Areepattamannil, Shaljan

Boon, Zoe

Choy, William

Chua, Catherine

Chua, Jude

Goh, Jonathan

Lin, Tzu Bin

Mokhtar, Intan Azura

Ng, David

Ng, Pak Tee

Reyes, Vicente

Salleh, Hairon

Teng, Antonia

University of Queensland eSpace

An Institute of
ISSN 2010-3093
RESEARCH BRIEF SERIES 
No. 15-003
Leadership and Organizational Change in Singapore 
Schools: A Baseline Study
Jonathan Goh, Hairon Salleh, David Ng, Ng Pak Tee, Catherine Chua, Vicente Reyes, 
William Choy, Jude Chua, Intan Azura Mokhtar, Zoe Boon, Antonia Teng, Shaljan 
Areepattamannil and Lin Tzu Bin
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to gain a broad 
understanding of school leadership and 
organizational change in Singapore schools. It 
aimed to provide a comprehensive data set of 
current values, knowledge, skills and dispositions 
across the full spectrum of leaders and 
leadership.	 The	 fi	ndings	 provided	 an	 interesting	
yet unique Singapore perspective on leadership. 
In particular, the results showed that micro 
leadership practices in schools are very much 
infl	uenced	 by	 contextual	 forces	 that	 included	
include Asian notions of hierarchy, pragmatism 
and meritocracy. 
INTRODUCTION
Literature review shows a lack of empirical 
knowledge about school leadership and 
organizational change in the Singapore 
education school system. This study aimed to 
provide a comprehensive data set of current 
values, knowledge, skills and dispositions 
across the spectrum of leaders and leadership 
in Singapore primary and secondary schools, 
as well as junior colleges. The researchers also 
sought to establish a strong empirical base 
documenting current practices on which to build 
further in-depth studies. The main research 
questions were divided into eight leadership 
themes and discussed in the proceeding 
sections. 
RESEARCH DESIGN
A survey design was used for this study, and the 
study was divided into three stages:  
Stage 1: Focused Group Discussions 
(FGDs)
18 FGDs were conducted with 6 cluster 
superintendents, 10 principals, 25 vice-
principals, 14 heads-of-department (HODs), 
KEY IMPLICATIONS
1. Effective leadership is not about adhering 
to a prescriptive list of ideal practices, but 
rather establishing congruence between 
leaders’ and subordinates’ performances. 
2. Appreciating	 the	 contextual	 nuances	 of	
leadership practices in schools is crucial to 
our understanding of effective leadership in 
schools.
3. Building a learning culture to sustain 
school-based curriculum innovation and 
development.
b. Principals were generally more cautious 
and avoid taking risks. They seemed to be 
influenced greatly by strategic pragmatism. 
Theme 2: Autonomy and Influence
a. Principals’ perception of autonomy in 
leadership areas 
•	 Female principals felt they had more 
autonomy in “encouraging staff to take 
initiative”, “creating innovative schools 
culture”, “developing new curricular 
programs” and “introducing innovative 
methods of formative assessments”; 
while the male principals felt they had 
more autonomy in “taking risks” and 
“being entrepreneurial”. 
•	 Principals	 from	 mixed	 levels	 (Integrated	
Program) schools and from junior 
colleges felt that they needed to seek the 
Ministry’s guidance more frequently to 
clarify policies. 
b. Principals’ perception of influence of 
superintendents
•	 Male principals felt that their 
superintendents played an active role 
in ”providing leadership”, ”developing 
leadership capacity” and ”identifying 
future leaders in schools”. 
•	 Principals from secondary and 
government schools indicated that they 
wanted their superintendents to be more 
influential in “handling work-related 
problems” and ”defining educational 
goals”. 
Theme 3: Principal’s Perceptions of Time 
Management—Inside and Outside of 
School
a. Principals from primary and secondary 
schools reported that they were frequently 
interrupted by unplanned activities, mainly 
relating to community and parent relations, 
finances and school building issues. 
b. Younger principals reported that they spent 
more time ”managing student affairs and 
personnel issues”. 
Theme 4a: Leadership Practices 
for School Improvement—Instructional 
Leadership (IL)
a. Teachers and Key Personnel felt that a 
better alignment of teaching and learning to 
the school vision was needed. 
and 10 teachers, to elicit “insider” perceptions 
and	 experiences	 of	 key	 issues	 congruent	 with	
the aims and objectives of the project. The 
interviewees were selected from different school 
types through convenience sampling. 
Stage 2: Quantitative Survey
This stage involved collecting system-wide 
quantitative data across variables on leadership 
perceptions and practices. The survey consisted 
of three main question types—(i) demographic 
