towards more effective leadership development for teaching ...€¦ · development for teaching and...

This research was funded by Old Mutual and conducted under the auspices of the SEED Educational Trust

Alison Joy Newby January 2019

Towards more effective leadership development for teaching and learning in

schools: The role of leadership style within the organisational culture

and context

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTSThe researcher thanks Old Mutual for funding the research and SEED Educational Trust for commis-sioning the research. Thank you to all the partners educators, coaches, facilitators and mentors who contributed towards my inspiration, collaboration and motivation.

Thank you to David Newby, the managing trustee of SEED and my soulmate.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .............................................................................................................................2TABLE OF CONTENTS...............................................................................................................................3LIST OF TABLES .........................................................................................................................................5LIST OF FIGURES ......................................................................................................................................6LIST OF ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS .........................................................................................7Chapter 1 Orientation ............................................................................................................................81.1 Executive Summary ...............................................................................................................................81.1.1 Introduction .........................................................................................................................................81.1.2 Background to the research ................................................................................................................81.1.3 Findings ...............................................................................................................................................91.1.4 Discussion: key points ........................................................................................................................111.1.5 Recommendations .............................................................................................................................121.1.6 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................................... 131.2 Clarification of concepts ...................................................................................................................... 131.3 Researcher’s position ........................................................................................................................... 14Chapter 2 Literature Review ............................................................................................................. 152.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 152.1.1 Awareness of diversity within a culture ........................................................................................... 152.1.2 Diversity in leaders’ behaviours ....................................................................................................... 162.1.3 Diversity in leader’s cultures and world views ................................................................................. 162.1.4 Self-awareness, emotions, thoughts, behaviour .............................................................................. 162.1.5 Self-awareness, emotional intelligence and leadership styles ......................................................... 172.1.6 Self-awareness in a challenged context of rapid change .................................................................. 172.1.7 Self-awareness and leadership learning ........................................................................................... 172.1.8 Self-awareness and achieving results of school teaching and learning .......................................... 182.1.9 Self-awareness and school leadership development ........................................................................ 192.2 Personality, leadership style, behaviour sets ...................................................................................... 192.2.1 Assessing personality/ behaviour sets ............................................................................................. 192.2.1.1 Value of Insights Discovery profile ............................................................................................... 212.2.1.2 Application of Jacobi–Jung’s 72-type wheel as a tool in SEED SLP ............................................222.3 Organisational change ........................................................................................................................222.3.1 Self-understanding within the organisation ....................................................................................232.3.2 Understanding emotions within the organisation ..........................................................................232.3.3 Neuroscience of stress in the organisation ......................................................................................242.3.3.1 Challenge of Stress to the behaviour of self-efficacy ....................................................................252.3.3.2 Transactional analysis and the behaviour of authoritarianism ..................................................252.3.3.3 Internal and external aspects of leadership behaviour ...............................................................272.3.3.4 The blind spot of leadership .........................................................................................................272.3.3.5 ‘ Internal landscape’ and leadership development .......................................................................282.3.3.6 Leadership behaviour styles and learning disabilities ................................................................282.3.3.7 Adult learning by experimenting .................................................................................................282.3.3.8 Adult learning cycle, commitment to change and experimentation ..........................................292.3.3.9 Internal resistance ...................................................................................................................... 302.3.3.10 New leadership behaviour .......................................................................................................... 312.3.3.11 New behaviour of systemic, integrated, adaptive and aware leadership ................................... 312.4 New leadership culture in education ..................................................................................................322.4.1 School climate ...................................................................................................................................332.4.1.1 In an open school climate .............................................................................................................332.4.1.2 In a closed school climate .............................................................................................................342.4.2 School culture of improvement and leadership style ......................................................................342.5 Organisational culture ........................................................................................................................35

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2.5.1 Organisational Culture, mindset and world view ............................................................................372.5.2 Organisational Culture, leadership styles and learning .................................................................392.5.2.1 Assessing Organisational culture ................................................................................................. 402.6 New designs of school and district leadership development programmes .......................................422.6.1 Value of coaching in leadership development programmes ............................................................432.6.2 New leadership behaviour associated with coaching ......................................................................432.6.3 Theories underpinning SEED SLP ..................................................................................................442.6.3.1 Application of Scharmer’s Theory U to the SLP coaching ...........................................................452.7 Impact of behaviour, personality and the environment on culture ...................................................47Chapter 3 Methodology .......................................................................................................................493.1 Introduction .........................................................................................................................................493.2 Research framework ...........................................................................................................................493.3 Research questions ..............................................................................................................................493.4 Research methods – a mixed research approach .............................................................................. 513.4.1 Why a mixed methods approach? ................................................................................................... 513.5 Data and collection method ................................................................................................................533.5.1.1 Data instrument- Insight Discovery personality evaluator ..........................................................533.5.1.2 Survey ............................................................................................................................................533.5.1.3 SEED Documents ...........................................................................................................................533.6 Research steps .....................................................................................................................................543.7 Data samples and population ..............................................................................................................553.8 Establishing validity and trustworthiness .........................................................................................553.9 Research ethics and research position ...............................................................................................56Chapter 4 Findings and discussion .................................................................................................574.1 Introduction .........................................................................................................................................574.2 Research questions .............................................................................................................................574.3 Presentation of the main findings.......................................................................................................574.3.1 RO 1: Establish the most common personality/behaviour set of district managers and school lead-ers? .............................................................................................................................................................574.3.2 Personality of school-and-district leaders ......................................................................................574.3.3 Personality of school leaders ............................................................................................................584.3.4 Personality of district leaders ..........................................................................................................594.3.4.1 Summary ......................................................................................................................................594.3.5 RO2: Establish the dominant style of Organisational culture at the levels of school and district 594.3.5.1 Organisational culture of schools-and-districts ......................................................................... 604.3.5.2 Organisational culture of schools ................................................................................................ 614.3.5.3 Organisational culture of districts ...............................................................................................624.3.5.4 Organisational culture of districts perceived by school leaders .................................................634.3.5.5 Summary ......................................................................................................................................654.3.5.6 Organisational leadership style results: congruence and incongruence ....................................664.3.6 RO 3: Establish the most common challenges in leadership and the educational context............674.3.6.1 Challenges at school-and-district level ........................................................................................674.3.6.2 Extent of positive/ negative narrative at school-and-district level ........................................... 684.3.6.3 Challenges at school level ............................................................................................................ 684.3.6.4 Extent of the negative/positive narrative at school level ............................................................694.3.6.5 Challenges at district level ........................................................................................................... 714.3.6.6 Extent of negative and positive narrative at district level .......................................................... 714.3.6.7 Challenges at provincial level perceived by district leaders ........................................................724.3.6.8 Challenges at districts perceived by school leaders ....................................................................734.3.6.9 Summary of extent of challenges ................................................................................................. 744.3.6.10 Triggers at school-and-district level ..........................................................................................744.3.6.11 Triggers at school level ................................................................................................................754.3.6.12 Triggers at district level ..............................................................................................................764.3.6.13 Triggers at district level perceived by school leaders ................................................................76

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4.3.6.14 Triggers at provincial level perceived by district .......................................................................784.3.6.15 Summary of triggers ...................................................................................................................784.3.7 RO4: Describe how do the findings in RQ 1-3 inform leadership development process designs to-wards improvement ...................................................................................................................................794.3.7.1 Summary of findings: RO1 .............................................................................................................794.3.7.2 Summary of findings: RO2 ............................................................................................................794.3.7.3 Summary of findings: RO3 ........................................................................................................... 804.3.7.4 Findings of the positive narrative contextualising the negative ................................................. 804.4 Discussion of results ...........................................................................................................................824.4.1 Relationship between personality and organisational culture .......................................................824.4.1.1 At school-and-district levels .........................................................................................................824.4.1.2 At school level ...............................................................................................................................834.4.1.3 At district level ............................................................................................................................. 844.4.1.4 Summary of Incongruences .........................................................................................................854.4.2 Relationship between personality, culture and the environmental triggers .................................864.4.3 Dissonance between personality and organisational culture ........................................................864.4.3.1 Applying Spiral dynamics and Jungian psychology ....................................................................864.4.3.2 Change towards health in the organisation ............................................................................... 884.4.4 Pattern of the contextual challenge ................................................................................................ 884.4.5 Pattern of the narrative ................................................................................................................... 884.4.6 Application to leadership development ...........................................................................................894.4.7 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................... 90Chapter 5 Recommendations and conclusion ..............................................................................925.1 Recommendations for further research .............................................................................................. 915.2 Recommendations for practitioners of; coaching, facilitating and designing adult leadership learning processes ....................................................................................................................................................925.2.1 Recommendations for the leader ....................................................................................................925.2.2 Recommendations for teams ..........................................................................................................935.2.3 Recommendations for the learning process design .......................................................................945.2.4 Recommendations for leadership developers ................................................................................965.3 Conclusion ...........................................................................................................................................97Reference List ....................................................................................................................................... 98APPENDIX 1 Spiral Dynamics Model : origin Graves, Beck, Cowan: adapted by Viljoen (2017) ......... 98APPENDIX 2 Insights Discovery Evaluator Questions 1-9 ...................................................................100APPENDIX 3 Organisation culture Q1-6: Organisational challenge Q 7-10 ..........................................101

LIST OF TABLESTable 1: Insights Discovery Behaviour and leadership changes under increasing levels of stress ..... 30Table 2 : Goleman leadership styles: Impact on and appropriateness within the organisational climate.....34Table 3: Human Niches in South Africa: Beige-Purple-Red-Blue-Orange-Green-Yellow ....................38Table 4: The competing values framework/ Four Insights behaviour sets ........................................... 41Table 5: Mixed method approach: strengths and weaknesses ............................................................... 51Table 6 :Quantitative, Qualitative and mixed methods procedures .....................................................52Table 7 : Data collection method and analysis ........................................................................................53Table 8: Stressed leadership behaviour integrated with four cultures/behaviours ..............................68Table 9: Main themes of negative feedback about the challenges at schools ........................................70Table 10 : Positive feedback about the challenge from 19 percent of school leaders ............................70Table 11 : Negative narrative at District level ........................................................................................72Table 12: Triggers at school level: positive and negative .......................................................................75Table 13: Triggers: positive and negative: at district level perceived by school leaders ...................... 77Table 14 : Findings summary RO1 ...........................................................................................................79Table 15: Findings summary RO2 ............................................................................................................79Table 16: Triggers of Challenges: RO3 ................................................................................................... 80Table 17: Behaviour and thinking .............................................................................................................87

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LIST OF FIGURESFigure 1: The Jacobi–Jung Insights Discovery: four behaviours ......................................................... 20Figure 2: 72-type Insights Discovery Wheel ...........................................................................................22Figure 3: Personality as Parent-Adult-Child ...........................................................................................26Figure 4: Kolb’s Adult Learning Cycle, Honey and Mumford’s Learning Styles, Lothian’s Insights Dis-covery behaviour sets ...............................................................................................................................29Figure 5: Top six changed leadership behaviours ...................................................................................36Figure 6: Domains of strength building through indirect influential leadership ..................................36Figure 7: Four Culture types and Four Insights Discovery behaviour sets ......................................... 40Figure 8: Theory U for individual change ...............................................................................................44Figure 9: Four barriers to learning .........................................................................................................45Figure 10: Inverted Theory U ...................................................................................................................46Figure 11: Interplay of Behaviour, personality and environment impacting school culture ...............47Figure 12: Research framework ...............................................................................................................49Figure 13 : Most common ‘personality’ of school-and-district leaders ..................................................57Figure 14 : Dominant behaviour sets of both school-and-district leaders by percentage ....................58Figure 15 : Dominant Colour behaviour sets of school leaders by Percentage ......................................58Figure 16 : Dominant Colour Behaviour sets of District Leaders by Percentage..................................59Figure 17 : Dominant colour culture types of school-and-district leaders .......................................... 60Figure 18 : Organisational culture of teachers in schools ...................................................................... 61Figure 19: Organisational culture of school leaders- dominant colour .................................................62Figure 20 : Organisational culture of districts .......................................................................................62Figure 21: Organisational culture of districts- dominant colour ...........................................................63Figure 22: Organisational culture of district managers as perceived by school teachers ...................64Figure 23: Organisational culture of districts perceived by schools: by percentage ...........................64Figure 24: Organisational culture of provincial level as perceived by districts ..................................65Figure 25: Pattern of leadership styles within and across the organisational culture ........................66Figure 26: Pattern of congruence or dissonance between organisational leadership styles and the or-ganisation’s aggregated’ personality ‘ .....................................................................................................66Figure 27 :Challenges at school level .......................................................................................................69Figure 28: Challenges at district level ..................................................................................................... 71Figure 29: Challenges at provincial level by district ..............................................................................72Figure 30: Challenges at district level perceived by school leaders ......................................................73Figure 31: Triggers at school level ........................................................................................................... 75Figure 32 : Triggers at district level .......................................................................................................76Figure 33 : Causes of challenges at district level perceived by school leaders ..................................... 77Figure 34: Causes of challenges: Provincial level by district .................................................................78Figure 35: Dominant personality and organisational culture of school-and-district leaders ............82Figure 36: Incongruent personality and organisational culture at school-and-district levels ...........83Figure 37:Congruent personality and culture within school leaders ....................................................83Figure 38: Incongruent personality and culture within district leaders ..............................................84Figure 39: Incongruent organisational leadership cultures between schools and districts ................85

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LIST OF ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONSCOMENSA Coaches and Mentors of South AfricaCB Cool BlueCES Chief Education SpecialistDD District DirectorEG Earth GreenFR Fiery RedEQ emotional intelligenceHOD head of departmentIN Insights Discovery IQ intellectual intelligenceIAL informal adult learningLDP leadership development programmesNPO not-for-profit organisationRO research objectiveSA South AfricanSaIF Sasol Inzalo FoundationSLP school leadership programme (SEED’s)SMT school management teamSQ spiritual intelligenceSY Sunshine YellowVoC voice of cynicismVoF voice of fearVoJ voice of judgementSGB School Governing Body

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Chapter 1: Orientation 1.1 Executive Summary

1.1.1. Introduction In the last 20 years informal adult learning (IAL) applications such as coaching and mentoring have be-come popular interventions in leadership development practices in South African businesses and abroad. By 2003-2008 these applications had rippled through leadership development interventions in educa-tion via various programme or course designs. One such intervention is the leadership development ini-tiative of the SEED Educational Trust which, has sought to contribute to improving school performance outcomes as well as overall health and resilience through its school leadership programme (SLP) and related programmes. Since 2006, SEED has run more than 35 such programmes in numerous districts across the country.

1.1.2. Background to the researchOver 12 years we have conducted Insights Discovery Personality evaluations with more than 750 school and District leaders in five provinces.

The results of the Insights Discovery evaluations, inherent to the programmes, are an extraordinary resource focused on “how leaders perceive their behaviour at work” and in turn, give an indicator of the behavioural aspect of organisational culture. SEED has observed that there is little appreciation for the nature of organizational culture by both school leaders and senior management in education. This has led to inappropriate communication, policies or management strategies being used in a challenging context and resulted in contradictions and unintended consequences (Schollar, 2018). Aggregating the Insights Discovery results provides an important perspective on organizational culture in schools re-garding behaviour preferences and implications for the effective management and leadership of schools.

Arising out of this, SEED approached the Old Mutual Foundation to fund a research project to establish the most dominant personality styles and characteristics of the organisational culture within the edu-cational context in South Africa and to make recommendations regarding adult learning in leadership development design.

This research on effective leadership development is part of a broader research discourse of systemic school improvement in SA. Quality leadership is critical for schools to learn, develop and thrive especial-ly in pressurised educational environments of high stress, conflict and high rates of change (Msila, 2012).

Quality leadership is particularly challenging for school leaders working in communities of high poverty, where they often function within educational systems that do not necessarily support leadership devel-opment. Ineffectual communication styles and management strategies at school, district and provincial levels may lead to misunderstandings across the leadership levels. Organizational sub-cultures at odds with each other within and across the levels may result in dissonant leadership approaches, leadership role compression and a survival mentality in a context of scarce resources. A lack of understanding of the contradictions and unintended consequences of differing leadership sub-cultures, organizational cul-ture, structures, curriculum policies and unsupported leadership development may hinder the creation of high-performance learning environments.

Leadership development programmes (LDP) attempt to provide opportunities for leadership learning; however, research pertaining to the process of learning that would be sustainably supportive and ulti-mately result in improved teaching and learning, is scarce. There are both internal (educators) and exter-nal (non-educators) opinions about how leaders in education should lead or what leadership should do to improve learner performance. Opinions differ but one aspect on which the research tends to converge is that behaviour and mindset changes are urgently needed throughout the educational system as the pres-ent behaviours of learners, teachers, SGBs, SMTs, principals, district officials and provincial managers are not creating enough learning environments conducive to quality teaching and learning in schools.

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The need for changed behaviour is clear. However, there is less research offering an understanding of the complexity of the environment in which school and district leaders work. There is little direction on how an understanding of both the interior condition of a leader and the group within which the leader func-tions can inform effective leadership development across levels and within an organisation. This study explores educator’s perceptions of their leadership approaches (behaviour) and organisational culture (collective behaviour and thinking) and the value of considering the two when designing processes to change teaching and learning in a sustainable way that mitigates the web of organisational challenges.

A mixed method approach is adopted to benefit from the strengths of both qualitative and quantitative analyses and allow for corroboration and triangulation of data.

This research starts with a review of the themes of; self-awareness as a starting point for organisational change, personality, organisational culture and the contextual environment. The problem statement leads us to examine the systemic relationships between behaviour, personality, the environment and organisational leadership culture. Theoretical models are derived from Jungian psychology, personali-ty theory (Insights Discovery, Honey and Mumford learning style inventory and Berne’s Transactional analysis), organisational psychology (Cameron and Quinn’s Competing Values model and Beck’s Spiral dynamics). The review starts with the individual leader’s behaviour as individual change has a mutually reinforcing relationship with cultural change.

This research asks, ‘What is the role of leadership ‘personality’ and organisational culture in leadership development (LD) design in challenged educational systems?’ To answer the primary question it asks,’ What are the most common; personality styles/ behaviour sets, organisational culture types and chal-lenges with triggers, in leadership. As the purpose of the research was to improve adult learning, the final research question is ‘how do these results inform leadership development process designs towards improvement?’

1.1.3. FindingsWhat we find is both informative yet puzzling. Our key findings are as follows;

� Educators (school and district leaders) are first and foremost carers and co-ordinators focused on; maintaining relationships, teamwork and servant leadership. The predominant and aggregating ‘personality’ is the Caregiver culture type (Earth Green preference) described as ‘facilitators / supporters / co-ordinators who thrive, first and foremost, on loyalty, trust and people development. The preferred work environment is personal, relaxed, friendly and informal with teamwork.

� In contrast, the most dominant organisational culture is the Warrior type (Fiery Red preference) trend where results are prioritised and the organisation, first and foremost, thrives on task achieve-ment and goal attainment.

� Three sets of dissonant findings are highlighted; y Firstly, the dominant personality/leadership style is at odds with organisational culture type,

across school-and-district leaders in education. y Secondly, the findings of the dominant organisational culture at school level, (Caregiver) is at

odds with the organisational culture at district level (Warrior) in SA forming two distinctly opposite subcultures so numerically significant that it can be concluded that the organisational culture is incoherent.

y In the third instance, the dominant Caregiver personality/leadership style is at odds with the dominant organisational culture of Warrior, at district level.

� Two subsets of the results answering RO1 and RO2 both pertain to leadership style. A personality type has an associated leadership style and an organisational culture has an inherent leadership style. The personality of the broad sample is congruent with leadership style in the organisation at school level. In contrast, leadership style at district level is incongruent and opposite, starting with the Red behaviour set as most dominant indicating a tension within district leaders between their values (green energy based) and their actions (red energy based). By personality they were people oriented (teamwork) but were doing predominantly task-oriented (results) leadership work in the organisation. Furthermore, there were conflicting leadership styles between school and district leaders, one being a

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green preference and the other being red. The organisational leadership style of the provincial leaders was perceived by district leaders as congruent with their style confirming the predominant organisa-tional leadership style across schools-districts-province as task oriented (red based energy).

� In this way, the results indicate both dynamics of dissonance and alignment within and between the sub-groups in the broad data sample. The results of the school and district data sets indicated the complexity of the parts (sub-groups) in relation to the whole (broad data sample) and demonstrate how the whole is not the sum of the parts.

� These dissonances throughout and across the system, indicate to us a description of the polarised and incongruent leadership in education. The puzzle resides in the space between the individual and the collective perspectives. There is clarity on the trend of behaviour (personality or culture) of the “I” however, the clarity is lost when the trend of behaviour (personality or culture) of the “we” is consid-ered by the same groups. This is explored further by analysing the different perspectives at different leadership levels and relationships between results. The question is raised as to how individual care-givers become so unsupportive in the collective to the extent that most leaders experience a predom-inantly negative organisational climate resulting in survival anxiety.

� The primary challenges are established as scarcity of physical and human resources associated with a lack of leadership support, influence and unhelpful leadership styles. These challenges result in leaders having ‘low energy, being demoralised and experiencing power play’ and conflict in a context of rapid change.

� The majority (90%) of leaders are found to use negative descriptors describing leadership and the organisational context, in the results. A lack of; skills, certainty, independence, leadership support and influence are highlighted with associated destructive relationships, unhelpful leadership styles within a low socio-economic context.

� The qualitative results support the quantitative results with the following narrative:

The negative narrative themes include:

Resources there is a lack of motivation about administrative workload and technological device knowledge

A lack of leadership support there is a lack of support at all levels…. leadership is controlling with a telling style of communica-tion…… leader’s lack of taking decisions……management always appeases with labour unions.

Demoralisationthe workplace is impersonal, unpleasant and demoralised…… there is uncertainty and a lack of rec-ognition with aggressive bullying and exploitation

� The minority (10%) of leaders use positive descriptors in the results and these include the following narrative themes:

Visionary, adaptive leadership styles there is belief that challenges can be overcome… there is progress…. there is innovation, improvisa-tion and initiative.

Balancing both task achievement and people careIt is task focused but caring and supportiveThere is no blaming of the department…. people accept mistakes with mutual trust

Having a positive stance, leaders embrace open stylesleadership is flexible, informative and trying to assist

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1.1.4. Discussion: key pointsEducators (school and district leaders) lead predominantly with behaviour (56%), collectively forming a Caregiver culture (Earth Green) however, they work in an organisational culture of Fiery red/ Warrior values and behaviour (40%). These two behaviour sets/culture types are at opposite poles. This raises a question as to how this difference in leadership culture, within the organisation helps or hinders teaching and learning.

When triangulating the results pertaining to the single component of leadership style from both a per-sonality perspective and an organisational culture perspective, clarity as to the boundaries of congruence within, between and across the leadership sub-cultures within the broad leadership culture, is gained. The results pertaining to the challenges indicate how these dynamics played out in the organisation and the nature of the narrative.

We then seek further understanding of the results from the lenses of Spiral dynamics, Transactional analysis and the Competing Values Framework as referred to in the text.

The scale of these mismatches suggested that other explanations could apply. The research by Viljoen (2017) that 65% of the SA population applies a predominant thinking system of the purple meme (spiral dynamics, culture of kinship thinking) and the research findings that 56% of educators identify with the Earth Green/Team culture behaviour (The Insights Group Ltd & Lothian, 2014) first , are viewed along-side each other. Behaviour and thinking are closely linked, and the two sets of results inform each other.

The 65% PURPLE meme thinking could be, on the one hand, the’ underlying glue’ of education as an organisation, referred to by Schein (2004) or, on the other hand, contribute towards the stuck thinking that keeps the organisation predominantly dysfunctional. Another option would be that the system of thinking both underpins cohesion as well as dysfunction.

The dissonance between personality and culture could be explained on both levels of behaviour and thinking. If it is concluded, based on the findings, that most of the research participants have Caregiver/Clan (Cameron & Quinn, 2011) values/behaviour and Purple meme thinking, then a different perspective is presented on these competing values within the challenges of education in SA.

In summary, there is incongruence between personality and culture at school-and-district level. School leaders have aligned their behaviour with their organisational culture. District leaders have a polar-op-posite disconnect between their behaviour and organisational culture. There is an incongruence between who district leaders perceive themselves to be, individually, and who they are, collectively, meeting the demands of work as effective leaders in the organisation. In addition, there is a polar-opposite incongru-ence between the leadership styles/cultures at school and district levels. The findings indicate, in this way, how leadership-and-management is at odds with itself in education in SA (Christie & Monyololo, 2018; Schollar, 2018; Witten & Makole, 2018).

Two strong and differing organisational cultures are evident at school and district levels. Neither cul-ture can be considered counterculture or in the minority. The collective organisational findings are that a strong Caregiver culture at school leadership level is mal- aligned with a strong Warrior culture at district leadership level and possibly at provincial level. In contrast, aggregating personality findings resulted in a clear Caregiver culture being evident across both schools-and-districts. In this way, the re-sults indicate a dissonance between behaviour and culture at district and possibly provincial levels and a cultural incongruence between leaders at school and district levels.

The research establishes positive/negative dissonance with sub-culture polarities. This type of disso-nance can create enough discomfort to stimulate reflective-awareness of a need for change and a level of humility or openness to change (Cameron & Quinn, 2011; Quinn, 2004; C.O Scharmer, 2009; Schein, 2004). In this research, the change might be first and foremost, from within the organisation with leaders showing more of who they truly are by aligning their personality of care with organisational leadership

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of support in order to achieve results. Modelling congruency between internal and external dimensions of leadership and reflexivity in adopting supportive leadership strategies to achieve results, will need to be evident at all levels throughout education for evidence of a cohesive culture. Leaders would need to achieve success in ways that honour personal values resulting in both care and results. When things are not working people may be stuck or frozen in the self-cancelling dynamics. Being aware of stuckness can build the sense of urgency for change and create readiness for moving out of unhelpful leadership com-fort zones or zones of reactivity.

Modelling of leadership support and development at and within all levels might start to offer a stressed system , in survival anxiety, the non-anxious presence that could reduce pressure sufficiently for a re-ne-gotiation of the leadership culture to occur within and across sub cultures in new learning or ‘re-freezing’ (Cameron & Quinn, 2011; Friedman, 2007; Kotter & Heskett, 1992; Lewin, 1951, 2013). In this way, the incongruent cultures with disconnects and leadership approaches at odds with each other can evolve into a congruent culture with clear values and assumptions about leadership. The survival anxiety could be shifted into learning anxiety, more typical of high performing organisations.

The results inform us as to the design of leadership learning conversations, such as within coaching and mentoring, that are more likely to reduce the internal resistors to change while enabling the external drivers for change in the dynamic force field of the educational system.

1.1.5. RecommendationsWhat emerges from the research is clarity on a ‘menu’ of starting places for contextual and informal adult learning. A leadership development design that achieves reflective awareness resulting in leaders reflect-ing broadly and then acting would be recommended.

For leadership capacity to be built in contexts of high stress, potential for conflict and low psychological reserves, it is recommended that a safe space be created by using an assessment tool that facilitates dif-ferent understanding of self and others and involves affirmation and positive self-discovery.

