ABSTRACT
The papers in this volume are highly critical of the traditional notions of leadership in education. Central among their criticisms is the contention that these traditional, mostly functionalist, accounts of leadership assume erroneously that organizational hierarchies are inevitable. The functionalist view, implicit in much of the recent educational management literature, deems administrative hierarchy to be a technical necessity, essential for the efficient and rational realization of organizational goals. The functionalist sees leadership in terms of a process which involves the exercise of organizational authority, an authority which is believed to derive its legitimacy from the overriding concerns of efficiency and effectiveness. Such instrumentalism assumes leadership to be neutral with respect to particular organizational goals, concerned solely with the most efficient means for the realization of the given organizational ends. Leadership is regarded as a function of the most rational arrangement of social activities and relations. The authors of the papers in this volume deny that in education such organizational neutrality, and an absolute means-ends distinction, is either empirically feasible or morally defensible. Thus the functionalist accounts of educational leadership are criticized both for portraying an inaccurate picture of educational organizations and for presenting a normative view of leadership which is inappropriate for the educational enterprise.
