Ideological leadership in public schools

Abstract

PurposeThis study aims to explore the conception and construct of ideological leadership (IL) as it relates to public organizations, such as public schools, and to validate a tool for its measurement in this setting.Design/methodology/approachData was collected from 633 teachers working at 69 randomly-sampled Israeli public schools. In each school, an average of nine (SD = 2) randomly-sampled teachers completed questionnaires that measure IL, transformational leadership, organizational commitment, leader-member exchange and motivational factors. The data underwent validity and hypotheses tests.FindingsThe hypothesized presence of the personalized and socialized IL orientations among public-school principals has been confirmed. Only personalized IL predicted teachers' outcomes above and beyond transformational leadership, affecting measures of organizational commitment, leader-member exchange and controlled motivation.Originality/valueNew evidence supports the validity of this proposed measurement tool. New evidence also suggests that although ideology has been known to be a factor of charismatic leadership, IL in close public-school settings accentuates practices of control, rather than proselytizing coherent worldviews to teachers. This, in turn, may have a deleterious influence on work outcomes and outweigh the possible benefits of IL. Accordingly, it is suggested that school leaders should critically consider the desirability of embracing ideological zeal as part of their leadership tools.

From Conventional to Outstanding Leadership: Exploring Role of CIP Leadership in Innovative Work Behavior (IWB)

“…Leadership roles contribute differently to employee motivation and willingness to share knowledge. CIP's approach to leadership contains both transformational and transactional leadership roles, as charismatic and ideological are transformational, and pragmatic is transactional in nature (Eni, 2022;Eyal et al, 2020). Transformational leadership considers employees a valuable organizational resource and emphasizes the role of emotions and values in encouraging positive and creative employee behavior.…”