A Case Study of High School Leadership Teams Managing Team Turnover

Date
2022-05-27
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Abstract
School leaders and leadership teams can positively impact a school environment. The reality of persistent leadership turnover in schools, however, challenges the capacity of school leaders to sustain learning improvement and change. Turnover on leadership teams has been linked with negative impacts on student performance and can have deleterious effects on school growth and progress. Given the paucity of research on leadership team effectiveness in response to turnover, and in consideration of the potential negative impact leadership turnover can have in schools, it is important to look more closely at teams that are effectively negotiating this change. This study focused on school leadership team actions in response to turnover. The researcher utilized a thematic cross-case analysis of three senior high leadership teams in three different school divisions in Southern Alberta that had experienced turnover within the last five years. Perception surveys were used to select leadership teams who identified their leadership actions as successful. Each team member selected for the study participated in semi-structured interviews to determine which specific actions were resultant in effective leadership practice. Five elements of leadership team coherence were considered as part of the study: mission and vision, culture, trust, instructional leadership, and distributed leadership. Results of the research highlighted the importance of leadership team coherence and the establishment of trust. Additionally, it was found that the context of the school played an important role in determining what aspects of leadership were most important for team function. Considering the elements of leadership team coherence and the importance of trust and context, results of the study offer implications for current senior high leadership teams and make further recommendations for ongoing research surrounding effective actions of leadership teams.
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Keywords
Leadership, Turnover, Coherence, Trust, Education, Schools
Citation
van der Meer, K. (2022). A Case Study of High School Leadership Teams Managing Team Turnover (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.