A study of leadership theory and practice based on Bush's Six models of leadership

• Main Author: Durdle, Diana E., 1967-
• Other Authors: Memorial University of Newfoundland. Faculty of Education
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 1998
• Subjects: Bush; Tony; Educational leadership; School management and organization; Sheppard; Newfoundland studies; University of Newfoundland
• Online Access: http://collections.mun.ca/cdm/ref/collection/theses2/id/269712

Thesis (M.Ed.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 1998. Education Bibliography: leaves 83-89. The first purpose of this survey research study is to administer the Brown and Sheppard survey to establish its reliability and whether it is useful in explaining leadership practices in schools. Bush (1995) categorizes each of the six models: formal, collegial, cultural, subjective, political or ambiguity, as either descriptive or normative in nature. Therefore, a second purpose of the study is to determine the validity of these categorizations. A third and final purpose of the research study is to determine which models exist in the schools studied and how consistent the existing models are with the emerging concept of the learning organization. All teachers and administrators currently working in the four schools in this province were asked to complete a sixty-item questionnaire. Sixty-one individuals were surveyed and the response rate was sixty-seven percent. The survey was, indeed, reliable with the removal of five items to increase the reliability of formal and subjective models. The study confirmed that the leadership constructs described by Bush were useful for discussing leadership in schools. The prevailing models of leadership in the schools were as follows: School One, cultural, School Two, formal, School Three, cultural and collegial and School Four, has no descriptive model of leadership practice. The prevailing model of leadership in three schools was categorized as descriptive in this specific study. All models of leadership in School Four were normative; therefore, a descriptive, observable model of leadership did not exist. The disciplines associated with the development of learning organizations: personal mastery, mental models, systems thinking, team learning, and shared vision were investigated in an attempt to discover whether elements of management associated with organizational learning were present in any of the four schools in the study. The existence of these specific elements of management may provide the necessary framework to achieve the development and maintenance of a learning organization. Leadership for effective, positive change will require leaders with the ability to motivate others to actively participate in culture building and maintenance. The elements of management associated with organizational learning are present in two of the schools in this study.