information of respondents, (ii) categorical 
variables (i.e., single item questions), and (iii) 
rating scales of selected leadership related 
variables. In all, 224 schools participated in the 
study, and included 224 principals, 322 vice-
principals, 686 key personnel (i.e., HODs, 
subject heads and level heads) and 3,513 
teachers. For common scaling, the items on the 
instruments were calibrated using the Rasch 
Model. This linearized the scores into measures 
so that statistical quantities will not be spurious. 
Further parametric statistical analyses were 
performed on the calibrated measures for 
hypotheses testing. For the categorical-type 
questions, non-parametric tests were performed. 
To	examine	 relationships	between	key	variables	
of this study involving teachers, middle level 
managers and principals, hierarchical linear 
models were used to investigate the nested 
effects of teachers and Key personnel in schools.
Stage 3: Follow-up Focused Group 
Discussions (FGDs)
Stage	 3	 explored	 the	 why and how questions 
in regard to principals’ practices. The sample 
comprised of 31 principals, 30 vice-principals, 27 
HODs and 26 teachers. In total, 24 FGDs were 
conducted and participants came from different 
school types (primary and secondary schools, 
and junior colleges) and locations spanning 
different socioeconomic environments. 
KEY FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
Theme 1: Principals’ Work Values
a. Principals placed great emphasis on 
respecting hierarchical relationships. This 
is contrary to the egalitarian approach 
espoused in many modern day leadership 
theories. Principals appeared to have a 
threshold on how much empowerment to 
give to staff. 
b. Principals’ IL practices were more positively 
perceived in primary schools than secondary 
schools. 
c. Leadership in Teaching and Learning 
was still predominantly based on proven 
practices rather than research-led practices. 
d. Teachers’ perceptions of their leaders’ 
Distributed Leadership (DL) practices 
were strongly linked to their perceptions of 
Principals’ IL practices. 
e. Schools promoting academic achievement 
as part of school culture were positively 
related to Principals’ IL practices.
Theme 4b: Leadership Practices for 
School Improvement - Distributed 
Leadership (DL)
a. Hierarchy, collegiality and academic 
emphasis were strong predictors for 
empowerment in Singapore schools. 
Teachers and Key Personnel appear to have 
a threshold on how much empowerment 
they were like to be given. So long as 
empowerment did not mean over stepping 
certain perceived boundaries. They were 
however happy for the Principals to oversight 
on matters of curriculum development 
and innovation of both academic and non-
academic subjects. 
b. School culture and instructional leadership 
were found to be closely related to the 
DL dimensions of ‘interactive relations for 
shared decisions’ and ‘developing leaders’. 
c. Male teachers were generally more positive 
about their principals’ DL practices. 
Theme 5: Leaders’ Self-Efficacy and Use 
of Feedback
a. Older principals (> 50 years old) reported 
having self-efficacy in a range of activities 
associated with instructional and distributed 
leadership. 
b. Principals from autonomous and 
independent schools indicated that they 
had high self-efficacy in formulating clear 
goals that were agreed to by the whole 
school community. This was perhaps a result 
of greater freedom in developing school 
culture. 
c. School leaders judged their successes 
by the achievement of school goals and 
determined their performance through staff 
feedback. 
d. Male principals perceived themselves 
to have high self-efficacy in adopting 
appropriate strategies to motivate teachers, 
and recognizing and nurturing leaders and 
potential leaders. 
Theme 6: Culture Building
a. Empowerment	 had	 an	 impact	 on	 the	 extent	
of the hierarchical social relationships, 
hierarchical position and degree of the power 
relation between the senior and junior levels 
of the organizational management.
b. Empowerment was also a positive predictor 
of Collegiality. The interdependency 
between teachers may give rise to a 
collective identity, such that the teachers’ 
identifications with, or attachment to, certain 
groups within the school will lead to the 
establishment of group norms, attitudes and 
behaviors	for	collegiality	to	exist.		
c. Leadership development was a positive 
predictor with Nurturance. The notion 
of Nurturance stems from Singapore’s 
strong commitment to the quality of its 
teachers. Not surprisingly, the Singapore 
education system has high professional 
development requirements and provides 
many opportunities for self-, peer-, and 
centre-led learning and development, such 
as collaborative practice amongst educators. 
