Constructs of Leadership and Differing Institutional Contexts: Comparative Data From Germany and the United States

• In Event: Park Central Roundtable Session 4
  In Roundtable Session: Framing and Comparing Leadership Internationally

Abstract

Research emphasizes the effects of transformational leadership (TL) in schools. However, how principals lead their schools is dependent on the institutional context, and an international comparison of TL might be susceptible to construct bias. The goal of the paper was to test whether the construct underlying TL is identical in two countries with very different institutional settings (USA, Germany). Teachers completed a well-established transformational leadership survey. More general leadership practices were perceived similarly, practices related to improvement or autonomy differed. Principal axis factoring revealed varying factor structures that could be related to the institutional context. The results suggested that the construct of TL contained behaviors that were only marginally related to the practice of principals in Germany.

Author

• Esther Dominique Klein, University Duisburg - Essen