Coaching and mentoring on the SEED SLP have been described as a safe space when I can share and ex-perience relief from stress (Newby 2017). Coaching and mentoring is more than a supportive ‘safe space’ and has become an ongoing adult learning space for learning, un-learning and relearning to develop a strong transformational leadership culture. It is recommended that professional development in educa-tion takes the form of informal adult learning spaces where training in coaching and mentoring conver-sation skills can be gained and experienced to shift leadership culture from predominantly pushing and directing towards results to pulling and inviting new behaviour with leadership support. In this way, the intention of developing professional identities at all levels will be to support towards achieving results. Ongoing Adult learning in coaching and mentoring spaces will ensure organisational learning within and across all levels. In this way, the divides of the stuck conversations between the dissonant leadership styles and cultures will be bridged in a new system of communication.

Real feedback is recommended in a leadership development programme; however, the participants need to have gained trust in the learning process system for feedback to be received as learning. Real feedback gives facts about the current reality that are viewed from multiple perspectives and form a measure of ‘truth’ from which the preferred future can be crystallised. In the leadership coaching conversation real feedback results in real time learning.

Leadership development in this environment needs to be designed for sustainability by taking organisa-tional culture behaviour patterns and responses to contextual challenges into account. If the change pro-cess does not become, personalised and there is no change in the managerial competencies (behaviour) demonstrated by school and district leaders, the organisation’s fundamental culture will not change (Cameron & Quinn, 2011). In addition, if the leaders in the system determining allocation of resources do not access and appoint both physical resources, such as infrastructure, and human capacity who are resourced in their roles, the change process will not be sustainable in a virtuous cycle.

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If leaders understand themselves, others and the context and suspend assumptions and fears about the challenge, they could be open to learning. They could perceive and reflect on the enabling and hindering social forces at play. They could weaken restraining forces within their influence and strengthen enabling forces while remaining a non-anxious presence as a leader with a multi-pronged leadership strategy. In this way, a three-pronged strategy for change of unfreezing-moving and refreezing could be achieved. Leaders could respond to the leadership challenges in an adaptive way, keeping teaching and learning in the centre and aligning who they are with what they do by understanding why they do it in their context.

By leaders integrating understanding of self, personality or leadership style within the organisational culture and challenge, they will have a clear perspective on what stops change, what keeps things the same and what could lead towards growth. It is recommended that a widespread organisational coaching process is needed to change leadership culture, such as:

1. A Story sharing engagement: The research results are presented to research participants and partners in sense making forums.

2. Sense making within a safe space: Consensus with rapport is achieved. 3. Shared vision for change: The desired future is jointly designed4. Stakeholder engagements: Data is captured more broadly from people in the system.5. Collaboration and agreement on joint sense making: There is a re-negotiation and re-

definition of what the results mean or do not mean. Educational leadership is defined.6. Learning is embedded: Illustrative stories of past lessons and successes that demonstrate

what is important in the organisation are shared7. A new professional identity is described: There is a joint development and agreement

when defining educational leadership. 8. Action plans are designed: There is an agreement on collective and individual action plans,

broadly, to be less bureaucratic/ hierarchical and more collaborative, transformational and dis-tributive in leadership structures

9. Actions are implemented, agreed on, reflected on and revised (ongoing) in the learning or-ganisation

Although the research has a broad data sample derived from high poverty school and district systems, further research could be positioned across more leadership levels from post level one educators to pro-vincial and national managers. The question is raised as to how to maintain ongoing learning in an inco-herent organisational culture becoming a coherent culture? It is recommended that leadership develop-ment interventions should have follow up opportunities of learning hubs to ensure continuity.

1.1.6. ConclusionOrganisational culture is viewed from both an individual perspective and collective by placing behaviour models alongside a world view model described in Spiral dynamics (Beck and Cowan). The findings in-dicate the system is at odds with itself on a level far greater than just a subcultural incongruence. This opens the way for large scale re-negotiation of the preferred leadership culture towards a new norm of positivity, way beyond a minority counterculture of 10%.

1.2 Clarification of conceptsDifferent behaviour preference in this study refers to the preferences that a leader has in relation to the four different behaviour sets described in the Insights Discovery personality profiling system (Lo-thian, 2006). The terms ‘personal style’, ‘personality’, leadership style and ‘behaviour preference or set’ are used interchangeably and refer to a leader’s leading colour preference rather than his or her unique combination and intensity of the four Insights Discovery behaviour sets, which form his or her unique personality. This is a simplification of the Insights Discovery system, as the major emphasis of the re-search was on trends informing learning design.

Different colour organisational culture in this study refers to the four cultures in the Competing

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Values framework by Cameron and Quinn (2006) namely; Clan, Hierarchical, Market and Adhocracy and is correlated with Insights Discovery (Lothian, 2006) organisational behaviours of Caregiver (Earth Green), Sage (Cool Blue) , Warrior (Fiery Red) and Creator (Sunshine Yellow)

Informal adult learning refers to processes that guide adults towards maturity by means of a learn-ing process or journey. It involves catalytic learning and a reconstruction of experiences within and between peers by means of application and reflective practices. It is distinguished from more formal, university-based learning (Schon, 1987).

It is then identified that leadership development has taken place when the leader reports there has been application of the different aspects of leadership learning (gained during coaching) and different leadership behaviour in the work environment is observed (Downey, 2003; C.O Scharmer & Kaufer, 2013; The Insights Group Ltd & Lothian, 2014). In short, leadership development is awareness resulting in new actions in the workplace.

1.3 Researcher’s positionThe researcher’s position in relation to the research is that of an insider as she participated in facilitating informal adult learning by facilitating, mentoring and coaching towards leadership development in the SEED processes, from inception of the programme to the present. The researcher’s position in relation to the research was that of a research practitioner as she had a unique position in the research process (Fox, Martin, & Green, 2007) in both a professional capacity as a coach, mentor and facilitator and she undertook research (Fox et al., 2007) in order to advance her practice (McLeod, 1994).

The researcher’s position as a SEED learning facilitator in relation to the educational system is that of an outsider in that she is not a school educationalist and SEED educational trust is an independent NPO comprised of Organisational developers specialised in the for-purpose components in the social sector.

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Chapter 2: Literature Review2.1 IntroductionIn previous research the leadership development or learning that occurred during one SEED SLP was analysed by following the SEED coaching model that is based on Theory U, by Scharmer and others. The findings were that changed leadership behaviour started with a change in awareness and deep under-standing which made way for the development of a new commitment and vision (Newby, 2017). These internal changes of mindset, emotional state and belief system provided the pre-conditions for the exter-nal evidence of new behaviour, in small ways, leading to the possibility of changed leadership behaviour which capacitated others and the context towards improved teaching and learning, on a larger scale (Newby, 2017). Internal changes within a leader were linked to evidence of those changes in the external environment which, in turn, influenced organisational leadership culture in isolated pockets.

In this research the researcher builds on previous research by Newby by establishing how the person-ality, challenges in the environment and patterns of behaviour form the current experience of organisa-tional culture and specifically the organisational leadership culture in education in SA. The purpose of establishing this national trend is to improve LDP designs and practices with specific reference to the role of coaching. Leadership behaviour change

It was proposed that deep and sustainable personal change is not an isolated event but rather a process of incremental shifts in a forward direction with stops and starts from awareness, to understanding, to commitment, to envisaging, to enacting and to changed behaviour patterns linked to performance (New-by, 2017). The overarching leadership challenge of awareness of diverse personalities within cultures is highlighted and discussed below.

2.1.1 Awareness of diversity within a culture Diversity is about difference in equality, power and world view, and the associated themes in any organ-isation are power relations, limiting assumptions, race, culture, gender, personality traits, learning and thinking styles (Stout-Rostron, 2009).

Individuals’ experiences seem to inform their world view, and the nature of historical experiences in South Africa is so influential that it must inform the attitudes of both coach and coachee towards diver-sity themes. Leading in diverse situations seems to involve topics of being different as well as being alike. One person’s gladness could be another person’s sadness (Mujtaba & Sungkhawan, 2009). For differing reasons, the same task could be viewed as hard work by some leaders and a pure inspiration by others. The same issues could lead to either hate or justice, depending on who people are and how they make sense of a situation. Diversity makes leading teams both more interesting as well as more complicated. According to Mujtaba and Sungkhawan (2009), it is not uncommon for offence to be taken by team mem-bers in diverse teams concerning actions, sayings, thoughts and behaviours.

The sense that is made of an experience is linked to our culture and, according to Hofstede (2005), di-versity awareness means that there is a discovery that there is no normal position in cultural matters. Hampden-Turner and Trompenaars (1993) argue that we can see only what our respective cultural par-adigms allow us to see. The ‘norm’ is relative to the individual’s perceptions within his or her cultural paradigm and we are all products of our cultures. Mbigi (2005) suggests that the task of the leader is to become aware of his or her cultural bias, to view a situation from another’s perspective and, in this way, think beyond the limitation of one cultural paradigm. One way for leaders to develop diversity awareness is to interact in team coaching groups as groups can offer opportunities to understand differences and diversity for more effective team results (Mthembu, 2007; Thornton, 2010).

In South Africa, the topic of diversity can evoke emotions and power play behaviour in teams, leaders and communities to the extent of hate speech, xenophobic attacks or terrorism if interactions are not contained within clear leadership structures (Jansen, 2005). Diversity requires us to examine our values and beliefs and to develop the skills of dealing appropriately with those whose values and beliefs differ

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(Mujtaba & Sungkhawan, 2009).

The dynamics associated with diversity in organisations can be observed in individual school leaders and teams as, according to Msila (2012), conflict exists where there is incompatibility within individuals or between people regarding thoughts or feelings. Managing diversity of personalities and cultures is an aspect of the school leadership challenge to achieving learner results, as a failure to manage diversity results in conflict and stress (Msila, 2012). Stressors are above average in high-poverty schools in South Africa, and in any situation, stressed individuals tend to be suspicious and mistrusting of differences rather than welcoming other ways of thinking and behaving (Lothian, 2006; Stout-Rostron, 2009).

2.1.2 Diversity in leaders’ behaviours The differences that were relevant to the study were the differing personalities, responses to challenges and organisational cultures of the school and district leaders. Jungian psychology highlights the differ-ences and similarities between people by suggesting that all people share the same psychic structures but that these present in unique combinations making up the individual personality (A. Stevens, 1994). All people have the same psychological functions but differ in the way that each of them typically makes use of the functions in response to challenges (Jacobi 1971). Each person’s dominant way of perceiving, responding or behaving is termed ‘type‘ (Jacobi 1971). One set of behaviours is not better suited to lead-ing than another, as each set conveys a different way of behaving, which is equally effective if used with awareness and understanding (Lothian, 2006). This is supported by Mujtaba and Sungkhawan (2009, p. 3) in the suggestion that “there is no best way of leadership since effectiveness depends on the situation”. A judgment concerning the most suited behaviour to be an effective school leader would be distorted thinking as effective leaders adapt their styles to fit a broad range of individuals, situations and factors affecting the situation (Hersey, Blanchard, & Johnson, 2001). This situational adaptation is essential to leadership effectiveness as the same situation or behaviour can be perceived in different ways. A consci-entious leader who works after hours, meets deadlines and directs people towards performing may be an assertive, energetic and successful leader. On the other hand, the same leader could be seen by others from different cultures as a rude, bossy and unsuccessful leader. The perceptions are neither right nor wrong; they are just different.

Diversity awareness that might be useful in school and district teams of high-poverty contexts might be awareness of the complexity of prejudices, biases, limiting thinking and life conditioning so that diverse teams can approach difficult challenges with new thinking (Stout-Rostron, 2009).

2.1.3 Diversity in leader’s cultures and world viewsLeadership resides within situations of multiple cultures and world views. The leadership skill to develop effective leadership is to understand what constitutes the situational ‘norm’ in each context (Hersey et al., 2001; Hofstede, 2005; Mujtaba & Sungkhawan, 2009). This expansive understanding could result in diversity in teams being welcomed as a preferred state rather than a cause for mistrust (Kline, 2004). Diversity awareness is seen to empower whereas a lack of awareness will limit a leader’s effectiveness. Awareness of different cultures and world views would be inherent to effective leadership development in the educational context.

2.1.4 Self-awareness, emotions, thoughts, behaviourAccording to Scharmer (2009) an indicator of self-awareness is found where there is a process of inner openness with a recognition of one’s emotions, thoughts and behaviour, and the self is viewed as the most important leadership tool. The type of awareness that leads a person into a process of change is inner openness, which involves awareness about one’s assumptions and developing the ability to view a situa-tion in alternative ways. It involves thinking differently after becoming aware of old thought patterns and then using one’s intellectual intelligence (IQ) and emotional intelligence (EQ) more fully.

According to Wilber (2000), the quality of awareness humans need for growth involves understanding the connections or disconnections between their behaviour, thoughts, feelings and beliefs. Awareness concerning these elements is seen as interlinked, and the more openness and understanding a leader

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has of the connections, the more sustainable and relevant changed leadership behaviour will be (C.O Scharmer, 2009; C.O Scharmer & Kaufer, 2013; Wilber, 2000).

2.1.5 Self-awareness, emotional intelligence and leadership styles Goleman (1998) proposes that the rules of work have changed and that individuals are no longer just measured by levels of skill and expertise. EQ is viewed as an attribute of successful leaders (Caruso, Sa-lovey, & Mayer, 2003; Fernandez-Araoz, 1999; Goleman, Boyatzis, & Mckee, 2002; Hamidi & Azizi, 2012; Ruderman & Clerkin, 2015) . The lens through which prospective leaders are viewed, concerns whether a person can both manage him- or herself and manage others (Goleman, 1998). It is noted that the concept of EQ has been central to many leadership programmes since researchers have highlighted the impor-tance of a leader managing his or her emotions. Goleman went further to show how positive leadership styles such as coaching and visionary approaches led to improved and sustainable results. Fear-based styles such as coerciveness and pace-setting had a negative impact especially on demotivated, incohesive and incompetent teams.

An emotionally intelligent leader deciphers between what someone says versus what that person really means (Herbert, 2011). The ability to make this differentiation might result in leaders adapting their leadership styles in relation to different personalities and team circumstances. EQ builds up from a foundation of self-awareness and influences a leader’s performance (Caruso et al., 2003). EQ compe-tencies are pivotal in determining a successful leader and would therefore need to be developed in a leadership programme.

Leaders who receive accurate self-assessment, such as from the Insights Discovery tool, know their inner resources and become aware of their strengths and weaknesses. Self-aware leaders reflect on an ongoing basis and learn from experiences within informal adult learning processes such as coaching. They are reported to be open to candid feedback, have new perspectives and are more open to considering alter-native solutions with resourceful problem solving (George, 2000).

Leaders who have awareness with self-confidence or a strong sense of their self-worth and capabilities present themselves with self-assurance and are experienced as genuine by others. They are deeply com-mitted to serve others in shared networks and are reported to be able to make sound decisions despite uncertainties and pressure (Senge, Scharmer, Jaworski, & Flowers, 2005). EQ associated attributes seem to enable sound leadership decision-making in the rapidly changing circumstances as experienced by leaders in schools and districts. How a leader responds to the challenge of continuous change, is high-lighted in the next section.

2.1.6 Self-awareness in a challenged context of rapid change Quinn (2004) suggests that the normal leadership response to this ever-changing world is to stay within the comfort zone of imitating what has been done in the past. There is a consequence to remaining in this comfort zone as it leads to failure to respond to change, becoming increasingly closed to change and having negative emotional reactions. The alternative leadership thinking involves the choice to engage in deep personal change (C.O Scharmer, 2009). The alternative leadership state is a temporary and dynam-ic psychological condition when the internal and external leadership experiences become aligned versus disconnected (Quinn, 2004). Leadership awareness is described as a state of being aware of oneself func-tioning in the work–life context of others and requires a process of learning.

2.1.7 Self-awareness and leadership learning Learning is part of development or precedes development (Downey, 2003). To learn, a person goes through a learning cycle of acting, observing, reflecting, planning and then acting again having learnt from the previous phases (Kolb, 1984). For sustainable learning to be achieved, there needs to be pro-cesses of learning happening internally and externally in many positions in a sustainable environment (C.O Scharmer, 2009; Wilber, 2000).

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In a study of eight major companies by Marshall Goldsmith Partners (2009), it was shown that lead-ers who had ongoing dialogues with their co-workers about their improvements and regular follow-up, showed striking improvement. Leaders who did not follow up with colleagues showed improvement that barely exceeded random chance (Goldsmith & Morgan, 2004). Isolated self-learning versus intercon-nected learning could have significantly different outcomes in terms of leadership development.

C.O Scharmer and Kaufer (2013, p. 5) proposes that it is possible to learn from both experience and “the future as it emerges”. The self-aware leader with clear self-identity and purpose would need to let go of the old habitual thinking and behaviour. In a process of consciously integrating feedback from others and the context, the leader would gain a new sense of self and redirect intentions while an understanding of both the problem and solution was still unfolding. Thinking concerning both the problems and possible solutions would change and create the opportunity for an ongoing process of new emergent thinking and behaviour. The limitation of the adult learning cycle might be the planning of new behaviour is depen-dent on the reflection on past behaviour. There would be a single learning loop of reflecting on actions and then trying again. The leader would learn from past experiences and change present behaviour how-ever, if there is continuous learning at the interface of that which has been experienced, that which is envisaged as possible and that which is yet to be experienced then learning would take place as situations unfold.

Quinn (2004, p. 3) proposes that, in embracing uncertainty about the future in leadership, one needs to learn how to lead in an original way which does not involve imitating other successful leaders, and which uses an analogy of ‘building the bridge as you walk on it’. If we just adapt our behaviour, we continue to enact the old internal map. However, if we first alter our own maps, then we become transformational change agents (Quinn, 1996). Both proposals would require quality leadership and self-awareness to lead along a route that no one has yet taken. Embracing an uncertain future as a leader would involve manag-ing emotions of anxiety and gaining self-control. Competencies described in EQ (Goleman et al., 2002) would be required to be a successful leader but ultimately successful leadership might be measured by achieving quality results (C.O Scharmer & Kaufer, 2013).

2.1.8 Self-awareness and achieving results of school teaching and learningThe value of developing self-awareness is deemed essential to developing an effective leader and deliver-ing quality results in any situation. Senge (1990), as cited in C.O Scharmer and Kaufer (2013), noticed in his research that there were leaders who built units that achieved extraordinary performance no matter where they were assigned. He first examined what they did, and then realised that each one of them was unique in how he or she achieved results. All leaders were excellent at analysing broken inter-systemic problems; however, it did not automatically follow that the clear analysis led to the resolution of the con-nected problems in each instance. Senge further noticed that two leaders could have the same analysis and understanding of the problems, then apply the same process of implementation but the resultant out-comes could be directly opposite. One approach resulted in success; the other in failure. Senge’s research demonstrated how, in one instance of leadership, there could be significant change and innovation, in another instance, there could be “no significant change” (C.O Scharmer & Kaufer, 2013, p. 17). A question arose as to why the same analysis and set of tools was effective in some hands and ineffective in others. This question was applied to leaders. It was asked why two leaders, in the same circumstances, doing the same thing, could bring about completely different outcomes (C.O Scharmer, 2009).

The conclusion is that the” quality of results is linked to the quality of the awareness” from which people make decisions (C.O Scharmer & Kaufer, 2013, p. 18). The success of results does not only depend on what is done or how it is done but also on the quality of inner awareness from which actions are designed. It is not only about what leaders do; it is also about who they are as each one of them is unique in the way they achieve results (Mostert, 2012; C.O. Scharmer, 2008; C.O Scharmer & Kaufer, 2013). Developing leadership and achieving results is not about developing a set of behaviours and techniques, but entering a state of being (Quinn, 2004). Who the person is, is important in determining the outcome? It is first about who the leader is ‘being’ rather than which skills the leader is applying or not applying (Quinn, 2004; C.O Scharmer & Kaufer, 2013). The emphasis on the unique personality of the school leader is

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supported by a study concerning EQ and principals.

2.1.9 Self-awareness and school leadership developmentHamidi and Azizi (2012) studied the relationship between EQ and leadership styles of school principals in Iran. They conclude that EQ has a positive effect on the leadership performance of school principals and is associated with an open and transformational leadership style. The authors then recommend that criteria for appointing educational managers should include EQ skills as these skills result in produc-tivity and decreased stress pressures of educators. Self-reflection on the part of the leader is seen as the starting point for successful relationships within the school (Hamidi & Azizi, 2012).

The value of developing leadership self-awareness is affirmed in a school context where the key chal-lenges are managing change in complexity and addressing factors that are within the scope of influence (Bush, Joubert, Kiggundu, & van Rooyen, 2009). Emotional awareness seems to be a key component of the foundation of EQ as this awareness enables the leader to respond by making strategic decisions rather than reacting with uncontrolled emotions (Goleman et al., 2002). A school leader needs to be politically astute, an entrepreneur and an effective agent of change (Grant & Gardner, 2010). The type of knowledge required involves insight into how schools function and how people relate rather than just skills-based knowledge. The knowledge required involves self-awareness, personal integrity, humility and being able to see other’s views as being as valid as one’s own (A. Harris & Chapman, 2002; Roberts & Roach, 2006). The description of this type of leadership knowledge seems to be about understanding beliefs and behaviour of the leader and people rather than just knowledge about management of educa-tional policies and procedures (Bush, Kiggundu, & Moorosi, 2011; Mafora, 2013). The description further seems to emphasise the importance of the leader’s understanding of self, others and the shared context, and how multifaceted this understanding needs to be (Mostert, 2012). The importance of self-under-standing has been adopted by SEED SLP in presenting The Insights Discovery system. The assessment involves self-report and real feedback about patterns of behaviour and each research participant in this study received a personalised profile.

2.2 Personality, leadership style, behaviour sets The Jacobi–Jung Insights Discovery system is underpinned by Jung’s psychological theory (see 3.2.5.1). The tool is one lens through which leaders could view themselves and gain self-awareness, which could lead to understanding of others (The Insights Group Ltd & Lothian, 2014).

2.2.1 Assessing personality/ behaviour sets Jung’s psychological theory describes the complexity of viewing the self by suggesting that there are two dimensions to self. There is the everyday awareness of self and the self that includes the age-old capac-ities of the human species (A. Stevens, 1994). The researcher gained the idea that these concepts about the awareness of selves seemed to suggest that an individual is in a human psychological condition of partial awareness.

Jung offered the theory for personality typology which enabled the researcher to understand preferred learning styles and preferred experiential learning processes. Jacobi (1971, p. 192) defined the self as “that which in reality one is not, but which oneself as well as others thinks one is”. Jungian theory, ap-plied by Jacobi in the Insights Discovery system, suggests that knowledge and awareness about oneself and others would empower a person to adapt and connect in effective communication patterns (Lothian, 2006). The Jacobi–Jung Insights Discovery: four behaviours are depicted in figure 1.

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Figure 1: The Jacobi–Jung Insights Discovery: four behaviours

Source: Lothian (2006)

In 1942, Dr Jolande Jacobi presented the four Jungian types in a wheel resulting in the Jacobi–Jungian Insights Discovery four behaviours depicted in Figure 3.9 (Lothian, 2006).

The model is based on a four-colour quadrant model of the Insights profile (blue, red, yellow and green). Those with a high preference for Cool Blue energy would tend towards introversion. Knowledge, facts and analysis would be important them. Their behaviour would be described as cautious, accurate, question-ing and formal. A person with a high preference for Fiery Red energy would tend towards extraversion. Producing results would be important to them. Descriptors of their behaviour would include compet-itive, strong-willed and purposeful. A high preference for Sunshine Yellow energy would tend towards extroverted expression. Positive social relationships, vision and radiating enthusiasm with acknowl-edgement would be important to them. Their behaviour would involve sociable and engaging interactions with expressions of many ideas, while a person with Earth Green energy would tend towards introver-sion and value depth in relationships. Teamwork and harmonious relationships would be important to them. They would be identified by their caring and supportive manner, which creates calm and relaxed working environments.

The fact-oriented Cool Blue energy is viewed as displaying an opposite behaviour to the socially ori-ented Sunshine Yellow energy. The results-oriented Fiery Red energy is viewed as displaying opposite behaviour to the team-oriented Earth Green energy.

Insights Discovery developed a system that looked at everyday aspects of recognisable behaviour sets presented as a personality evaluator and the Insights Discovery personal profile booklet. Identifying and understanding these behaviours in both oneself and others is seen to achieve effective communication as a leader (Lothian, 2006).

The profile results are based on Jung’s psychological preferences or psychological theories of self-under-standing. Three sets of preferences are applied in this profile, namely the attitudes of: extraversion ver-sus introversion, sensing versus intuition and thinking versus feeling. By taking each of the four process-es – sensing, intuition, thinking and feeling and linking each of them to extraversion or introversion in relation to the four-colour behaviour sets an 8-type wheel evolved into a 72-type wheel model depending on the order and intensity of the four colour behaviour sets.

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The four colours are used to represent behaviour sets that form the personality, and the names of the more complex behaviour archetypes are observer, reformer, director, motivator, inspirer, helper, supporter and co-coordinator (Lothian, 2006; The Insights Group Ltd & Lothian, 2014). Each research participant received an Insights Discovery profile, which depicted his or her personality position on the 72-type wheel. In the programme used during the present research, each participant gained understanding con-cerning his or her personality position on the 72-type wheel at ever-deepening levels as the programme commenced. For this reason, the terms, behaviour preferences, sets and personality typing are used interchangeably in the study. A discussion regarding the value of the Insights Discovery profile follows.

2.2.1.1 Value of Insights Discovery profile All the SEED participants, facilitators, coaches and mentors complete an Insights Discovery profile in the programme. Self-assessment tools are recommended for both coaches as well as coachees. A coach-ing body, Coaches and Mentors of South Africa (COMENSA), see (Stout-Rostron, 2009) suggests that a minimum standard for a coach is to gain self-awareness from at least one personality type indicator plus self-reflection and feedback processes (Stout-Rostron, 2009, p. 217). Caution is expressed that it should not be assumed that personality profiling is a predictor of performance of emerging leaders, but it is nevertheless useful for developing an awareness of strengths and weaknesses with a view to developing leadership (Stout-Rostron, 2009). Personality typing is seen to be useful to some and not useful to oth-ers (Wilber, 2000), but identifying strengths and understanding self and one another are essential for a coach and coaching a team or individuals in education (A. Clarke, 2007). The Insights Discovery system focuses on awareness of self and others, understanding of self and others, adapting to and connecting with others in more effective communication, and appreciating and valuing differences/diversity, there-fore encouraging others to express and build on their own unique gifts (Lothian 2014).

The Insights Discovery system seems simple and robust as it spans complexity from four behaviour co-lour types to eight types and is ultimately is represented in a 72-type wheel as depicted in Figure 2. An explanation of how the 4-type wheel emerged into a wheel with 72 combinations follows.

A personality is not just one of the four behaviour colours but all four. Each person’s profile reflects his or her unique personality as his or her intensity of each of the colour energies, attitudes and functions is expressed. Two people who share their first colour as blue but who differ in their second colour, with one being red and the other being green for instance, are two very different personality types or patterns of the four energies. These differences in behaviour sets, attitudes and functions gave rise to the 8-type wheel. The 8-type to 72-type wheel is depicted in figure 2.

A personality is not just one of the four behaviour colours but all four. Each person’s profile reflects his or her unique personality as his or her intensity of each of the colour energies, attitudes and functions is expressed. Two people who share their first colour as blue but who differ in their second colour, with one being red and the other being green for instance, are two very different personality types or patterns of the four energies. These differences in behaviour sets, attitudes and functions gave rise to the 8-type wheel. The 8-type to 72-type wheel is depicted in figure 2.

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Figure 2: 72-type Insights Discovery Wheel.

Source: Lothian (2006)

2.2.1.2 Application of Jacobi–Jung’s 72-type wheel as a tool in SEED SLPThe Insights Discovery profile was used as a tool in the SLP to support the adult learner facilitator in building a rapport with the adult learners. The profile results formed some of the programme data that was used in the research data. All the research participants in this study received booklets and attended the SEED SLP, during which they reported individual and collective change. Research by Newby (2017) confirmed that the Insights system had resulted in school leaders gaining awareness and understanding of self and others which, broadened and accelerated leadership development towards capacitation and organisational change.

2.3 Organisational changeUnderstanding how organisations change and who the people in the organisations are, may be as import-ant as understanding what organisations should do (Mostert, 2012; C.O Scharmer & Kaufer, 2013). A focus on the inner work and condition of the leader could stop the repetition of inadequate performance (Ramphele, 2008; Ruderman, Clerkin, & Connolly, 2014; C.O Scharmer, 2009). Understanding how to create new realities could change trajectories of events towards inadequate performance (C.O Scharmer & Kaufer, 2013). The foundational step of understanding how to think about the complexities might be more helpful than knowing what to do next as a leader (D. Beck & Linscott, 1991; Heckroodt, 2013; C.O Scharmer, 2009; Senge, 1990; Wilber, 2000). Before leaders can know what to do next they might need to start thinking differently about their leadership roles in their environments (Heckroodt, 2013).

There have been many suggestions on either how leaders should lead or what leaders should do in ed-ucation in South Africa, see e.g. (Bush et al., 2011; Jansen & Blank, 2014; Leithwood, Day, Sammons, Harris, & Hopkins, 2006; Mafora, 2013; Mathibe, 2007). Little is known about the personal source or internal condition from which educational leaders are operating and developing. This raises the question of whether awareness and understanding concerning who we are and how we grow as leaders in a specific context, are key factors that could affect the success of the system (C.O Scharmer, 2009; C.O Scharmer & Kaufer, 2013). If an awareness of the organisational culture and challenging environment is integrated with this understanding, as in this research, further insight will be gained into fundamental causes of underperformance.

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2.3.1 Self-understanding within the organisation Complexity of a problem can easily undermine leadership confidence and trust in self, but once leaders move from listing the isolated problems to seeing the interrelationships underlying the situation, they shift from reacting to shaping their reality (Senge, 1990). Leaders gain confidence when they have the self-development to see that they are both part of the problem as well as part of the potential solution. A starting place for designing solutions becomes clear when leaders shifts from single-loop learning, about symptoms to double-loop learning concerning the fundamental causes of symptoms (Senge et al., 2000).A leader who understands that a system is the way it is because people in the system “want it that way” (Heifetz, Grashow, & Linsky, 2009, p. 17), is presented with the opportunity to consider new ways of see-ing complex problems. The assumption that change is required because a system is broken, is common; however, Heifetz et al. (2009, p. 17) proposes that there is no such thing as a dysfunctional organisation because “every organisation is perfectly aligned to achieve the results it currently gets”. A starting place to identifying the factors underpinning a situation could be an understanding of the trend of thinking and behaviour of the people in that system. Leaders who understand their internal condition and how they respond in a group would have an accurate picture of the underlying problems and strengths. This understanding could then be applied when leading others in challenging contexts. Leaders would be-come, both to themselves and to others, people who are worthy of trust because what they said they would do would be evident in their actions (C.O Scharmer & Kaufer, 2013). For leaders to have a clear picture of their internal condition, they would need to understand their emotions.

2.3.2 Understanding emotions within the organisationFriedman (2007) emphasises the importance of understanding and reflecting on feelings and suggests that leadership is more an emotional process rather than a cognitive or behavioural process. No one leads in isolation as then there would be no followers. Everyone and every problem is interdependent and together a leadership system is created (Friedman, 2007; Heckroodt, 2013; Mostert, 2012; Senge, 1990; D Snowden & Boone, 2007; Wheatley, 2006). Relationships are not simply the product of the personal-ities involved but dynamic structures that take shape as people adapt to each other (Friedman, 2007). Leadership learning then is about showing more of who you truly are rather than learning methods to fit a role (Short, 1998).

During rapid change and complexity in schools and districts there is often a perception of threat and a response of anxiety, and in states of high anxiety, groups tend to get stuck in negative conversations that lack potential for transformation (Stacey, 2003). Anxiety impairs the ability to think creatively (Kline, 2004). Friedman (2007) suggests that, for an anxious, stuck group to become unstuck, the leader needs to have a clear sense of self as a decision-maker yet still must maintain contact with others in the emo-tional system.

In schools with unpromising results, learners express hopelessness (Jansen & Blank, 2014) and teachers are demotivated (Bush, Joubert, et al., 2009). Leaders that could lead demotivated groups towards cre-ative thinking would need to be aware of their own emotions, manage their emotions and be a non-anx-ious presence within the group (Friedman, 2007). The leaders would need to be self-differentiated and not defined by the group. The leadership skill would be to manage the anxiety-based responses to change, understand the context and make decisions that are relevant to the degree of complexity (Friedman, 2007; Heifetz et al., 2009; Quinn, 2004; D Snowden & Boone, 2007). Understanding the stages of peo-ple’s emotional responses to change would be essential.

The issue of a lack of energy, motivation and commitment to transformation of educators, principals and learners is a recurrent theme in high-poverty schools in South Africa (Bush, Joubert, et al., 2009; Mafo-ra, 2013). Learners show a lack of commitment with incomplete work and absenteeism (Bush 2009). Ed-ucators lack motivation and commitment with late arrival at classes or absenteeism and an unwillingness to provide extra classes (Bush, Joubert, et al., 2009). Principals defer or shrug leadership responsibility (Mafora, 2013).

The extent of absenteeism suggests that a further understanding of this behaviour is required. Viewing

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what happens physiologically and psychologically to a person in chronic stress may give another perspec-tive besides that of punitive judgment from managers in the hierarchy.

2.3.3 Neuroscience of stress in the organisationAccording to Rock (2008), the brain consists of three functions; ensuring survival, expressing emotions and adaptive thinking. The survival function is the most primal and overriding of the other functions. It identifies and responds to perceived threats of either a physical or social nature. When triggered it re-leases stress hormones (adrenaline and cortisol) which illicit the fight-flight-or-freeze reactions. In turn these hormones override adaptive thinking (prefrontal cortex) and cause a ‘shut down’ (amygdala hijack). This means that social pain of conflict or blaming registers in the same areas of the brain as perceived physical threat or pain releasing stress hormones. When we are in crisis and most need the support of others and alternative options we are least able to think creatively in collaboration with a team. Rock (2008) explained how the brain responds to social threat in the same way today as it did many years ago when we needed the protection and teamwork of the cave man (and woman) tribes to survive.

Rock formulated the SCARF model which indicates the five social pains that trigger an amygdala hijack. These related to: Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness and Fairness in the workplace. Status was about relative importance to others. Certainty pertained to being able to predict the future. Autonomy was the degree to which one had a sense of control over events. Relatedness was a sense of safety with others (friend or foe). Fairness was a perception of fair exchanges between people. Leaders needed to protect status, encourage certainty, build autonomy, nurture relatedness and ensure fairness to create strong organisational cultures (Rock, 2008).

The threats are no longer from wild animals and being thrown out of the security of a tribe. Educational leaders might experience losing a job position, being unsuccessful in a promotion, being redeployed or being embroiled in relational breakdown on a school/ district management team. Another threat may be being ‘bullied’ by managers, staff or parents or the uncertainty of districts merging and circuit boundar-ies changing. Intense threat or trauma could be a death threat coinciding with an educator being “chased” away from their place of work. The challenges of leaders in no-fee-paying schools and associated districts involve chronic stress to the extent of trauma.

If there is chronic triggering of the stress hormones with heighted sympathetic nervous pathway activa-tion, then blood sugar increases resulting in weight gain and health risks. There are both physiological responses as well as psychological. A pervading sense of hopelessness and a lack of control undermines a sense of self efficacy. In situations of low control and high effort at work there is an increased risk of heart disease. A Lack of efficacy leads to burnout, a lack of adaptive behaviour and avoidance/ learnt helpless-ness. In education in SA this could present as absenteeism and avoidance of conflict.

One adaptation in behaviour school leadership may need to include is an adaptive response to stress in ongoing resilience. Behaviour indicating a lack of adaptation would be addictive behaviour, such as, al-cohol or drug dependency or smoking associated with depression, learnt helplessness and absenteeism. Adaptive behaviour would be associated with shifts in mind sets and different behaviour in response to a situation. For adaptive behaviour to be evident there would need to be a physiological return via the activation of the parasympathetic nervous system to a psychological state of safety and calm.

In the role of leader, the triggers of stress described in the SCARF model would need to be handled in an adaptive manner. School and district leaders could make SMT and departmental meetings an experi-ence of appreciative feedback rather than threatening shaming. They could avoid bullying and coercion being mindful that changes in job titles may impact perceived status and a sense of being important or confident. Rather than being reluctant to share information, they could be transparent especially during times of uncertainty. They could build autonomy and empowerment using a coaching and mentoring leadership approach rather than an autocratic leadership style with micro- management and excessive bureaucratic processes. They could nurture relatedness by rebuilding relationships at team events after an organisational change that fractured relationships. They could ensure fairness by making appoint-

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ments, rewards and performance reviews such as IQMS as equitable and accurate as possible.

On a personal level, School and district leadership may have to unlearn helplessness and hopelessness and learn to be efficacious change agents who take responsibility for their own holistic teacher and man-ager/leadership development. Again, which skills leaders may need to learn may be less relevant than learning who they are as individual and collective decision makers adapting in their responses to chal-lenges.

2.3.3.1 Challenge of Stress to the behaviour of self-efficacyOne adaptive behaviour that would need to be learnt is self-efficacy as described by Bandura (1997, p. 3) as being “one’s beliefs in one’s capacity to organise and execute the course of action required to produce given attainments”. Bandura (1997) made it clear that more important than skill alone is the judgment of what a person can do with the skills he or she possesses. There are links between learner achieve-ment, the teachers’ sense of efficacy and a positive school environment (Goddard, Hoy, & Woolfolk Hoy, 2004). When teachers are empowered to make relevant school decisions they are more likely to report an increase of confidence in the capability of their department to educate learners (Goddard et al., 2004). When confronting problems, efficacious principals interpret failure as an incorrect strategy rather than as a lack of skill (Goddard et al., 2004). Principals with a high level of self-efficacy believe that by in-creasing effort and changing their strategy they will accomplish their goals (Versland, 2009). Principals with a low self-efficacy about a specific task will often not even attempt the task as they have pre-judged themselves concerning the skill required for the task (Versland, 2009).

Leaders creating environments conducive to create thinking and performance would need to replace hindering behaviour in a process of unlearning. Perceived threat caused by systemic anxiety would need to be identified, minimised and reframed by the leadership. The leader would need to be a non-anxious presence (Friedman, 2007) to mitigate the shared sense of threat in a school.

There seems to be a generally disempowered leadership culture with a low sense of self-efficacy in un-promising schools and districts. In addition, there is a bureaucratic style of management which was inherited during the SA history of segregated and unequal education. In the transition to democracy leadership messages at different levels are at odds. On the one hand school leaders are now required to display distributed leadership with consultation. On the other hand, the tendency to have rigid hierarchi-cal structures characterised by authoritarianism and control is evident at all levels in education and does not support democratic collaboration (A. Witten, 2009). The two leadership approaches are different, and this diversity can lead to confusion, anxiety and uncertainty which trigger threatened behavioural responses in a vicious cycle. Participation on a broader scale in decision-making at SMTs, schools and departmental level, becomes hindered. Adaptive behaviour is less likely to thrive. Rightful decision mak-ers have little influence within a bureaucratic and controlling system. One personality theory which Eric Berne (1961) used to develop his transactional analysis model might describe how work relationships can get stuck in authoritarianism.

2.3.3.2 Transactional analysis and the behaviour of authoritarianismA state of mind can predetermine behaviour and people can switch between different states of mind in one conversation or parts of their lives. Berne (1961, 1963) described three states of mind; Parent, Adult and Child .

The Child state consists of the childhood parts (not childish) of us that was intuitive, creative, had spon-taneous energy and expressed enjoyment. The Parent state reflects the internalisation over the years of our actual parent’s influences and any other authority figures such as teachers or bosses. The Adult state is the desired mind set of adulthood. It is our adult selves dealing with life choices in the moment. It regulates or moderates the dominance of the Parent and Child states in determining our behaviour. In this way, we have all three possible mind sets within us at any given moment. These three states are used to describe the transactions or communication within and between people. It is another model to describe personality and relationships and is presented in figure 3.

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Figure 3: Personality as Parent-Adult-Child

Source: Berne

A typical relationship is represented as:

Source: Berne

The numbers 1 and 2 represent two people in the left-hand figure. The communication is a good working relationship with a stimulus and a response as in a conversation adopting an Adult mindset however, the child mindset of creativity and spontaneous energy in each person, is missing.

In the right-hand figure Manager 1 has a dominant Parental mindset and approach which the team mem-ber 2 generally complies with by adopting their Child mind set and responses.

A more typical working relationship follows:

On the left, the team member 1 chooses not to take responsibility or accountability. They adopt the Child mode of expecting the manager to make decisions and look after them. There is a measure of dependence and helplessness and the manager responds with a Parental mindset and behaviour not unlike patriarchy

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or matriarchy. These mindsets are at odds with each other and tend to become more polarised over time unless there is a concurrent attempt by both managers and team members to shift to the Adult-Adult mindset of “I/we will, I/we can, I/we choose”.

There is another option for a response. On the right, the manager 1 attempts to maintain an Adult-Adult relationship despite the team member’s 2 Child position. This is an unstable relationship in that it is unstainable in terms of energy, stress and potential for conflict with misgiving. This situation is called a crossed transaction.

When there are multiple crossed transactions within a group or between levels of work the Parental mindset becomes punitive and authoritarian, The Child state becomes sulky and stubborn or has a tan-trum and the Adult-Adult conversation is not accessed.

In education, leadership and management approaches have been predominantly autocratic and hierar-chical (Schollar, 2018; Witten, 2017; Witten & Makole, 2018) which may be a predominant Parent Mind-set when applying the P-A-C model. This stimulus could be eliciting the unhelpful Child mindset of de-pendence and rebellion rather than the Adult-Adult mindsets of mutual engagement and collaboration with distributed leadership roles. This could lead to leaders feeling disempowered and demoralised. The Adult mindset will feel disrespected. If district managers are both responding to Provincial managers in a Child mindset while stimulating conversations from a Parent mindset, a Child mindset response from school leaders is mostly likely to be evident. If these relationships continue over time adult to adult shared responsibility throughout the system will be abdicated and stress will increase. This transaction-al analysis (TA) model offers insight into different perspectives of self and others and assists in aware-ness and understanding of relational dynamics.

2.3.3.3 Internal and external aspects of leadership behaviourAccording to Scharmer (2009), the process of deepening awareness is described as moving from seeing a situation from a different perspective to sensing what the experience means in the context. To gain dif-ferent perspectives on a situation or the thinking about thinking, as proposed by Stout-Rostron (2014), leaders should note the perspective from which an experience is viewed (Wilber, 2000). An internal and individual view would mean leaders are open to allowing their behaviour to be informed consciously by the wisdom of their thoughts and emotions (T. Stevens, 2014). Adding an external and organisational view would mean leaders are able to empathise with others and understand different cultural contexts to the extent of demonstrating sound decision making and “problem solving in an integrated way” (T. Stevens, 2014, p. 255). Consistency between what leaders say and feel would indicate integrated and deepened awareness (Quinn, 2004; C.O Scharmer & Kaufer, 2013; T. Stevens, 2014) .

Empathy is evidence of EQ and would indicate whether a leader is open to leadership learning (C.O Scharmer, 2009). The process of moving from seeing to sensing is acknowledged as hard work and cou-rageous as thoughts and feelings of inner resistance or dissonance need to be transcended (Quinn, 2004; C.O Scharmer & Kaufer, 2013; Senge et al., 2005). Continually accessing our EQ involves being coura-geously vulnerable, engaging with others and sharing feelings and thoughts rather than becoming emo-tionally detached in cynicism or being blind to aspects of self and others (C.O Scharmer, 2009).

2.3.3.4 The blind spot of leadership The ‘blind spot’, see (Jacobi, 1968; Jacobi 1971; Lothian, 2006; A. Stevens, 1994), is a psychological term used to acknowledge that our perceptions of self may be different to the perceptions others have of us. We have partial awareness. Jung, cited by Stevens (1994, p. 64), proposed that we are unconscious of some aspects of ourselves, which he described as the “shadow” aspects. We are not always aware of the effect our less conscious behaviours have on others (A. Stevens, 1994) and exploring this gap might result in an opportunity for leaders to shift from being reactive to making decisions that facilitate innovation and adaptation (N. Clarke, 2013; Heifetz et al., 2009; Quinn, 2004).

C.O. Scharmer (2008, p. 52) suggests that leaders need to “uncover the blind spot of leadership”. He

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asks the question why we repeatedly fail to deal with the leadership challenges of our time. He suggests the cause is a lack of knowledge concerning self. Successful leadership is linked with leaders who are aware of their intentions (N. Clarke, 2013; Ruderman et al., 2014; C.O. Scharmer, 2008; C.O Scharmer & Kaufer, 2013). Once this self-knowledge is in place, the task of leadership is to influence and change how individuals and groups think about and respond to each other in a situation. O’Brien, quoted in C.O. Scharmer (2008), concludes that there is a dependent relationship between the success of a leadership intervention and the quality of internal awareness of the leader. Changing the pattern of the repeated failure of leaders to overcome challenges is made more difficult by the fact that gaining inner knowledge is seen as hard work (Quinn, 2004; C.O Scharmer & Kaufer, 2013).

2.3.3.5 ‘Internal landscape’ and leadership developmentDeveloping the inner dimension of leadership is highlighted as a shift away from merely developing lead-ership competencies in programmes (Ruderman et al., 2014). A structured competency development approach is seen to lack contextual relevance in the chaotic leadership contexts experienced in organi-sations (Ruderman et al., 2014). The call is to bring attention to the dynamics of leaders’ “internal land-scapes” and the building of psychological capacity in leadership development programmes (Ruderman et al., 2014, p. 4). The internal dimensions of leadership refer to thinking and emotions as the source for formulating actions while the body houses all. If an emphasis on the internal dimensions of leadership could lead to new possible leadership strategies, then it would be relevant to school leadership develop-ment in South Africa.

The internal dimensions of leadership are developed during the SEED SLP experience. A study by Newby (2017) exploring the behaviour preferences of school leaders and the influence of these on learning and development during the SEED SLP established what and how learning took place. One of the top three leadership changes was that participants became more resilient and self-confident in their leadership roles on the SMT as they connected thinking and action.

2.3.3.6 Leadership behaviour styles and learning disabilitiesMuch of the talk about changed educational leadership strategies that should have improved learner per-formance has not been translated into action (Jansen & Blank, 2014). If the habit of not doing what is said continues in education, then the system will remain stuck in the current reality and a different outcome might not be possible in the future (C.O Scharmer, 2009).

Many descriptions of leadership styles and approaches have already been proposed, in order to have effective principals in SA schools, see (Bush, Duku, et al., 2009; Bush, Joubert, et al., 2009; Bush et al., 2011; Jansen & Blank, 2014; Leithwood, 1992; Leithwood et al., 2006; Mafora, 2013; Mathibe, 2007; Moloi, 2002; Motseke, 2013; Mujtaba & Sungkhawan, 2009; Roberts & Roach, 2006). Bloch (2009) and Mafora (2013) suggest that diverse expectations are placed on educational leaders, such as being a po-liceman, criminologist, psychologist, drug counsellor, pastor and fundraiser. The focus on the core in-structional purpose of teaching and learning is lost (Bloch, 2009; A Witten, 2009). If, in addition, there is confusion concerning the core purpose and role of a leader, the system will reflect a barrier to learning or even take the trajectory to ‘destruction’ over time (Quinn, 2004; C.O Scharmer, 2009; Senge, 1990). There will be a disconnection between what is expected, and what is done. The confused roles and ex-pectations will result in an organisational learning disability as the collective demands will prevent the organisation and leaders from ‘seeing’ the current reality and dealing with it (C.O Scharmer, 2009). In order to reconnect empty words with real actions leaders would need to change in some way by showing a level of self-commitment and demonstrate new leadership behaviours in small incremental steps (N. Clarke, 2013; Quinn, 2004; C.O Scharmer & Kaufer, 2013; Senge et al., 2005).

2.3.3.7 Adult learning by experimentingThe intention of school and district leadership development is to facilitate leadership learning, which results directly or indirectly in improved learner results (Bush et al., 2011). Models that give insight into how adults learn, seem relevant then to leadership development.

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2.3.3.8 Adult learning cycle, commitment to change and experimentationKolb (1984) offers insights into how leaders can learn according to the adult learning cycle model (Chap-man, 2010), which involves relating a concrete experience, reflecting on the experience (Reflective obser-vation), conceptualising or understanding the experience (Abstract conceptualisation and then experi-menting (Active experimentation) in new ways of doing things (Chapman, 2010). Honey and Mumford (1992) applied the Adult learning cycle and developed a learning styles inventory with four predominant styles of synthesising, pragmatism, experimentation and reflection. Lothian developed the Insights Dis-covery system. All three models about adult learning, learning styles and behaviour preferences are in-tegrated in figure 4.

Figure 4: Kolb’s Adult Learning Cycle, Honey and Mumford’s Learning Styles, Lothian’s Insights Discovery behaviour sets

Source: Lothian

By integrating these models, the researcher can derive the learning process and style that any one In-sights behaviour set might prefer. A leader or group who is leading GREEN in Insights behaviour set of supportive team player, might have a predominant leadership style of coaching versus pace setting and coercion. They are likely to have a reflective learning style, be comfortable in situations where they are asked to observe themselves, others and the context and reflect on questions in a structured way with time to review and decide. When considering the adult learning vehicles of coaching, mentoring and training in large groups, coaching and mentoring are likely to be their preferred modes of development. The words ’might’ and’ likely ‘need to be applied as each person has different combinations and intensi-ties of the four Insights behaviour sets and is so much more than their behaviour preference. There are their unique combinations of EQ, IQ and SQ. Behaviour is one component of these elements. Valid in-formation can be derived from aggregations but there will always be minority outliers who are different and render a misfit with the theory of the models. Generalisations about behaviour patterns need to be viewed as partial truth that need to be supported by other evidence such as feedback from others in a context. In this research, school leaders gave feedback on their perceptions of the organisational culture at district level and district leaders gave feedback on their perception of organisational culture at pro-vincial level. The feedback included the pattern of leadership behaviour at these levels. The self-report of district leaders could then be compared to the perceptions of school leaders as direct-reports in a mini 360-degree assessment.

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When leaders converse in coaching and have retold the events of a situation, reflected on their thoughts, feelings and behaviour and assessed what meaning the event holds, they tend to have new ideas from which to select an action plan. If, in addition, the leader embraces feedback from a direct report, then the leader is well placed to commit to a new action. A new level of learning is achieved as it is the moment when all the theoretical thinking is tried out in practice and the four learning behaviour sets are inte-grated (Chapman, 2010). When the evidence of the new actions is verified by feedback from others in the context then the process of organisational change has started.

It requires courage to try out leadership strategies that have not been used before (Quinn, 2004). The emo-tion of fear that is evoked by the thought of possible failure to achieve the untried task might need to be managed as a leader with heightened EQ would be able to do despite and because of, their unique person-ality. (George, 2000; Goleman et al., 2002; C.O Scharmer & Kaufer, 2013). The Insights Discovery system suggests that a stressed or fearful presentation of the four behaviour sets results in the following overex-tended behavioural/ leadership responses to the extent of becoming beside oneself as seen in table 1.

Table 1: Insights Discovery Behaviour and leadership changes under increasing levels of stress

InsightsFour

Meeting theDemands of work

Overextended Stressed responses toBecoming beside oneself

Cool Blue

Behaviour:Formal, analytical, deliberate focus.

Behaviour:Aloof, suspicious, indecisive, critical toMakes many errors

Leadership:Diligent, consistent, principled, an inward and reflective focus. Fact oriented

Leadership:Drowns in detail, over-analyses, gets stuck in Intellectual deadlock

Fiery Red

Behaviour:Determined, results- oriented, demanding, purposeful

Behaviour:Driving, impatient, aggressive, controlling, confronting to stops caring about achieving

Leadership:Proactive, focused, courageous, sets a pace in a direction, results centred

Leadership:Dismisses other’s opinions, coercive,Makes rash decisions

Sunshine Yellow

Behaviour:Enthusiastic, dynamic, persuasive

Behaviour:Frantic, frenetic, manipulative, hysterical to quiet to pessimistic, demoralised and suspi-cious

Leadership:Empowering, engaging, adaptive,Visionary inspirer. Socially oriented

Leadership:Over- involves others, gets side-tracked, loses interest, takes on too much

Earth Green

Behaviour:Caring, sharing, relaxed

Behaviour:Avoiding, stubborn, dependent, possessive, calculating to rude and stops listening

Leadership:Servant, respectfulcommunication, value- based, asking rather than telling style (coaching) Consultative, relation centred, Team oriented.

Leadership:Submissive, trying to please everyone,Losing direction, not taking a stand

Source: Lothian

If a person leads with the earth GREEN behaviour set of care for the team then initial stress such as relational tension could result in avoidance of that person. If conflict escalates the person could become rude and stop listening. One fear that was regularly expressed by all personalities in one on one coaching sessions was fear of failure of a school or district (Newby, 2017). If this fear was identified, expressed in a meaningful conversation and viewed in different ways, it could dissipate and be replaced by other, more energising emotions in a process involving free choice (Stout-Rostron, 2014). This could lead to coura-geous actions, thereby overcoming the fears (C.O Scharmer & Kaufer, 2013).

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2.3.3.9 Internal resistance Courage is required to overcome the possibility of failure. Any new action has the risk of not working or failure. This courage can be gained through a reflective process of recognising unhelpful behaviours, thinking and emotions and making a choice to change (Khan, 2011; C.O Scharmer, 2009; Stout-Rostron, 2009). Once leaders become “who they really are, their genuine self”, they have the energy to experiment with new possibilities “in an instant” as it is an experience which breaks through past internal resistance to commitment (C.O. Scharmer, 2008) .

2.3.3.10 New leadership behaviourFrom the literature review, leadership development has taken place when the leader reports that there has been application of the different aspects of leadership learning, and different leadership behaviour in the school/district environment has been observed. Leadership capacity building is indicated when deep change with broad understanding and awareness has resulted in new leadership behaviour and thinking, which, in turn, has resulted in an influence on others and the organisation (N. Clarke, 2013). In short, when leadership capacity has been built there would be awareness resulting in action which affects the context towards growth rather than stagnation (C.O Scharmer, 2009; The Insights Group Ltd & Lothian, 2014). Shifting a complex system in a direction towards growth would require a leader to have deep understanding and the ability to influence changes on multiple levels in the system (Senge et al., 2005).

2.3.3.11 New behaviour of systemic, integrated, adaptive and aware leadershipDescriptions of leadership in the past located the skill of leadership within the individual leader (Blanchard & Johnson, 1982; Fiedler, 1967) and focused on traits, behaviours or cognitive competencies and, later on, emotional and spiritual competencies were added (Hernandez, Eberley, Avolio, & Johnson, 2011). In more recent times, other contextual factors have been added. Leadership is now viewed as that which emerges in an individual within a system because of interacting relationships between leaders, followers and the inter-connectivity of all levels (Hernandez et al., 2011). Many definitions refer to lead-ership as the interpersonal influence on others, which is directed towards achieving organisational goals or effectiveness (Amagoh, 2009; Avolio, Walumbwa, & Weber, 2009).

A systemic leader is viewed as someone who has a multi-perspective awareness of both the parts and the whole in a system (Senge, 1990). Integral leadership involves an understanding of the entire arena of leadership studies and practices, which is achieved through an integral frame of reference called the AQAL model (T. Stevens, 2014; Wilber, 2000, 2005). The challenge of integral leadership is to under-stand where a challenging experience is positioned on the four quadrants of internal aspects, external aspects, individual matters or group matters. Categorising the challenge helps a leader to gain perspec-tive, prioritise the challenges and decide concerning which approaches to draw on to achieve the greatest positive results (A. Stevens, 1994).

Integral and systemic leaders who facilitate change towards growth in their organisation would have a certain depth and breadth of self-awareness and understanding of the context (A. Clarke, 2007; Heifetz et al., 2009; Khan, 2011; Quinn, 1996; C.O Scharmer, 2009; Wilber, 2000). The awareness would be linked to integrity and integration. A person is described as having integrity or congruence when there is no gap between intent and behaviour, when she or he is whole, seamless, the same, inside and out (Quinn, 2004). Congruency between a leader’s internal thoughts, feelings and beliefs would assume that there was a prior awareness of each of these aspects of the self or lines of development (C.O Scharmer, 2009; Wilber, 2000). The external evidence of alignment between what leaders say and do would be the presence of credibility and trust (Covey, 2006). Integral leaders would have consistency between what they believe and how they behave in their leadership.

The habitually aware leader would access the one or combination of behaviour sets (blue, red, yellow or green) that would be most effective in any specific situation. The leader would have behavioural flexi-bility, by varying their leadership approach to best suit the circumstances (The Insights Group Ltd & Lo-thian, 2014). They would adapt with ease between different behaviours and cultural types to the extent of embracing polar-opposites such as ‘reflective action’ or ‘agile thinking’(Cameron & Quinn, 2011; Quinn,

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2004; Schein, 2004). Their dominant or least preferred behaviour sets would not predetermine their leadership behaviour. The leader might adapt to contextual needs by becoming less directive and more relational or less consultative and more decisive in response to the organisational culture. They would integrate initiating key actions while nurturing the development of self and others. They would access the most effective leadership styles in the moment, to effect organisational achievements. They would be aware of a gap between the organisation’s values (culture) and his or her leadership behaviour (personal-ity). There would be an interconnected relationship between the leader’s awareness and behaviour, which would be evident by openness to other ways of thinking, feeling, doing and being or other cultural types (C.O Scharmer & Kaufer, 2013).

There are numerous leadership models available that describe alignment between what leaders think and feel and how this affects what they do. For instance, the leadership descriptions that met the alignment criteria were systemic or adaptive leadership (Heifetz et al., 2009), conscious or integral lead-ership (Wilber, 2000), aware leadership (C.O Scharmer & Kaufer, 2013) or being in the fundamen-tal state of leadership (Quinn, 2004).

Integral and aware leadership would involve behaviour that displays congruence between the inner as-pects of self and the outer aspects of the leadership behaviour that others experience and display. When integrative leaders decide they ought to do something, they do it (T. Stevens, 2014). They are not driven by external forces such as opinions or popularity. To be aware of the inner voice or personal thoughts they would need to be self-aware and in the habit of making sense of their behaviour, thoughts, emotions and beliefs. When groups of people make sense of a situation and solve problems together, they are likely to co-create a new reality within a congruent organisational culture (C.O Scharmer, 2009).

Adaptive leadership is the activity of mobilising adaptive work (Heifetz et al., 2009). Successful adap-tation is seen as a process that enables a system to take the best from the past traditions, identity and history into the future and thrive (Heifetz et al., 2009).

The fundamental state of leadership is contrasted with the normal state of leadership, which is to refuse to change while the universe changes around us and ultimately to choose a path towards failure (Quinn, 2004). According to Quinn (2004, p. 30), being in the “state of leadership”, a person becomes more pur-pose-centred, internally driven, other-focused and externally open; however, for most people, it is very difficult to be in the state of leadership because it means letting go of control and trusting the interactive process. It means getting beyond polarity thinking, such as being task-focused or people-focused and showing behavioural complexity such as “tough love” or “reflective action” where one integrates positive opposite behaviours and lives in the balance of a creative tension (Quinn, 2004, p. 185). All four leader-ship approaches that fitted the researcher’s criteria for describing a strong leader that would navigate in education seemed to link a state of quality awareness with a quality of action in a reciprocal manner. A description of leadership suggests that the action required might involve interpersonal influence on oth-ers to achieve organisational goals (Amagoh, 2009; Avolio et al., 2009). To affect change in schools and districts, both understanding and the ability to influence the level of performance of a team in a positive direction would be needed by the educational leader. Leadership style and extent of influence might link with organisational culture congruence.

2.4 New leadership culture in educationTransactional leadership focuses on; actions and consequences, rewards and punishment, to gain leader-ship influence. Certain behaviours are rewarded, and others are punished (carrot and stick motivation). Incentives are offered for reaching predetermined goals. Changes are initiated if targets are not met. As there is a reliance on extrinsic motivators (rewards) the sustainability of the approach tends to be short term. The transactional leader works within the existing structure and organisational culture (The In-sights Group Ltd & Lothian, 2014).

On the other hand, transformational leadership focuses on deeper intrinsic issues. It is described by Leithwood (1992) as a form of principal leadership that elicits commitment from educators to achieve

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school goals by setting direction, developing individual people, redesigning an inspiring organisation, and managing the academic programme. It has a long-term perspective. The difference between trans-actional and transformational leadership is like the difference between management and leadership. Management is described by functions of planning, organising and coordinating, while leadership is described by the intentions of inspiration, influence and motivation. Management is about doing things right and leadership is about doing the right things and both are important (The Insights Group Ltd & Lothian, 2014; Witten, 2017). Some authors have equated leadership with Earth green- clan and Sun-shine yellow- adhocracy behaviours and management with Cool blue- hierarchical and Fiery red-market behaviours (Cameron & Quinn, 2011). Other authors suggest that it takes both leadership and manage-ment to strengthen, maintain, change or create a culture (Cameron & Quinn, 2011; Goleman et al., 2002; The Insights Group Ltd & Lothian, 2014; Witten, 2017) .

Whether educators manage or lead on the management-leadership continuum there needs to be an in-structional purpose described as instructional leadership. It has a strong and specific focus on teaching and learning with a view to improving the relationship between the two and requires distributed lead-ership across a broader group of people than just the principal or district manager (Witten & Makole, 2018).

All these approaches have merit and value in education and would require the leader to; understand different personalities, use the diversity in their team, and maximise advantage by displaying a broad repertoire of leadership styles. The value of any new leadership behaviour that was reported by SLP par-ticipants would need to be assessed against the degree to which it brought about transformation in the school/district system.

An open leadership style is associated with transformational leadership as, according to Hamidi and Azizi (2012), there is a significant relationship between EQ, open leadership styles and transformational leadership. An open style revolves around teamwork, collaboration, conflict management and influence (Hamidi & Azizi, 2012; Hoy, 2002). A closed leadership style involves the leader expecting immediate compliance without explaining reasons and using threats if subordinates fail to follow orders (Hamidi & Azizi, 2012; Msila, 2012). This style is associated with transactional leadership. Any new leadership behaviour reported in the SLP would need to be assessed concerning how open or closed the leadership style is and whether the behaviour aligns with the school climate and culture.

2.4.1 School climateTeachers and researchers cannot reach agreement on the meaning of school climate (Cohen, McCabe, Michelli, & Pickeral, 2008). It can be regarded as the school environment or learning environment (B. Johnson & Stevens, 2006) or the morale and level of empowerment of teachers in relation to physical and emotional well-being (Freiberg & Stein, 1999). For this study the most significant description of school climate was that of the stakeholder’s perceptions of the school’s “personality” (W. Johnson, Johnson, & Zimmerman, 1996). Despite a lack of agreement on the meaning of school climate there is consensus that school life can influence school climate in relation to safety, teaching and learning, relationships and environment (Cohen et al., 2008; B. Johnson & Stevens, 2006) and open or closed school climates differ in relation to organisational health.

2.4.1.1 In an open school climateAn open school climate is based on respect, trust and honesty, with opportunities for educators, learn-ers and school/district management to communicate constructively with each other (Lindahl, 2006). Healthy school environments are described as characterised by positive learner, teacher and adminis-trator relationships. Teachers like their colleagues, their school, their job and their students, and they are driven by a quest for academic excellence (Hoy, 2002; Versland, 2009). They believe in themselves and their students, and set high, but achievable goals. Learners work hard respecting others who do well academically, and principals have high expectations of teachers but go out of their way to help them (Hoy, 2002).

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2.4.1.2 In a closed school climateIt can be deduced that a closed school climate is based on the opposite qualities when compared with an open school climate. Closed school climates are characterised by disrespect, mistrust and dishon-esty with destructive communication between the educators, learners and SMTs (Mafora, 2013; Msila, 2012). An unhealthy school environment would present with conflict in relationships, low performance, low morale, job dissatisfaction and an unsupportive principal as the leader (Mafora, 2013; Msila, 2012). Closed leadership styles are negatively associated with EQ (Hamidi & Azizi, 2012). It is suggested that open leadership styles are positively associated with EQ. A challenge in leadership is to strike the bal-ance between being transactional (managing) and transformational (leading) within the organisational climate.

Goleman et al. (2002) described the potentially positive impact of four open leadership styles in contrast to the impact of two negative leadership styles in demotivated organisational climates. The researchers identified six leadership styles ranging from non-directive to a directive and people centred to task cen-tred approaches. The impact of each style and when it was appropriate is seen on table 2.

Table 2 : Goleman leadership styles- Impact on and appropriateness within the organisational climate

Style Impact on organisational Climate Appropriateness

VisionaryPeople-centredNon- directive

Most strongly positive When change require a new vision,Or when a clear direction is needed

Coaching Highly positive To improve employee performanceBy building long term capabilities

Affiliative Positive To heal rifts in teams, motivate during stress,Strengthen connections

Democratic Positive To build buy-in, consensus, valuable input

Pacesetting Often highly negative To get high-quality results from a motivatedAnd competent team

CommandingTask-centredDirective

Highly negative as misused In a crisis, to kick start a turnaround orProblem employees

Source: Goleman

The styles of visionary, coaching, affiliative and democratic were seen to have a positive impact on or-ganisational climate. The styles of pace-setting and commanding had a negative impact unless the team was highly motivated and competent or in an isolated crisis. The balance between different styles and ap-proaches varied according to multiple variables. Striking a balance is a multi-dimensional process of ad-justing and adapting to the changing conditions and personalities of those one leads in an organisation.Goleman et al. (2002) researched that leadership style has a 70 percent impact on culture, and culture influences the performance of teams by 30 percent. Neurological research is now uncovering the scien-tific basis for these percentages and reasons for adopting positive leadership styles rather than triggering stress responses, as a leader in an organisation.

2.4.2 School culture of improvement and leadership styleWhether the school climate and associated leadership styles are open or closed is important. Open cli-mates and leadership styles have been clearly identified as factors affecting effective leadership and school performance. It was found in the United States that school climate factors accounted for 63% of the variation in mean school achievement between low- and high-achieving schools (S. Harris, 2000). School climates can be a significantly positive influence on the health of the learning environment or a significant barrier to learning (Freiberg, 1998). An open or closed school climate affects the leadership strategy of a principal. It is important for the principal to “analyse, recognise and respect the quality of interactional relationships and management style as main determinants of the organisational climate in

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the school as this may have a positive or negative impact on school improvement” (Sergiovanni & Starrat, 1993, p. 82). It is suggested that a principal should “touch the hearts and minds of staff and create a cor-porate soul which transforms the school into a learning environment” (Moloi, 2002, p. 95).

Research on the SEED SLP established not only that internal dimensions of self- confidence and resil-ience developed, participants also shifted in their leadership style from closed to open approaches in their leadership roles on the SMT (Newby 2017). A closed leadership approach was described as auto-cratic, rigid and controlling. An open leadership style was described as sharing decision making, being flexible and consultative (Newby 2017). This shift in approach was indicative of a shift from a dominant transactional or managerial character to a predominant transformational or leading character, along the management- leadership continuum. The organisational climate involving a closed or open leadership style is an aspect of organisational culture in an intertwined relationship.

2.5 Organisational cultureOrganisational culture highlights attention on the human centre of a workplace more than the task centre. It is the personality of the organisation as it is the factor that shapes the way things are done (Cameron & Quinn, 2011). It comprises the attitudes, experiences, beliefs and values of the organisation, which in turn, determine the communication styles within and between leaders, teams and external par-ties (Weerarathna & Geeganage, 2014). Schein (2004) viewed organisational culture as a set of values, norms, standards for behaviour that influenced the way in which individuals and groups interacted with each other in co-operation to achieve shared goals. The relationships between these cultural elements create a distinct pattern just as personality is unique to the individual. In this sense an organisation has a unique ‘personality’ (Hellriegel et al., 2004; Schein, 2004).

An investigation by Block (2003) confirmed a leadership-culture relationship as the research partici-pants clearly attributed their experiences of the organisational culture to the leadership style of their immediate supervisors. Schein reinforced the intertwined leadership-culture relationship by suggesting that culture is influenced by the actions of leaders and thus strengthened by effective leadership (Schein, 2004). Weerarathna and Geeganage (2014) concluded that a strong organisational culture is positively associated with employee performance. In this way effective leaders influence performance, positively.

Hinde (2004) viewed school culture as a set of obvious expectations and assumptions that directly influ-ence learner and school staff member activities. Furthermore, school culture is emergent in a self-per-petuating learning cycle which reflects the changing collective assumptions that, in turn, reflect the school’s unique identity.

In South Africa violence and crime are a critical problem (Le Roux & Mokhele, 2011) and South African schools are viewed as amongst the most dangerous in the world. Violence can destroy school culture and climate rendering schools as unsafe spaces. On the other hand, establishing a strong and positive school culture and climate could mitigate against violence rendering schools as protective spaces.

The collective trauma of learning-unlearning-relearning in education in South Africa could be compared to a collective cultural bereavement as described by (Eisenbruch, 1990) referring to the trauma of home-less refugees. Many generations of South Africans were not welcomed to a ‘home coming’ in schools. There were generations of learners and teachers who experienced loss. Cultural bereavement is described as a type of grief reaction primarily caused from the uprooting and loss of one’s home, cultural values, so-cial networks and identity (Bhugra & Becker, 2005; Eisenbruch, 1990). The process of social engineering implemented by Verwoerd in the Bantu Education Act of 1953 has scarred the South African conscious-ness so deeply that it could be called an attempt at an “intellectual genocide of indigenous African people” (Biko, 2013, p. 171). Some of the behavioural reactions seen in education may be born out of a legacy of loss or stuckness within the grief cycle.

Research established that leadership changed from closed to open styles, creating positive teamwork on SMTs of participants on the SEED SLPs. In turn, this affected the organisation as the teams became

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more cohesive and effective in their leadership and management roles of the whole staff or district team (Newby, 2017). The 6 top leadership changes achieved and confirmed during the SLP are presented in figure 5.

Figure 5: Top six changed leadership behaviours

Source: Newby 2017

The first three changes in order were: creating positive teams, shifting from closed to open leadership styles followed by gaining self-confidence and resilience. The second set of 3 changes were: strategizing to break down learning barriers in self, others and the context followed by taking on responsibility, ac-countability and discipline issues. The least prevalent changes out of the top six were; reported improve-ments in learner results, infrastructure and human and material resources. These findings raised the question of the relationship between leadership effectiveness and effective teaching and learning.

The effect of the school leader on learning is mediated rather than a direct causal relationship (Newby, 2017; Witten, 2017). In the SLP learning, the domain of increased principal strength was evidenced by improved self-confidence. Increased SMTs strength was described as gaining clarity of purpose and roles. Strengthening the capacity of the school was evidenced by the finding of creating positive team-work. These three domains, of the strength of principal, the strength of the SMT and the capacity of the school are interconnected and the foci for school leaders to create enabling conditions for instructional improvement (Witten, 2017) see in figure 6.

Figure 6: Domains of strength building through indirect influential leadership

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Source: Witten 2017

If these domains are interconnected, then there is a complex cause and effect relationship between lead-ership effectiveness and learner results, as presented in figure 5. The changes that were least prevalent (out of the top 6) pertained to findings on learner results, infrastructure and resources. It was not estab-lished whether these changes were at a tipping point towards improvement. The bottle-neck to sustain-able change in challenged circumstances may have been the lack of intensity of focus on all barriers to learning (internal and external contextual challenges) on all levels in the system. These could be posi-tioned externally at district level or internally, in or between any of the domains in fig 5.

Research by Newby (2017) indicated changes in and between the leader the SMT and the teacher staff. These results can be positioned on the Sasol Inzalo foundation systemic findings at: principal strength, SMT strength and teacher choices. The results also indicated improvements in resources, infrastructure and learner results. These results can be positioned at: school capacity to support learning, school cul-ture and sense of order and at the end, performance. In this way, leadership development that occurs internally, is experienced externally and purposeful systemic learning can be linked to improved learner results in an indirect way.

A mitigating factor to sustainable change will be whether leaders, teams and the whole educational sys-tem is concurrently mitigating barriers to growth such as a lack of internal and external resources. Lead-ers in challenging school contexts would need to have a complex and rigorous leadership strategy both for growth (learning) and to mitigate the threat of systemic challenges (unlearning) to maintain the ground that has been won in results from year to year and improve (new learning). The research by Newby (2017) focused on school leaders in one district of one province. This study focuses on both school and district leaders across districts in four provinces. The influence of district leadership on school leaders could be helpfully aligned or hindering and at odds if leadership development design does not take the mitigating circumstances into account. Yet another factor that plays a significant role in hindering or helping leaders to change their strategies is the role of organisational culture.

2.5.1 Organisational Culture, mindset and world viewCameron and Quinn (2011) suggested that culture is evident externally in ‘how things are done around

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here’ and internally by underlying assumptions, unwritten and unspoken guidelines for how to get along in the organisation. It conveys a sense of collective identity to employers. Organisational culture involves a consideration of similarities and differences in the way people think (Viljoen, 2017) and a cultural iden-tity connects the individual personality to the group (LeBarOn, 2005). The author goes further to point out that culture exists within larger systems which are known as world views described as one’s overall perspective from which one makes sense of the world.

Differences in world views are seen as possible contributors towards conflict in the work place (Chung, 1997; Cox, 2002). This could be taken further in that conflicting interpretations of what the values of trust, support and respect are would lead to challenges in communication and relationships (Viljoen, 2017). All human beings want to be respected but respect means different things in different contexts and thinking systems. Collectively the worldviews of groups influence the way in which groups behave. D. E. Beck and Cowan (1996) built on the work of Graves and presented the evolution of societies’ ways-of-being (thinking, behaving, believing). The Spiral dynamics model is presented in appendix . The BEIGE AND PURPLE memes are presented in table 3. Each meme is described according to drivers, organising principles, leadership/follower relationships, created emotion, motivators, forming a world view.

Table 3: Human Niches in South Africa: Beige-Purple-Red-Blue-Orange-Green-Yellow

HumanNiche

Driver OrganisingCodes andprinciples

Leadership/ follower

Nature

CreatesEmotion of:

MotivationSystem

% inSA

Beige SurvivalInstinctive

React tosurvive

Herd-like, strong members areprotectiveFollowers adopt helplessness toPassive coping with life beingCompliant to the will of nature

Fear PhysiologicalReact now toSurvive

9%

Purple RelationalSafety

Tribal/ familyorder

Led by elders/ chiefRoles by kinship, ageGender, strengthsTraditional, rigid, loyalty and trustDemands obedience toLeader(s) as decision makersStrong allegiance to tribe/familyMysterious worldRitual/ceremony/custom

AngerKin Spirits handleFear

AssuranceSacrifice selfBow to thewishes of the Tribe/family

65%

The PURPLE human niche is highlighted as 65% of the SA population have a dominant thinking system of purple (Laubscher, 2013). The percentages were determined over 40 years of research. The total number of research participants was 2 539 339 people spanning industries of; health care, transport, banking, financial services, retail and mining with political leaders and union members. It is noted that educators are not included in the above research study but would be included under the public sector, caring professions such as health care. It is also noted that if the research took 40 years then it raises the question of how the percentages for each meme have changed during this period and whether 65% is present or past data. If 65% of the SA population indeed have a dominant thinking system in the purple meme, then it raised the question as to whether this system of belief could be the ‘glue’, referred to by Schein, that underlies the variety of organisational subcultures. This thinking system would then be the reference thinking system of which other minority thinking systems would need to take note. The other 35% of the SA population with differing dominant thinking systems would need to be able to view the world from the thinking space of the PURPLE niche. For 9 % (dominant Beige) of the SA population that would be impossible due to the spiral dynamics theory of needing to include and transcend the thinking of the previous niche before shifting in the spiral to the next thinking system.

The colours have no link to the four Insights Discovery colour behaviour preferences. Each thinking sys-tem has a driver. For the PURPLE meme, safety is a driver and tribal/family structures order behaviour.

The PURPLE thinking system group is led by the elders who, gain their roles based on kinship, age, gen-

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der and strength and make decisions. Traditions are rigidly upheld, and followers obey. This description correlated with the description of good educational leadership struggling to move their thinking and behaviour beyond being predominantly autocratic, hierarchical, managerial and bureaucratic with little focus on how management practices are connected to teaching and learning (Witten & Makole, 2018).

There is a strong allegiance to the family with extreme loyalty and trustworthiness. It was noted that school leaders enjoy the sense of ‘family’ each break in staff rooms while district leaders lack the oppor-tunity for ’family’ community as they work more in silos or alone in the’ field’ with variable teams. The PURPLE meme views the world as mysterious with animistic qualities in which ritual, ceremony and custom are honoured. There is soulful wisdom within this thinking system. Assurance motivates the PURPLE thinking system. There is a philosophy of self-sacrifice and granting to the wishes of the tribe, family or spirits. The power structures are likened to the landlord in a feudal system. The question of existence is about sacrifice for their people.

Research by Viljoen (2017) concluded that the PURPLE thinking system is the most dominant with the RED, BLUE and BEIGE following, in order of prevalence, in South Africa. The relevance of the predomi-nantly PURPLE thinking system for the research study is that it becomes a lens through which both the research results need to be viewed and through which the researcher needs to view her interpretation. The lens assists the researcher when attempting to describe both the gift and unintended consequences of specific organisational cultures such as in education. No system should be viewed exclusively from the mental model of the leader as thinking systems impact on the way in which groups and the individuals within, make decisions, communicate, manage, lead or derive meaning and form perceptions. The lens offers insight into the systemic dynamic (Viljoen, 2017). Viljoen recommended that researchers need to adopt another thinking system in the spiral, the yellow thinking system, as they need to appreciate both the value and side effects of the cultures and sub cultures as in this study. This thinking system attempts to understand rather than fix systemic dynamics.

Researchers have applied the thinking system lens in Africa (Laubscher, 2013; Viljoen, 2017). They ask how, on the one hand, people who have PURPLE thinking systems can compete internationally in BLUE and ORANGE ways, but also how, on the other hand, PURPLE wisdom and soulfulness can be reawak-ened in the rest of the world. The international leadership challenge is how BLUE/ ORANGE leadership in organisations can enable their PURPLE/RED majority employee group to feel included and consulted so that BLUE operating processes can be executed (Laubscher, 2013; Viljoen, 2017). School and district leadership within different world views can enable productivity or hinder it if leadership does not have a multi perspective approach. Understanding that organisational culture resides within a larger system of differing world views renders the leader able to navigate complexity; on the one hand providing direction and stability and on the other hand creating flexibility with the ability to learn.

2.5.2 Organisational Culture, leadership styles and learningWhat we do (behaviour) and how we think (mindset) are inexplicably intertwined in the organisational culture. The inner values, beliefs, rituals, operating styles including leadership styles and political-social environments combine in unique ways and can be viewed as the culture of a system (Heckroodt, 2013). It is noted that leadership styles are one of the factors that combine to form an organisational culture. The culture in any group is driven by specific and aligned behaviour. Culture involves ongoing learning as it is seen as a pattern of shared basic assumption learnt by a group while it solves its problems of external adaptation and internal integration. Culture emerges as what has worked well enough to be valid and therefore to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think and feel in relation to their problems (Schein, 2004).

In South Africa there seem to be many challenges in the relationships between culture, context, leader-ship, teaching and learner performance. MacNeil and Maclin (2005) suggest that a culture of learning emerges through a collaborative learning experience as well as the sharing of ideas, expectations, values and beliefs between teachers, students, parents and other role players. In this way a culture of learning is an emergent property. This thinking challenges the traditional approach of merely creating a desired fu-

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ture which is sought through implementing management practices and a school improvement plan. The present traditional approach of envisaging and strategizing could be the reason for the failure in so many schools to transform the culture of the school as it ignores systemic complexity. The approach might need to include a multi- levelled strategy involving collaboration and real engagement within and across levels within the education system and the surrounding community of stakeholders. Weeks (2012) states that until a mindset and context conducive to a culture of learning is established and all the stakeholders involved start to live out the cultural elements in their daily communication, a culture of learning will struggle to emerge in practice.

If culture is seen as the meaning giving system of a society (Lessem & Schieffer, 2009) then it becomes a dynamic changing force which can best be experienced in real engagements when people seek to under-stand each other’s views as they make sense of the reality. D Snowden (2002) states that if cultural inter-ventions are being pattern revealing (awareness) and influencing activities (action), then organisations (such as schools) will have a far greater degree of success in nurturing a culture of learning.

The traditional approach is to emphasise the desired culture and manage a change process through tradi-tional management practices. The contrasting approach is to assume that a learning culture can emerge from real engagements that take place between the various participants involved. This type of social engagement suggests openness and a willingness to explore and contrasts with the typical scenario in SA schools where a culture of teaching and learning is built on discipline, hierarchical roles and rules laid down by bureaucratic educational authorities (Weeks, 2012). One way to explore would be to assess organisational culture by asking the same questions in two groups and then analyse the results for pat-terns.

2.5.2.1 Assessing Organisational cultureCameron and Quinn (2011) propose a Competing Values Framework that corresponds with four types of organisational culture. The four behaviour sets described in the Insights Discovery system correspond with the four types of organisational culture on Quinn and Cameron’s Competing values framework as seen in figure 6. It has been acknowledged that similar categorising schemes to this Framework have been presented independently by a variety of psychologists, hence the correspondence with the Insights Discovery system (Jung, 1923; Myers & Briggs, 1962). The four organisational cultures differ strongly in values along two dimensions with opposing polarities. The one dimension is about the position of focus of attention. One polarity has internal focus and integration with an introverted orientation. The relevant questions would be; what is important for us and how do we want to work. The other polarity has external focus and differentiation with an extroverted orientation. The relevant question would be; what is im-portant for the outside world, the clients, the market. The second dimension is about the extent of order. One polarity has stability and control. The other polarity has flexibility and discretion, seen in figure 6.

Figure 7: Four Culture types and Four Insights Discovery behaviour sets

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Source: Four cultures: Quinn and Cameron, Four behaviours: Lothian

The four cultures correlate with the four Insights Discovery behaviour sets as seen in table 8. The Care-giver and Warrior values frameworks are shaded as these had relevance in the research.

