School Leadership: A comparison of Singaporean and Indian cases

The role of the principal in transforming a school is a core theme within the education literature on leadership. However, such work is mostly developed in a "Western" cultural environment, representing a particular set of values. This ignores the possibility that although leadership may be universal, the way it is described and practised may differ from culture to culture. Drawing from research carried out in Singapore and India, we present in this article how the teachers and students perceive the transformational effects of the school principals from an organisational and cultural perspective. This qualitative research uses in-depth interviews supplemented by participant observations to understand the influence of cultural variables on the practice of transformational leadership. In one case, despite cultural tensions, the findings suggest that the practice of transformational leadership has facilitated a positive culture in terms of collective learning and connectedness to the workplace and a leader among the organisational members. In the other case, transformational actions influenced sharing and learning and enhanced motivation where the leader consciously focused on creating a culture through actions aimed at achieving the vision which itself was in tune with the context

Organizational and corporate identity revisited: Towards a comprehensive understanding of identity in business

ABSTRACT: Purpose – This paper provides a comprehensive and integrative review of academic literature analyzing identity in business. The literature review proposed by the authors helps clearing up theoretical and practical understanding of this concept. Design/methodology/approach – A review of existing literature in organizational behavior and marketing fields is proposed to clarify the meaning of organizational and corporate identity. On the basis of this review, the authors also identify an integrative perspective proposed for managers to identify and effectively manage all dimensions of their business identities. Findings – Literature on the identity of businesses is extensive and blurred, failing to provide useful guidance for practitioners to manage this concept. A new approach proposes understanding this kind of identity as a global concept that integrates proposals from diverse research fields in order to take advantage of cross-fertilization. Practical implications – This research allows identity and communication managers to understand dimensions of business identity for a more effective management of this concept in their organizations. Originality/value – The line of research that proposes an integrative multidisciplinary approach to the study of identity in business is quite new and, as so, it still needs further contributions to clarify this nascent domain. In this paper, the authors also classify previous studies on business identity according to the theoretical approach they assume just as no other research has done before. Borra

The Dark Side of Organizational Identity

There is a darker side to every individual, social group, organization and society. This paper explores the dark side of organizational identity, a construct that has been gaining importance in both research and practice. Organizational identity defined as the central, enduring and distinguishing characteristics of an organization (Whetten, 2006), has a strong relationship with long term high impact decisions; sense making in organizations; experienced reality of organizational members; organizational change; resources, capabilities and competitiveness; leadership; organizational structure, strategy and culture; projected image and reputation; organizational response to crises; and mergers, acquisitions and spin offs (Albert and Whetten

School Leadership: A comparison of Singaporean and Indian cases

The role of the principal in transforming a school is a core theme within the education literature on leadership. However, such work is mostly developed in a "Western" cultural environment, representing a particular set of values. This ignores the possibility that although leadership may be universal, the way it is described and practised may differ from culture to culture. Drawing from research carried out in Singapore and India, we present in this article how the teachers and students perceive the transformational effects of the school principals from an organisational and cultural perspective. This qualitative research uses in-depth interviews supplemented by participant observations to understand the influence of cultural variables on the practice of transformational leadership. In one case, despite cultural tensions, the findings suggest that the practice of transformational leadership has facilitated a positive culture in terms of collective learning and connectedness to the workplace and a leader among the organisational members. In the other case, transformational actions influenced sharing and learning and enhanced motivation where the leader consciously focused on creating a culture through actions aimed at achieving the vision which itself was in tune with the context