Distributed Leadership and School Rule Implementation: A Case Study

This case study examines Mrs. Jones, a newly appointed school principal facing issues of indiscipline and poor academic performance. The case study explores how Mrs. Jones utilizes distributed leadership to address these challenges. She involves school stakeholders, including teachers, staff, and the student council, in developing new school rules and regulations. The process involves brainstorming, group discussions, and feedback from various stakeholders. The principal's approach emphasizes collaboration, communication, and shared decision-making to foster a sense of ownership and improve the school's overall functionality and image. The case study highlights the importance of considering student needs, promoting respect and hard work, and communicating changes effectively to parents and the wider community. The references include scholarly articles on distributed leadership and its application in educational settings, providing a comprehensive overview of the topic.

Running Head: DISTRIBUTED LEADERSHIP 1
Distributed Leadership
Student Name
Institution Affiliation

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Distributed Leadership
Case Study
Mrs Jones is a newly appointed school principal with years of experience as a
successful teacher. The new school, however, to which she has been appointed as principal
for close to six months has issues ranging from indiscipline to poor academic performance.
Such issues are likely to severely affect the institution’s image of having been once an
education marble which other schools looked up to. In order to prevent this, she seeks to
make changes on some of the school rules and regulations, but through the involvement of
the rest of the school stakeholders in an approach known as distributed leadership. This essay
will hence address the ways through which changes meant to address issues of school
functionality, could be reflected in the new school rules and regulations developed.
In the United States, the concept of distributed leadership has gained a lot of attention,
especially in schools. The leadership style is more of a practice of sharing the role of being a
leader with the people who are being led. It minimizes on the thought of leadership to be a
product of only the skill and knowledge of an appointed ‘head/leader' but encourages the
view of leadership being a product of the interaction between people and their situation
(MacBeath & Dempster, 2008). Hence, in this case, Mrs Jones has taken a fundamental step
by scheduling a meeting just for this purpose. The meeting's procession is however filled with
remarks and suggestions from the staff, most of which advocating for the administration of
harsher punishment on the undisciplined students other than finding ways of fostering better
relationships between them and the students. Better relationships would lead to better
educational development.
In this situation, the principle first needs to call for order in the meeting. The teachers
in attendance have to be reminded of the values stipulated in the mission and vision of the

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school. This will be appropriate to counter the increasing push for the school to be a
reformatory due to the increasing cases of indiscipline among the students. It is true that the
institution had changed, but in order to successfully transform it for the better, the needs of
the students have to be put first, and an appropriate way to offer them a perfect start of a more
challenging outside world determined. At the same time, however, the new rules have to
ensure that the students understand the need for respect and hard work in learning. This is an
important first step because it is a reflection of the idea which presents leaders as moral
agents who need to act as exemplars by taking action only after seeking more information
about situations. At the same time, such actions should consider the welfare and interests of
those who are bound to be affected, in this case, the students (MacBeath, 2005).
The second step would be the determination of the specific policies and practices
which need to be reviewed. This step is done through a brainstorming session which all the
staff members are involved. This will allow the members in general to take a second look at
what they think or they believe to know. According to Heschel (1962), leaders are
encouraged to learn to know what they see rather than seeing only what they already know. A
complementary element named the conceptual is involved. This is the development of
theoretical propositions on the hindrances to discipline and intellectual growth of the kids,
and the practical, which would recognize (MacBeath, 2005).
After the brainstorm session and listing down the required changes, the staff is broken
into small task-focused groups. Each group is then given an item from the list in order to
discuss and draw up ideas. At this point, the principle lets go of the process in the
consultative process in order to build the necessary trust from the staff on the change process.
According to (MacBeath, 2005), pushing power down motivates upward movement of trust
in hierarchical systems. The fourth step will see the principle collect the ideas and
recommendations developed by the staff members at the end of the called meeting.

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Most consultative exercises will give some level of power to the staff members but
the leader, who is the principle, in this case, will keep the overall power to decide. For this
reason, Mrs Jones, together with any other senior leaders of the school such as the deputy
principle will further look into the propositions, digest them and create a practical model of
new rules and regulations (MacBeath, 2005). In this phase, the leadership identifies and
outlines the practical ways through which the propositions can be applied and noted down as
rules to supplement the existing ones. It is important that a substantial amount of the ideas
proposed are incorporated so as to prevent resistance to the changes due to lack of proper
inclusion.
Mrs Jones will then present the developed model in a full staff meeting. This time,
since the issue has been accepted as important for the school, the meeting can be done during
working hours to ensure that all members participate. An additional team in the process will
be the student council, who will be allowed to make any relevant improvements or concerns
about the model of rules developed. A student council represents the students, and their
participation in the process will be significant in ensuring the actions are more informed
about their effects to students, reduce resistance from students due to lack of proper
information about their importance and also, motivate the feeling of shared ownership of the
propositions (MacBeath, 2005).
The results of this meeting will be communicated to the parents who despite being
external stakeholders play an important role in ensuring the effective running of schools. This
communication will be done through different channels such as letters, emails, social media
platforms or Google forms, which will explain in detail what has been brought to the table, its
importance to the school and invite any constructive ideas for the model's betterment.
Communication is a very important aspect of leadership processes because it is only through

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it that satisfaction can be realized even in groups which would not necessarily give feedback.
Most parents would simply appreciate their inclusion (Spillane, 2005).
The principle would then mould the ideas together and make the final decision on
what rules and regulations will be newly developed based on the information gathered. This
power is provided in consultative leadership which gives the leader the final take. Resulting
rules are then noted down in simple, memorable action statements, explaining the rewards
and sanctions, and displayed in strategic areas for all affected stakeholders to read and
internalize before enforcement (Spillane, 2005).
A participative approach such as this bonds the staff and reduces the pressure on the
principle. According to Sergiovanni, there is a reduction on the burden of leadership if roles
and functions of leadership are shared to replace the norm of principle leadership (Bush,
Glover, 2003). This is a very attractive approach because it is underlined by ideals which are
democratic.

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References
Bush T., Glover D., 2003. School Leadership: Concepts and Evidence. National College for
School Leadership. www.ncsl.org.uk/literaturereviews
MacBeath J. & Dempster, U. (2008) Leadership as distributed: a matter of practice, School
Leadership & Management, 25:4, 349-366, DOI: 10.1080/13634230500197165 To
link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13634230500197165.
MacBeath J. (2012). Leadership for Learning: Concepts, Principles and Practice. Leadership
for Learning. The Cambridge Network.
Spillane P. (2005). Distributed Leadership: The Educational Forum, 69:2, 143-150, DOI:
10.1080/00131720508984678. Available at
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00131720508984678