Table 4: The competing values framework/ Four Insights behaviour sets

Adapted from Lothian, Cameron and Quinn

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If the assessment is weighted with predominant choices of the EARTH GREEN Caregiver/ Clan Culture, then the organisation is a very pleasant place to work where people have a lot in common. They share personal information, much like an extended family. The organisation is held together by loyalty or tra-dition. Commitment is high, communication is open and there is an emphasis on the long-term benefit of human resource development. Importance is attached to cohesion, participation and morale. Leadership styles are facilitative, supportive and involve mentoring or coaching in the supervision roles. Success is defined in terms of sensitivity to others and concern for people. The organisation places a premium on teamwork and consensus.

Each of the four organisational cultures can be described in this way using the information on table 3. However, there is little information on what happens to these characteristics when most employees throughout the system are stressed or demoralised as can be expected in high-poverty-surround schools and low resourced districts. Chronically stressed environments, such as these, render leaders as poten-tially lacking influence. School and district leadership development programmes would need to under-stand both internal and external drivers and resistors to growth.

2.6 New designs of school and district leadership development programmesEffective leadership makes a difference (indirectly) in learner achievements and the desired state of open school climates in high poverty schools is the context within which leadership programmes are designed and implemented (Bush, Joubert, et al., 2009; Bush et al., 2011; Mafora, 2013; Motseke, 2013). The liter-ature is unclear concerning which learning experiences are required to develop appropriately matched leadership behaviours. The present development programmes for principals in South Africa are run by NGOs, universities, technikons or the national Department of Education. The challenges to these pro-grammes are viewed as “fragmentation, a lack of co-ordination and sometimes irrelevance with poor organisation” (Mathibe, 2007, p. 530). These findings are supported by other findings stating that the teacher development landscape remains, fragmented, uncoordinated, poorly conceptualised, unrelated to teacher needs and there is enormous wastage of resources (Christie & Monyololo, 2018). The recom-mendation is that programmes should have” relevancy and result in outcomes” (Mathibe, 2007, p. 531; Stout-Rostron, 2009).

The desired outcome of leadership development is organisational change and the failure rate of most planned change initiatives is 75% (Cameron & Quinn, 2011). This failure was described as the creation of problems, so serious that the survival of the organisation is threatened. This raised the question as to whether one of the challenges of education in SA is that there have been a series of failed organisational change initiatives rendering the provincial, district and school leaders change resistant or immune to change. According to Cameron and Quinn (2011, p. 4), where organisational change has been success-ful, “the sustainability of these firms has had less to do with market forces (results) than with company values, less to do with competitive positioning than with personal beliefs, and less to do with resource advantage than with vision”. The emphasis on organisational culture and health in order to achieve suc-cess was noted. Organisational researchers recognise that organisational culture has a powerful effect on both the performance and long-term effectiveness of organisations and individual’s morale, commit-ment, productivity and physical and emotional well-being (Kotter & Heskett, 1992). At the root level or-ganisational culture is linked to individual change and requires managers willing to commit to personal change.

The link between organisational improvement and culture change is explained by the fact that when values and goals stay the same, despite altered policies and strategies then organisations will revert to the status quo. This was applicable to individuals with differing personalities, styles and behaviour sets. According to Quinn (1996), change remains superficial and of short duration without adopting new fun-damental goals, values and expectations on both an organisational and individual level. The unintended consequences of failed change initiatives often produce cynicism, frustration, loss of trust and decreased morale (change immunity). These responses suggest that the organisation may be better off not having attempted change in the first place. The concurrent changes required for a successful initiative are on an organisational level and individual level with adaptation in changing environments (Cameron & Quinn,

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2011).

In the present study, the researcher was directed by the need for relevance and quality outcomes to focus her research questions on the role of personality and organisational culture on leadership development design. The researcher practices as a trainer/facilitator, a coach and a mentor in coaching in the SEED SLP. Her specific interest is in practicing in the role as a coach however, coaching or mentoring can also be viewed as a leadership style (Goleman et al., 2002) and one way in which adults change.

2.6.1 Value of coaching in leadership development programmesThe two aspects of coaching that have specific relevance for leadership learning, are the aspects of re-flection and action. The behaviour of reflective action shifts a knee-jerk reaction into a contemplated response. A person is active and energetic while also being mindful and reflective (Quinn, 2004).In the coaching conversation, the coachee and coach communicate in reflective conversations to affect the subsequent actions the coachee takes in his or her organisation. Contemplation away from the task increases the capacity for mindfulness during the task (Stout-Rostron, 2014). In a series of reflective action conversations, the coaching space becomes a personal learning laboratory where coachees learn by self-coaching, without being taught (Downey, 2003). This type of learning, however, is an internal process that is linked to external evidence. There is a challenge to assessing implicit changes, triggered in coaching and directly connecting these implicit changes to explicit ones (Khan, 2011). These cause-and-effect relationships are not linear and are complex to measure or track (Reid, 2014). Despite the complexity of measuring internal and external change, the desired behaviour can be described.

2.6.2 New leadership behaviour associated with coachingThe desired outcome of the reflections in coaching would be that the leader or coachee would become aware of both the external realities as well as the inner realities of self and others in their work–life con-text. Self-awareness is associated with the freedom to choose one’s responses rather than remain being a victim of past conditioning (Quinn, 1996). Applying the PURPLE niche thinking, the past conditioning would be that the person would be defined by the group or community. Coaching offers an individual space in which the leader can discover their own emergent identity and agency apart from the tradition-ally authoritarian structures. In coaching, a coachee is offered a safe learning space where emotions of fear or anger can be expressed, and choices are not judged but rather fully entertained before decisions are made. The ability to choose responses can result in taking responsibility and owning consequences rather than being reactive or conformist in a group (Stout-Rostron, 2014). The value of consistently own-ing choices is that this builds self-confidence, a sense of personal empowerment and a lack of resistance to accountability (Covey, 2006).

The systemic outcome that the researcher would desire would be sustainability and ever-increasing ripple effects of quality leadership throughout the education system. A valid starting place would be a “pocket of excellence demonstrated by a proactive person who is inwardly directed and has the discipline, commit-ment and resilience to live by their value system” (Covey, 1992, p. 305). Evidence of Improved leadership effectiveness would mean the leader and team would display capabilities and skills that allow them to succeed in each of the Insights Discovery behaviour sets and each of the quadrants of the Competing Values Framework. Evidence of leadership development would be indicated by leaders displaying varying combinations of all four Insights Discovery behaviour sets depending on the match with the situation (Lothian, 2006; Myers & Briggs, 1962). Evidence of effective leaders would be indicated by those rated by their peers, superiors and subordinates as having capabilities and skills that allow them to succeed in each of the four quadrants of the Competing Values Framework. The leader and leadership group would access the leadership style that is most effective in a specific organisational culture and environment (Denison, Hooiberg, & Quinn, 1995). In this sense the leader would be self-contradictory or be able to display positive-polar-opposite behaviours by simultaneously being both hard and soft, task-oriented and people centred or even spontaneous within structure.

Applying this to coaching, a coachee leading with Fiery Red directing behaviour might need to develop a consultative approach to broaden their repertoire of leadership styles. A coachee leading with Earth

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Green consultative behaviour might need to add a more directive decision-making approach. Different leadership development learning on the SLP will apply to different personalities (Newby, 2017). The de-sired outcome of coaching has been discussed, and the theories underpinning the SLP follow.

2.6.3 Theories underpinning SEED SLPCoaching occurs within an organisational context with the goal of promoting success at all levels of the organisation by affecting the actions of those being coached (Khan, 2011). Success is based on the quality of the coaching relationship, evidence of changed actions and the degree to which the coaching outcomes successfully align with the organisation from which it takes direction. A systemic and integrative ap-proach to coaching would ensure that all the relational interfaces, i.e. between the coach, coachee and organisation were aligned to the organisational reality (Khan, 2011).

Internal work or rethinking assumptions is acknowledged by C.O Scharmer (2009) as hard work, and some causes are suggested. The leader’s interior work deals with mastering three obstacles that block the possibility of having an open mind as depicted in figure 8.

Figure 8: Theory U for individual change

Notes: IQ = Intellectual Quotient; EQ = Emotional Quotient; SQ = Spiritual Quotient VoJ = voice of judgement; VoC = voice of cynicism; VoF = voice of fear

Source: Adapted from Scharmer (2013, p. 22)

A voice of judgment (VoJ) prevents having an open mind. The leader maintains previously held assump-tions without revising these beliefs. The block to an open heart is the voice of cynicism (VoC). The leader disconnects feelings from thinking and becomes emotionally distanced or in denial. The block to the open will is the voice of fear (VoF). There is fear of letting go of what we have and who we are as leaders. In this way, the “success of our actions as change makers does not depend on what we do or how we do it,

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but on the inner place from which we operate” (C.O Scharmer, 2009, p. 27).

Scharmer’s system of change might be applicable to the current reality in education in which the coach-ing programme resides.

2.6.3.1 Application of Scharmer’s Theory U to the SLP coaching The researcher experienced many coachees starting the SEED programme in states of hopelessness and discouragement. She often coached out of negative states into more positive mindsets or out of hopeless-ness into hope. The inverted U-aspect of Theory U (see figure 8) offered a framework of understanding of leaders that were closed to learning or in situations of hopelessness or conflict. Numerous change models have an underlying assumption of a step-by-step approach, which will inevitably result in success. The description of dysfunction in the inverted U seemed to match the researcher’s findings of the predom-inant reality of her coachees. The starting place of Theory U was to connect with the current reality wherever that might be in relation to either the course towards growth or failure (C.O Scharmer, 2009). Theory U applied to schools and districts where there are barriers to learning and gave possible expla-nations as to why two equally competent leaders could produce completely opposite outcomes in compa-rable schools or districts. The leaders might have similar skills but differ in the degree to which there is congruence between what they say and do.

Theory U is relevant to understanding organisational change and the reasons why change initiatives fail. The proposed barriers that prevent an organisation or individual from moving beyond repeating the mis-takes of the past appeared relevant to the study. The barriers to change include not recognising what we see, not saying what we think, not doing what we say, and not seeing what we do (C.O Scharmer, 2009). The four barriers to learning are presented in figure 9.

Figure 9: Four barriers to learning

Source: C.O Scharmer (2009, p. 128)

A disconnection between perception and thoughts will occur when leaders do not trust what they think. A separation in thinking and talking will be evident when groups isolate or remove people who do not agree with the rest or when people in the group do not say what they think. A decoupling of talking and

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actions may appear when leaders do not do what they say they will do. Perception and actions will not be aligned when leaders have no insight into the fact that their present solutions might become the next problem in the future.

The barriers to learning stop an individual or group from entering the U-process. The course towards failure is described further as the institutional pathology in contrast to the U-space of social emergence (C.O Scharmer, 2009). This course includes levels of being stuck in one limited view of the truth, the world and self. Actions emerge from a lack of attention described as blindness, entrenchment and holding on (C.O Scharmer, 2009).

The researcher realised that only when leaders in education saw the reality in a different way in compar-ison to the past would they enter the next cognitive space on the U. If leaders do not see the situation in a different light, then the future could be stagnation rather than growth. In a situation where there are unpromising results, a model that offers understanding of a course towards failure and ineffectiveness seems relevant as depicted in figure 10.

Figure 10: Inverted Theory U

Source: (C.O Scharmer, 2009)

The anti-space model depicted in figure 10 (Scharmer’s upside-down Theory U) seemed relevant to the current reality in the educational system where there are inter-systemic problems or where “wicked problems exist with no obvious answers” (Quinn, 1996, p. 5). The upside-down U gave options as to the position in which SMTs were in relation to stuckness. In the present study, high levels of mistrust indi-cated de-sensing and limited perspectives concerning each other and the school context.

Theory U seemed complex as it not only addressed challenges at root level but advocated a rethinking of the assumptions underpinning initial thinking. This course of rethinking assumptions seemed to give some language to describe the strong leader who could lead within communities of victim mentalities, survival mentalities, scarcity mentalities and transfer of responsibility (Bloch, 2009; Bush, Joubert, et

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al., 2009; A Witten, 2009). The starting point could be an acknowledgment of what has gone wrong, as anti-apartheid activist, academic and one-time managing director of the World Bank, Ramphele argued, “We have to face down the demons and ghosts of the past. Not just what has gone wrong, but what the reasons are, where the causes of the roadblocks and the obstacles are” (Ramphele, 2008, p. 25).

A starting place in a stressed environment, such as education in South Africa, seems to be self-awareness and introspection. Theory U and the anti-space thereof, position the self or individual in the centre of the model as the supra system. The key solution to understanding human intention, posed by C.O Scharmer (2009), is to learn to face our self. The ‘self ‘referred to is either the individual self or a group as an entity. This might be the self from the past or the possible future self with the highest potential. Learning to face our self is described as a process of self-discovery or understanding the source where our actions are designed. Theory U advocates an inner journey of understanding to change the behaviour experienced in the external world and suggests a relationship between behaviour and awareness (C.O Scharmer & Kaufer, 2013). The human condition of having gaps between innate potential and reality (Downey, 2003; Reid, 2014; T. Stevens, 2014) is acknowledged. Theory U offered an explanation as to why school and district leaders can be ineffective in a situation despite being fully capable as leaders.

2.7 Impact of behaviour, personality and the environment on culturePsychology and especially social psychology emphasise the powerful impact of the social environment and how people influence each other in an organisation. The real and imagined thoughts and behaviour of people around us have a powerful impact on our behaviour. This suggests that it matters how I be-have as well as how others behave to the extent that situational influences could be more powerful than one character. We might overestimate the importance and power of personality and underestimate the influence of a social situation or the environment. The interplay between behaviour, personality and the environment are described by Lewin as “field theory” as depicted in figure 11.

Figure 11: Interplay of Behaviour, personality and environment impacting school culture

Lewin (1951) proposed that behaviour (B) is a function of both the person (P) and the environment (E) or B = f (P, E). Applying Lewin’s model to this study, educator leadership behaviour is a function of both personality and the challenges in high-poverty environments. These elements are linked, in turn, to both organisational culture and climate of schools/districts. This interplay of elements was an interrelated system and for change too happen, an existing system needed to be “unfrozen, moved and refrozen” at a school or in a district.

This could mean organisational unlearning-learning and new relearning on both individual and col-lective levels. The organisational climate would need to be open to learning. The social forces at play would need to be identified as helpful or unhelpful, disabling or enabling to construct a change plan. The strategy would be to develop the enabling and facilitating forces while weakening the disabling forces.

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A clear understanding of the current reality and present forces for and against change would be needed. Inside organisations, subunits within hierarchical levels, reflect their own unique cultures resulting in processes lacking integration and clashes between sub groups. Sub groups, such as schools, often develop their own culture. Cultural differences can fragment an organisation and make high levels of effective-ness impossible. In contrast, valuable lessons can be learnt from sub groups as each group reflects the whole organisation in some way in addition to their unique elements (Cameron & Quinn, 2011; Schein, 2004). The non-dualistic view is relevant as whatever the dysfunctions of subgroup clashes are, there is always an underlying glue that binds an organisation, according to Schein (2004). This suggests that both positive and negative perspectives concurrently exist alongside each other, in an organisation, as became evident in the study. The location and extent of the opposing perspectives form the entwined narrative or force field out of which a new narrative or change can emerge. For these reasons the unit of analysis in the research was both the entire organisation as well as the subunit cultures at school and district levels. Common and uncommon dominant attributes were identified, and both separated and aggregated to reveal patterns and gain understanding of what stops change, enables change and keeps things the same. It was noted that weakening restraining forces reduces tension and is easier than strengthening enabling forces, which could increase tension (Segal, 1997) to the extent of creating a worse off environment.

Informed by, amongst others, Lewin’s force field analysis theory, Jungian personality theory and Camer-on and Quinn’s diagnosis of organisational culture the researcher designed her main research question focusing on the interplay between personality, organisational culture leadership behaviour and the chal-lenged educational environment with the purpose of improving leadership development design within and across leadership levels in the system.

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Chapter 3: Methodology3.1 Introduction A description of the research framework, research questions and research method follow.

3.2 Research frameworkThe research framework can be summarised as follows

Figure 12: Research framework

The school (RQ 1-2) is at the centre of the research intention in acknowledgement of the purpose of lead-ership development being ultimately to improve teaching and learning. The district (RQ1-2) is the larger system impacting the schools with a supervisory role. Answering RQ1-2 will establish the personality style and leadership culture at both district and school levels. Both school leaders and district leaders are surrounded by the multiple contextual challenges in high-poverty-surround school communities. Answering RQ3 will explore the challenges and strategies within the leadership culture. The position of an NGO whose intention is to improve their practice of leadership development is in the most outer circle. This position acknowledges the multiple perspective required to design an adult learning process that addresses real needs and challenges in this specific context. The outsider position of the NGO acknowl-edges being a mix of organisational development consultants and educators who inform the learning pro-cess design. Answering RQ4 will inform the improvement of leadership development in SA challenged school and districts.

3.3 Research questionsThe primary research question is: What is the role of leadership ‘personality’ and organisational culture in leadership development (LD) design in challenged educational systems?To answer the primary question the following research questions are posed:

� What are the most common personality styles/ behaviour sets of district managers and school lead-ers?

� What is the most common organisational culture at the levels of district and school? � What are the most common challenges in leadership and the educational context?

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� How do the findings in RQ 1-3 inform leadership development process designs towards improvement?

Each question is expanded upon below:

RQ1: What is the most common personality style of district managers and school leaders and how does this inform organisational leadership culture?

This research firstly establishes what the most common personality or behaviour set is at school and district level on a national scale. Secondly, the matches and mismatches between leadership behaviours at the different levels will be explored. The aggregated results of the most common personality, forming organisational culture, are then triangulated with the results of RO2. Answering this question highlights the gaps in present leadership capacity building interventions and the enabling conditions for the pre-dominant learning styles. This will also guide us as to the range of leadership styles, levels and positions across which leadership conversations need to span to achieve high performance outcomes.

In answering the research question, the research:

1. Establishes the “personality” or predominant behaviour set of the organisational leadership culture in education nationally:

y At teacher and district role levels y At teacher role level y At district role level

2. Establishes how the most common or leading “personality” shows up in the educational leadership culture

RQ2: What is the most common organisational culture at the levels of district and school, and how do these inform the educational leadership culture

The research establishes:1. The extent of match between the collective “personality” of the organisational culture (who they are)

at the different role levels of schoolteacher and district manager.2. The nature of the leadership demands in the work culture (who they believe they need to be) at dif-

ferent levels in relation to how they think3. The extent of match between the most common collective ‘personality’ and the most common ‘per-

sonality’ of the organisational culture at the different levels. The aggregated results (RO1) of the most common personality forming organisational culture are then compared to the findings (RO2) of the most common organisational culture to triangulate results

This gives insight into the type of leadership conversations that might be hindering or helping (disabling or enabling) to develop strong leadership learning cultures conducive to quality teaching and learning. Understanding factors surrounding why some leaders thrive in positivity and other leaders flounder in negativity will give insight into alternative leadership conversations that could be more leveraging in the system. The extent or lack of organisational fit will give insights into the type of expectations leaders ex-perience in and across leadership roles and levels and whether these expectations are realistic.

RQ3: What are the most common challenges in leadership and the educational context and how effective are leadership strategies within the leadership culture

The extent of match or mismatch between challenges, leadership “personality” and organisational cul-ture will indicate the strength of the organisational culture and organisational fit. This will indicate the degree to which leaders could adapt and give insight into the nature of adaptation at all levels required to influence this context. It will give insight into the opportunities for and barriers to adult learning in this context.

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The extent to which school and district leaders’ perspectives are positive, negative or a combination of both will be established.

An analysis of the interconnected relationship between leadership personality, leadership responses to work challenges and the organisational culture will indicate some starting places to addressing the com-plexity of the leadership challenge within and across levels.

RQ4: How do the findings in RQ 1-3 inform leadership development process designs to-wards improvement

An understanding of the extent of organisational-fit gained from RQ1-3 will inform the design of a lead-ership development interventions and specifically the SEED school and district leadership programme.

In this way, the adult learning modes of coaching and mentoring, which are intrinsic to the SEED SLP are more likely to be better conceptualised and positioned to serve the education system. We may find that current definitions and interpretations of coaching and mentoring may need to be re defined or broadened, in this context

3.4 Research methods – a mixed research approachSince the objective is to acquire a holistic picture of the role of leadership style and organisational culture in leader development design in schools and districts, this paper will utilise a mixed-methods approach that embraces both qualitative and quantitative research methods. Recognising that all methods have limitations, researchers proposed that biases inherent in a single method could minimise or cancel the biases of other methods (Creswell, 2005).

3.4.1 Why a mixed methods approach?Mixed methods research includes collecting, analysing and interpreting data using both quantitative and qualitative methods in a single study or series of studies to investigate a phenomenon or attempt to answer a research question. In successful mixed methods research, the methodologies chosen will have complementary strengths and no overlapping weaknesses. Data is collected from both open- and closed-ended questions. There are multiple forms of data with statistical and text analysis. This will result in a comprehensive look at the research problem from many perspectives and will offer a more complete picture when analysing results. According to Creswell (2007), the following is a list of common strengths and weaknesses of a mixed methods approach as in table 9.

Table 5: Mixed method approach: strengths and weaknesses

Strengths Weaknesses

• Data is more comprehensive. It can include num-bers, statistics, words, pictures and narrative.

• Can be used to answer a broader range of research questions because the researcher can use more than one approach.

• The strengths of one method can be used to over-come the weaknesses of another method.

• The results from the methods may validate each other each and provide stronger evidence for a conclusion.

• Can add insights and understanding that may be otherwise missed.

• Increases the generalizability of the results.

• Researchers may only be trained or familiar with quantitative or qualitative methods.

• Choosing the appropriate methods and creating the overall design of the research project may be more challenging.

• May be difficult to manage the projects if both methods are being used simultaneously.

• May be more time-consuming and require addi-tional funding.

A mixed methods approach is appropriate and necessary in this case for the following reasons:1. Multi-dimensional view of reality: We seek to get a view of complex, multi-dimensional reality from

different perspectives.2. Triangulation of data from multiple sources: This research will pursue data from various sources

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that are relevant to the DBE system. The mixed method approach will allow this disparate data to be converged, corroborated or validated results from different methods whilst avoiding dilution and contamination of the various research techniques.

3. Complementarity between research instruments: Mixed methods may be useful when the research-er wants to elaborate, enhance, further illustrate or clarify the results of a method (Creswell). This certainly applies in this case.

4. Development: The mixed methods approach will allow one method to be used to help develop anoth-er method. Methods such as analysis of interventions conducted on school leadership could be used to develop more effective survey instruments, while focus groups could be used to verify information obtained through individual interviews.

5. Initiation: Mixed method approaches are also useful when seeking to confirm knowledge obtained via one method versus that from another method. The results of one method may be used to examine and change the questions for the other method. The intention is to obtain divergent information. It allows contradictions and assumptions to be challenged, while also enabling new perspectives to be generated. Perhaps most importantly it demands that the researcher remain open to what is emerg-ing.

6. Expansion: Mixed methods approaches allow the researcher to expand the breadth, depth, and range of the research by using different methods and ways of inquiry, resulting in more comprehensive results.

The three different research methods about data collection and analysis are presented in table 10.

Table 6: Quantitative, Qualitative and mixed methods procedures

Quantitative Qualitative Mixed methods

PredeterminedInstrument basedquestionsPerformance dataAttitude dataObservable dataCensus dataStatisticalanalysis

Emerging methodsOpen-ended QuestionsInterview dataobservation datadocument dataaudio-visual dataText and imageanalysis

Both predetermined and emerging methodsBoth open- and closed-ended questionsMultiple forms of data drawing on possibilitiesStatistical and text analysis

The full range of possibilities for data collection should be considered in any study. These methods should be organised by their degree of having a predetermined nature, their use of closed ended versus open-ended questions and their focus on numerical versus non-numerical data analysis. A mixed meth-ods design captures the best of both quantitative and qualitative approaches.

Applying the qualitative approach for the open-ended questions content was grouped into themes, codes constructed and categories were derived to make sense of the data and understand the themes (Henning, 2004; Mouton, 2001). Qualitative analysis comprises of organising and describe data in rich detail by searching across a data set to find repeated patterns of meaning (Braun & Clarke, 2006). The examina-tion of the full data set resulted in a need to clarify how an important theme was determined and what counted as a theme. On the one hand, a theme could be denoted by the number of instances in which it appeared as established in the quantitative data (Braun & Clarke, 2006). This would assume that repe-tition and a numerical trend would mean significance. On the other hand, a theme could be denoted by the significance of what the data captured in relation to the research question. The researcher’s judgment would need to be applied (Braun & Clarke, 2006). In this research applying a mixed method approach, both the criteria of number of instances (quantitative) and the significance of what the data captured (qualitative) were applied to establish what counted as a theme.

There are three general strategies for mixed method research; sequential procedures, concurrent pro-cedures and transformative procedures (Creswell, 2007). In this research there is both a sequential el-

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ement and a concurrent. The researcher began with a broad administration of a standardised test to generalize results to the sample population. The first phase was followed by a sequential procedure. The researcher then focused, in a second phase, on a subset of the research participants to corroborate the broad findings from another perspective and concurrently obtain their unique voices about the topic. All the data was viewed through a theoretical lens of a Jungian based personality assessment which applied to both the individual and the group and provided an overarching perspective.

3.5 Data and collection methodThe data collection method and approach to analysis are presented in table 11.

Table 7 : Data collection method and analysis

Data collection method Method of analysis

InstrumentSurveyObservationSEED documentsSEED research documents

Quantitative

SurveyObservationSEED documentsSEED research documents

Qualitative

Survey open endedAnd closed-endedQuestionsSeed research documents

Quantitative and qualitative

3.5.1.1 Data instrument- Insight Discovery personality evaluatorResponses to the evaluator were sent online to the Insights Discovery software system that automatically calculated the trend of behaviour or personality type in a profile. The profile was returned as a detailed personal feedback in the form of the Insights Discovery Personal Effectiveness Profile in booklet form.The booklet was received by the participants during the SEED SLP and the researcher was the facilitator on the SEED SLP that delivered the Insights learning process. The participants received intense training on the meaning of the Jungian psychological theory, preferences and behaviour sets in relation to their profile. The application to the participant’s leadership styles and ability to communicate effectively in teams was highlighted. A section of the evaluator is seen in appendix 2.

3.5.1.2 SurveyThe survey comprised of two sections: one (Q 1-6) pertaining to organisational culture and the other pertaining to the organisational challenges with causes (Q7-10) and can be seen in appendix 3. Q1-6 were designed with 6 themes of organisational culture and a preference choice of one descriptor of that theme, as a closed-ended question. Each theme presented four choices. The descriptors aligned with the four Insights Discovery behaviour sets and four cultures on the Competing Values framework. The research participant made one choice and, in this way, the trend of organisational culture in relation to the four behaviour sets could be established and analysed quantitatively. Q7-10 were designed with two organisational health questions aligned with Insights Discovery overextended behaviours (Q7-8) and two questions pertaining to personal and contextual challenges (Q9-10). The latter were aligned to Rock’s SCARF model. In Q7-10 the participant had the choice of agreeing with all the statements or none of the statements. An open-ended question was then posed inviting a description of the challenge in their own words. These descriptions were analysed qualitatively. In this way both qualitative and quantitative data analysis methods were used forming a mixed method analysis approach.

