Lena Wilhelmson

Transformative learning in joint leadership

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to show what the leaders themselves regard as the working ingredients in their mutual work situation that help to facilitate personal development.Design/methodology/approach – In the paper data were collected through semi‐structured interviews with 14 leaders at low and middle management levels in different lines of business within the private and public sector. The analysis of the learning processes draws on the theory of transformative learning.Findings – The paper revealed that joint leadership, according to the leaders, could provide the leaders themselves with a basis of personal development and learning. This depends on common core values, a supportive relationship and common work processes as well as complementarity, joint sense making and critical reflection.Research limitations/implications – The implies that joint leadership provides possibilities of transformative learning through examination of different points of view, through explicitly talking about habits...

Collective learning: Interaction and a shared action arena

Purpose: The paper argues for a theoretical contribution that deals with the detection of collective learning. The aim is to examine and clarify the genesis processes of collective learning. The em ...

Functioning at the Edge of Knowledge – a Study of Learning Processes in New Product Development

Purpose – In the telecommunication industry, companies gain a competitive edge through the competence of their employees, making issues of learning critical. The study aims to identify specific learning processes necessary when working at the edge both of ones own knowledge and of that of the branch.Design/methodology/approach – This research draws on theories of learning through experience and interaction, and looks at software development engineers working at the interface between tele‐ and datacom within one company, Ericsson, Sweden. Data were collected in 2000 in four software‐engineering teams, through semi‐structured interviews, reflection groups and observations. Data were analyzed in an interplay between empirical findings and theoretical concepts.Findings – The research identified three kinds of learning processes in which employees engage to accomplish their tasks: learning basic knowledge; co‐creating new knowledge; and learning changing‐knowledge. Learning basic knowledge was a frequent retu...

Dialogue Meetings as Nonformal Adult Education in a Municipal Context

This article discusses the prospects of fostering dialogue-competent behaviour, an important ingredient for supporting learning in discourse. The theory of transformative learning is the theoretical departure for a study of group discussions in a municipal context. A qualitative approach was used; individual interviews and field experiments with dialogue meetings were the main data collection methods. Several conditions and processes were identified as important for learning possibilities in small-group communication: participant perspectives, dialogue competence, discursive power, gender conversational styles, discourse types and prospects for learning, and perspective change. These findings have implications for individual and collective transformative learning. Single individuals could, through their own reflections in, as well as on, group conversation, experience personal transformative learning. Collective transformative learning is seen as an active and explicit transmutation that forges several different perspectives into a new alloy of knowledge. One conclusion is that with some training in dialogue competence, individuals and groups may be more likely to experience transformative learning.

Beyond being present : learning-oriented leadership in the daily work of middle managers

Purpose – This paper aims to contribute to the understanding of learning-oriented leadership as being integrated in managers’ daily work. The particular focus is on managers’ efforts to change how work is carried out through indirect acts of influence. In their daily work, managers influence the organisation’s learning conditions in ways that go beyond face-to-face interaction. Neither the influencer nor those influenced are necessarily aware that they are engaged in learning processes. Design/methodology/approach – The research was part of a larger case study. The data set comprised interviews with nine middle managers about ways of working during a period of organisational change. A learning-theoretical analysis model was used to categorise managerial acts of influence. The key concept concerned pedagogic interventions. Findings – Two qualitatively different routes for indirect influence were identified concerning social and organisational structures: one aligning, that narrows organisational members’ d...

Bridging Boundaries: Middle Managers´ Pedagogic Interventions as Technology Leaders.

