During the apartheid era the South African education system was characterised as being authoritarian, non-consultative and non-participatory. Educational leadership tended to focus on technical and bureaucratic functions of management without integrating the skills of vision building, team building or promoting collaboration and participative management skills. The dawn of a democratic South Africa heralded major transformation in the education policies, systems and practices for all schools. The South African Schools Act places all South Africans firmly on the road to a school based system of education management. Educationalists were faced with a major challenge to transform education towards a participative and collaborative approach with the fundamental goal of promoting effective teaching and learning in all schools. The Task Team on Education Managements report, Changing Management to Manage Change 1996, emphasised that the move to self-management in itself offers no guarantee of positive change. Real transformation will depend upon the nature and quality of internal management. In this connection self-management must be accompanied by an internal devolution of power within the school and in transformational leadership. A transformational style of leadership is significant as this style of leadership embraces a charismatic, visionary, cultural and empowering concept of leadership. Emphasis is given to higher levels of personal commitment towards accomplishing the goals of the organisation. Evidence suggests that transformational leadership in particular is closely associated with both school effectiveness and school improvement (see Clark 1989) What is attempted is an assessment of the extent to which leadership in a primary school may be characterised as transformational. The mentioned school is substantially self-managing and is one which has clearly stated goals related to effectiveness and its mission implies an ongoing concern with continuing improvement. The main findings of the research exhibited a discrepancy between the principal's perception of his leadership style and the perception of the staff regarding the principal's leadership style. The principal perceived his role as leader as being more transformational than transactional while members of the staff believed that the principal was more a transactional leader. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2003.

This study focuses on principals’ understanding and their experiences of leadership and professionalism. The aim is to find out how principals’ understand and experience leadership and professionalism in their schools. Current South African education policy documents encourage visionary leadership, shared decision-making and devolution of authority.These policies focus on democracy and provide the enabling framework for the principals, School Management Team and School Governing Body. Despite these new policies and new structures, the schools are still controlled in a hierarchical top-down manner. The problem is whether these principals understand leadership, and what their view of professionalism entails. The study is qualitatively designed. In-depth interviews and reflective journals were used to collect data. The analyses of the three case studies were interpretive. In this research, the goal was to explore how principals understood and experienced leadership and what their view of professionalism in schools entails. Purposive sampling was used to select participants in the Pietermaritzburg Region of KwaZulu-Natal. The study revealed that leadership was understood as a participatory activity which involved others in decision-making. Principals act as facilitators, mentors, motivators and support structures rather than simply issuing orders and making demands. Principals linked professionalism to high personal and professional standards. The role of relationships, responsibility and professional knowledge were seen as important elements of professionalism. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2012.

Since the beginning of the new democratic regime, South African schools have experienced numerous change innovations in leadership and management. These changes have further brought high levels of complexities in relation to the roles of school principals as school managers and leaders. School principals seem to be overwhelmed by such changes and their complex roles. In order for principals to handle these complex situations they are faced with in the contexts where they are working, literature suggests that they require specialized skills and knowledge which will enable them to deal with their various contexts effectively. Some Professional Development programmes have been put in place to assist principals to better their skills and learn new strategies which will in turn influence and enhance effective teaching and learning in schools. This is a small-scale qualitative study which sought to establish principals’ views on their own professional development needs and support in promoting teacher leadership in schools. Literature is used extensively in this study to understand the need for professional development of principals as well as the need for principals to encourage and empower teachers to become leaders. In order to achieve this, the study uses a small scale qualitative research with in-depth face to face interviews to get the views and perceptions and views of school principals, as participants of the study, regarding the matter. Furthermore, the study employs document analysis as a secondary method to enhance the quality of the research findings in relation to the relevant literature. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2013.

The role of the subject advisors as instructional leaders in South Africa has not been a field which has been given much focus. Few studies have been conducted on the role of the subject advisors even though the international literature shows that in developed countries much research has been done on the role of subject advisors. This study aimed at understanding the role of subject advisors in the South African context using one Education District in KwaZulu-Natal. In 2011 the Department of Basic Education introduced the Guidelines on The Roles and Responsibilities of Education Districts with the aim of addressing the functioning of the education districts. So it is also important to know how the subject advisors understand their roles. This research utilised a qualitative, case study approach. Data was generated through semi-structured interviews. Three subject advisors were the participants of this study. Data was analysed utilising Hallinger and Murphy‘s model of an instructional leader. The findings suggest that the subject advisors understand their roles of enhancing instructional leadership in schools. Through the findings it emerged that subject advisors understand their roles to be supporting educators through the implementation of the curriculum which includes conducting workshops, providing educators with the educator support materials and class visits. Class visits enable the subject advisor to understand what is actually happening in class so that he/she would be able to understand the nature of support that might be needed. There were challenges that the subject advisors experienced as they performed their duties. It emerged through the findings that the subject advisors involved other people in supporting teaching and learning in schools because of different reasons, which included the shortage of subject advisors in certain discipline and also the subjects which were introduced in schools when these subject advisors were already employed. Other challenges which emerged from the findings included the shortage of computers for the subject advisors which forced them to use one computer and also educator support materials like duplicating papers which were used for workshops and the materials that were to be used in the classroom. Recommendations to address these challenges include organising more workshops for subject advisors so that they would have the necessary skills, employing more subject advisors, partnerships with local private sector to address the shortage of educator support materials. / M.Ed. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban 2014.

