Who's in charge? Leadership and culture in extended service contexts

Abstract

This paper examines the importance of understanding different organisational and professional cultures for leaders in extended service settings. It begins with a critical review of key concepts and debates in the organisational culture literature and then shows how different professional groups (education, health and social services) have adopted aspects of this literature to reflect their respective professional concerns. We argue that such insights can help leaders in these settings understand and work with different professional groups more effectively. Key to this process is the 'culture conversation' where different professionals are encouraged to explore the taken for granted assumptions that drive their everyday practice.

Pedagogical Leaders and the Teaching—Learning Processes in COVID-19 Times

“…The second factor represents student activities and professional development of teachers, which are essential components during the learning-teaching process, as they allow for the empowerment of students. During critical times, teachers adapt to the new social environments, as has been developed by Morrison and Arthur [46], Close and Warnwright [47], Fernández and Saw [63], and Tarinabo (2020) [64]. These authors have proposed a new reflexive framework to design programs, considering uncertainties and technological, social, cultural, and environmental changes [65].…”

“…The diversity of assumed functions and the transformations performed to reorient the training process provide for a new frame and program design that capacitate leaders to be aware of the new challenges lying ahead [46,47]. There are also limits to the capacity of leaders regarding the professional development framework and the emergence of national standards, in terms of competences, knowledge, and behaviors, which are most needed for those working in different services.…”

Developing multi-agency teams: implications of a national programme evaluation

“…This reduced suspicion – even antagonism – and provided the basis for more effective cross-agency working. The development of shared understanding is a particular challenge for teams which comprise individuals from a range of professions whose values and assumptions may differ considerably (Dyson et al, 2009; Close & Wainwright, 2010). The achievement of such outcomes on the MATD programme seemed to be related to a number of factors in the programme, including the use of team diagnostic tools, the time devoted to working together on experiential activities and, particularly, the project.…”

Leadership for Inter-service Practice

“…Despite growing interest in the leadership of intra-service provision, namely collaborations, for example, between schools (Chapman, 2008;Chapman et al, 2008;Hallinger and Heck, 2010), or between various constituents of, for example, Health and Social Care provision (Barr, 2010;Cameron et al, 2009;Carpenter et al, 2006;Meads and Ashcroft, 2005), explorations of leadership of or for inter-service practice remain relatively sparse (but see Close and Wainwright, 2010;Edwards et al, 2009Edwards et al, , 2010Glenny and Roaf, 2008;Hammick et al, 2009;Morrison and Glenny, 2011). Moreover, with exceptions (for example, Lumby and Morrison, 2006), preferences in the education leadership and management field have been to research leadership in terms of relationships between individuals or groups within single organizations, usually schools.…”