Premium
Leadership and organisational effectiveness – lessons to be drawn from education?
Author(s) -
JOYCE PAULINE
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
journal of nursing management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.925
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1365-2834
pISSN - 0966-0429
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2834.2009.01012.x
Subject(s) - principal (computer security) , context (archaeology) , interview , set (abstract data type) , psychology , medical education , quality (philosophy) , educational leadership , health care , critical incident technique , pedagogy , nursing , sociology , medicine , management , political science , paleontology , philosophy , epistemology , computer science , anthropology , law , economics , biology , programming language , operating system
Aim The aim of this paper is to present findings of a case study on organisational effectiveness in an education setting and draw similarities with a healthcare setting, focusing on the school principal and nurse leader. Background The study was carried out in a primary school setting and focuses on a principal (as leader). The school, which will be named St Senan’s for the case study, is a typical tall structure has a staff of 30 (teachers and special needs’ assistants) and a student number of 117. Methods A case study methodology was used. Data was collected by interviewing the principal, two teachers, two students and a parent, in this order. In addition, a Parents’ Council meeting was observed and document analysis was carried out on measurements which reflected some critical success factors for the school. Results Interviews from students and teachers in addition to observation notes indicate that the principal’s leadership impacts on organisational effectiveness in the school. Conclusions The findings are located in the context of education with similarities being drawn from nursing. It is how the leader leads in the context of the organisation setting which is paramount. In other words it is not possible to take a set of general critical success factors for a school or healthcare setting and apply these widely. The paper concludes by proposing the use of a quality framework to contextualise the findings of the case and promote further discussion in the context of nurse leaders. Implications The paper suggests that comparisons can be made between school principals and nurse leaders.