The advent of democracy in South Africa in 1994 led to new areas of research interest, not least in the field of educational leadership and management (ELM). However, besides the Project on Postgraduate Education Research (PPER), not much research has been conducted to investigate the trends in research conducted by postgraduate students in South African universities. This study therefore aimed to contribute by investigating the trends in postgraduate research in ELM at a selected institution in the decade 1995-2004. Working in the interpretivist paradigm, the study employed an institutional case-study approach to conduct a study of 53 M.Ed. dissertations in the PPER database from the selected institution. The dissertations dealt with ELM topics. Statistical analysis on this dataset and content analyses of three selected dissertations were used to identify trends in education research at the selected institution. Robin Usher’s four concepts of con-text, pre-text, sub-text and inter-text were employed as a framework within which to interpret the findings. From the analysis it is evident that the first ten years of the democratic era in South Africa witnessed a change in the demographic profile of postgraduate research. The trends are that Black students completed more dissertations followed by Indian, White and Coloured students; there are more dissertations from males than females, although by the end of the decade the number of woman writing dissertations had increased significantly; research of ELM is mostly qualitative in approach and of small-scale studies; dissertation topics cover a range of five ELM areas of interest, with few authors exploring the con-text of ELM within the broader socio-political context of the decade under consideration. / M.Ed. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban 2012.

Leadership development is very important in business and much is often said about ‘growing’ leaders in business organisations. Leadership development cannot be achieved in one training course or programme, but should rather be an everyday practice of existing leaders. Leader development concentrates on individual leader development, enrichment or attainment of within-person competence while leadership development concentrates on relational development. This paper addresses and outlines how an all-inclusive method to leadership development and succession planning is needed for the employees of the Eastern Cape Treasury. It also looks at the willingness of the existing leadership in government to coach and mentor the youth of today to take on a leadership role when the current leaders exit the market. The head office in Bhisho for the Eastern Cape Treasury has 390 employees and in total, when combined with district offices around the Eastern Cape, there are 454. The questionnaire was sent out to 80 employees and 55 of those were filled and returned to the researcher. The targeted employees were those in the following positions: Administrative Officer, Assistant Director, Deputy Director, Director and Chief Director. The empirical results though showed that Autocratic Leadership and Satisfaction with Compensation Package had no correlation with Leadership development, whereas Organisational Culture, Senior Management Support and Participative Leadership Style showed positive correlation with Leadership development success. Implementing the recommendations might help with improving leadership development in the Provincial Treasury.

Sustaining competitiveness requires organisations to continuously reinvent themselves, consider both external influences as well as internal risk that may affect the company as a market leader. Organisations that have acknowledged that a relationship between engaged employees and business success exists, would seek ways to foster and facilitate the engagement of their workers through their leadership. The primary objective of the study was to determine whether a relationship exists between values-based leadership and employee engagement. The aim was to contribute to the quality of leadership values, behaviour and influence at Coca-Cola Beverages South Arica by gaining a deeper understanding of leadership and employee engagement. The theoretical study explored the definitions, key concepts, benefits and outcomes of both values based leadership and employee engagement. It provided a detailed literature review of the role of leadership in creating a values based organisation, what values-based leadership encompasses and its relationship with employee engagement. The theoretical overview highlighted that leadership is an influential factor in employee engagement and the extent to which employees feel valued and connected to the organisation’s goals. The theoretical overview further confirmed that leadership values, behaviour and influence are interrelated and exert an influence on employee engagement, thereby strengthening the fact that there is a relationship between values-based leadership and employee engagement. A structured web-based survey, with a questionnaire, was used to corroborate the theoretical findings and to assess employees’ perceptions of the prevalence of values–based leadership and employee engagement. A sample of 269 respondents was selected to participate in the empirical study and 167 responded to the survey, which yielded a 62% per cent response rate. The key findings of the study indicate that strong correlations exist between leadership values, behaviours and influence and that these concepts were interrelated. Furthermore, the study confirmed that values–based leadership was an important factor in employee engagement and specifically in terms of the physical, emotional and social components of engagement and less so in terms of the cognitive component. Values-based leadership and engagement were identified as critical factors in ensuring that organisations are well equipped to deal with the current volatile economic environment and to consider ways to maintain and accelerate their profitability and competitiveness in order to remain a sustainable business. It is strong values that underpin the performance of highly successful and sustainable organisations; coupled with effective leadership as a key driving force.