d. Empowerment was a positive predictor 
along with Academic Emphasis. This is 
consistent with “academic socialization” 
which describes the way school leaders, 
teachers, and even parents, influence 
students’ academic achievement by shaping 
their skills, behaviour and attitudes towards 
school.  
e. Empowerment was a positive predictor with 
People Orientation. People-oriented leaders 
place more emphasis on the satisfaction, 
motivation and general well-being of those 
in the organization. Thus, they tend to focus 
on supporting, motivating and developing the 
people on their teams and the relationships 
within their teams. 
Theme 7: Leadership Preparation and 
Development
a. Principals (more than vice-principals or 
key personnel) generally perceived that in-
service courses at NIE, organizational visits 
and independent learning through reading, 
have influenced their leadership practices. 
b. Older principals (> 50 years old) perceived 
that their leadership practices were 
influenced by professional sharing (e.g. 
Communities of Practice, conferences and 
seminars), and professional associations 
(e.g. Academy of Principals). They also 
indicated that milestone leadership 
development programs were effective in 
improving professional sharing, and teaching 
and learning practices in schools.
c. More primary school principals indicated 
that their leadership practices had been 
influenced by the role-modelling of their 
leaders, and communities of practice. 
d. More key personnel, than their leaders, 
indicated that formal milestone leadership 
development programs had improved 
their leadership practices in working 
with stakeholders, teaching and learning 
quality, motivating and nurturing teachers, 
developing school vision and building school 
culture with a focus on innovation.
e. Primary school teachers were also more 
positive about their leaders’ being nurturing.
Theme 8: Leader supply, career 
development and progression, rotation, 
and succession and sustainability
a. Male principals perceived that standards 
expected	 for	 promoting	 leaders	 were	
unreasonably high, equitable and rigorous. 
They also felt that their school postings were 
well-matched to their capabilities. 
b. Older principals (> 50 years) perceived that 
the normal rotation period of 5 to 7 years 
was too short to implement school-wide 
innovations.
c. Older principals (> 50 years) perceived that 
there were sufficient inducements for them 
to	 aspire	 to	 the	 next	 level	 of	 leadership	
seniority. Female principals, however, felt 
that their progression along the leadership 
track was rather long.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
In education, the study of leadership has 
only recently gained attention. Leadership 
in education has the potential to bring about 
school improvement, particularly through 
student	 and	 school	 performances.	 The	 findings	
from our study indicate that micro leadership 
practices	 are	 very	 much	 influenced	 by	 macro	
contextual	 forces,	 including	 Asian	 notions	
of hierarchy, pragmatism, and meritocracy. 
Understandably,	 some	 of	 the	 findings	 may	
not	 be	 congruent	 with	 existing	 theories	 of	
leadership, which tend to be Western-based and 
prescriptive. Clearly, leadership and the nature 
and role of organizations within any society are 
determined by its particular cultural, historical 
and	 institutional	 context,	 which	 should	 be	
acknowledged	and	systematically	examined.
About the authors
Jonathan GOH, HAIRON Salleh, David NG, NG Pak Tee, Catherine CHUA, William CHOY, Jude CHUA, Zoe BOON and 
Antonia TENG are with the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Vicente REYES, 
Intan Azura MOKHTAR, Shaljan AREEPATTAMANNIL and  LIN Tzu Bin were with the National Institute of Education, 
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
Contact Jonathan at jonathan.goh@nie.edu.sg for more information about the project. 
This brief was based on the project OER 03/10 CD: Leadership and Organizational Change in Singapore Schools:  
A Baseline Study.
How to cite this publication
Goh, J., et al. (2015). Leadership and Organizational Change in Singapore Schools: A Baseline Study. (NIE Research Brief 
Series No. 15-003). Singapore: National Institute of Education.
>> More information about our research centres and publications can be found at: http://www.nie.edu.sg
Request for more details
Please approach Ministry of Education’s Corporate Research Office to obtain a copy of the final report.


Leadership and organizational change in Singapore schools: A baseline study

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Leadership and organizational change in Singapore schools: A baseline study

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