Vision, relationships and teacher motivation: a case study

By Kerry Barnett, John McCormick. 2003

143 citations recorded by the source corpus.

School leaders continue to be urged to have vision. Some argue that effective schools have principals who create and communicate a vision for the school. However, although there is literature on visionary leadership, relatively little is empirical. The purpose of the study was to investigate transformational leadership behaviour and vision in schools. Four schools, in which the transformational leadership practices of principals were perceived by teachers to be characterised by individual concern and vision, were identified. A qualitative approach using semi‐structured interviews was used to collect data. Content analysis identified patterns and themes in the data from which propositions and conclusions were drawn. Within the context of the study, the results suggest that the influence of vision may be overestimated and the most critical leadership transformational behaviour is individual concern. The main conclusion of the study is that leadership in schools is mainly characterised by relationships with individuals, and it is through these relationships a leader is able to establish her/his leadership and encourage teachers to apply their expertise, abilities, and efforts towards shared purposes.

Subfields: Education, Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management, Philosophy

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/7780a5d540eb4f2c2731a9f98bf1b8810e8ac57c

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Education

1. G. Devos
2. Hester Hulpia
3. O. Eyal
4. Sharon Slear
5. Jefferson Walker
6. G. Roth
7. John McCormick
8. Kerry Barnett

In Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management

1. G. Devos
2. Hester Hulpia
3. G. Roth
4. O. Eyal
5. Emma L. Tickle
6. John McCormick
7. Kerry Barnett
8. Yves Rosseel

In Philosophy

1. G. Devos
2. Hester Hulpia
3. G. Roth
4. O. Eyal
5. Yves Rosseel

Citations in the corpus

• The relationship between the perception of distributed leadership in secondary schools and teachers' and teacher leaders' job satisfaction and organizational commitment (2009, background): “This leadership function is considered to be easily distributed by the principal to other members of the school team (Barnett & McCormick, 2003 ; Bush & Glover, 2003 ; Eden, 2001 ; Heller & Firestone, 1995 ; Locke, 2003 ; Smith & Piele, 1997 ).”
• Personal epistemological beliefs and transformational leadership behaviours (2005, background): “…such as school leadership, and particularly school reform, transformational leadership behaviours have been shown to increase teacher motivation (Barnett & McCormick, 2003), increase teachers’ commitment to organisational change (Yu, Leithwood & Jantzi, 2002) and positively affect…”
• The Impact of Principal Leadership Behaviors on the Efficacy of New and Experienced Middle School Teachers (2011, background): “…perceptions of the principal’s concern for each of them as individuals, many principal behaviors can have an impact on teacher effectiveness and on teachers’ confidence in their ability to help students learn (Barnett & McCormick, 2003; Hipp & Bredeson, 1995; Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk Hoy, 2007).”
• Development and Validation of Scores on the Distributed Leadership Inventory (2009, background): “However, setting a vision is no longer the monopoly of the school principals; other members in the school organization are challenged and empowered to take part in this leadership function (Barnett & McCormick, 2003; Bush & glover, 2003; Smith & Piele, 1997).”
• Principals' leadership and teachers' motivation: Self‐determination theory analysis (2011, background): “Accordingly, goals must be clear and concrete and include short- and long-term objectives (Geijsel et al., 2003), so that they will motivate and inspire followers to sacrifice their own interests for the sake of the organization (Barnett and McCormick, 2003).”
• Exploring the link between distributed leadership and job satisfaction of school leaders (2009, background): “In most research the conclusion is drawn that the supportive leadership function is often distributed by the headteacher to other members of the school team (Barnett and McCormick 2003 ; Bush and Glover 2003 ; Eden 2001 ; Heller and Firestone 1995 ).”
• Leadership and Individual Principal-Teacher Relationships in Schools (2004, background): “Further, recent empirical evidence (Barnett & McCormick, 2003) has suggested that developing a vision may not be enough to motivate teachers to change teaching and learning practices.”