1.4 Theories of educational management  (Page 16/29)

The main features of interpretive, or qualitative, research echo those of the subjective models:

1.They focus on the perceptions of individuals rather than the whole organisation. The subject’s individual perspective is central to qualitative research(Morrison, 2002, p. 19).

2.Interpretive research is concerned with the meanings, or interpretations, placed on events by participants.“All human life is experienced and constructed from a subjectiveperspective”(Morrison, 2002, p. 19).

3.Research findings are interpreted using“grounded”theory.“Theory is emergent and must arise from particular situations; it should be“grounded”on data generated by the research act. Theory should not proceed research but follow it”(Cohen et al, 2000, p. 23).

Postmodern leadership

Subjective theorists prefer to stress the personal qualities of individuals rather than their officialpositions in the organization. The subjective view is that leadership is a product of personal qualities and skills and notsimply an automatic outcome of official authority.

The notion of post-modern leadership aligns closely with the principles of subjective models. Keough and Tobin(2001, p. 2) say that“current postmodern culture celebrates the multiplicity of subjective truths as defined by experience andrevels in the loss of absolute authority.”They identify several key features of postmodernism (Keough&Tobin, 2001):

• Language does not reflect reality.
• Reality does not exist; there are multiple realities.
• Any situation is open to multiple interpretations.
• Situations must be understood at local level with particular attention to diversity.

(p. 11-13)

Sackney and Mitchell (2001) stress the centrality of individual interpretation of events while alsocriticising visionary leadership.“Leaders must pay attention to the cultural and symbolic structure of meaning construed byindividuals and groups . . . postmodern theories of leadership take the focus off vision and place it squarely on voice”(p. 13-14). Instead of a compelling vision articulated by leaders, there aremultiple voices, and diverse cultural meanings.

The limitations of subjective models

Subjective models are prescriptive approaches in that they reflect beliefs about the nature of organizations.They can be regarded as“anti-theories”in that they emerged as a reaction to the perceived limitations of the formal models.Although subjective models introduce several important concepts into the theory of educational management, they have foursignificant weaknesses, which serve to limit their validity:

1.Subjective models are strongly normative in that they reflect the attitudes and beliefs of their supporters.Willower (1980) goes further to describe them as“ideological.”“[Phenomenological] perspectives feature major ideologicalcomponents and their partisans tend to be true believers when promulgating their positions rather than offering them for criticalexamination and test”(p. 7).

Subjective models comprise a series of principles rather than a coherent body of theory:“Greenfield sets out to destroy the central principles of conventional theory butconsistently rejects the idea of proposing a precisely formulated alternative”(Hughes&Bush, 1991, p. 241).