3.5.1.3 SEED Documents The coach reviewed her work journals that have formed a part of her practice since the inception of the SLP. The themes of her journal informed her in deciding what was important in the narrative from a

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quantitative or qualitative point of view. Previous research pertaining to leadership development during the programme was referred to and referenced to build on the existing knowledge.

3.6 Research stepsStep1: The researcher collated all the SLP Insights Discovery personal profile data from 2006 to 2018, involving 35 iterations of the programme. She had fulfilled the role of lead coach, facilitator and mentor of coaches and mentors during this period. This was a broad sample with 631 research participants.

Step 2: The researcher did a literature review of books and articles and the SEED Educational Trust doc-uments to explore perspectives on the relationship between leadership style/ personality, organisational culture, challenges in high-poverty-surround school and districts and leadership development design.

Step 4: The researcher formulated research questions to establish the most common behaviour set/ per-sonality, challenges and organisational culture highlighting organisational-fit to gain insight on improve-ments ins LD design in this context.

Step 3: She designed an Organisational culture assessment with application of the theory in the literature review. She correlated Insights Discovery Jungian personality theory with Quinn and Cameron’s organ-isational culture assessment. Rock’s SCARF theory and personal experience of the reported educational challenges directed the design of her survey pertaining to contextual challenges

Step 4: Consent from the broad research participant sample of 631 people was not deemed necessary as there was no breach of confidentiality in exposure of the actual details of the personality profiles. The surveys were administered with a smaller sub sample of the broader sample who were presently partici-pating in the SEED LD interventions, nationally. There were 91 research participants in the sub sample. The survey was administered by the researcher, the managing trustee of SEED or on survey monkey, and were anonymous. Participants were given the option of not participating in the survey and assured that the results would be packaged as feedback in future SEED LD interventions. All research participants in the sub samples were nested within the broad sampling in that they had attended the SEED LD inter-ventions. All research participants had received an Insights Discovery personality profile, attended the four leadership modules, one on one coaching, team coaching and forums in a minimum of a two-year leadership development process.

Step 5: The researcher collated the research participants data in the form of the Insights Discovery re-search instrument, the surveys, SEED documents and personal notes.

Step 6: The researcher put a plan in place to manage the large volume of data. The data of the broad sam-ple was processed using Insights tools supplied by Connemara SA. The subsample data of surveys were processed both manually and on survey monkey. All comments from the survey monkey comment boxes and on the written surveys (qualitative data) were read and aligned with the quantitative data where relevant. The aggregated Insights discovery data was triangulated with the survey data pertaining to the national, district and school organisational cultures. In this way, data was triangulated. The themes of the data were categorised.

Step 7: The researcher then collated and analysed the research data using a mixed method data analysis process. The trend results of the 631 evaluators were analysed to establish the most common behaviour set. The trend results of the surveys were analysed to corroborate the broad sample results from two different stances, the survey and the standardised test as both were aligned with Jungian psychological theory.

Step 8: The findings of the research were then compiled and are included in this report. The nature and extent of the positive and negative leadership narratives were highlighted.

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3.7 Data samples and populationThe research participants were preselected by the criteria of having attended the SEED LD programmes at school or district level sometime between 2006 and 2018. The leaders had either school leadership roles or district leadership roles. The participants worked in the education system in four different prov-inces in South Africa; Limpopo, Free State, Western Cape and Eastern Cape. The school leaders held positions of principal, deputy principal or the Head of department on the SMT. The district leaders were District directors, Chief education specialists CES, SES or IMG and Gov or CMs. The descriptors of gen-der or race were not available across the data samples.

Two Samples: Nested sub sample within Broad sample

The sub sample was nested within the broader sample. The research participant’s roles were school and district leaders at each sample level. Gender and race demographics were not recorded in the data cap-turing as the purpose of the findings was to ascertain the generalised trends in behaviour, personality, organisational culture and responses to the challenges. The levels at which the research participants worked, and the number of provinces represented are depicted as follows in the sample structure and demography.

Sample structure and demography Sample Type Research partici-

pantsSchool leaders District leaders Located in Provinc-

es SA

Broad sample 631 412 219 4

Sub sample 91 56 35 2

3.8 Establishing validity and trustworthiness Validity and trustworthiness are important in mixed method research. According to Bloomberg and Volpe (2012), good quantitative research is measured by the degree of validity and reliability it reflects and degree to which, two researchers studying the same situation come up with the same observable data. Good qualitative research, however, is assessed by how well the researcher has provided evidence that the descriptions and analysis represent the reality of the situations and people studied (Braun & Clarke, 2006). The researcher described concepts using “adult learning concepts and constructs” so that valid models, concepts and ideas could inform the teacher and leadership development discourse and general understanding.

Different sources of data were derived from a standardised test, survey and SEED documents. These

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multiple sources of data were compared through triangulation to affirm conclusions (Bloomberg & Volpe, 2012). The researcher could have brought bias into the study in her roles as both a coach practitioner and the researcher. The fact that these two roles were spaced in time over 12 years ensured clarity and learn-ing from complexity with minimised merging of agendas. A mutual accountability role was provided by a collaboration and advisory committee that met at regular intervals throughout the research process.

3.9 Research ethics and researcher position The broad sample data collection was anonymous and therefore there was no risk of ethical breeches. The sub sample of data within the broad sample was also anonymous. Where consent was not obtained the research-participants were assured that they would receive group feedback and a workshop debriefing to make their own sense of the results. Privacy of participants was protected to the greatest extent as identifying content was removed (Babbie & Mouton, 2001). The strategies for avoiding plagiarism were that text was summarised in the researcher’s own words and quotes were enclosed in quotation marks with references.

The researcher was a practitioner of developing adult learners using processes of coaching, mentoring and facilitating and was positioned as an insider in relation to the research. She brought the ‘indigenous’ view with a depth of understanding to the meaning of things as she had a role in the social group (Moore 2012, p. 11). In qualitative research, it is a common position for researchers to be part of the social group they are investigating (McIvor, 1995; Moore 2012) however , bias (Bell, 2010) could have been present due to –

� the researcher’s manner, especially if she had strongly felt views; � misrepresenting the research participants’ responses in the data analysis by omitting contrary data to

the researcher’s coaching model or views; � displaying a preference that could inhibit fair judgment; and � a lack of perspective.

As an outsider, there might have been an assurance of objectivity, but the inside perspective offering understanding of the internal learning would have been lost. The learning would have been reduced to a set of numerical data rather than a documentation of real social dynamics and the interaction between behaviour and the environment forming a culture.

In this practitioner research, the focus was on the practitioner advancing her own practice within SEED by more consciously using methods and instruments and in so doing develop her practice (Shaw & Lunt, 2012). The purpose of exploring the interrelated aspects of behaviour, organisational culture and context was for the researcher to improve the quality of her coaching/facilitating and, ultimately, the design of the SEED LD programmes at different levels in education

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Chapter 4: Findings and discussion4.1 Introduction

4.2 Research questions � What is the most common personality/behaviour style of district managers and school leaders? � What is the most common leadership culture at the levels of district and school? � What are the most common challenges in leadership and the educational context? � How do the findings in RQ 1-3 inform leadership development process designs towards improvement?

A mixed method approach was adopted with both sequential and concurrent procedure strategies. The first phase involved the collating of SEED documented data from the broad administration of a stan-dardised personality test.

In the second phase the results of the first phase were corroborated using a survey and a sub set sample of the broad sample population. Concurrently and in addition, the survey data focused on organisational culture and contextual challenges.

4.3 Presentation of the main findings

4.3.1 RO 1: Establish the most common personality/behaviour set of district managers and school leaders?Three findings pertaining to the most common personality are highlighted; namely, findings for both school and district leaders, findings for school leaders, and findings for district leaders. The findings per-taining to the most common organisational culture were deduced by aggregating the findings pertaining to the most common personality across the broad research sample.

4.3.2 Personality of school-and-district leadersThe most common behaviour preference of leaders at school and district levels was (Insights Discovery) Earth Green (EG) in the wheel position of Co-Ordinating supporter as depicted in figure 12.

Figure 13 : Most common ‘personality’ of school-and-district leaders

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The most common order of the behaviour energies was from most to least;

Earth Green (EG), Cool Blue (CB), Sunshine Yellow (SY) and then Fiery Red (FR).

The broad sample population of 631 educators comprised of both schoolteachers/leaders and district managers/leaders and the dominant behaviour by percentage is depicted in figure 14 by merging the two full sets of data.

Figure 14 : Dominant behaviour sets of both school-and-district leaders by percentage

Out of the 613 broad sample population 56% of leaders are leading with Earth Green behaviour set.

The leadership approach is team oriented and caring. These leaders would collectively form a dominant Earth Green/Clan or Caregiver culture as a dominant percentage. The order of dominant behaviours from most to least was;

E Green, C Blue, S Yellow then F Red (GBYR)

4.3.3 Personality of school leadersOut of the 412 school leaders/teachers 239 led with dominant Earth Green behaviour set and mirrored the broad sample colour preference order of most to least of GBYR as depicted in figure 15. The preva-lence of the EG behaviour set translated to 58% of school leaders leading with dominant EG as depicted in figure 15. N = 412.

Figure 15 : Dominant Colour behaviour sets of school leaders by Percentage

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4.3.4 Personality of district leadersOut of the 219 district leaders/managers 111 led with the EG behaviour set. The order of dominant be-haviour sets from most to least did not mirror the broad population sample however, EG was most dom-inant and FR was least as in the board sample. N=219. This translated to 51% of managers leading with dominant EG with a team/relational orientation as depicted in figure 16.

Figure 16 : Dominant Colour Behaviour sets of District Leaders by Percentage

The three other behaviour sets were equally comparable in a prevalence of 16% to 17%.

4.3.4.1 SummaryIn summary of the findings answering RO1; Just over a half (56%) of the leaders were leading with a dominant EG (team oriented) behaviour set and the order of dominant behaviours from most to least was GBYR. In conclusion these leaders would collectively form a dominant organisational culture of Earth Green/Clan or Caregiver with a secondary Cool blue/Sage culture.

Findings pertaining to RO2 follow.

4.3.5 RO2: Establish the dominant style of Organisational culture at the levels of school and district

91 research participants formed a subset of the broad sample of 613 research participants by completing the survey of six questions pertaining to organisational culture. There were 546 responses (91x6) on both

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surveys. The research participants completed the survey twice; firstly, pertaining to their leadership at either school or district levels and, secondly pertaining to the leadership level above theirs in the organ-isational hierarchy. The respondents comprised of 56 school leaders and 35 district leaders. The school leaders gave feedback about themselves and the district. The district leaders gave feedback about them-selves and the Provincial Department. Organisational culture was assessed according to the following six themes:1. Dominant characteristics of the organisation2. Leadership descriptors3. Values 4. Success definition 5. Success strategy 6. How the organisation thrives

The themes of the survey answers were aligned with the Four Insights behaviour sets and the four cul-tures in the following way:

Earth Green - Clan/Caregiver, Cool Blue - Hierarchical/Sage, Sunshine Yellow -Ad hoc/ Creator, Fiery Red - Market/ Warrior.

Five sets of results of the dominant organisational culture are presented of; schools and districts, schools, districts, school leaders’ perceptions of district level and district leaders’ perception of provincial level.

4.3.5.1 Organisational culture of schools-and-districtsIn contrast and evidence of dissonance, the findings of RO2 indicated a dominant Fiery Red/Warrior Culture of 40%, collectively, depicted in figure 17. In RO1 the findings had indicated that the research par-ticipants’ aggregated results formed a dominant Earth Green/Clan or Caregiver organisational culture of 56% (team/relationship oriented) as depicted below figure 17.

Figure 17: Dominant colour culture types of school-and-district leaders

The contrasting findings between RO1 and RO2, highlighted by the arrow in the figure, indicated that Fiery Red / Market/ Warrior culture was the most dominant. The organisation focused more on; external positioning of tasks rather than internal maintenance, stability and control rather than flexibility and concern for people. Earth Green/Clan/Caregiver followed in second place. The order of the behaviours of organisational culture of district and school was Red dominant first in contrast to the findings of RO1

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where it was in the least dominant position. The extent of the contradiction in organisational identity (individually to collectively) is demonstrated by the least prevalent behaviour of Red in RO1 becoming the most prevalent behaviour set collectively in the organisational culture in RO2.

The findings pertaining to organisational culture were contradictory between RO1 and RO2. Separating out the findings from the two subcultures at district and school level follows.

4.3.5.2 Organisational culture of schoolsThe results of leaders for each of the six organisational culture themes at school level indicated the fol-lowing as depicted in Figure 18.

Figure 18 : Organisational culture of teachers in schools

The qualitative story of these results from 56 respondents was derived from the survey findings and ex-amining each of the six themes in isolation.1. Dominant characteristic: The dominant characteristic of schools was a (Red) results-oriented organ-

isation (Blue) focused on efficiency in a formal, structured work place. 2. Leadership descriptor: Leadership was described as (Green) facilitator, mentor, supervisor, team

builder and supporter.3. Values were established as (Green) commitment, communication and development were valued at

schools with a measure of (Blue) consistency and efficiency. 4. Success definition: Schools were viewed as successful when there was effective (Green) people devel-

opment, participation, commitment and team work to (Red) achieve results.5. Strategy for success: The strategy for success was focused on (Green) empowerment, team building,

consultation and open communication to overcome obstacles to (Red) achieve.6. Thriving organisation: The way forward towards thriving was (Yellow) inspiration, motivation, free-

dom and positivity with in (Green) loyal and trusting relationships.

The quantified results across the six questions and according to percentages offered further clarity as seen in figure 19.

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Figure 19: Organisational culture of school leaders - dominant colour

The Caregiver culture (41%) was dominant across the six themes of organisational culture of school lead-ers correlating with the results of RO1 (58%) as depicted by the double arrows connecting to the small pie chart below figure 19. In the Caregiver subculture the focus would be more on internal maintenance than external activities. There would be more of a need for flexibility and concern for people than stability and control. In the findings, 24% of responses indicated a secondary Warrior culture who would emphasise external productivity, stability and control. The strength of the dominant Caregiver culture was just un-der double the intensity of any other culture types.

4.3.5.3 Organisational culture of districts In contrast, the results of leaders for each theme at district level indicated the following as depicted in Figure 20:

Figure 20 : Organisational culture of districts

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The qualitative story of these results was derived from the 35 respondents of the survey. 1. Dominant characteristic: The dominant characteristic of districts was a (Red) results-oriented or-

ganisation whose major concern was to get the job done. 2. Leadership descriptor: Leadership was described as a (Red) hard driver, competitor and a producer

of results by goal achievement and coming first. 3. Values: (Red) Competitive actions were valued.4. Success definition: Districts were viewed as successful when the job got done and the results were

achieved (Red). 5. Success strategy: The strategy for success was primarily focused on improving results and overcom-

ing obstacles to achieve these (Red). 6. Thriving organisation: The way forward for districts to thrive was by achieving progress with results

(Red).

The quantified results across the six questions and according to percentages offered further clarity as seen in figure 21.

Figure 21: Organisational culture of districts- dominant colour

A Warrior culture was dominant in the findings, across the six themes of organisational culture at dis-trict level (65%). These results did not correlate with the results of RO1 with a dominant culture of Clan/Caregiver type when aggregating personality (51%) as portrayed by the single arrow connecting the pie chart below figure 21. In this Warrior type sub culture the organisation focuses on external positioning of tasks more than internal maintenance. There is a strong need for stability and control. 20% of responses indicated a Hierarchical/Sage culture. There is a lack of focus on flexibility and individuality with the Adhocracy culture being the least prevalent.

4.3.5.4 Organisational culture of districts perceived by school leadersFindings pertaining to 360-degree feedback from school leaders about district leaders are depicted in figure 22.

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Figure 22: Organisational culture of district managers as perceived by school teachers

The results for district leaders was self-reported as district leaders gave feedback about themselves. In order to mitigate this bias, a partial 360-degree feedback of school teachers giving feedback about dis-trict managers was achieved as depicted in figure 22.

A dominant Warrior culture was confirmed across five of the six themes.

Isolating the findings pertaining to leadership within the subculture:

The findings of one theme of leadership within the organisation did not correlate between district and school leaders. District leaders perceived themselves as leading with Fiery red first (hard driver) and Cool blue second (monitor). While, school leaders perceived district leaders to lead with Cool blue first (monitor) and earth green second (supporter).

The dominant warrior culture was affirmed by the findings across the other five themes. The school teachers experienced the dominant characteristic as being results oriented focused on efficiency. Goal achievement was valued with commitment in second position. The definition of success was when results are achieved with a strategy of improving results and overcoming obstacles to achieving. Thriving at district level was seen by school leaders as synonymous with achieving progress.

Figure 23: Organisational culture of districts perceived by schools: by percentage

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The findings from the schools about districts confirms the overall perspective of the district with the most dominant Warrior culture (42%) with the Sage (Hierarchical) culture (27%) as second in position.In addition, the findings from the district about the province affirms the most dominant Warrior culture across both the district and province as seen in figure 24.

Figure 24: Organisational culture of provincial level as perceived by districts

The findings of a subset of the district subgroup of data (17 research participants out of 35) confirmed that the dominant Warrior culture was evident at both District and Provincial (head office) levels of lead-ership. All the themes of culture were dominated by feedback pertaining to Fiery red behaviour and four out of the six themes presented with the pattern of dominant Warrior culture first and Sage (Hierarchi-cal) culture second as seen in figure 24.

4.3.5.5 Summary The dominant organisational culture at school and district levels was Warrior. When separating the two subgroups, the most dominant culture at school level was Caregiver. At district level, the order of the results was first Warrior. The school leaders’ perspective of districts corroborated with the districts’ perspective of themselves in all themes except for the theme of ‘leadership’. The findings of the district

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leadership descriptors by schools were first Sage and second Caregiver. The district leaders’ perspective of provincial level confirmed an organisational culture at both these levels as first Warrior.

4.3.5.6 Organisational leadership style results: congruence and incongruence One aspect of Organisational culture, namely, leadership style was highlighted in the results. The results of ‘leadership style descriptors’ were inconsistent across the broad sample and between and within the two sub-groups in figure 25.

Figure 25: Pattern of leadership styles within and across the organisational culture

One of the six aspects of organisational culture was leadership descriptors or style. Perceptions of leader-ship style at levels of schools and the province were included. The results need to be viewed in two ways, one across the broad sample (school and district) and the other within and between the two sub-groups. The blue arrows in figure 26 indicate congruence within and between results. The red arrows indicate incongruence within and between results. Both were viewed alongside the ‘personality of the most com-mon wheel position results.

Figure 26: Pattern of congruence or dissonance between organisational leadership styles and the organisa-tion’s aggregated’ personality ‘

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The two subsets of results answering RO1 and RO2 both pertain to leadership style descriptors and can be compared due to the alignment between personality and organisational culture theory by Jung and Quinn and Cameron. The colour order pattern of the personality of the broad sample (Order from most to least: Green-Blue-Yellow-Red), was congruent with leadership style in the organisation at school level, as indicated in the results. In contrast, the results (GBYR) of the broad sample and leadership style at district level were incongruent and opposite, starting with the Red behaviour set as most dominant indicating a tension within district leaders between their values (green energy based) and their actions (red energy based). By personality they were people oriented (teamwork) but were doing predominantly task-oriented (results) leadership work in the organisation. Furthermore, there were conflicting leader-ship styles between school and district leaders, one being a green preference and the other being red. Paradoxically, school leaders perceived more of green-blue based leadership styles in district leaders than the district leaders identified within themselves. The organisational leadership style of the provin-cial leaders was perceived by district leaders as congruent with their style confirming the predominant organisational leadership style across schools-districts-province as task oriented (red based energy).

In this way the results indicated both dynamics of dissonance and alignment within and between the sub-groups in the broad data sample. The results of the school and district data sets indicated the com-plexity of the parts (sub-groups) in relation to the whole (broad data sample). The results pertaining to the challenges indicate how these dynamics played out in the organisation and the nature of the narra-tive.

4.3.6 RO 3: Establish the most common challenges in leadership and the educational contextThe most common challenges were analysed at both school and district leadership levels. Three sets of findings were achieved at; school and district level (whole), school level and district level (parts).

4.3.6.1 Challenges at school-and-district levelPersonality and organisational culture impact behaviour. In addition, a challenging environment such as experienced at non-fee-paying schools impacts behaviour. Stress results in conflict (Msila, 2012) trig-gering a predominance of the overextended presentations of the Insights Discovery behaviours in the organisation.

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A subgroup of 91 research participants from the broad sample responded to questions (questions 7 and 8 on the survey) pertaining to the two themes of; the contextual challenge of the organisation and the asso-ciated leadership challenge. Again, the themes of the survey answers were aligned with the Four Insights behaviour sets presenting in the overextended/ stressed form (table:1) connected to the four cultures. Table 12 depicts how the survey questions (appendix 3) aligned with the four Insights behaviours and competing vales framework when under stress as experienced in education.

Table 8: Stressed leadership behaviour integrated with four cultures/behaviours

Challenge themePersonality/Culture type

Characteristicof contextual challengeSurvey question 7

LeadershipChallengeSurvey question 8

Earth Green-Clan/Caregiver Unpleasant workplaceIndecisiveness, mistrustFear for safety

Inflexible, stops ListeningTotally task focused

Cool Blue- Hierarchical/Sage Impersonal workplaceSuspicion / blaming

Uninformed, Telling Style of communicationControlling

Sunshine Yellow-Ad hoc/ Creator Demoralised workplaceConflict, power playRapid change

Low energy and aloof

Fiery Red- Market/ Warrior Disorganised workplaceIndecisiveness andLack of direction

Aggressive and bullying

Sources: Lothian 2006 and Cameron and Quinn 2011

In the findings, the challenge theme of leadership at school and district levels was scattered across the culture types and at odds with each other with the parts self-cancelling and contradictory. The character of the contextual challenge was predominantly the overextended creator culture type described as;Demoralised, conflict, power play and rapid change as depicted in table 12.The options to answer ‘all’ or ‘none’ of the challenge descriptors in table 12 were offered in the survey. In this way, the extent of the positive/negative narrative was measured.

4.3.6.2 Extent of positive/ negative narrative at school-and-district levelAggregating the two sets of results from the themes of contextual and leadership challenges, 10 % of the respondents were adamantly positive about leadership and the organisation. This left 90% who ranged in agreement with one challenge statement to agreeing with all the negative statements about the lead-ership and contextual challenge. Separating the research data at school and district levels highlighted some similarities and differences. The findings of the leadership and contextual challenges at school level follow.

4.3.6.3 Challenges at school levelThe organisational and leadership challenges at school level are depicted in figure 27.

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Figure 27: Challenges at school level

Leadership challenge23% considered leaders to be overextended Sunshine Yellow/ Creator culture aloof and have low energy at school level. The second most common perception of the leadership challenge of;19% of respondents, was the overextended Earth Green/ Caregiver culture of leadership inflexibility, lack of listening and having a total focus on task to the exclusion of a people focus.

Organisational challenge21% considered the organisational context to be demoralised with conflict, power play and rapid change (overextended Creator) 14 % considered the dominant characteristic of the organisational challenge to be an impersonal work-place with a suspicious and blaming (Sage) mindset.In summary, the major challenges of leaders in the context of schools were in the use of overextended Sunshine Yellow/ Creator culture behaviour.

4.3.6.4 Extent of the negative/positive narrative at school level

Negative narrative at schoolsOut of 56 research participants at school level 9 % considered the dominant characteristics of the chal-lenge to be described by all the descriptors on the survey (dark grey). They considered the environ-ment to be:

An impersonal, unpleasant workplace with suspicion and blaming indecisiveness, mistrust and fear for safety. They believed it was a demoralised environment with conflict, power play and rapid change. Things were disorganised in the workplace and indecisiveness with a lack of direction, was prevalent.

7 % considered the leadership challenge to be all the descriptors on the survey (dark grey). They con-sidered the leadership to be:

A telling style of communication with inflexibility, aloofness and aggressive bullying. Energy was low, control was high to the extent of ceasing to listen and the focus was totally on tasks despite being unin-formed.

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32% of research participants added further negative feedback about the challenge of working in schools. Over a half of the respondents (51%) considered that none of the descriptors on the survey described the challenge of working in the school. 48% considered that none of the descriptors described the leader-ship challenge. Out of 29 participants who answered ‘none’ of the descriptors, 11 research participants gave positive feedback, however 18 participants gave further negative feedback in their own words as described in table 13. The main themes of these challenges are depicted in table 13.

Table 9: Main themes of negative feedback about the challenges at schools

Themes Frequency Qualitative Statement of respondent

Energy/motivationCommunication

8Lack of energy andDemotivated with lack of empowermentLack of open communication and working together

Emotion of fear 2 Fear-of-change, living in the comfort zone,Scared of individuals

Teamwork/trust 6

Lack environment of team work, trust and working togetherThere is Competition among SMT members who are totally task fo-cused

Leadership style 2Too democratic and people take advantageAutocratic leadershipLack consultation

The qualitative results affirmed the quantitative results that the most common challenges were a lack of energy with demotivation and a lack of communication (Creator) with a lack of Teamwork and trust (Caregiver). It is noted that neither the leadership nor organisational challenges were described as over-extended fiery red/Warrior culture behaviour. The results of the positive narrative follow.

Positive narrative at schoolsOut of 56 participants 19% respondents disagreed with the negative answers of the survey and gave positive feedback concerning the challenge of working and leading in schools. The main themes of the positive feedback are depicted in table 14.

Table 10 : Positive feedback about the challenge from 19 percent of school leaders

Theme Frequency/intensity Narrative

Adaptation

14

There is innovation,Improvisation andinitiative

Vision/Positive energycommunication

The environment isMotivating, there is belief that challenges can be overcome, and people are empowered. Challenges are always there but we are working to-gether to overcome them.

There is a flow of information and communication channels are open. There is freedom of speech and ideas are shared on the SMT.

Positive climateTeamwork/ trust

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This is a pleasant and safe place to work and we are trying to balance teaching and administration.

People accept mistakes with mutual trust and team spirit prevailsWe are trying to listen to other people’s views

19% of school leaders were positive and disagreed that these negative behaviours were displayed in the organisation. The themes of the findings were the same as the negative narrative. Demotivation was re-placed by motivation.

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In summary and Integrating the quantitative and qualitative, positive and negative findings, the major challenges of leaders in schools were in the primary display (81%) of overextended (negative/ stressed form) Sunshine Yellow/ Creator culture behaviour presenting as a low energy, demotivated workforce, more at odds with each other than being an enthusiastic, visionary, and people-oriented workforce.

4.3.6.5 Challenges at district levelThe organisational and leadership challenges at district level are depicted in figure 28.

Figure 28: Challenges at district level

Leadership challengeMost (37%) respondents described the challenged leadership as the overextended earth green/ care-giver behaviour in the following way;inflexible and totally task focused to the extent of not listening (Caregiver overextended behaviour).

20% considered district leaders to be controlling with a telling style of leadership (Sage overextended behaviour).

Organisational challengeMost (28%) respondents considered the dominant characteristic of the challenge at district level to be the overextended sunshine yellow/ creator organisational culture behaviour and described this as; demoralised with conflict, power play and rapid change.

4.3.6.6 Extent of negative and positive narrative at district level

Negative narrative 22% of the research participants considered the dominant characteristics of the challenge to be de-scribed by all the descriptors of challenged behaviour on the survey (dark grey). This percentage was more than double in comparison to the school leaders (9 %).

17% considered the leadership challenge to be all the descriptors on the survey (dark grey). Again, this was more than double in comparison to the school leaders (7%).

