There is wide recognition that early childhood experiences are critical to a child's development and their subsequent life chances. However, little research has been undertaken into leadership in early years settings, which is so influential in this regard. This article summarizes research into the leadership of Sure Start Children's Centres, which provide support to the most vulnerable children and families. Completed by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) on behalf of NCSL, this research involved a review of literature on early years leadership and the production of 25 case studies of leaders of 'highly effective' children's centres. The study identified three specific challenges faced by leaders of children's centres. Two of these, ensuring positive outcomes for children and dealing with change, are particularly salient in light of challenges affecting leaders in times of austerity. The third, increasing the visibility and value of leadership, is a perennial challenge for the sector. The study found that leaders demonstrated eight core behaviours to address these challenges. These included engaging responsively with families, using evidence to drive improvement, motivating and empowering staff and embracing integrated working. The authors recommend that these behaviours inform the delivery of future leadership development for these leaders.
In recent years a variety of trends have increased uncertainty over the future of the Higher Education (HE) sector. While these create challenges for all staff, they potentially impact most on non-academic staff, due to long standing misunderstanding and undervaluing of their roles and despite them representing almost half of all jobs within the sector. In this context, leaders’ abilities to manage emotions in the workplace appear to be at a premium. However emotionality remains under-explored both generally within HE and in non-academic contexts particularly. This article summarizes findings from research into the impact perceptions of managers’ abilities to display Emotional Intelligence (EI) has on the wellbeing, attitudes and performance of staff within the context of a professional services team in one English university. It found perceptions of managers’ EI could be a powerful influence on team members’ mental health, including stress and anxiety. Furthermore, when managers were viewed as being Emotionally Intelligent, staff reported this significantly impacted their motivation and could lead to tangible improvements in core areas of job performance, including commitment, flexibility and discretionary effort. It recommends Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) consider placing greater emphasis on developing understanding of EI throughout their workforce while also building capacity in its practice amongst current and prospective managers.
Purpose This article utilizes the concept of adaptive leadership to explore how Leicester City, a small, provincial football club, defied odds of 5000-1 to became only the sixth winners of the English Premier League. It examines two research questions: 1. can adaptive leadership be used to explain how the club developed the conditions for the team’s success? and; 2. what practical lessons can be learned from this? Design/methodology/approach This case study utilizes secondary material, published from 2011-2019, including interviews with players and staff, recordings of press conferences, club announcements, match programmes, books, magazine and newspaper articles, television reports, and social media coverage. Findings Adaptive leadership provides a mechanism for understanding the organizational change necessary for Leicester City’s title victory. Three core elements of adaptive leadership are identified: 1. the “change leader’s” deliberate decision to engage others across the organization in a process of “intelligent reflection,” to identify the required approach to address an identified organizational objective; 2. an organization-wide focus on building leadership capacity, to promote continuous improvement through personal and organizational learning; 3. a long term commitment by the most senior organizational leader to elements of the change process, thereby ensuring new ways of working became normalized over the longer term. Originality/value While theoretically well-developed, the practice of adaptive leadership remains under-researched (Yukl and Mahsud, 2010). Leicester City’s Premier League victory illustrates several key aspects of adaptive leadership in action, in a way that many people can easily relate to. The efficacious and team learning aspects of Leicester City’s success story are important for organizational development scholars and practitioners alike. In summary, the key findings and lessons within this article can be metaphorically transferred to other team-based learning organization, i.e. including and beyond the world of sport!.
While extensive understanding of headship has emerged over the last half-century, the notion of executive headship remains under-explored. This article summarizes a systematic review of evidence relating to executive headship published since 2001. This review found the overwhelming majority of peer-reviewed articles into executive headship are small-scale or largely theoretical in nature. Meanwhile, the few larger-scale studies completed have generally been published directly by their commissioning body. Consequently, much is known about the policy and philosophical drivers behind the emergence of this role in English schools, but markedly less on its operationalization in practice. Furthermore, while few attempts have been made to assess the prevalence of this role, there is nevertheless some evidence (albeit limited) that executive headship can positively impact on organizational effectiveness and pupil outcomes. This article recommends that further research be undertaken into understanding how the role is performed in practice, its strengths and limitations, implications for governance, the characteristics it demands of leaders in practice and the support they require. Furthermore, parallels between this and similar roles in other countries (such as superintendents in the US) should also be examined to identify further lessons on how executive headship can best be utilized both strategically and operationally.
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