Infusing Distributed Leadership for Capacity Building and Organisational Effectiveness: Is this the Journey for a Select Jamaican College?
Nola P. Hill-Berry
Institute for Educational Administration and Leadership – Jamaica
Abstract
There has been much discourse resulting from research about the way in which leadership is cultivated in organisations. Emanating from these discussions, particularly in educational institutions, researchers continue to identify and recommend best practices. However, leadership remains a challenge and further investigation is needed to address this challenge. A number of scholars have proposed varied types of leadership in an effort to share leadership roles, build capacities and strengthen organisational effectiveness. One such type is distributed leadership which could help to shift the centre of attention in organisations from individual leaders to a collective process involving the contributions and interactions of multiple individuals. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how distributed leadership could be infused in a college to improve the various processes and build capacities for personal and professional development as well as organisational effectiveness. This quantitative study seeks to answer two main questions: How do staff members perceive the current leadership practice of managers in the selected college, and how could the selected college infuse distributed leadership into its management approach to its advantage? Through convenience sampling, approximately fifty staff members were selected for participation in this study and participants responded to these questions through a researcher designed questionnaire. This research provides valuable information regarding distributed leadership that can be used to make generalisations within the specified context and the outcomes are being put forward for enhanced decision-making within the college.
Keywords: Distributed leadership; Capacity building; Organisational effectiveness
CC-BY-NC-ND
The Bridge: Journal of Educational Research-Informed Practice 