The aim of this chapter is to describe interventions that middle managers make when they strive, as technology leaders, to bridge intra-organizational boundaries in order to support new agile ways of working. Another aim is to discuss how these interventions may be understood as pedagogic interventions.By using qualitative methods in a case study approach concerning the software communication industry, the findings reveal interventions that focused on alignment through collaboration, interdependency, flexibility, and communication. These kinds of interventions are regarded here as an example of pedagogic managerial leadership. Managers take on development and learning as main collective work tasks because they want to influence knowledge creation and are aware of thelearning dimension of their work tasks.The aim of this chapter is to describe interventions that middle managers make when they strive, as technology leaders, to bridge intra-organizational boundaries in order to support new agile ways of working. Another aim is to discuss how these interventions may be understood as pedagogic interventions.By using qualitative methods in a case study approach concerning the software communication industry, the findings reveal interventions that focused on alignment through collaboration, interdependency, flexibility, and communication. These kinds of interventions are regarded here as an example of pedagogic managerial leadership. Managers take on development and learning as main collective work tasks because they want to influence knowledge creation and are aware of thelearning dimension of their work tasks.

Joint principalship: a potential support for democratic practice in schools

The aim of this paper is to discuss the apparent loss of potential for enhancing democratic practice in schools. The findings of previous research about joint principalship stand in contrast to recent changes to the law that regulates the work of principals. Three examples of successful joint principalship were used as illustrations to illuminate how joint principals may support democratic practice by influencing teachers and pupils. In these examples, several qualities of the ways of working and their consequent achievements emerged: the coordinating process between the principals, productive sharing, role models, the importance of relationships and the focus on pedagogic issues. In each of the three examples, joint principalship was found to promote democratic practice by serving as a model of democratic cooperation. The conclusion is that the current Education Act weakens the possibility of achieving one of its own main goals – the ‘democracy assignment’ – by hindering the practice of joint principalship.

The shared principalship: invitation at the top

Abstract A school principal’s workload is recognised as being heavy, with an imbalance between demands and resources. This paper contributes to the development of collective leadership. The principalship constellations of six schools in Sweden were studied with the aim of strengthening the current knowledge about structures and experiences of shared principalship. The empirical basis is qualitative data from interviews with principals and vice-principals. The analytical focus was on how the sharing structures were organised and how the shared principalship was experienced. The results point to a considerable variation in the organisational structures of shared principalship. Despite the type of model, form and constellation, the principals and vice-principals voiced a striking sense of relief in not feeling alone in their duties, as problems and troubles became manageable. An intensified interaction level in the principalship constellation created opportunities to develop competence. Theoretically, this study broadens the invited leadership concept to include horizontal invitations across unit boundaries between principals in different units within the same school. The knowledge contribution of this study is useful in discussing the legal possibilities for shared principalship, which may be especially relevant in times when the Swedish school system is being criticised for not delivering good student outcomes.

Shared Principalship: The Perspective of Close Subordinate Colleagues

ABSTRACT This article presents a study of five schools with shared principalship. It contributes knowledge about how shared principalship is experienced by people who work closely (“close subordinates”) with the shared principalship constellations. Data consists of 20 semi-structured interviews. Close subordinates describe that the shared principalship meant a reasonable workload for their principals and welcomed their level of accessibility. Confidence in the leader collaboration was heightened if close subordinates were able to witness that collaboration in action with their own eyes. The findings are discussed in relation to the conditions introduced by current school legislation in Sweden.

Categories of learning-oriented leadership: a potential contribution to the school context

This paper presents knowledge about learning-oriented leadership as part of managers’ daily work. The aim is to contribute findings from an empirical study in the software communication industry and discuss their potential contribution to leadership in the school context. Through an empirical and learning-theory-based analysis of managerial acts of influence, learning-oriented leadership is suggested as an analytical concept. In the educational leadership literature concerning instructional, pedagogic or learner-centred leadership, the interpretation of each concept is shifting and thus unstable. The studying of a non-school empirical context contributes to an analytical separation of the pedagogical leadership task from the pedagogical core task, which may be useful when returning to the school context. The learning-oriented categorisation of managerial acts of influence presents different routes for managers – including school principals – to intervene in their employees’ learning and competence on both individual and collective levels. Here, we offer an alternative suggestion for how to understand what principals do to influence the work in their organisations.