THE UNIVERSITY OF HULL An exploration of competency-based leadership development and its application in education exemplified by a case study of the East Riding of Yorkshire Local Authority being a Thesis submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the University of Hull by David Arthur Stork M.A. (Cantab.), M.Ed., F.R.S.A. November 2013 1 An exploration of competency-based leadership development and its application in education Contents List of tables, figures and charts ............................................................................. 3 Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................6 Glossary of acronyms.................................................................................................7 Preamble .............................................................................................................. 10 Chapter 1: Context and background to the research .............................................. 12 Chapter 2: Contextual issues influencing the research ........................................... 20 Chapter 3: Development of a competency based approach to leadership development in the East Riding ............................................................................ 61 Chapter 4: Methodology ..................................................................................... 139 Chapter 5: Results of the field-work ................................................................... 181 Chapter 6: The post-empirical phase: answers to the research questions ............. 224 Chapter 7: Conclusions and implications ............................................................ 244 Appendix 1: Written request to two individuals to take part in pilot interviews ... 254 Appendix 2: Ethics documentation ..................................................................... 256 Annex 1: Comparison between the National Standards for Headship and the East Riding Competency Framework ......................................................................... 267 Annex 2: The East Riding Competency Framework............................................ 297 References .......................................................................................................... 316 2 An exploration of competency-based leadership development and its application in education List of tables, figures and charts Tables Table 2.1: Catchment areas of East Riding Secondary School partnerships...................21 Table 2.2: January 2009 pupil numbers (totals per year group)......................................32 Table 2.3: Summary totals: Primary School Pupil numbers, (East Riding) 1996 – 2013.....................................................................................................................33 Table 2.4: Summary totals: Secondary School Pupil numbers, (East Riding) 1996 - 2013......................................................................................................................33 Table 2.5: a summary of teachers’ traditional career progression compared with current issues...........................................................................................................54 Table 3.1: Development Centre Activities and their manifestation in the East Riding.................................................................................................................75 Table 3.2: Key Features of Development Centres and their manifestation in the East Riding.................................................................................................................75 Table 3.3: Issues in Development Centre usage and how they are addressed in the East Riding:...............................................................................................................76 Table 3.4: The Hay McBer competency clusters reproduced from West-Burnham and O’Sullivan (1996) p. 11...................................................................................................79 Table 3.5: School Management South Competence Framework (reproduced from West-Burnham and O’Sullivan (1996, p.12)......................................80 Table 3.6: The NEAC Competency framework (reproduced from West-Burnham and O’Sullivan (1996) p.13:......................................80 Table 3.7: Characteristics of highly effective headteachers (TTA 1998) reproduced from Male (2000 p.6)....................................................................................82 Table 3.8: Comparison of leadership and management (reproduced from Alimo-Metcalfe and Alban-Metcalfe (2002), p.317 (adapted by them from kotter 1990)...............................................................................87 Table 3.9: A comparison between the original and revised East Riding competency frameworks.................................................................................................95 Table 3.10: The East Riding Competency Framework...................................................96 Table 3.11 The Communication competency from the East Riding Framework...........98 Table 3.12: Myers-Briggs dichotomies.........................................................................109 3 An exploration of competency-based leadership development and its application in education Table 3.13: The competencies and the activities at the LDC which are used to measure them....................................................................................................118 Table 3.14: ER Competencies not related to actions in the Headteacher Standards..................................................................................................126 Table 3.15: competencies, professional standards and their relationship to OFSTED inspection criteria......................................................................................130 Table 4.1: Cohort numbers, March 2008 – May 2009..................................................159 Table 4.2: Proportions of the workforce by gender (ER/National, 2007 GTC)............160 Table 4.3: Staff breakdown by category........................................................................161 Table 4.4: Routes to the Leadership Development Centre (Sample population)..........161 Table 4.5: Numbers and percentage of study population who have changed status.....169 Table 4.6: Current status of those (32) who have progressed in their career following the Centre .....................................................................................................169 Table 4.7: List of reasons for non-progression where progression was at least temporarily precluded (11 individuals).............................................................170 Table 4.8: determination of the proportion of interviewees in each category...............171 Table 5.1: Interviewees’ profile data.............................................................................182 Table 5.2: Interviewees’ characteristics: MBTI profiles and competencies.................183 Table 5.3: Frequency of “self” scores which are below the overall average by competency...............................................................................................................193 Table 6.1 West-Burnham’s taxonomy of the requirements for successful leadership at systems level..................................................................................................................233 Figures Figure 3.1: The relative importance of power, affiliation and achievement in a “good” leader (NCSL)..............................................................................................63 Figure 3.2: A model of effective job performance reproduced from Boyatzis (1982) p.13.......................................................................................................65 Figure 3.3: Better than chance? adapted from Smith (1989)..........................................71 Figure 3.4: Model of Leadership Effectiveness (TTA 1998) adapted from Male (2000 p.7).........................................................................................83 4 An exploration of competency-based leadership development and its application in education Charts: Chart 4.1 Analysis of initial impact responses: Cohorts 1-8 (57) and all delegates (130)...............................................................................................................................163 Chart 4.2a: Distribution of Myers-Briggs personality characteristics...........................165 Chart 4.2b: Myers-Briggs personality type indicators compared..................................165 Chart 4.3: Strengths and Areas for development identified for sample cohort (2007-9) and all LDC delegates (2007-11)....................................................................167 Chart 5.1: Summary of initial impact evaluations 2007-2011 by year: percentage of delegates giving the highest score.................................................................................176 Chart 5.2: Composite results from the follow-up questionnaire...................................185 Chart 5.3: Comparison of strengths and areas for development, all delegates cohorts 1-18..............................................................................................199 Chart 5.4: Strengths/Areas for development (from chart 5.3) shown as operational competencies compared to interpersonal competencies...............................................201 5 An exploration of competency-based leadership