Tony Bush's Leadership and Management Development in Education

Description

Title: Leadership and Management Development in Education

Size: 169 pages (Octavo)

Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd (2008)

ISBN: 9781412921817

At a Glance

The Book

Consisting of 9 chapters; this book covers the most critical issues facing education leaders, such as school improvement, models of educational leadership, educational leaders in developed countries and in developing countries, and the future of leadership development.

Drawing form a wealth of experience and detailed research, Bush presents his ideas in a concise and clear way.

The Author

Tony Bush is Professor of Educational Leadership at Nottingham, with responsibilities in the UK and Malaysia. Bush is a vice-president and a Council member of the British Educational Leadership Society (BELMAS) and a leading author and researcher on leadership and management both in the UK and internationally.

What I think of the Book

The book’s foreword illuminates the importance of the book by citing that “without adequate supply of effective leaders, changes [to issues in education] simply will not happen”, then claim that the book provides us with how are leaders in education prepared and developed.

This is of course not the only book dealing with educational leadership, however, what Tony Bush can offer that other authors cannot is an international prospective of this issue. The book, therefore is aimed at helping leaders in education context deal with major issues confronting their institutions such as “diversity and inclusion in increasingly pluralistic societies”.

I have to also credit the book for not claiming to provide a simple answer to solve these issues, instead it is very clear in stating that it aims at providing the fullest possible picture of the field.

Editorial Review

This book is far and away the best international comparative study of leadership development for schools.

Prof. Brian Caldwell, Managing Director and Principal Consultant at Educational Transformations Pty Ltd and former Dean of Education at the University of Melbourne, Australia.

What I took from the Book

I liked the table of management and leadership models, as well as the definitions and extensive description of each model.

Table: Typology of management and leadership models

Management models	Leadership models
Formal	Managerial
Collegial	Participative
	Transformational
	Interpersonal
Political	Transactional
Subjective	Postmodern
Ambiguity	Contingency
Cultural	Moral
	Instructional

Source: Bush, 2003.

• Managerial leadership: Assumes that the focus of leaders ought to be on functions, tasks and behaviours.
• Transformational leadership: Assumes that the central focus of leadership ought to be the commitments and capacities of organizational members.
• Participative leadership: Assumes that the decision-making process pf the group ought to be the central focus of the group.
• Interpersonal leadership: Links to collegiality in that it stresses the importance of collaboration and interpersonal relationships.
• Transactional leadership: Bush links this to the political model.
• Postmodern leadership: Aligns closely with the subjective model of management. A relatively recent model of leadership with no generally agreed definition.
• Moral leadership: Assumes that the critical focus of leadership ought to be on values, beliefs and ethics of leaders themselves.
• Instructional leadership: It focuses on the direction of influence, rather than its nature and source.
• Contingent leadership: Assumes that what is important is how leaders respond to the unique organizational circumstances or problems.

Is it recommended?

Absolutely! Almost every type of reader can take something form this book. Most important of those are current and prospect leaders in education as well as researchers and policy makers. Given the importance of the subject, it is no surprise that I find this book valuable and worth re-reading. I especially like how Bush dictates that the future of leadership –being very critical- should not be left to chance. Apparently, leadership is now recognised to be the second most significant factor influencing school and pupil outcomes, after classroom practice (Leithwood et al, “Seven strong claims about successful school leadership”, 2006).

Mohammad Waseem Sandouk : 21 May 2014 19:11 |  Tags: Book Book Review Bush Development Education In Leadership Management Review Tony |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem