Linking educational leadership styles to the HR architecture for new teachers in primary education

This study aims to gain insight in the relationship between principals’ leadership styles and the configuration of different HR practices for new teachers in primary education. Besides the longstanding interest in educational leadership as a key element in teacher and student performance, there is a growing interest in strategic human resource management (SHRM) in the educational sector. However, few educational studies link educational leadership to SHRM. In particular, this study examines the relationship between principals’ instructional and transformational leadership style and principals’ strategic and HR orientation in configuring HR practices for new teachers. Data were gathered using a mixed methods approach, including interviews with 75 principals as well as an online survey of 1058 teachers in Flemish primary education. Qualitative interview data were transformed and analysed together with the quantitative survey data using logistic regression and ANOVA analyses. The results indicate that both instructional and transformational leadership is associated with the strategic orientation of principals. The HR orientation, on the other hand, is not reflected in the principals’ leadership style. Recommendations for further research in this area are discussed

Evaluating teachers’ professional development initiatives : towards an extended evaluative framework

Evaluating teachers’ professional development initiatives (PDI) is one of the main challenges for the teacher professionalisation eld. Although di erent studies have focused on the e ectiveness of PDI, the obtained e ects and evaluative methods have been found to be widely divergent. By means of a narrative review, this study provides an extended framework to guide the evaluation of (the e ectiveness of ) PDI. Furthermore, and in accordance with this framework, an overview of measurement instruments that are currently in use is provided. The study concludes with implications for educational research and developers of PDI

ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks: a literature review

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation is a complex and vibrant process, one that involves a combination of technological and organizational interactions. Often an ERP implementation project is the single largest IT project that an organization has ever launched and requires a mutual fit of system and organization. Also the concept of an ERP implementation supporting business processes across many different departments is not a generic, rigid and uniform concept and depends on variety of factors. As a result, the issues addressing the ERP implementation process have been one of the major concerns in industry. Therefore ERP implementation receives attention from practitioners and scholars and both, business as well as academic literature is abundant and not always very conclusive or coherent. However, research on ERP systems so far has been mainly focused on diffusion, use and impact issues. Less attention has been given to the methods used during the configuration and the implementation of ERP systems, even though they are commonly used in practice, they still remain largely unexplored and undocumented in Information Systems research. So, the academic relevance of this research is the contribution to the existing body of scientific knowledge. An annotated brief literature review is done in order to evaluate the current state of the existing academic literature. The purpose is to present a systematic overview of relevant ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks as a desire for achieving a better taxonomy of ERP implementation methodologies. This paper is useful to researchers who are interested in ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks. Results will serve as an input for a classification of the existing ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks. Also, this paper aims also at the professional ERP community involved in the process of ERP implementation by promoting a better understanding of ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks, its variety and history

Importance of system and leadership in performance appraisal

Purpose Performance - appraisal is used internationally to improve employee performance, also in the educational field. However, doubts exist about the effectiveness of performance appraisal. This study-aims to contribute by expanding the knowledge about important context variables of performance appraisal in secondary education. In particular, the study aims to examine the role of both characteristics of the teacher performance appraisal system and the school leader for procedural justice and perceived feedback utility by teachers. Design/methodology/approach - Both interviews with school leaders and a questionnaire for teachers were used to collect data in 32 schools. Path analyses (n = 298) were used to test the research model. Findings - The results indicate that teacher participation in the teacher performance appraisal system significantly influences the perceived procedural justice by teachers, which in its turn significantly influences the perceived feedback utility. The role of the school leaders is found to be extremely important. Charismatic leadership influences both directly and indirectly (through procedural justice) the perceived feedback utility by teachers. Originality/value - This study contributes to the research field of (teacher) performance appraisal by studying empirically appraisal system characteristics and leadership characteristics that effect appraisal reactions. In this regard, this study responds to the need for more empirical research to uncover the social context of performance appraisal, especially in the field of education where there is a general skepticism towards teacher appraisal and its possible positive outcomes

An exploratory study on principals' conceptions about their role as school leaders

This inquiry, by means of the case study method, explored how the conceptions of principals about their role of school leader contribute to a better understanding of their behavior and the impact on school climate. The results showed that differences of how principals conceive their role as a leader affect indirectly through their leadership practices (i.e. initiating structure and supportive leadership), the unity in vision, collegial relations, collaboration, innovativeness and satisfaction of teachers. Based on a content analysis of interviews with 46 Belgian school leaders we distinguished three profiles: (1) the ‘people minded profile' with an emphasis on people, educational matters and thus on creating a professional teaching community, (2) the ‘administrative minded profile' with the focus on paperwork and the implementation of formal procedures and rules, and (3) the ‘moderate minded profile' with no explicit preference for people, educational or administrative matters. Drawing on three prototypical cases we described in depth that these types of principals often work under different school climate conditions. We relied on semi-structured interviews to gather data on principals' thoughts about their role as school leaders. Also, survey questionnaires were administered among 700 teachers in 46 schools to assess several features of school climate (i.e. goal orientedness, participation, formal and informal relationships, innovativeness), satisfaction of teachers, and leadership role behavior (i.e. initiating structure and supportive leadership behavior)

The influence of school leadership on teachers' perception of teacher evaluation policy

The understanding of teachers' perception of new educational policy is crucial since this perception shapes the policy's implementation. However, quantitative research in this area is scarce. This article draws on empirical data to investigate whether the school leader might influence his teachers' perception of the new teacher evaluation policy. The conceptualisation of teachers' perception consists of three policy characteristics: practicality, need and clarifying function. Our results indicate that school leadership influences teachers' policy perception. More specifically, the structure a school leader provides in a school and the amount of trust teachers have in the school leader have a significant impact on teachers' perception of the practicality of the new teacher evaluation policy