Jonandi Aucamp
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AGLE 121 Essay - Assignment: First draft
COLLECTIVE LEADERSHIP
Leadership is a very important requirement for the proper functioning of schools or
organizations. Without leadership the school system or organization will fail because there is
no structure or someone taking the lead. The most effective leadership is teams working
together to communicate the need for change and the making of important decisions.
“Leadership is about making others better as a result of your presence and making sure that
impact lasts in your absence”. Collective leadership must be used in schools because
collective leadership offers many advantages over hierarchical leadership where only one
leader makes all the decisions, including the fostering of shared responsibility. I think it’s
time to pay more attention to collective leadership and measure its impact on teachers and
learners achievements in schools.
Individual leadership has been used for a long time in schools but there’s is another way to
go about leaderships in schools that became more and more popular. This leadership is
called collective leadership. When collective leadership is used in schools many individuals
have leadership responsibilities, not just the principle of the school. It does not ensure that
individuals or groups leading the school agree on the mission, values and purpose of the
school or what practices should be implemented to further improve the school. Collective
leadership requires a method to harmonize the values of individuals. The best way of
supporting collective leadership is for leaders to share beliefs, values and attitudes toward
improving the school and to respect each other’s beliefs.
Working together with fellow teachers has many advantages. The first is that they gain each
other’s trust but we need to remember that trust is not easily earned you need to work for it.
The second advantage of working together is creating a community with shared values that
is proven to be important for an effective school or organization. The third benefit of working
together is that you can share references and practices. It means that when someone knows
that something did not work or changes must be made they can tell the people they work
with and come up with a better way of doing things.
Collective leadership offers many advantages, greater independence, a more interactive way
of functioning, and optimal utilisation of the combined knowledge and competencies of
individual team members. You can use the ability and talent of each member to improve the
way you manage your school.
“Steve Pierce discovers that in many non-Western cultures, leadership is considered a
collective rather than an individual capacity; leadership is defined as a relationship or a
process, not a person.” “Collective leadership means everyone is taking responsibility for
the success of the organization in my case a school where I will work in the future as a
whole – not just for their own jobs. It requires organizations to distribute leadership power to
wherever expertise, capability and motivation sit within organizations”. The collective
leadership is the best leadership approach for schools because everyone takes
responsibility for ensuring high quality education and working together as a team which will
benefit the school and the school will perform better.
The center of collective leadership is the ability to communicate and transform differences
into progress. I do believe, schools could move forward more effectively through collective
leadership. We have to remember that it’s an entirely new discipline and will need to be
learned. Collective leadership embraces the diversity of people and views, and improves
self-initiative and collective intelligence; everybody will feel important, which will make you
more positive and will work harder to achieve a goal.
Collective leadership is rich with theories, models, techniques and tools designed to nurture
and prepare individuals to lead. Collective leadership is possible in schools when the
members of the school is motivated by a common purpose and begin to build relationships
with each other that are truly respectful enough to share their purpose and work.
I agree that collective leadership is important in an academic or professional environment
because when we work as a team then everything will run smoothly and according to plan.
With collective leadership you will collect the fruit of your efforts.
Bibliography
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Donna Chrobot-Mason, Alexandra Gerbasi, and Kristin L. Cullen-Lester, Predicting leadership
relationships: the importance of collective identity, the leadership quarterly, volume 27, pages
298-311 (2016)
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_leadership
http://www.wallacefoundation.org/knowledge-center/Pages/1_1-collective-leadershiplearning-from-leadership.aspx
http://www.wallacefoundation.org/knowledge-center/Pages/1_1-collective-leadershiplearning-from-leadership.aspx
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