The majority of issues Sandra faces are rooted in the community culture that is intense, and pervasive. Reversing the flow of power will enable Sandra to implement long-term changes. (Johns, 377)
Life at South Heights Public School is in sharp contrast to what she is accustomed to. South Heights residents live in a “welfare zone”, with chronic unemployment of 70%, and live in frustration with psychological implications that Sandra is unfamiliar with. Violence or threats by parents and open deviance by their children are commonplace methods for dealing with problems at home and at school. In addition, parents do not get involved with the education process since the parents primary concern was survival. (Ellis, 7)
Culture clash has led to complete misunderstanding of the issues between Sandra Lee and the school staff. Sandra’s initiative to implement a new school plan with the motto “Together we light the way” focused on teacher, student and parent partnership in the learning process. Had Sandra appraised the culture of the south side, she would have known that parents were unable to provide support. By not understanding the context, she was unable to lay any groundwork like motivating the teachers. Sandra’s lack of planning is underscored by her discipline of teachers who shout at their students. Sandra did not take time to understand why a teacher would utilize a clearly incorrect method. The staff understood that students’ home prescribed shouting as a course of action/conflict resolution. This strong culture is greatly damaging the schools ability to innovate. Teachers believed that an authoritarian manner was the acceptable approach with addressing students.
Fiedler’s contingency theory implies that, given Sandra’s previous jobs and her reaction to this situation, she is task-oriented leader. Her task leadership style was particularly evident when she called a staff meeting and assigned a goal to every member in order to give them a sense of mission (Johns, 280).
When it comes to leader member relations, Fiedler states, “When the relationship between group members is good, the leader is in a favourable situation to exert influence. A poor relationship should damage the leader’s influence and even lead to insubordination or sabotage.”(Johns, 280) This is exactly what we see in South Heights Public School. Relationship between teacher, students, and parents do not exist. South Heights is run down, the teachers saw the school as “a place where you would pay your dues,” and parents often had “negative experiences when they were part of the school system.”(Ellis, 1) According to Fiedler, in order for Sandra to be a successful leader she will have to find a way to unify the different groups. Sandra utilized her knowledge of cooperative group techniques for the staff meetings by assigning roles to each group member to force interaction. This was intended to build team spirit as the plan was being developed. Staff meetings did not provide a clear goal. Fiedler’s second factor is task structure, which requires that clear goals be set up. She haphazardly came up with a plan that did not incorporate staff input or empower them.
IV. DECISION CRITERIA AND ALTERNATIVE SOLUTIONS:
See Appendix.
V. RECOMMENDED SOLUTION, IMPLEMENTATION AND JUSTIFICATION:
Sandra should stay and help transform South Heights; an opportunity for career advancement exists. Should she resign, she would be viewed as an ineffective leader by the school board and unable to lead in the face of resistance. Turning South Heights around is an opportunity to grow as a leader and develop a leadership style should not be passed up. If Sandra Lee chooses to stay on, she will be forced to seek professional guidance in order to affect change. Sandra Lee should draw on her creative programming experiences to fashion a method to show students how essential education is to their success and convince them that they are capable of and want to learn.
Sandra needs to realize that she is a transformational leader. Sandra Lee should adopt a proactive approach and educate herself about the community that she is engaged with and wants to change. Sandra needs to seek out professional guidance in dealing with this type of group. The Hamilton-Wentworth Board of Education provides students with support outside of the home for a variety of reasons (Campbell). Parents’ entrenched attitudes inhibit immediate emotional and educational support for their children and thus, should not be factored into short-term solutions (Campbell). Minimizing the negative externalities in the students’ community is a priority. In school, one on one mentoring by high school students provides South Heights with academic help while after school sports enables students to forget about home life while simultaneously providing a means for teachers to “entrench” their values and provides relief (Campbell). In addition, parents who are reticent regarding academic aspects may be more inclined to begin participation through after school sports programs (Campbell). Further, morning breakfasts will provide the majority of students, who do not get breakfast at home, with energy to get through the school day.
Soliciting the community alumni to identify with the need to help South Heights will provide financial and political support. Past alumni are sympathetic and could be a funding source. A large proportion of Sandra Lee’s struggle could be ameliorated by locating a peer in another city with identical problems to generate and capitalize on their experiences.
Secondly, an immediate change to the workplace should be undertaken to physically move people into close working groups, allowing them to develop into a cohesive group with shared goals (Johns, 231). The success of this group would need to be nurtured and encouraged to continue developing the teaching process to show others that South Heights can change and address various school issues inspired by the success of initial accomplishments. If it is not possible to bring in new teachers and support staff, move the teachers break room from the periphery to an area in closer proximity to their students. Once the various factions of teachers see successful change, under participative leadership, it will be possible to develop a future vision and start working on implementing the plan to achieve her desired goals (Johns, 283, 218). The implementation of this plan would have to be constructed carefully and the progress monitored to make minor adjustments or substitutions where necessary to instil the notion of positive change for the students, teachers, and staff. As a leader, Sandra must carefully monitor and guide support staff and teachers, not rely on legitimate power. Staff in a transformational organization requires clarification on paths to goals and recognition of good performance (Johns, 289). It is important the group develop and “buy in” to the notion that change/helping South Heights is possible and that they can affect change positive (Campbell). Once teachers realize they can affect their environment, then motivating their students should appear obtainable and worthwhile.