31% considered that none of the descriptors described the characteristics of challenges at the district.

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Again, the assumption on a quantitative level could have been that their perceptions were positive op-tions rather than the negative options presented on the survey however, this was not the case. Out of 17 “none” responses 2 were positive and 15 gave further negative feedback in their own words the main themes of which are depicted in table 15.

Table 11 : Negative narrative at District level

Culture/themes

Warrior Creator Caregiver Sage Narrative

Focus Results orientated

Leadershipstyle

Coercive Exploitative andAggressive bullying

Accommodating Management always ap-peases labour unions

chaotic Disorganised and planning not integrated

Commanding Inflexible

Climate Impersonal anddysfunctional

Energy Demoralised

The primary theme of the further negative feedback pertained to unhelpful leadership styles displayed by all four of the overextended behaviour colours affirming the quantitative results as a demoralised (Creator) and dysfunctional environment at odds from within.

Positive narrativeThe positive narrative was minimal as 2 research participants gave positive feedback stating the envi-ronment was task focused but caring and supportive and conducive to creating a humble environment (both Caregiver and Warrior culture).

To ensure a measure of objectivity the school leader’s perception of challenges at district level added another perspective.

4.3.6.7 Challenges at provincial level perceived by district leaders 17 out of the 35 district research participants gave feedback pertaining to their perspective of the organ-isational cultural challenges at provincial (head office) level. The results are depicted in figure 29, N =17.

Figure 29: Challenges at provincial level by district

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Leadership challengeThe primary leadership challenge was the Sage / impersonal, telling style with a secondary challenge Caregiver / mistrust, stops-listening-style, as perceived by district leaders.

Organisational challengeThe organisational challenge was scattered across Sage/impersonal, telling, Caregiver/ Mistrust, stops listening and Creator/ demoralised, low energy.

24% of district leaders in this sub set perceived all the culture type challenges at provincial level with Warrior culture being described as aggressive bullying in the qualitative narrative.

4.3.6.8 Challenges at districts perceived by school leadersThese challenges are depicted in figure 30.

Figure 30: Challenges at district level perceived by school leaders

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Leadership challengeThe findings above highlighted that school leaders perceived a dominance of overextended Sage be-haviour indicated by leadership being described as;impersonal, controlling, totally task focused, A telling style of communication, they require compliance to requirements

Contextual challengeFindings from the school leader’s perception of the challenges at district level lacked clarity between whether the feedback referred to challenges or causes of challenges and included their own challenges rather than their perception of the district work challenge.

4.3.6.9 Summary of extent of challengesIn summary and integrating qualitative and quantitative, positive and negative findings,

Most (90%) school and district leaders agreed with negative statements pertaining to the work chal-lenges at school and district levels. The overextended creator behaviour and caregiver behaviour indicat-ed a ‘flip’ in behaviour from a people focus to a mistrusting and totally task focused environment where people do not listen to each other, conflict exists, and leaders are demoralised. District leaders were viewed by school leaders as impersonal and controlling with a telling style of leadership overextended (Sage behaviour). Provincial leaders were perceived by district leaders as overextended Sage (controlling) while the organisational challenge was all the culture types. In this way, responses to challenges were scattered across the stressed presentations of the behaviour sets.

There is a dissonance between what the system desires and what it is getting and between who people are and how they are showing up.

A challenge does not exist in isolation and the findings pertaining to causes or triggers of challenges follow.

4.3.6.10 Triggers at school-and-district levelThe findings pertaining to triggers of stress resulting in personal and contextual challenges (questions 9 and 10 on survey) at school and district levels were kept separate as the differences in perspective, ex-

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perience and responses to the challenges emerged in the findings. Triggers at school level follow in figure 31.

Figure 31: Triggers at school level

4.3.6.11 Triggers at school levelThe most prevalent cause of challenges was scarcity of resources on both a personal and contextual levels. The second cause of challenges was a lack in some skills. The one cause unique to the school context rather than the teachers personally, was the low socio-economic environment. The last cause of challenges was destructive relationships between individuals, on the SMT and staff, and the com-munities of the working environment at schools.

The main themes of the further negative and positive feedback indicated by a “none” result on the survey was as follows as seen in table 16.

Table 12: Triggers at school level: positive and negative

Themes ofCauses

Negative narrative Positive narrative

Destructiverelationships

There is competition amongst the SMT members

There is no blaming of the department. I am a team player. There is teamwork spirit. Processes are good because leaders and staff have a common understanding of what is expected from them in terms of attitudes and behaviour

Balance/skill

More and more meetingsAnd administration from EDO and Provincial officials so we struggle to keep the balance in admin. (2) and teaching.Learners cannot read, and learners read without understanding (3)

There is always a plan in place

Socio-ecostatus

The socio-economic status affects the Per-formance of the learners

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Resourcescarcity

Lack of teaching staffAbsent parents and uninvolved (4) and uncommittedThe resources are not enough for our Teach-ers and learners, overcrowding of learners, lack of infrastructure and teachers cannot give individual attention. Technological de-vices are scarce

Our school is well resourced with LTSM, ICT, physical resources and humanIt is up to an individual on how he uses those resources

The primary cause of challenges was supported in the qualitative and negative narrative as scarcity of physical and human resources. The second most prevalent cause was some lack in skills. In contrast, the positive narrative findings indicated that owning and redefining these challenges shifted thinking into positivity indicated by

Our school is well resourced with LTSM, ICT, physical resources and human. It is up to an individual on how he uses those resources.

4.3.6.12 Triggers at district levelThe primary cause of challenges at district level concurred with the trigger at school level as scarcity of resources as depicted in figure 32.

Figure 32 : Triggers at district level

The findings pertaining to the other causes besides scarcity of resources namely; lack of independence, influence and uncertainty, were scattered equally in frequency.

4.3.6.13 Triggers at district level perceived by school leadersThe findings of the perspective of school leaders added a more in-depth picture as depicted in figure 33.

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Figure 33 : Causes of challenges at district level perceived by school leaders

Again, scarcity of resources was supported as both a personal and contextual primary cause of chal-lenges as indicated by 32 out of 112 (28%) responses. The unique feedback that school leaders offered to district leaders was pertaining to the inability to be influential leaders in the district and school system as indicated by 25 out 112 responses (22%) of school leaders. Out of 56 participants 15 answered “none” on the survey. 4 respondents were positive and 11 were negative. The responses are depicted in table 17.

Table 13: Triggers: positive and negative: at district level perceived by school leaders

Feedback/Theme

negative positive

Fairness Unfair labour practice (3)

scarcity There is scarcity of Subject Advisors, classrooms, infra-structure (3)

There are resources and utilised optimally systems are being influenced and there is progress (3)

Support They do not support teachers and schools (4)

There is peace in the workplaceIt is pleasant with trust and feeling of security

planning Unco-ordinated planning leads to clashesThey do not plan together, the EDOs and Subject advisors

it is organised and has direction

Leadership/Communication style

Controlling, totally task fo-cused, low energy and telling style of communication,

Communication is freeLeadership is flexible, informative and trying to assist

Relationships Trust is lacking Communication was one area we were lacking so we came with best ways of dealing with the chal-lenge. There is no fear and there is trust between the parties. Before I was introduced to the SLP I used to be suspicious and always putting the blame on someone if things did not go well.Since we are from different backgrounds and have different personalities challenges will always be there in terms of relationships, but we can deal with the whole scenario since no one is perfect

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The negative feedback on causes of a lack of resources highlighted the lack of human resources in the form of support. The school leaders described these causes as unhelpful leadership/communication styles and leadership practices around appointments as unfair.

The positive feedback (7%) from the school leaders countered the negative feedback about destructive relationships where trust was lacking as indicated by There is no fear and there is trust... Experimenting with new behaviour was linked to the positive narrative as indicated by Communication was one area, we were lacking so we came with best ways of dealing with the challenge. Deep understanding and a non-judgemental attitude were indicated by Since we are from different backgrounds and have different personalities challenges will always be there in terms of relationships. A positive and resilient perspec-tive of the challenge was indicated by… but we can deal with the whole scenario since no one is perfect.

4.3.6.14 Triggers at provincial level perceived by districtThe causes of challenges at provincial level; on a personal and contextual level were seen by district lead-ers as depicted in figure 34.

Figure 34: Causes of challenges: Provincial level by district

The primary trigger of personal challenges of provincial leaders in the opinion of district leaders was the inability to Influence the system. A lack of resources was the second cause of challenges, in the findings. The causes within the contextual challenge were scattered across resources, uncertainty and independence indicating a lack of agreement.

4.3.6.15 Summary of triggers In summary of the findings, the primary cause or trigger of contextual and personal challenges in the organisation was scarcity of resource described as both physical and human resources. The human re-source deficit resulted in a lack of support, unhelpful communication styles and unfair leadership ap-pointment practices. The school leaders experienced a measure of some deficit in skills and destructive relationships. The findings indicated that school leaders perceived district leaders to lack leadership in-fluence. In turn, the district leaders perceived the provincial leaders as lacking in leadership influence.

The findings from RO4 follow, starting with a summary from RO1-3.

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4.3.7 RO4: Describe how do the findings in RQ 1-3 inform leadership development process designs towards improvement

To answer this research objective the findings of RQ 1-3 pertaining to; behaviour, organisational culture and, the environmental challenges and causes, are summarised and discussed as follows.

4.3.7.1 Summary of findings: RO1The top two dominant behaviour preferences in education (integrated schools and district trend) are Earth green and Cool blue which forms a Caregiver-Sage culture where both people and the task are im-portant. The summary of findings that answer research question 1-3 follow in split tables 14 to 17.

Table 14 : Findings summary RO1

Most dominant behaviour preference

At school level At district level Feedback from school to district

Integrated schools and district trend

RO1 BehaviourEarth GreenCool Blue

Earth Green Sunshine Yellow

Cool Blue Earth Green(Org leadership)

Earth GreenCool BlueCaregiver-Sage

The findings indicated that educators (school and district leaders) were first and foremost carers and co-ordinators focused on; maintaining relationships, teamwork and servant leadership. The second most dominant behaviour, indicated in the findings, was seeking accurate processes focused on an analysis of the facts. The preferred work environment was personal, relaxed, friendly and informal. The least dom-inant behaviour was a Fiery Red results orientation.

The caregiver culture type described leaders as facilitator/ supporters/ co-ordinators who thrived on loyalty, trust and people development.

4.3.7.2 Summary of findings: RO2

Table 15: Findings summary RO2

RO2 Organisa-tional culture

At school At district Feedback schoolTo district

Integrated school/ District trend

FeedbackDistrictTo province

Caregiver Warrior Warrior Warrior-Care-giver

Warrior

Three sets of dissonant findings were highlighted; one was in the broad research sample, one between the two sub samples and one within one sub sample.

Firstly, the findings of the dominant personality/leadership style were at odds with organisational cul-ture type in 4 provinces, across school and district leaders in education. The most common personality/ behaviour preference/ leadership style was aggregated as Caregiver. The most dominant organisational culture was the Warrior trend where results are prioritised before people.

Secondly, the findings of the dominant organisational culture at school level, were at odds with the or-ganisational culture at district level, Warrior across 3 provinces in SA forming two distinct and opposite subcultures.

In the third instance, the dominant Earth Green /Caregiver personality/leadership style at district level was at odds with the dominant organisational culture of Warrior at district level in 3 provinces in SA.

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The result that was supported by four sets of data was that the dominant organisational culture in edu-cation is the Warrior type. Findings from; schools and districts, districts, districts perceived by schools and provincial level perceived by districts all corroborated.

In summary, the three sets of dissonant findings of the aggregated personality and organisational cul-tures of the Caregiver and the Warrior, throughout and across the system, indicated a description of the polarised and incongruent leadership in education. The four sets of corroborating results indicated that the dominant culture in education was the Warrior type. A summary of RO3 findings follows.

4.3.7.3 Summary of findings: RO3

Table 16: Triggers of Challenges: RO3

Triggers and responses at different levels

Schools Districts Feedback from schools to districts

Integrated schools and districts

Feedback from district to province

Scarcity of re-sources (38%)

Scarcity of re-sources (44%)

Scarcity of re-sources (28%) Lack Influence (22%)

Scarcity of resources(36%)

Lack influence(35%)Scarcity of re-sources (23%)

Themes of negative triggers

81%Lack some skillsLow socio-eco-nomic (context) Destructive relationship

95%Lack indepen-dence (individ-ual)Uncertainty

92%Lack support (28%)Unhelpful (22%)Leadership styles and influ-ence

90% negative

Themes of posi-tive triggers

19%VisionAdaptive lead-ershipPositive com-munication/climate

5%Positive po-lar-oppositesTask and carefoci

8%Relationships (4) Resources (4)

10% positivePositive stanceOpen leader-shipTeam climateEmbrace oppo-siteStylesAdaptive

4.3.7.4 Findings of the positive narrative contextualising the negativeThe 10% of research participants who disagreed with the negative statements on the survey and offered countering positive feedback highlighted the perspective of an internally positive leader working in a challenged external environment. The researcher realised that further analysis of these findings might indicate how the positive narrative of the sub culture was sustained in this dissonant organisational culture and therefore how it could be developed as both the aligned (school and district) and dominant leadership culture by leadership development programmes. The themes of both narratives are depicted in table 20. The percentages indicate the numerical intensity of the opposite narratives however, the importance of the qualitative content is not determined by numbers but by strength of effect in a system. The positive and negative integrated narratives (quantitative and qualitative) of addressing challenges and causes were synthesised further.

The themes pertaining to; internal dimensions of leadership, external experiences of leadership style and organisational climate were highlighted for both the positive and negative narratives.

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Negative narrative of the subculture The negative narrative themes resided in the context of internal resource scarcity and external low socio-economic communities. Leaders felt inadequate or a lack of confidence with regards to some skills indicated by there is a lack of motivation about administrative workload and technological device knowledge.

A lack of support was experienced indicated by there is a lack of support at all levels. This was explained further as unhelpful leadership styles indicated by leadership is controlling with a telling style of com-munication resulting in a lack of leadership influence indicated by leader’s lack of taking decisions.

A controlling power dynamic in leader/follower relationships or organisational climate was indicated by frustration with a lack of independence described by management always appeases with labour unions. A discouraged environment was indicated by the workplace is impersonal, unpleasant and demoralised.

Stress was indicated by a sense of contextual uncertainty and destructive relationships in conflict de-scribed by there is uncertainty and a lack of recognition with aggressive bullying and exploitation.

Positive narrative of the subcultureThe positive narrative themes resided in the same context of resource scarcity at schools, districts and in communities. The internal dimension of a positive philosophical stance was indicated by there is belief that challenges can be overcome… there is progress. There was more of a focus on what could be influ-enced rather than the concern of all the challenges indicated by challenges are always there, but we are working together to overcome them.

The participants had become reflective leaders as indicated by before I was introduced to the SLP I used to be suspicious and always putting the blame on someone if things did not go well. A mindset shift from blaming to accepting was indicated by:

There is no blaming of the department…. people accept mistakes with mutual trust since we are from different backgrounds and have different personalities, challenges will always be there in terms of re-lationships, but we can deal with the whole scenario since no one is perfect.

A mindset shift from a scarcity of resources mentality to possibilities was indicated by

It is up to an individual on how he uses those resources…. there are resources and utilised optimally systems are being influenced and there is progress. Leader’s behaviour styles and self-confidence were evidenced by I am allowed to do my work the best way I know. I influence the system in many ways.

An open leadership style was described as leadership is flexible, informative and trying to assist and there is independence to do work. Leaders and staff have a common understanding of what is expected from them in terms of attitudes and behaviour.

Adaptive leadership was described as there is innovation, improvisation and initiative.

A shift from an organisational climate of mistrust and fear to a feeling of security and trust was indicated by This is a pleasant and safe place to work. There is no fear and there is trust between the parties.

Organisational change with self-efficacy was described as communication was one area, we were lack-ing so we came with best ways of dealing with the challenge. A team climate was described as commu-nication is free. We are trying to listen to other people’s views.

A balance between positive polar opposites of a task focus and human focus was described as there is always a plan in place. It is task focused but caring and supportive.

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4.4 Discussion of results

4.4.1 Relationship between personality and organisational cultureThe results indicated a relationship between personality and organisational culture and were different at the school in comparison to the district level. The findings were converted into percentages for compari-son and plotted on radar graphs.

4.4.1.1 At school-and-district levelsThe collective experience in the system in which educators need to rise to the challenge of educating learners is indicated by merging the results of school and district leaders’ most dominant behaviour sets. Linking these with the merged results of the most dominant organisational culture, contextualises the force field dynamics in which educators need to work as seen in figure 35.

Figure 35: Dominant personality and organisational culture of school-and-district leaders

BEHAVIOUR SETS OF SCHOOL AND DISTRICT LEADERS

Educators (school and district leaders) lead with the Earth Green behaviour (56%), collectively forming a Caregiver culture however, they work in an organisational culture of Fiery red/ Warrior values and be-haviour (40%). These two behaviour sets/culture types are at opposite poles depicted by the single arrow line in figure 35. One is internally driven; the other is externally motivated. One needs flexibility and peo-ple sensitivity the other needs stability and control. The warrior culture leader prioritises determining direction to achieve the task while the caregiver culture leader prioritises serving others so that they feel supported. This raises a question as to how this difference in leadership culture, within the organisation helps or hinders teaching and learning. The personality and culture incongruences are depicted in the radar graph figure 36.

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Figure 36: Incongruent personality and organisational culture at school-and-district levels

On the right side of the radar, it is indicated that school and district leaders are having to access their least dominant behaviour set (Fiery red 12%) for most (Fiery Red demands of 40%) of the time at work in the organisation. In contrast, on the left side of the radar, 56% of Earth green behaviour in the organ-isation is supporting in excess a 30% EG demand at work. The matching of natural strengths with work demands rather than drawing from least preferences will decrease the internal stretch between ‘who they are, who they are expected to be and how they show up, at work’.

4.4.1.2 At school levelWho school leaders are (behaviour preferences: Caregiver-Sage) and who they show up as, at work, (or-ganisational culture: Caregiver- Warrior) were aligned in the clan culture of being caregivers as seen in figure 37.

Figure 37: Congruent personality and culture within school leaders

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The personality/ behaviour set of school leaders, both individually and collectively, is aligned with the organisational leadership culture in the dominant Clan/Caregiver type.

4.4.1.3 At district levelIn contrast, who district leaders are (behaviour sets: Caregiver) and who they show up as, at work (Or-ganisational Culture: Warrior) are directly opposite as depicted in figure 38.

Figure 38: Incongruent personality and culture within district leaders

The dominant personality/ behaviour set of district leaders is Clan/Caregiver. The dominant organisa-

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tional leadership culture in the district was Market/Warrior.

This discord indicates an organisational misfit or stretch on a collective level and individual level. This factor alone causes internal stress within the individual expressed in the organisational climate. In addition, the findings indicate an incongruence in organisational sub-cultures between school and district levels despite a congruence when individual behaviour findings are aggregated.

The two leadership cultures of the sub-cultures at school and district levels are at odds with each other as depicted in figure 39.

Figure 39: Incongruent organisational leadership cultures between schools and districts

The ripple effect is that there is an incongruence between the sub-cultures of school and district leaders. The area of the radar graphs that overlaps is smaller than the area that does not overlap. Congruent cul-tures are more typical of high performing organisations while incongruence inhibits the organisation’s ability to perform at the highest levels of performance (Cameron & Quinn, 2006). These findings indicate a leadership culture disconnect that is associated with underperforming.

4.4.1.4 Summary of IncongruencesIn summary, there is incongruence between personality and culture at school-and-district level. School leaders have aligned their behaviour with their organisational culture at school level. District leaders have a-polar-opposite disconnect between their behaviour and organisational culture at district level. There is an incongruence between who district leaders perceive themselves to be, individually, and who they are, collectively, meeting the demands of work as effective leaders in the organisation. In addition, there is a polar-opposite incongruence between the leadership cultures at school and district levels. The organisation demands a strong task/results orientation while the people in the organisation demand a strong people/team orientation. In this dissonance perceptions would be distorted. Seeming laziness could be burn out. Resistance to change could be a lack of clarity. Perceived relational problems could, in truth, be situational problems. Barriers to leadership and organisational learning would present in a sys-tem fraught with these dissonances. The findings indicate, in this way, how leadership and management is at odds with itself in education in SA (Christie & Monyololo, 2018; Schollar, 2018; Witten & Makole, 2018).

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4.4.2 Relationship between personality, culture and the environmental triggersThe results indicate that the personality and cultural dynamics explain the leadership behaviour to an extent however, the challenging resource scarce environment influences leadership behaviour to. The results indicated that Rock’s SCARF (2008) triggers of stress were all present in the educational system to differing degrees and were exacerbated by leaders lacking influence to protect status, encourage cer-tainty, build autonomy, nurture relatedness and ensure fairness to create strong organisational cultures. A lack of leadership influence was reported by school leaders referring to district leaders and district leaders referring to provincial leaders. School leaders experienced some lack in skills and destructive relationships rather than relatedness. A lack of human resources was described as leaders being unsup-portive with a telling style and unfair, unskilled leadership practices rather than fostering autonomy, fairness and a sense of status in fulfilling important roles. The external context of resource scarcity was challenging. In addition, a lack of leadership influence resulted in an internal sense of threat. These trig-gered stressed or predominantly overextended expressions of the four behaviour sets and culture types which led to a predominant demoralisation of the entire system experiencing a lack in direction and a dissonant organisational culture associated with underperforming.

4.4.3 Dissonance between personality and organisational cultureIn the findings behaviour preferences or leadership style are at odds with organisational culture on a broad scale. The causes of this dissonance are unclear. The question is raised as to whether this is an Organisational-fit (organisation and person OP) problem, cultural incongruence or sub-cultures at odds with each other problem.

The research samples were derived from two levels across two to four provinces. Two strong and differing organisational cultures were evident at school and district levels. The collective organisational findings were that a strong Caregiver culture at school leadership level was mal aligned with a strong Warrior culture at district leadership level and possibly at provincial level. The intensity of the opposite cultures were evident by the high percentages of the isolated behaviour set, presenting as a one dimensional lead-ership style. In contrast, aggregating individual feedback about personality resulted in a clear Caregiver culture being evident across both schools and districts. In this way, the results indicated a dissonance between behaviour and culture at district and possibly provincial levels and a cultural incongruence be-tween leaders at school and district levels.

4.4.3.1 Applying Spiral dynamics and Jungian psychologyThe scale of these mismatches suggested that other explanations could apply. The research by Viljoen (2017) that 65% of the SA population applies a predominant thinking system of the purple meme (spiral dynamics) and the research findings that 56% of educators identify with the Earth Green (The Insights Group Ltd & Lothian, 2014) behaviour first , were viewed alongside each other. Behaviour and thinking are closely linked, and the researcher deduced that the two sets of results inform each other.

The 65% PURPLE meme thinking could be, on the one hand, the’ underlying glue’ of education as an organisation, referred to by Schein (2004) or , on the other hand, contribute towards the stuck thinking that keeps the organisation predominantly dysfunctional. Another option would be that the system of thinking both underpins cohesion as well as dysfunction.

The dissonance between personality and culture could be explained on both levels of behaviour and thinking. If it is concluded, based on the findings, that most of the research participants have Caregiver/Clan (Cameron & Quinn, 2011) values/behaviour and Purple meme thinking, then a different perspective is presented on these competing values within the challenges of education in SA. A comparison between the caregiver / Earth green behaviour and the Purple meme thinking (emerging from Beige) is depicted in table 22.

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Table 17: Behaviour and thinking

ComparisonOf models:Thinking andBehaviour

ThinkingPurple memeSpiral dynamics/ Clan

BehaviourInsights DiscoveryEarth Green/Clan

Gift/Driver

Survival toRelationalsafety

Relationships

Values Tribal/ familyOrderassurance

Team

harmony

StressedEmotion

Fear- fearless-anger Relaxed To Feels helplessVictim/ rescuerMindset. Fears disharmony

Leadership/Followernature

Helpless and passiveHerd-like to Tradition rigidElders/chief- feudalDecision makersStrong allegiance toTribe/familyRitual/ceremony/custom

Loyal to groupTrustworthyServantRespectful tosubmissive

If 56% of the research participants have a dominant Green behaviour of care as well as (65%) a domi-nant thinking system of purple-tribal/family-thinking, then the priority will be on the group rather than the individual, on the people more than the task. This strong emphasis will impact management and leadership approaches, strategies for performance and vision. If the organisational culture is more task or individual-results-focused, then leadership and management will work at crossed purposes and in self-cancelling ways.

The leadership belief system will be human centred before task centred. The influence of an individual within the group will be underplayed in relation to the collective influence of the group as there will be one leader or head of the clan. Decisions will be made by the perceived authority figures rather than the individual. Leaders will define themselves in group/ family terms rather than as unique individuals with personal responsibility and agency. Rigid control will be maintained by perceived authority figures. There would be minimal experience in the “tribe” of how to be the “authority figure” as only elders in the group would have had that experience. There will be minimal experience of engagement both within and across hierarchical levels. If traditionalism is present then patriarchal family/tribe structures would be prevalent, and many men and, especially, women would have experienced more following rather than leading in their lives. The pattern of the feudal system of a powerful “landlord” with disempowered “ten-ants” would exist in hierarchical and centralised leadership structures. The Parent-mindset stimulus would illicit the Child-mindset response in a stuck pattern that fails to access Adult-Adult relationships (Berne, 1961).High IQ, related to leadership theories might be in place. High SQ, evidenced by the soulful wisdom of the purple meme thinking and the shared intention of improving teaching and learning, might be in place. A system at odds with itself, demoralised and displaying predominantly negative or stressed behaviour will not be in a place of self-mastery and learning. Emotional regulation will be unchecked. In this way, EQ would be the gap and could explain the presence of a system at odds with itself with low en-ergy to the extent of chronic trauma. Distributed or emotionally intelligent leadership would not flourish and develop in this autocratic-Parent-Child patterned mindset of leadership culture.

Another explanation for the self-cancelling leadership behaviours could be that the system is in a state of internal cognitive dissonance. What leaders know to be true from the past and what they are experi-encing in the present, do not go together. There are disconnects between new thinking-beliefs-emotions and old behaviour. Leadership learning has not matched the rate of contextual change to address the

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challenges in education.

This raises questions as to; what life experience teachers and managers have had in leading, what leader-ship styles and beliefs did the role models portray, what the organisational cultural definition of effective leadership in education is, and how power to influence as a leader is centralised or distributed.

4.4.3.2 Change towards health in the organisationOn the one hand, the dissonance between behaviour and culture, the stressed responses to the envi-ronment and evidence of a predominant climate of negativity, in the findings, indicate an unhealthy or-ganisation, stuck in unhelpful leadership styles and mindsets at odds with itself. On the other hand, the minority (10%) voice of strong positivity within this strongly negative environment indicates that growth and resilience are possible and present. The questions are raised as to; what the leadership approaches are that will work in this system, how the directive-push approach and coaching-pull approach could be applied to best effect, and consequently, how we re-arrange how things are done in this workplace with a new leadership culture.

Applying Spiral dynamics, leaders might regress to survivalist thinking in the Beige meme in the stressed context resulting in survival anxiety. This would increase fear and present as helplessness and abdi-cation of leadership responsibility. If leaders could transcend their purple meme-hierarchical thinking system, they could draw from the red meme by becoming self-differentiated in their understanding of their unique personality and agency. They could draw from the blue and orange memes by differentiating when to be rules orientated versus autocratic and when to be an influential change agent as they adapt along the spectrum of polarities. In this way, the anxiety or stretch could be described as learning anxi-ety rather than survival anxiety as leadership and management skills integrate.

