The role of district leaders for organization social capital
| Pages | 296-316 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JEA-03-2018-0045 |
| Published date | 13 May 2019 |
| Date | 13 May 2019 |
| Author | Edith H. Hooge,Nienke M. Moolenaar,Karin C.J. van Look,Selma K. Janssen,Peter J.C. Sleegers |
| Subject Matter | Education,Administration & policy in education,School administration/policy,Educational administration,Leadership in education |
The role of district leaders for
organization social capital
Edith H. Hooge
TIAS, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands
Nienke M. Moolenaar
The Dutch Inspectorate of Education, Utrecht, The Netherlands
Karin C.J. van Look
Department of Social Sciences,
Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
Selma K. Janssen
OOADA School District, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and
Peter J.C. Sleegers
BMC Consultancy, Amersfoort, The Netherlands
Abstract
Purpose –Although it is assumed tha t school district governance by dis tricts leaders can impact schools’
capacity to improvement and educational quality, the re is little systematic evidence to support this clai m.
The purpose of this pape r is to discuss how govern ance goals and interve ntions affect school d istricts’
social capital.
Design/methodology/approach –The empirical enquiry used qu antitative data on dis trict leaders
enacting governance a s perceived by their school principals. The se data were collected among 399 school
principals of 23 Dutch sc hool districts in eleme ntary education, usin g a survey. Social netwo rk data
on social capital wit hin school districts we re collected using a social network survey among
educational adminis trators (i.e. distric t leaders, central off ice administrators an d school principals).
Additionally, exampl es of the relation between school district soc ial capital and governance at six school
districts were describ ed.
Findings –Results suggest that district leaders can promote the organizational social capital of their school
districts through focusing on educational goals. In addition, the findings show that they can reinforce their
impact by using interventions varying in coercion level, of which offering support to school principals
appears to be “a golden button”to make organizational social capital thrive.
Research limitations/implications –Limitations to the study are the generalizability of the findings (they
can be questioned because “convenience sampling”was used) and warrant a longitudinal design to examine
how organization social capital develops over time.
Originality/value –The study is unique as it addresses the impact district leaders may have on their
districts’social capital by focusing on social network approach in the study of school district governance.
Keywords Mixed methods, Social network analysis, School districts, District governance, District leaders,
Organization social capital
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
In many educational systems around the world, the responsibility for high-quality
elementary education is increasingly placed in the hands of school district leaders
(superintendents) at central offices. In the Netherlands, where this study takes place, the
final responsibility for student achievement and school improvement has long been in the
hands of school principals, and even when a central office was established, its role was
mostly restricted to providing support services such as personnel administration, finance
and logistics to often regionally organized clusters of schools. In that role, district leadership
has long been conceptualized as a political-administrative environment (i.e. Delagardelle,
2008; Hofman et al., 2002).
Journal of Educational
Administration
Vol. 57 No. 3, 2019
pp. 296-316
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0957-8234
DOI 10.1108/JEA-03-2018-0045
Received 3 March 2018
Revised 2 July 2018
25 September 2018
5 March 2019
23 March 2019
1 April 2019
Accepted 1 April 2019
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0957-8234.htm
296
JEA
57,3
However, throughout the years, central offices have grown not only in numbers, but also
in size and in responsibilities. Nowadays, it is often not the school principal, but the school
district leader (and his/her team) at a central office who is ultimately and legally responsible
for the district’s quality of education, thereby extending its task to include instructional
support for school improvement and increased student achievement (Honig et al., 2010;
Hooge and Honingh, 2014). This significant shift in responsibility, from principal to central
office, is placing increasing demands on district leaders’skills to include not only
organizational leadership skills, but also a growing focus on instructional leadership
(Coburn et al., 2009; Coburn and Russell, 2008; Honig et al., 2010; Rorrer et al., 2009; Spillane
and Thompson, 1997). Following this shift, school districts are increasingly studied as
governance sites that aim to increase educational effectiveness and school improvement (i.e.
Childress et al., 2007; Hofman et al., 2002; Land, 2002; Leithwood and Azah, 2017).
The concept of governance has been widely used in different social science disciplines,
such as economics, sociology, political science and public administration. Some scholars
define governance as a process of regulating and stimulating “collective action […]to
achieve some commonly accepted goals”is emphasized (Torfing et al., 2012, p. 14). Other
definitions conceive governance as moving organizations and society “in one direction or
another not by controlling (but) rather by agenda-setting, bringing together different
layers of society, negotiating, and facilitating”(Denhardt and Denhardt, 2000, p. 5).
Although there is no universal definition of governance, there appears to be a broad
international consensus that governance is affiliated with “authority,”“decision-making”
and “accountability”(Institute on Governance, 2018). In order for organizations to achieve
goals and move toward improvement, governance is enacted by setting direction and
using interventions as modes of governance (Kooiman, 2003; McAdams, 2006). In this
study, we therefore operationalize school district governance as district leaders
focusing on educational goals and using goal-directed interventions to achieve school
district goals.
Yet, detailed insights in the paths through which district leaders can contribute to
enhancing organizational and student outcomes are limited. It is widely acknowledged
that district leaders can affect schools’educational quality and student achievement
(De Witte and Schiltz, 2018), yet, this impact is by no means straightforward (i.e. Honig,
2006; Honig et al., 2010; Leithwood and Azah, 2017; Saatcioglu et al., 2011). Rather, district
leaders appear to influence educational practice and outcomes indirectly, as school
districts are notably complex organizations in which effects of governance trickle down
“through several layers of implementation”(Saatcioglu et al., 2011, p. 2). To better
understand how governance takes place, several scholars have recently suggested to
analyze districts’informal organizational structure and the supportive role social
relationships (“social capital”) between educational administrators (district leaders,
central office administrators, school principals, assistant principals) through which
governance may ultimately impact student achievement (Coburn and Russell, 2008;
Coburn et al., 2009; Finnigan and Daly, 2010; Honig and Coburn, 2008).
However, what has been hidden from our view is the way in which this social capital may
be affected by district leaders enacting governance. Therefore, the research question
guiding this paper is:
RQ1. To what extent do governance goals and interventions affect school districts’social
capital as assessed by the pattern of social relationships among school administrators?
We will present a quantitative study, building on quantitative and social network
data collected in 481 schools in 23 Dutch elementary school districts. We will build on
theory on school governance and social capital theory to conceptualize the relationships
under study.
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Role of
district leaders
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