School Principals as Effective Change Agents: A Study of Essential Skills and Attributes

IntroductionThe review of the related literature clarifies that at a minimum, principals who are effective change agents must satisfy three criteria: (a) they must engage in innovation; (b) they must hold their jobs long enough to see the innovation through from inception to the point where there are visible results; and (c) the visible results must include a positive change in student outcomes (Ibrahim & Al-Mashhadany, 2012). Although this particular definition has the virtue of empirical verifiability, it raises numerous questions about the necessary skills employed by successful principals to instigate change that affects student outcomes (Jonas, Johansson & Olofsson, 2005).The literature is replete with advice to principals on how to instigate and maintain change (Ross & Gray, 2006), develop effective schools (Brookover & Lezotte, 1982), exercise transformational leadership (Ubben, Hughes & Norris, 2001), work effectively with various stakeholder groups (Nardelli, 2012), and survive in their position (Chapko & Buchko, 2002; Mathews, 2002; Rooney, 2000). There is also a large body of literature dealing with the principal as an educational leader from the early work of Stogdill (1948) to the present emphasis on transformational leadership (Hallinger, 2011).Principals are charged with the responsibility of creating a building climate that is conducive to providing students with the best possible education. Principals are the educational leaders of their buildings (Hallinger, 2003). To be an educational leader is to engage in a variety of activities and deal with several different stakeholder constituencies whose goals may vary widely. According to Daresh (2001), effective principals provide a sense of mission to their schools, engage in participative management, provide support for instruction, monitor instruction, and are resourceful. Bennis and Nanus (1985) have suggested that successful leaders develop a vision for the organization, engage in effective communication, cultivate trust within their organization, engage in self-renewal, and focus on success.Nardelli (2012) noted that successful principals express their faith in children, have an ability to work effectively with people, work aggressively in securing the resources for their schools, are enthusiastic about their jobs, arc committed to education, can distinguish between long- term and short-term educational goals, are adaptable, and are able to engage in long-term strategies (Louis& Robinson, 2012). The above leadership variables have very little overlap, yet there is little a professional educator can disagree with in terms of the characteristics of successful leadership. What one can say about these skills, attributes, and others like them in the literature is that none of them are exhaustive. It is less a case of inadequate theorizing than it is trying to conceptualize a very complex job. Therefore, this study will focus on one aspect of the principal-ship: the role of change agent.The personal experiences of the investigators, have found that every high achieving school has as its instructional leader a principal who is both effective and skilled in moving a school, staff and community to a higher level. These personal observations are confirmed by effective schools research (Fullan, 2002). As anyone who has attempted to institute change in an organization understands, change brings conflict. Heck & Hallinger (2009) noted that the most common form of formal human organization is the bureaucracy, which is conservative, depends on a hierarchical power structure, and is resistant to change. Officeholders and bureaucracies tend to have vested interests in the maintenance of the status even if the organization is failing. People resist change because it brings uncertainty. Often people would rather deal with an unsatisfying present than with an uncertain future, even if that future presents the possibility of an improved life (Hoffer, 1963). …