3.2 Online course offerings: issues of retention and professional  (Page 2/8)

Relationship skills are vital for educational leaders. Leaders must use relationship skills to build consensus, develop social capital, and shape the critical mass that is necessary to affect change in the school setting. Relationship skills are also necessary to shape organizational culture. Sharif (2007) found that social relationships directly influenced quality of life. Effective educational leaders use relationship skills to form mutually beneficial professional working relationships whose needs are aligned with organizational objectives. These professional relationships can then collectively and collaboratively influence organizational culture and thereby enhance the quality of life for members of the organization. Leadership preparation programs should include instructional activities designed to develop professional relationship skills.

The articulation of defining relationship oriented behavior varies. For instance, Gorton, Alston, and Snowden (2007) defined relationship oriented behavior as behavior valued by leaders who concentrate not only on the task at hand but also on their relationship with their subordinates. Lunenburg and Ornstein (2004) defined relationship behavior as leadership that engages in two-way communication by providing social-emotional support, “psychological strokes,” and facilitation behaviors (p. 143).

In general, education leadership preparation programs place great emphasis on the development and maintenance of interpersonal relationship skills. Harris (2006) emphasized that in the world of education leadership, “relationship building is vital” (p. 79). Fullan (2003) pointed to the campus principal as the person who must establish a climate of relationship trust within the organization to effectively tackle tough issues. Bryk and Schneider (2002) also focused on the school principal as the key person in developing relational trust with his/her campus faculty and staff. They identified four dimensions or criteria on which they based their measure of relational trust. The four were respect, competence, personal regard for others, and integrity.

The traditional higher education classroom uses various teaching techniques to allow students to experience relationship building activities while in the classroom and during planned field experiences. Many education leadership textbooks contain activities that are designed to promote relationship building and maintenance techniques. For instance, discussion groups are often formed to allow student expression or reaction to topics presented in a verbal or written format with classmates. Students actively participate in debates, present research findings, use questions to both inquire and inspire, react to practitioner’s scenarios, create vision statements, plan together, form consensus, explain and demonstrate a concept, collectively work through the decision making process, use dialogue and non-verbal language to work through common situations experienced by practicing educational leaders, and more. These activities are designed specifically to expose personal traits such as those described by Johnson (2006) as follows: