Improving School Leadership: The Connection of Transformational Leadership and Psychological Well-Being of the Followers

In this current era of public school accountability in the United States, the passage of No Child Left Behind resulted in dramatic changes for public school districts (U.S. Department of Education, 2001). Although the recent reauthorization, entitled Every Student Succeeds Act, allowed greater flexibility on the state and local levels, effective school leadership still remained a critical factor when establishing and maintaining high standards of student learning (Executive Office of the President, 2015). Onorato (2013) noted the federal and state accountability mandates have forced public school administrators to transform the educational environment while serving as instructional leaders for teachers and students. Additionally, Onorato noted as accountability pressures increased, educational leaders were compelled to strengthen student achievement through increased leadership qualities. Furthermore, transformational leadership empowered the followers to strive with higher levels of confidence and motivation while the followers also assumed the traits and actions of transformational leadership (Onorato, 2013). This phenomenological narrative study was designed to describe the transformational leadership components of selected superintendents in the state of Texas, which directly affected a follower\u27s psychological well-being. All seven individuals who participated in the research study were current or recent superintendents with experience in turning around a low-performing campus or district. The leader participants self-identified their own transformational leadership skills using the MLQ SX-Short by Avolio and Bass (2013). The research questions allowed for further investigation into the influence of the four components of transformational leadership on the follower\u27s psychological well-being. Findings indicated idealized influence and inspirational motivation as the most dominant transformational leadership components of the participants. Findings also emphasized the importance of the positive impact of transformational leadership processes on the follower\u27s psychological well-being

What is Leadership? (Chapter Two of Leadership Alive: Changing Leadership Practices within the Emerging 21st Century Culture)

Excerpt: This newly emerging culture is upon us. This change in Western culture requires a new breed of leader to emerge. There are many usable definitions concerning leadership. Leadership may appear in many forms, come from many theories, and be derived from many sources, but all are likely to guide through actions, influence, or service. 80 The new emerging leader of the 21st century will understand the relationship between the four principle leadership models: (1) Servant Leadership, (2) Situational Leadership, (3) Leadership and the New Science, and ( 4) Christian Leadership. In Chapter Three, I will introduce and explore the cultural shift that is surfacing within the United States and for that matter, Western Society abroad. I\u27ll discuss its effect upon leadership perceptions and development and will introduce three major themes of cultural change. We\u27re in need of a leadership with perspective and that perspective is colored by the prismatic tapestry of our evolving culture. So let\u27s turn the page to explore and collect some new colors of understanding as we venture into the future of the 21st century

Factors that Affect Followers\u27 Perception of Leader\u27s [sic] Transformational Leadership Performance in Taiwan

Cognitive dissonance arises as a result of heterogeneous ethnic identities, contradicting religions, conflicting national identities, confronting political stances and ideologies, incompatible beliefs, and/or value systems that followers and their leaders possess. The purpose of this research study is to explore the influence on followers\u27 perception of their leader\u27s transformational leadership performance, which may be affected by the heterogeneity in ethnic identities, national identities, political stances, and ideologies, or by the geographical regions, gender, and age in Taiwan. Transformational leadership theory has been well documented in a considerable number of research studies in past decades. While most transformational leadership research has been focused on the leadership behavior from the leaders\u27 perspective, few attempts have been made from the followers\u27 perspectives to look into the influence on the transformational leadership performance implicated by the cognitive dissonance of followers. This research study was conducted via survey questionnaires distributed to 1400 respondents in public or private sectors. The number of returned cases was 1141 in which 1121 were valid. The findings sustains that in Taiwan the followers\u27 perception of their leader\u27s transformational leadership performance can be affected by the heterogeneity in ethnic identities, national identities, political stances, or ideologies, but not by the geographical regions, gender, or age

Follow the leader: Visual control of speed in pedestrian following

When people walk together in groups or crowds they must coordinate their walking speed and direction with their neighbors. This paper investigates how a pedestrian visually controls speed when following a leader on a straight path (one-dimensional following). To model the behavioral dynamics of following, participants in Experiment 1 walked behind a confederate who randomly increased or decreased his walking speed. The data were used to test six models of speed control that used the leader's speed, distance, or combinations of both to regulate the follower's acceleration. To test the optical information used to control speed, participants in Experiment 2 walked behind a virtual moving pole, whose visual angle and binocular disparity were independently manipulated. The results indicate the followers match the speed of the leader, and do so using a visual control law that primarily nulls the leader's optical expansion (change in visual angle), with little influence of change in disparity. This finding has direct applications to understanding the coordination among neighbors in human crowds

Following a Robot using a Haptic Interface without Visual Feedback

Search and rescue operations are often undertaken in dark and noisy environments in which rescue teams must rely on haptic feedback for navigation and safe exit. In this paper, we discuss designing and evaluating a haptic interface to enable a human being to follow a robot through an environment with no-visibility. We first briefly analyse the task at hand and discuss the considerations that have led to our current interface design. The second part of the paper describes our testing procedure and the results of our first informal tests. Based on these results we discuss future improvements of our design

A New Leadership Development Model for Nursing Education

Background Leadership competency is required throughout nursing. Students have difficulty understanding leadership as integral to education and practice. A consistent framework for nursing leadership education, strong scholarship and an evidence base are limited. Purpose To establish an integrated leadership development model for prelicensure nursing students that recognizes leadership as a fundamental skill for nursing practice and promotes development of nursing leadership education scholarship. Method Summarizing definitions of nursing leadership, conceptualizing leadership development capacity through reviewing trends, and synthesizing existing leadership theories through directed content analysis. Discussion Nine leadership skills form the organizing structure for the Nursing Leadership Development Model. Leadership identity development is supported via dimensions of knowing, doing, being and context. Conclusion The Nursing Leadership Development Model is a conceptual map offering a structure to facilitate leadership development within prelicensure nursing students, promoting student ability to internalize leadership capacity and apply leadership skills upon entry to practic

Transformational leadership and group outcomes: The mediating effects of social identification and empowerment

Collective efficacy, group helping behaviors, and group cohesion are group outcomes that have demonstrated pervasive effects on group performance. These group outcomes are important because of the strong relationships that have been established among these variables. Transformational leadership has shown to greatly foster these outcomes. The purpose of this thesis was to investigate the relationship between transformational leadership styles and organizational group outcomes in the workplace

Exceptional leaders and their followers: An in-depth look at leader-follower interactions.

In recent years there has been an increase in the study of outstanding leaders and the differences between outstanding leaders of different types and orientations. Very few studies, however, have been performed regarding how these outstanding leaders interact with their followers. The present study uses biographical information for 120 outstanding leaders and evaluates their relationships with their close followers based on normative and higher-level leader-member exchange (LMX) dimensions. Differences were found for the normative dimensions for leader orientation (socialized vs. personalized) with socialized leaders typically exhibiting better close follower interactions. Differences were found for the higher-level dimensions for both leader orientation and leader style (ideological, charismatic, and pragmatic) with socialized and ideological leaders typically exhibiting better close follower interactions. These differences and implications for the study of outstanding leadership are discussed

Continuous Quality Improvement Snow Plow Accident Study Report, 1995

Identify processes to modify in order to reduce snow plow accidents. Reviewed all [Iowa] D.O.T. snow plow accidents that occurred in calendar years 1992 and 1993