Executive Leadership and the Coupling Nature of the Relationship Between Multi-Academy Trusts and Member Schools

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 12
  In Roundtable Session: Alternative Models of Leadership

Abstract

This paper draws on coupling and systems frameworks to investigate the relationships between two English Multi-Academy Trusts (MATs) and their member schools in how decisions are made around budgeting, recruitment processes, and curriculum and assessment. Using qualitative data sources such as key MAT policy documents and interviews with 10 executive leaders, this paper demonstrates how MAT executives perceive their own role in affecting local improvement efforts by managing relationships within their changing complex institutional environments. Findings demonstrate when and under what conditions MAT executives, as primary agents of coupling, attempted to create greater consistency across schools either through centralisation or deliberate alignment of school improvement planning, in their efforts to improve organisational effectiveness.

Author

• Michalis Constantinides, University of Waikato