In terms of rewarding positive behaviour and implementing positive reinforcers (Johns, 47), several possible reward programs could be put in place. Since we want to encourage intrinsic motivation, a wage increase would not be feasible since it fosters extrinsic motivation, which may take away from any intrinsic motivation (Johns, 136). Therefore, it would be recommended that cash bonuses be issued instead upon the successful completion of self-development courses. The teachers can be motivated further by advertising positive grades and student successes, which would not only stimulate student performance, but also provide teachers with positive feedback. Public acknowledgement for both teachers and students can be done at school assemblies and even parent-teacher meetings. In addition, the atmosphere of uncertainty must be dealt with quickly by producing information on progress to the staff and students to increase morale.
To address the issue of motivation, rewarding positive behaviour is not the only way to create a positive work environment. Since job involvement refers to the extent to which an individual identifies psychologically with his or her work and the importance of work to an individual’s total self-image. Employees who have enriched jobs tend to have higher levels of job involvement (Johns, 183). In order to make the teachers feel like they are involved Sandra could implement a feedback program. Teachers would be able to give their thoughts and ideas on how the school can be improved. This will increase job satisfaction and decrease employee turnover.
Sandra needs to inspire the group to want to work toward the common goal of teaching and the belief in the educational process. She needs to fully understand the background factors of the students, teachers, and janitorial staff. Sandra needs to work on the immediate problems before working on her vision of the future for South Heights.
Sandra must also identify and fully understand the potential resources that are available to her to implement change. The staff at South Heights are familiar with the surrounding community and should be used as resources who can contribute. In addition, Sandra planned to seek out more competent educators who are intrinsically motivated - yet had not done so. Cultivating staff would further strengthen her power as a leader reducing friction when attempting to implement new policies. Sandra must also identify potential detractors and possible saboteurs to her plans and devise ways to minimize/eliminate the effects of their efforts.
Sandra relied on her “legitimate power” and assumed that the teachers wanted to influence their environment, yet did not realize that senior staff frustrated with their situation lacked the desire/inclination and ability to improve the situation. Sandra could use her legitimate authority to address threats to her influence and redirect the flow of power by terminating a staff member. Terminating a teacher’s contract may prevent her from unifying her staff.
CONCLUSION
Power and influence processes underscore Sandra Lee’s ability to influence her staff and reach her/their goals. Sandra’s power struggle threatens her credibility as an innovator. The workplace dynamics of South Heights Public School will impact her career’s future, her decisions and their results, and the school’s survival. Developing and wielding influence is what leaders do. Staying on as the principal of South Heights Public School affords Sandra Lee the opportunity to further develop her leadership skills. And lastly, the proper assessment of the problem would help her formulate a better management strategy that would influence/motivate a group of staff to bring about organizational change (Johns, 377).
VI. WORKS CITED:
Campbell, Leanne. Social Worker. [Interview] November 9, 2004.
Canfield, Brian S., Ballard, Mary B., Osmon, Bonnie C., McCune, Cecil. “School and Family Counsellors Work together to Reduce Fighting at School.” Professional School Counselling: Wilson Education Abstracts. Oct 2004. 8(1) pp. 40
Cox, Edward P. “Cultivating Acceptance.” Principal Leadership: Wilson Education Abstracts. Dec 2002. 3(4). Pp. 33
Ellis, R., Adamson, R. “Sandra Lee, Principal of South Heights Public School (A)” 76-506 Managing Employees: Business Administration. University of Windsor Document Imaging Centre. 2004. pp. 1-7
Fredricks, Jessica G. “Why Teachers Leave.” The Education Digest: Wilson Education Abstracts. Apr. 2001. 66(8). Pp. 46
Gerstner, Louis V. “Bad Schools + Shackled Principals = Outsourcing.” Wall Street Journal (Eastern Edition). New York, N.Y. Oct 7, 2004. pp. A18
Johns, Gary, Saks, Alan M. “Organizational Behaviour: Sixth Edition.” Pearson Education Canada Inc. Toronto, Ontario. 2005
Johnson, Genevieve M. “Perception of the effectiveness of interventions for at-risk students: a survey of inner-city school administrators.” Canadian Journal of Education. Toronto: Fall 1997. 22(4). Pp. 445
Pollard-Durodola, Sharolyn. “Wesley Elementary: A Beacon of Hope for At-Risk Students.” University of Texas-Houston Health Science Center. 2004
Wall, Ted A. E., “The Culture of Change: Case Studies of Improving Schools in Singapore and London.” McGill Journal of Education: Wilson Education Abstracts. Spring 2000. 35(2)
APPENDIX:
