Leaders in Succession: Rotation in International School Administration

By Patrick Lee

Planning leadership rotation is a strategy that many business organizations adopt. The reasons for implementing this strategy can be diverse. Their primary goal is to make positive change and improvement, leading to greater effectiveness and higher profitability. However, this strategy can have both positive and negative impacts to the organization depending on how the strategy is perceived and received by employees. The findings show that leadership rotation serves as an effective tool to improve schoolwork culture and outcomes, especially when supported by transformational leadership models. The research study shows that the rotation of leaders over a three- to five-year period did bring the school new ideas and creativity for school programs and activities. While the context of this study was a private international school in Hong Kong, the overall findings are considered applicable for business organizations of any type.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tellwell Talent
• Release date: Apr 22, 2021
• ISBN: 9780228855156

Patrick Lee

Patrick Lee lives in Michigan. He is the author of The Breach, Ghost Country, and Deep Sky.

Book preview

Leaders in

Succession

Rotation in International School Administration

Patrick Lee

Leaders in Succession: Rotation in International School Administration

Copyright © 2021 by Patrick Lee

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Tellwell Talent

www.tellwell.ca

ISBN

978-0-2288-5514-9 (Paperback)

978-0-2288-5515-6 (eBook)

Recommendations

The world of international schooling has experienced remarkable and unprecedented growth over the past decade and none of this could have happened without the supreme and largely undocumented, efforts and skills of school leaders and management teams from around the world. One such leader is Dr Patrick Lee, for over a quarter of a century the Director of Delia Group of Schools, Hong Kong. Eventually, Dr Lee was overseeing seven international schools, from kindergartens to secondary; multicultural, inclusive and professional establishments offering Canadian international curricula.

This book by Dr Lee is in many respects the outcome of that unique professional experience. One can read the book for what it says about leadership rotation, school improvement, leadership development, school community enhancement, staff retention, leadership styles, school culture, educational inclusivity, and organizational effectiveness and efficiency. One can also read it as an exemplary qualitative study into the problem of balancing leadership and organizational stability with leadership and organisational dynamism and responsiveness.

However, what can truly be gained from this book is rare insight into not only the challenges of leading a dynamic, multicultural international school (K-12) operation, but also the passion, emotional intelligence and commitment which such demands from its leaders.

Dr. Stephen M. Whitehead (Editor, Educational Digest International)

Having personally known Dr. Patrick Lee’s late father, Mr. Peter C.C. Lee, and having been his subordinate for more than two decades, leader rotation has become familiar experience since leaders of all levels are subject to be rotated around the different schools under Mr. Peter CC Lee’s governance.

Dr. Lee has been a close friend and colleague of mine, as well as one of the crucial figures in the same educational enterprise. We have both been driven to stretch ourselves beyond our comfort zones on different faculties in diverse school sites. This has given us ample opportunities to experience the pros and cons of leader rotation.

This book depicts Dr. Lee’s personal experience with running a highly regarded international school in Hong Kong, with how leader rotation has been practised, and several insightful initiatives that have been carried out successfully.

Dr. K. P. Chan (Director, Delia Group of Schools)

Dedication & Acknowledgement

This book is dedicated to my late father, Peter C. C. Lee. He was a true leader in the education field. My dad devoted his life to education. It was my dad who pushed me to stretch my limits in the journey of learning.

I would also like to acknowledge everyone in my family. I could not have completed this without their support and encouragement. Thank you all for putting up with me.

Abstract

Planning leadership rotation is a strategy that many business organizations adopt. The reasons for implementing this strategy can be diverse, but their primary goal is to make positive change and improvement, leading to greater effectiveness and higher profitability. This is not any different in for-profit international schools where leadership rotation is expected to improve the quality of school programs, work culture and student enrolment. However, this strategy can have both positive and negative impacts to the organization depending on how the strategy is perceived and received by employees. Informed by theories of leadership, this case study aimed to explore the changes arising from the implementation of a system of periodic rotation of leaders at a private international school in Hong Kong. The qualitative research was specifically designed to discover how school staff perceive and respond to this system of leadership rotation, what issues would arise for experienced staff as a consequence of this rotation model, and its overall impact on the school management systems. The findings show that leadership rotation serves as an effective tool to improve schoolwork culture and outcomes, especially when supported by transformational leadership models. Although the participants’ feelings toward leadership rotation were divided, the research study shows that the rotation of leaders over a three- to five-year period did result in new ideas and creativity for school programs and activities. While the context of this study was a private international school in Hong Kong, the overall findings are considered applicable for business organizations of any type.

