Are we sensing a theme of what this essay may entail?

Now I have ‘explored’ (I am using that very loosely there) the idea of culture, values and vision here (although, that’s still a work in progress) It’s time to look at the important people, our stakeholders.

Not having any background in business, calling members of our school community ‘stakeholders’ feels odd to me, although, when I explore it as a definition, the irk is less:

A stakeholder is a party that has an interest in a company and can either affect or be affected by the business. The primary stakeholders in a typical corporation are its investors, employees, customers, and suppliers

Who are our stakeholders in a school community?

  • Staff
  • Pupils
  • Parents
  • Governors

Odhiambo, George., Hii, Amy. Key Stakeholders’ Perceptions of Effective School Leadership. Educational Management Administration & Leadership. 2012.​

Taken from culure, vision and values blog:

Data taken from semi structured interviews from one large girl’s Catholic school in Sydney, Australia.

How do teachers, parents and students perceive school leadership in practice?

  • Impact of leadership is measured by stakeholders in terms of school organisation, efficiency and overall effectiveness and was influenced by their perception of the principal’s leadership directly.
  • It is important for the school principal to establish positive working relationships with individual teachers and students to ensure the effective running of the school.
  • Personal interaction was considered invaluable and promotes open and affirming nature of the school.  
  • Other researchers (eg Beatty, 2007:388)* found in accordance with this and therefore, principals should set aside time for meaningful collaborations to build relational trust.
  • Although, the paper recognises this can be difficult and can be uncomfortable.
  • The true measure of effectiveness was as result of the dedication and commitment of school leaders.
  • Effective communication of vision is essential to leaders performing their role.

In short, this paper would indicate that stakeholder perception of school leadership is driven by the principal. Therefore, the culture is driven by them in a top-down model.

I am not entirely sure I agree with this point. Whilst the principal may be integral is being the public image of culture, it should be breathed throughout the school, and experienced by everyone. This is supported by Vivianne Robinsons work on espoused theory vs theory in use. (Robinson – Reduce change to increase improvement).

*Going through the emotions: leadership that gets to the heart of school renewal – Brenda Beatty

This paper looks at ‘safe emotional spaces’ for learning and growing together.

Shared / distributed / distributive leadership can be utilised to induce change within a school if school leaders take in to account the emotional experiences of stakeholders.

Mayers, James. Stakeholder power analysis. 2005.​

This paper examines the use of stakeholder power analysis to support decision making in an organisation. It helps to predict future behaviours of individuals in terms of their support or opposition should a change be made.

Policies and institutions usually shape, and often determine, these relationships between stakeholders

James Mayers, Stakeholder power analysis

By asserting this, does this mean that policies are instrumental in shaping instrumental culture?

Stakeholder power analysis may be used at a variety of levels and purposes:
‰ Broad-level strategic process – to scope, build momentum and monitor a process
‰ Institution or business – to examine the health of an organisation and plan changes
‰ Project or programme – to design, steer and monitor a project
‰ Particular decision – to predict the consequences of a decision, and plan to deal with them

I would argue that for most existing schools stakeholder power analysis would commonly be used to project or programme or for a particular decision (although not all decisions). However, this is likely to differ depending upon the context of your school. For example, a new leader may choose to use it for institution or business reasons. For turn around schools or major organisational changes broad-strategic level processes may require this level of analysis.

This would provide a platform for all stakeholders to invest an interest in the change process.

Stakeholder power analysis may need to be instigated and steered by a range of professions – as
individuals or in groups:
• Independent analysts and evaluators
• Project planners
• Managers of organisations or enterprises
• Lobbyists and activists
• Individual stakeholders
• Groups of stakeholders
• Multi-stakeholder groups

Who would conduct this would largely depend on the level of change and the extent to which the change would impact future outcomes and budgetary demands.

For this to be successful (although, whose success?) it is imperative that conditions for success are set.

• Allow stakeholders to assist in the identification of other stakeholders
• Ensure that stakeholders trust the convenor
• Enable dialogue, not a one-way information feed
• Ensure parties are sufficiently prepared and briefed to have well-informed opinions and decisions
• Involve stakeholders in defining the terms of engagement
• Allow stakeholders to voice their views without restriction and fear of penalty
• Include a public disclosure and feedback process

This would link to the concept of open to learning converstaion from Viviane Robsinson (https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Viviane_Robinson/publication/267411000_Open-to-learning_Conversations_Background_Paper_Introduction_to_Open-to-learning_Conversations/links/54d7cb6c0cf2970e4e755956/Open-to-learning-Conversations-Background-Paper-Introduction-to-Open-to-learning-Conversations.pdf)

Relational trust

ʻKey in this regard is how conversations take place within a school community. A genuine sense of listening to what each person has to say marks the basis for meaningful social interactionʼ (Bryk & Schneider, 2002, p. 23)

However, Shaker et al argue that we can become to over reliant on trust, particularly with new projects. (How Much do you Trust Me? The Dark Side of Relational Trust in New Business Creation in Established Companies)

Relational Trust: The Glue that Binds a Professional Learning Community (Jerome Cranston) looks at the perspectives of 12 principals from a range of contexts.

The existence of relational trust appears to have the effect of fostering collaboration and promoting willingness among staff to grow professionally. The study also suggests the important role that principals play in establishing relational trust as a precondition for the growth of a professional learning community. Because relational trust appears to be critical to the functioning of a professional learning community, it may be unlikely that substantive school improvement can be achieved without close attention to it […]

The existence of relational trust appears to have the effect of fostering collaboration and promoting willingness among staff to grow professionally. The study also suggests the important role that principals play in establishing relational trust as a precondition for the growth of a professional learning community. Because relational trust appears to be critical to the functioning of a professional learning community, it may be unlikely that substantive school improvement can be achieved without close attention to it.

Jerome Cranston

Rose, Wade., Cray, David. Public‐sector strategy formulation. Canadian Public Administration. 2010.

This paper examines the unique challenges faced by public sector workers compared to the private sector, when considering the complexity of strategy. It looks at the combination of both deliberate planning ad emergent strategies.

Central to the continued survival of any organisation is the ability to formulate and execute an effective strategy despite limitations of organisational resources and the constraints of the external environment

Rose & Cray

Pubic sector have a range of different influencers, influences and stakeholders that govern their actions. Whilst they must remain responsive to these influences, it is imperative that there is a core aim or deliberate strategy. The true test of leadership is taking this deliberate strategy and having the agility to utilise emergent strategy in response to ever developing situations. This has been perfectly exemplified during the times of COVID. Ever changing demands and goal posts!

Transforming project risk management into project uncertainty management – Stephen Ward, Chris Chapman

Utilising the term risk can inhibit a project’s chance of success. The authors of this paper propose a new perspective on uncertainty management.

They look at several areas of uncertainty:

  1. Variability associated with estimates
  2. Uncertainty about the basis of estimates
  3. Uncertainty about design and logistics
  4. Uncertainty about objectives and priorities
  5. Uncertainty about fundamental relationships between project parties (stakeholders)

This has a greater focus on achieving objectives and can be utilised in terms of a logic model to plan for outcomes and evaluation.

Summary:

I achieve organisational aims, leaders alone will not succeed without the acceptance and action of their stakeholders. This is reliant on relationships that are conducive to change. This requires:

  • Genuine relational trust
  • Not too much reliance on relational trust
  • Deliberate plan
  • Plus emergent plan
  • Agility
  • Consult stakeholders – consultation may look different depending on the situation and stakeholder.