This study is located within the field of Educational Leadership and Management and the research was undertaken in a boys’ private boarding school in Grahamstown, South Africa. Learner Leadership within the ELM field of study, has gained much interest in recent times and as the process of democratisation within schools continues to take place, it is important that research efforts be more focused in this area. The lack of learner voice initiatives within South African schools, in spite of policies being in place that encourage it, has created the impression that learner leadership is far more about rhetoric than actual practice. This appears to be the case in private education as well, owing to practices that are reliant on hierarchy and tradition to cement their position within these schools. It was with this in mind that a formative peer mentoring intervention was put in place in a boarding house at St Andrew’s College, a private boys’ school in Grahamstown, South Africa, with the object of developing authentic leadership in a boarding house context. This study was framed by Cultural Historical Activity Theory and sought to investigate how a guided learner leadership programme could foster authentic leadership in a boys’ boarding school context. The intervention consisted of three phases: 1) a pre-intervention questionnaire; 2) a Mentoring Course, during which Grade 12 learners were trained how to be mentors; and 3) a Mentoring Programme, during which Grade 12 learners were each allocated a Grade 8 learner to mentor during the course of the year. Data was collected during all three phases of the intervention and said data was obtained via questionnaires, interviews and from notes kept in an observation journal. The data was analysed inductively and later by using Cultural Historical Activity Theory, which acted as a lens through which data was interpreted. The findings reflected that learners responded well to the Mentoring Course and that they participated as active agents of change. It was during the Mentoring Programme, where contradictions became apparent and where the default to practices associated with hierarchy and tradition became evident. The Mentoring Programme did reflect some positive results, such as learners taking more ownership of the Programme and becoming critical of their own practice as mentors. This led to the further take-up of the Mentoring Programme in other boarding houses at St Andrew’s College after the intervention, and the course continues to grow and improve. My recommendations include that broader research be undertaken generally, to understand the role that tradition and hierarchy play, particularly in private schools, so that more authentic learner leadership can be put in place, and to conduct a longitudinal study to establish the success of the Mentoring Programme at St Andrew’s College specifically, over time.

objective of this research is mainly to determine the relationship between leadership, emotional intelligence and organisational performance in state owned agencies to contribute to the debate on the role of government agencies with the South African society. The study aims to contribute to scholarly research which deals with performance related issues in the public sector.This study is however, not addressing other issues such as training needs of employees in government agencies, intelligence quotient, spiritual intelligence, corruption and ethics management. In keeping with one of the objectives of the study, a detailed review of literature was conducted in order to clearly define leadership (both transformational and transactional), emotional intelligence and organisational performance, and provide substantive reasons for the need for leaders with emotional intelligence in government agencies. The description of existing knowledge also provides outcomes of previous research pertaining to improvement of overall organisational performance. This study set out to determine the leadership approach and the level of emotional intelligence amongst the leadership sample. The research methodology employed in the study made use of a positivistic paradigm and was conducted by means of a qualitative study with careful description, analysis, interpretation and evaluation of data for the purpose of obtaining information and relevant data. The study objectives, appropriate conclusions and proposals are addressed based on the role that the two leadership approaches, linked to emotional intelligence plays with regard to organisational performance. This will ultimately enable the researcher to provide a framework for consideration during the selection of senior and executive staff members. Ultimately the recommendations made may contribute to the design of future practices aimed at improving public services in the long run in achieving the long term goals as set out in the National Development Plan.

The present study commences with an exposition of the problem statement with reference to the influence that school principals' perceptions have on outcomes based education and the implementation there off. A study of the relevant literature in connection to outcomes based education as well as "tutor leadership" is conducted. This literature study will show the change that outcomes based education has on the role and tasks of educators and principals. The qualitative research method as well as a detailed background of the study will be described. An analysis of data accumulated during focus group interviews and semi-structured interviews lead to the compilation of definitive categories and sub-categories in the research. Finally a specific conclusion is reached regarding the influence that school principals' perceptions have on outcomes based education and certain recommendations are made for further research. / Educational Studies / M. Ed. (Education Management)