Table of Contents

Chapter I - Introduction to the Study

Chapter II - Literature Review

Chapter III - Research Methods

Chapter IV - Findings and Evaluation

Chapter V - Discussion of the Findings

List of Tables

Table 1: Participant Demographics

Table 2: Positive and Negative Experiences

Table 3: The Change in Teachers’ Identity

Table 4: Participants’ Feelings About the Next Leadership Rotation

Table 5: Ideal Interval for Leadership Rotation

Table 6: Staff Turnover Rate 2015–2017

Table 7: Student Enrolment 2015–2017

Chapter I

Introduction to the Study

Business organizations often transform to keep up with their changing customer behaviour, demands, expectations, competitor behaviour, new governmental regulations, new technologies, economic and political developments, appointment of new senior management, company relocation, and new ideas to deliver services more efficiently (Buchanan & Huczynski, 2017). Organizational restructuring is common when organizations transform, including bringing in new leaders to facilitate change and improvement (Bratton & Gold, 2017). It is deployed as a strategic tool to improve productivity and profitability (Knights & Willmott, 2015). As part of a business’s succession plan, leadership rotation is not uncommon in the business world. Organizations rotate leaders to lead new changes and to bring in fresh ideas in the hope of improving productivity and profitability.

A leadership rotation is sometimes needed in an educational institution. Low student and staff retention can be a sign of the educational institution not progressing. In Ontario, Canada, school boards rotate principals regularly, usually about every three to five years (Ottawa Catholic School Board, 2014). They rotate principals to bring new ideas to their school programs and to provide opportunities for teachers to work under different leaderships (Hargreaves & Fink, 2011). The strategy is used in order to bring about successful school improvement (Hargreaves, Moore, Fink, & White, 2003). A leadership change may have a great impact on the educational institution’s programs, culture and student enrolment.

Rotation of leaders helps regulate leadership succession. Succession is a process used by an organization that marks the departure of a leader of a particular department and the entry of a successor from another department of the organization (White & Cooper, 2011). The quality and style of leadership of any business helps form its character (Sergiovanni & Green, 2014). A change in leadership may result in a change of organizational culture. Managing leadership change is equally important in schools (Leithwood, Sun, & Pollock, 2017) as it can impact school plans, policies and procedures. A change of leadership may also bring school improvements and may benefit all stakeholders.

This study aims to explore the changes and improvements that may be experienced by a Hong Kong private international school, Delia School of Canada, as a consequence of implementing leadership rotation as part of the school’s wider business strategy for organizational development. This leadership rotation model may benefit the school by facilitating a review of processes and procedures, enhancing the professional learning of the academic leaders, and increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of the organization.

Background of the Problem

Delia School of Canada, Hong Kong, is an international school organized, led and run on business principles. As part of a larger private conglomerate, Delia School of Canada is required to produce a profit and operate in a cost-effective way. However, as an educational establishment, its remit is much wider than to simply profit accumulation, as Delia School of Canada must also follow Canadian and international rulings on curriculum, staff employment, and relevant regulations. This makes it even more important that the school have high-quality leadership and appropriate succession planning in its operation.

All international schools in Hong Kong are required to have a Hong Kong Education Bureau approved curriculum to follow (Hong Kong Education Bureau, 2017). When these schools run a particular curriculum, there are rules and regulations that they must follow. International schools are only allowed to work within the frame set by the education authorities. There have been a good number of individuals or organizations interested in international education around the globe. In the Asian region alone, there are a great number of international schools running many different curricula. Many of the schools run International Baccalaureate (IB) programs. Others offer American, British, Australian, Canadian, Singaporean, Swiss, German, and Norwegian curricula. The variety of curricula offered by these schools is wide. Hong Kong, with a population of seven-million people, has at least 100 international schools that run curricula other than the local curriculum