Adopting a multi perspective approach, leaders can compete nationally in BLUE and ORANGE ways while valuing the PURPLE wisdom and soulfulness. Our national leadership challenge is how BLUE/ ORANGE minority leadership in education can enable their PURPLE/RED majority leaders to feel in-cluded and consulted so that BLUE operating processes can be executed (Laubscher, 2013; Viljoen, 2017).

In previous SLP research (Newby, 2017) it was established that school leadership development occurred; within individuals, teams and, to a lesser extent, at the level of leadership culture at schools. Learn-ing and development at organisational level involved isolated pockets of collective changed identity and shifting from a culture of predominant negativity to positivity. Most leaders changed communication styles due to their experiences in coaching resulting in a more coaching-flavoured leadership style rather than the previously held autocratic style. Coaching introduced an attitude and structure of engagement in the system, which fostered trust and confidence with a perspective of knowing what one was doing when one did it, as a leader. In this way, the process of individual change reinforced cultural change (Cameron & Quinn, 2011; Grant & Gardner, 2010; Newby, 2017).

4.4.4 Pattern of the contextual challengeIn previous research (Newby, 2017) established that the environment of high poverty schools had a nega-tive effect on the process of developing leadership behaviour. The findings of this research are supported by the previous research in that most of the school and district leaders described the challenges of lead-ership or the context using at least one statement describing overextended behaviour. The low socio-eco-nomic environment and scarcity of resources at both school and district levels were cited as causes in the findings. The scarcity of human resources as skilled teachers and supportive leaders was highlighted in the findings. SCARF stress triggers of a lack of leadership status and autonomy or a sense of importance were described as experiencing a telling, unfair style of leadership leading to a lack of leadership influ-ence in the system, in the findings. If we are unable to fix a problem at the same level at which the problem was originally created, then a range of ways of thinking about problems is needed.

4.4.5 Pattern of the narrativeThe pattern of the present narrative is on a quantitative level 10% positive about the work environment

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and leadership alongside 90% being negative however, the importance of the qualitative content is not determined by numbers but by strength of effect in a system. Positivity is harder to measure and harder still to develop but once it gains momentum can spread fast. The research established positive/negative dissonance with sub-culture polarities. This type of dissonance can create enough discomfort to stim-ulate reflective-awareness of a need for change and a level of humility or openness to change (Cameron & Quinn, 2011; Quinn, 2004; C.O Scharmer, 2009; Schein, 2004). When things are not working people may be stuck or frozen in the self-cancelling dynamics. Being aware of stuckness can build the sense of urgency for change and create readiness for moving out of unhelpful leadership comfort zones.

Leadership support and development at and within all levels might start to offer a stressed system the non-anxious presence that could reduce pressure sufficiently for a re-negotiation of the leadership cul-ture to occur within and across sub cultures in new learning or ‘re-freezing’ (Cameron & Quinn, 2011; Friedman, 2007; Kotter & Heskett, 1992; Lewin, 1951, 2013). In this way, the incongruent cultures with disconnects and leadership approaches at odds with each other can evolve into a congruent culture with clear values and assumptions about leadership, more typical of high performing organisations. A lead-ership development design that achieves reflective awareness resulting in leaders reflecting broadly and then acting would be recommended.

4.4.6 Application to leadership developmentThe researcher concluded that leadership development in this environment needed to be designed for sustainability by taking organisational culture behaviour patterns and responses to contextual challeng-es into account. If the change process does not become, personalised or internalised and there is no change in the managerial competencies (behaviour) demonstrated by school and district leaders, the organisation’s fundamental culture will not change (Cameron & Quinn, 2011). A robust yet coaching-pull-ing leadership approach would create a personal way to change critical leadership conversations within and between leadership levels and span schools, districts, provinces and the nation. The informal yet personal approach would create a conducive leadership learning environment for the predominant Earth Green personality type evident in education, nationally. In this way, leadership influence will be maxi-mised.

External evidence of change would need to accompany internal change, for sustainability. If the leaders in the system determining allocation of resources do not source both physical and human resources the internal and external change processes will not be sustainable in a virtuous cycle.

In addition, the findings and process of gathering the data of the self-report and direct report assess-ments were valuable in initiating learning and engagement across levels in the hierarchy as the leader’s specific needs and challenges could then inform content and relevant process. If gathering assessment data became a part of the leadership development design, then the process would be based on real time data unique to the leaders and mirror fact-based reality in a more comprehensive reflection.

If leaders understand themselves, others and the context and suspend assumptions and fears about the challenge, they could replace limiting assumptions with liberating ones and be empowered to learn in collaboration. They could perceive and reflect on the enabling and hindering social forces at play. They could weaken restraining forces within their influence and strengthen enabling forces while remaining a non-anxious presence as leaders with a multi-pronged leadership strategy. In this way, a three-pronged strategy for change of unfreezing-moving and refreezing could be achieved and result in a new direction-al leadership force. Leaders could respond to the leadership challenges in an adaptive and collaborative way, keeping teaching and learning in the centre and aligning who they are with what they do by under-standing why they do it in their context. The two opposing force fields of contrasting leadership styles would then merge and re-emerge as a third force moving together in one direction forming a cohesive organisational leadership culture.

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4.4.7 ConclusionBy leaders integrating understanding of self, personality or leadership style within the organisational culture and challenge, they will have a clear perspective on what stops change, what keeps things the same and what could lead towards growth. This reflective process could become a cycle of adult learning, balancing reflection with informed action as the circumstances of the future emerge.

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Chapter 5: Recommendations and conclusionThe recommendations that follow are based on the findings and are discussed as follows:Recommendations for further research; and recommendations to practitioners.

5.1 Recommendations for further researchThe limitations and scope of the research are considered. The significant sample size and national scope of this research means the results can be generalised nationally in high-poverty contexts in education. The findings are therefore relevant to national educator professional development initiatives. A limita-tion was the sample composition of only school and district leaders who had attended one NGO based leadership programme. The research sample was limited in being positioned at school and district levels, including the perceptions of the organisational culture of both the level at which the research participant worked and the level above in the hierarchy. The researcher is of the view that further research involving cross multiple leadership levels (school, district, provincial and national) and cross-programme data with comparable leadership programmes that use a self-assessment tool, such as the Insights Discovery system, would provide further insights into understanding leadership needs, learning, and improving professional development design. The researcher is also of the view that research involving comparable leadership development programmes would provide further insights into how leaders learn, and there-fore how leadership development programmes should differ or align for best fit and effectiveness.

The advantage of a sizable and nationally based sample is that the results can be generalised and contex-tualised with other national research, to an extent, however the disadvantage is the unique behavioural, cultural and contextual challenges within each province and between each leadership level can be lost. It is suggested that the unit of analysis for further research should continue to be both the whole data group as well as separating the data into the parts. In this way, the relationships between the leadership levels (parts) can be understood without being lost in aggregations.

The researcher became aware that the findings of this study, applying both qualitative and quantitative research methods, were significant due to the triangulation of the results about organisational culture. The broad sample size and reach added to the significance of the results, however an interpretation of the results required further investigation. The collective meaning of differing organisational cultures at different levels in the hierarchy could not be established by the researcher as an individual. She could not interpret a phenomenon she had merely observed and as her own cultural bias would come into play despite adopting the YELLOW integrative world view, recommended by Viljoen. Quinn and Cameron’s recommendation of a process of joint sense making and reaching consensus on what organisational cul-ture is and what a dissonant organisational culture means regarding performance seemed to apply. The system in education is at odds with itself across the nation. The faulty system of leadership communi-cation affects; the quality of decisions made when strategizing, leadership effectiveness, organisational climates and reflects values underpinning the vision for the future. In this study, the dissonance in or-ganisational culture is both between levels of district leaders and school leaders as well as within district leaders. There is a need to redefine and find common ground with regards to leadership culture.

For these reasons, the researcher recommends that a process of presenting the results to districts, schools, provincial leaders and partners with real cross hierarchy engagements will enable a broader spectrum interpretation of what the results mean for leadership development in education. New plat-forms for unlikely engagements need to be initiated to agree on the leadership development journey in education and to gain a new shared vision for integrating leadership and management. The very process of engagements across the hierarchies will not only give content to the interpretation but also serve to transform the leadership culture. A new definition of leadership in education will emerge that spans letting go of bureaucratic-hierarchical mindsets and embracing more collaborative and distributed lead-ership behaviour in an adaptive leadership state.

The results indicated a system at odds with itself and a measure of a lack of leadership influence within a system of scarce resources. The findings indicated that a predominantly caring yet negative and demor-

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alised leadership culture is entrenched at three levels in the system; schools, district departments and provincial head offices. The findings and application of various models have given a measure of under-standing but, as awareness from one perspective is always partial, the researcher recommends that the results be presented to educators at these three levels and higher in the hierarchy for open discussion and explorative engagement as a sensemaking exercise. The findings indicated that 56 % of educators from 4 provinces display predominant Earth Green behaviour and aggregate into a Clan/ Caregiver culture. Research by Viljoen and Laubscher indicated that 65% of the SA population displays PURPLE meme thinking. Thinking and behaviour have an enter twined relationship contextualising each other. The per-centages quantify a behaviour/ thinking pattern however the researcher suggests that the meaning of the results requires further qualitative or action research. The facilitation of unlikely conversations across the hierarchical levels in the system would ensure a measure of congruence in thinking/ behaviour of leaders and underpin transformation towards improved performance. The process of real time assess-ment of organisational culture proceeded by joint sense making and action strategising, recommended by Cameron and Quinn (2011), would apply. It is recommended that:

1. The research results are presented to research participants and partners in sense making forums. Consensus is achieved on the meaning of the aggregated personality assessment and organisation-al assessments. The current analysis is articulated.

2. The desired future for the organisational leadership culture is jointly designed in a shared vision.3. Data is captured more broadly in the system by including educator leaders at all levels.4. There is a re-negotiation and redefinition of what the results mean or do not mean with educators

at all levels funders of NGOs offering LDP and NGOs offering LDP themselves. In this way the lead-ership culture will be congruent between and within the educator participants and the partnering intervenors. A highly bureaucratic/ hierarchical funder or NGO offering LDP would create disso-nance if the intervention objective is to foster less bureaucratic and compliance driven leadership behaviour. In this way, both the organisation and the sub systems partnering with the organisation will not be at odds with each other.

5. Illustrative stories of past lessons and successes that demonstrate what is important in the organ-isation are shared

6. There is a joint development and agreement on new leadership descriptors, values, strategies and vision for thriving

7. There is an agreement on collective and individual action plans to be less bureaucratic/ hierarchi-cal and more collaborative, transformational and distributive in leadership structures

8. An Implementation plan is agreed on and ‘first steps’ are achieved

In this way, there will be a re-design of the organisational leadership structures and culture in order to develop as an organisation rising out of the rubble of that which needs to be un-learnt-learnt-and relearnt in an ongoing process.

The researcher made some research recommendations and is of the view that if these were implemented more widely than in the SLP design, similar action research with a greater sample size and scope could be a process that is pattern revealing and transformational. The information would inform a wide spread organisational re-design and subsequent development with a new organogram within a new leadership culture.

5.2 Recommendations for practitioners of; coaching, facilitating and designing adult leader-ship learning processes

The recommendations of this study will refer to the key systems in the learning process, namely the leader, the organisation in which the leader works, the practitioner coach, facilitator and learning process designer, and the learning process itself (Mostert, 2012). As these systems are all connected, there will be overlapping recommendations.

5.2.1 Recommendations for the leaderConsidering that different behaviour preferences learn optimally along different leadership pathways; it

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is recommended that a wide range of differing learning opportunities be offered in a leadership develop-ment programme to best suit different learning styles. Firstly, courses need to be structured to provide an enabling environment to the learning style of the Earth green behaviour pattern. To honour the intro-verted preference, small group reflections would be appropriate. To honour the need for flexibility and discretion without too much control, invitational and informal small group engagements with reflection time would be appropriate. To honour the extroverted preference, whole group interactional and expe-riential learning would be appropriate. To honour the four behaviour preferences, a balanced learning process could include:

� a formal presentation of structured new knowledge (blue); � opportunity for practical action-oriented application (red); � opportunity for participation and interaction (yellow); and � an opportunity for building meaningful conversations in the learning group as a team (green).

The theories of both Jungian typology and the adult learning cycle by Kolb and described by Chapman (2010), would be relevant.

Considering that adults select and make sense of their learning in their own unique ways, an adult lead-ership development programme could offer learning processes where the practitioner and participant co-design the learning experience in order to self-direct the learning, as happens, to differing extents, in individual coaching.

The success of the SLP could be enhanced by introducing a set of pre-programme interviews and school/ district assessments to ascertain openness to leadership learning and readiness for change to select lead-ers who appear most likely to build leadership capacity both personally and on an organisational level. The researcher hesitates to recommend a pre-selection process, however, and cautions against practi-tioners making selections based on assumptions conditioned by bias due to the findings pertaining to awareness of barriers to learning as being a crucial entry point to learning in inter-systemic dysfunction-al contexts. An angry or tearful interviewee could be poised at openness to receive new learning. This is complex to assess in one interview.

Concurrently, pre, peri and post-programme engagements within and across leadership levels and all stakeholders in the process would reinforce the sustainability of a change in a dissonant leadership cul-ture to becoming a learning culture.

The programme design could experiment with the number, positioning and composition of people in the system, in team and individual coaching in the SLP. In this way, a multi-layered approach to learning from different perspectives and in different positions in the system would be achieved.

Leaders need to become reflective practitioners to ensure ongoing adult learning. Self-coaching and sys-temic coaching approaches need to become a part of the organisational norm to accelerate real learning in line with the rapid rate of change.

5.2.2 Recommendations for teamsFor leadership capacity to be built in contexts of high stress, potential for conflict and low psychologi-cal reserves, it is recommended that a safe space be created by using an assessment tool that facilitates different understanding of self and others and involves affirmation and positive self-discovery. Coach-ing on the SEED SLP has been described as a safe space when I can share and experience relief from stress (Newby 2017). Coaching needs to become more than a ‘safe space’ and become a learning space for un-learning and relearning to develop a strong transformational leadership culture.

An element of real feedback is recommended in a leadership development programme; however, the par-ticipants need to have gained trust in the learning process system for feedback to be received as learning. In this study, the component of feedback was intrinsic to the SEED leadership programme rather than the research.

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A balance between individual and group experiences is recommended in organisations with obvious bar-riers to learning due to the powerful effect of a group to be positive or negative. If there are concurrent and incremental individual and team facilitations towards openness to learning, the risk of regression would be less, and the likelihood of sustainable organisational learning and transformation of leadership culture would increase.

5.2.3 Recommendations for the learning process designIn the SEED SLP, the leaders experience on average six individual coaching sessions and one to two team sessions within a framework of four to five leadership modules. The value of even one team coaching session is pivotal in creating positive teams (Newby 2017). It is recommended that there should be more team and group sessions to embed a learning culture in a new leadership culture, but the researcher cau-tions against designing a prescriptive programme due to the ever-present potential for mistrust in teams to sabotage systemic learning in challenged contexts. She suggests that the group dynamics should be understood in each team prior to team coaching in order to meet needs.

An ongoing personal and team learning hub, which is a source of creativity and innovation, should be co-designed with the team to best suit the needs for both support and growth towards sustainable change. The power of groups to either facilitate or hinder growth should be considered, and individual-ised group learning activities should be designed with a destination of being self-regulated as individuals practice self-coaching.

As adult change takes time, the duration of a leadership programme should ensure there is a learning process rather than an isolated learning event. A leadership environment that was conducive to main-taining the Earth Green behaviour set in the’ good day’ behaviour range versus the overextended be-haviour would be needed. In research by Newby (2017) the unlearning-learning-relearning journey of leadership with a dominant earth green/ Caregiver- Sage set involved;

� Understanding that their challenge might be the pattern of being unable to act and make decisions due to a lack of self-belief as a team leader

� Letting go of under-valuing the self, fear of disharmony and being more positive � Gaining self confidence � Developing new conflict management skills with firm boundaries � Creating positive teams in open leadership with confidence, trust and resilient leadership � Building leadership capacity by overcoming a lack of self-belief and making assertive decisions from

a vantage point of a new leadership identity.

In contrast, the research by Newby (2017) pertaining to the unlearning-learning and relearning journey of leaders with a dominant fiery red behaviour would be relevant within the organisational culture of Warrior-Caregiver. Leaders would need to:

� Gain an understanding of their challenges of impatience, autocracy and anger management � Let go of control and fear of failure � Develop relationship management and consultative styles of leading by listening and engaging rath-

er than commanding � Create positive teams by sharing goals, being interdependent and trusting in both failure and

achievement as ‘teachers’ � Develop team resilience against disproving negative assumptions

In short, those who are leading with the red behaviour would need to shift from being autocratic or too decisive to more consultative with distributed leadership. Those who are leading with the green be-haviour would need to shift from being too consultative to more decisive. Positive opposite polarities of behaviour would need to co-exist in one leader. They would need to display reflective-action, agile-think-ing or even tough-love.

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The leadership culture would need to be conducive to moving out of the purple meme into the red- blue-and orange. Thinking would need to shift from an exclusive focus on the group needs to a multi perspec-tive of both the group and self while considering the demands of the environment. This would ensure that problem solving is systemic taking a broader view on who the stakeholders are and how meaningful engagement could take place. The linear approach to problem solving would be replaced by systemic and emergent thinking born out of a blend of needs between stability and flexibility or control and risk taking when making leadership decisions. The roles of both leadership and management would merge along a spectrum of managing the details while shaping the direction of education towards growth.

Applying the Insights Discovery system in the findings, School leaders with a sub-culture of Caregiver and district leaders with a sub-culture of Warrior interact in an organisational culture of Warrior. Dis-trict and school leaders would need to engage and jointly define their current organisational culture and agree on the desired culture by determining what changes will and will not mean. They would need to agree on what they could let go of, initiate and maintain.

An exit strategy of self-initiated learning hubs or communities of practice would ensure ongoing learning and be an area for further research. Ongoing leadership forums of groups both with similar roles and dissimilar roles to ensure cross-silo communication in the system.

The importance of the supra system of self as the learner needs to remain central in LDP towards lead-ership culture change. The Insights Discovery tool was useful in accelerating rapport building in coach-ing and building effective behaviour patterns; however, feedback on thinking, feeling and believing was beyond the scope of Insights. It is recommended that a new system of thinking or a fresh world view in conjunction with the development of psychological capacity in adversity be used during leadership de-velopment. The SLP focused on systems thinking, developing EQ via the Insights Discovery system and new thinking within positive relationships. These elements may be achieved further in programmes by introducing leadership theory and practice pertaining to the spiral dynamics theory by D. Beck (2002); (D. Beck & Linscott, 1991), and the ego development theory by Cook-Greuter (2005), in order to provide a clear developmental path for building leadership capacity with psychological capacity.

To integrate theory and practice in the organisation, some practical applications of the programme could be planned, implemented and reflected on. To develop leadership, both unhelpful behaviour and thinking within the culture and challenge, would need to be transcended.

According to (Cameron & Quinn, 2011), embracing being a Clan culture would not mean: � A culture of “niceness’ � Lack of standards and rigour � An absence of tough decisions � Slacking off � Tolerance of mediocracy

According to Cameron and Quinn, being a Clan culture would mean: � More educator empowerment � More participation and involvement � More cross-functional teamwork � More horizontal communication � A more caring environment

A tempering of the Market culture would not mean: � Less pressure for performance/results � Ceasing to listen � Missing deadlines � Lower quality standards

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Tempering the Market culture would mean: � Ongoing commitment to excellence � Goal accomplishment � Energised educators � Less myopic vision and thinking about targets � A less punishing environment

Tempering the Sage culture would mean more decentralised decision making without a lack of holding people accountable.

Developing the Adhocracy culture would mean more process innovativeness without thoughtless risk taking and covering up mistakes.

To ensure influence at organisational level, the programme should be positioned at multiple levels in the organogram of the organisation and should facilitate unlikely conversations across the pre-existing hierarchical structures. This raises the question as to what platforms exist for school leaders to engage with district leaders with a sense of safety and openness. To ensure the barriers of environmental factors are minimised, the programme should partner with other organisations that improve infrastructure and teaching and learning in schools in communities without neglecting to build relational health within the school.

5.2.4 Recommendations for leadership developersThe researcher recommends the following aspects to be considered by facilitators and coaching/mento-ring practitioners. It is recommended that the coach understand the behaviour preference and organi-sational culture of his or her coachee and adapt his or her coaching style to offer learning environments towards improved performance best suited for unique individuals. Overextended preference behaviours require gaining insight into individual coaching in order to modify opposite behaviour sets and facili-tate effective communication between two differing leaders in a team. Team coaching then becomes an opportunity for feedback and experimenting with different behaviours, collectively. In this way a new organisational culture of leadership could emerge.

Due to the ongoing narratives of high and recurrent trauma in challenged environments, it is recom-mended that coaches and facilitators of LDP seek out supervision and peer coaching support in teams in order to develop resilience, deal with uncertainty and guard against taking on the negative characteris-tics of the organisation.

In order to present, model and ensure a multi perspective, collaborative leadership approach LDPs should facilitate processes in diverse teams of personality, gender, race and experience in education, organisational development and change. A team of at least two facilitators does not seem cost effective from a funding point of view but ensures continuity (stability), flexibility (not control) and models shared leadership with mutual respect of expertise and differences. The facilitator team can also make joint sense of difficult dynamics and in this way honour the soulful wisdom and intentionality of a group of participants. While one team member facilitates, the other team member can observe dynamics, give hands on assistance and one on one trouble shooting in the unpredictable system.

It should be noted that there is a need for both a structured leadership development programme as well as a flexible leadership development experience due to different needs in the unpredictable context. The programme team should be a learning hub within itself to ensure modelling a learning organisation at all levels. Coaches should spend time understanding the specific needs and realities of each coachee and team in order to tailor processes for best fit.

In contexts with a high potential for mistrust or low morale, the starting point of rapport building should be highlighted. Time should be allocated for assessing coachee/ participant needs, challenges, frustra-tions and strengths. Caution should be taken in not setting coaching/ programme goals too early and

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rather taking time to understand the complex context, for fear of focusing on symptoms rather than root causes. The coach/facilitator/mentor should maintain a balance between human centred issues and task centred issues as he or she facilitates towards raised awareness resulting in new actions.

It is recommended that the facilitator/coach/mentor should meet and contract with the stakeholders in the education system. The individual leader within a school, district or province needs to be viewed as one focus system with many sub systems, during learning. In this way, the needs of these multiple clients are then weighted equally by the coach/facilitator as the coachee/participant is the self-structure that makes sense of learning, while the school, district or provincial changes are the external evidence of leadership development. In this way, leadership capacity building will be integrative with transformation and results.

Finally, the coach/facilitator/mentor should engage in ongoing practitioner reflective practices in formal or informal research to ensure ongoing systemic learning.

5.3 Conclusion The researcher has observed and listened to many accounts of seemingly insurmountable problems in schools and districts in her role as coach/facilitator in SEED. The researcher has gained awareness of the power of positivity in adversity and the innate potential for limitless human resources to be accessed in contexts of minimal material resources. She was interested in establishing the role of personality and the environment in forming the organisational culture and behaviour patterns. Through this study, she has gained understanding leading to further commitment to develop pivotal relationships in coaching/facilitating conversations with leaders and teams, to make a positive difference in leadership cultures, leverage a tipping point towards health and establish educational centres of excellence.

The researcher was profoundly influenced by Scharmer’s Theory U of social change proposing align-ment between inner awareness and behaviour, but also acknowledged the possibility that individuals and groups could be following a trajectory towards the opposite of change; stagnation or even failure. The Insights Discovery (Lothian) personality assessment system was a tool that could be aligned with the Competing values framework (Quinn and Cameron). Organisational culture was viewed from both an individual perspective and collective by placing behaviour models alongside a world view model de-scribed in Spiral dynamics (Beck and Cowan). The findings indicated the system was at odds with itself on a level far greater than just a subcultural incongruence opening the way for large scale re-negotiation of the preferred leadership culture towards a new norm and organisational design. The completion of this study was achieved because of connection with both self and others facilitating a non-dualistic perspec-tive rooted in a learning environment of hope.

The organisations of both SEED Educational Trust and the schools and districts represented by the re-search participants gained a new focus on creating environments conducive to learning. Despite the lead-ers being in crisis, the positive role each leader could play in the team and across levels, became clearer.

Ultimately, the measure of a successful leadership learning experience will be evidenced by the legacy of ongoing learning and results that are left behind in the system when the learning process is over. This research can assist in designing learning experiences that are best suited to bring about leadership capacity building. The interrelated elements of personality, culture and behaviour form the force field within which leadership change can be fostered or hindered in education. Awareness of the relationships between these elements and how to both influence and be influenced within this ‘web’ enables quality choices and leadership decision making. A recommended systemic leadership learning approach can, in turn, result in improved teaching, improved learner performance and quality education for all with increased employability to the extent of improving the economy. Re- negotiating leadership is not only an educational discourse. It is relevant to the nation as we emerge from mindsets of micro headship/clan structures to a macro perspective as caregivers and stewards of the resources for future generations.

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Reference ListAPPENDIX 1: Spiral Dynamics Model : origin Graves, Beck, Cowan: adapted by Viljoen (2017)

The first two thinking systems of Beige and Purple are in the text. The red meme follows.Organisingprinciple Leadership/follower Emotion Motivator Percent-

age

Red Power Exploitativeempire

Power God Wheeler-Dealers. The world is dominated through power. Appears tough

“might makes right”

Action oriented

Self-destructive to willing to break from tradition and be assertive and adventuresome

Guilt/ShamePower Gods handlesanger

Meme Driver

Blue

OrderRisk aver-sive

AuthorityStructure

Passive hierarchy

Rigid structure

Positional power

Dehumanising, rigid, intoler-ant, authoritarian, punitive

FrustrationTruth han-dlesGuilt andshame

SecuritySacrifice selfNow to obtain later through hard work. “How do we sacrifice for the future?”

10%

Orange SuccessCalculated risk

StrategicEnterprise

Dynamic hierarchy

Meritocracy

Popularity, winning, materialistic,

Goal oriented, ener-gised

Focused on results

LonelinessStrive drive handlesFrustration

IndependenceExpress self now with restraint so as not to upset others.” How do I become success-ful?”

1 %

Green PeopleEquality

SocialNetwork

Organisations of

Equals for mutual

Benefit/ community/ peace

Little concern for sta-tus/ Privilege

Pessimistic, ignores the need to produce results to

Social responsibility and relationships

Getting stuck/CloyingHuman bond handles lone-liness

AffiliationSacrifice for self and others

“How do we sac-rifice for the whole earth and people therein?”

0.1%

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Yellow Sees all giftsAnd side effectsFlexible floworiented

SystemicFlow

Structure according to task

Project-centred with

Changing functional leadership

Competent person makes decision

Avoidance of prob-lems to choosing style of thinking and quality of being

The world is collaps-ing because humans have created scarcity

ConfusionFlex flow han-dles getting stuck

ExistenceExpress self now but not at expense of others and life in total

“How can you and I survive?”

0.001%

The CORAL meme is omitted.

Source: Laubscher and Viljoen 2017

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APPENDIX 2: Insights Discovery Evaluator Questions 1-9

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APPENDIX 3: Organisation culture Q1-6: Organisational challenge Q 7-10

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