teachers.

Some schools mandate compliance to school goals or that teachers embrace the organizational culture.

Where empowerment occurs however: Teachers participate actively in processes of leadership. They acquire greater personal ownership and commitment to values that

shape the vision. They are stimulated to increase their awareness of the larger mission of

the school and the connection of their own daily work to the vision and mission.

Sustainable Leadership

Michael Fullan: Sustainable leadership is “the capacity of a system to

engage in the complexities of continuous improvement consistent with deep values of human purpose.”

Hargreaves and Fink: “Sustainable educational leadership and improvement

preserves and develops deep learning for all that spreads and lasts, in ways that do no harm to and indeed create positive benefit for others around us, now and in the future.”

Are Leaders Born?

Aristotle thought so – What do you think?

What are the traits of successful leaders?

Early Trait Research – 1948

Stogdill reviewed 124 trait studies of the following factors associated with leadership Capacity- intelligence, alertness, verbal facility

originality, judgment Achievement- scholarship, knowledge, Responsibility – dependability, initiative, persistence,

aggressiveness, self-confidence, desire to excel Participation – activity, sociability, cooperation,

adaptability, humor Status – socioeconomic position, popularity

Findings

The following traits consistently differentiated leaders from non-leaders: Above average intelligence Dependability Participation Status The rest was confusing and uneven leading him to

conclude that there is not a set combination of traits that result in an individual becoming a leader

More recent research

Focus switched to what traits were associated with a successful leader. Personality traits: self-confidence, stress

tolerance, emotional maturity, integrity, extroversion

Motivation: interpersonal needs, achievement orientation, power needs, expectations, self-efficacy

Skills: technical, interpersonal, conceptual

Situational leadership

Strong reaction against the concept of born leaders lead researchers to study the characteristics of the leadership setting.

Theory - Leaders are made by the situationFactors studied – subordinates,

organization characteristics, internal environment, external environment

Peter Principle

Current thinking

To restrict thinking to one of the following: Leaders are Born Leaders are Made Leadership is Determined by the situation

is counterproductive

Servant Leadership – Robert Greenleaf

Servant-leaders achieve results for their organizations by giving priority attention to the needs of their colleagues and those they serve. Servant-leaders are often seen as humble stewards of their organization's resources (human, financial and physical).

Wikipedia

Aspects of being a servant leader

In order to be a servant leader, one needs the following qualities: listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, growth and building community. Acquiring these qualities tend to give a person authority versus power.

From Greenleaf’s Essay - 1970 “The servant-leader is servant first… It begins with the natural

feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions…The leader-first and the servant-first are two extreme types. Between them there are shadings and blends that are part of the infinite variety of human nature. The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant-first to make sure that other people’s highest priority needs are being served. The best test, and difficult to administer, 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?”

authority, power & politics dr. len elovitz chapters 6 &12 in hoy & miskel

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