Browsing by Author "Nenonen, Katja"

The increase in changes and demands related to the management of the education sector during the last decades has clearly correlated with an increased workload for the principal's profession. The work is diversified and fragmented into a wide range of areas. With this, it has become clear that the principal is not able to lead an educational institution alone and management practices have had to be developed in such a way that they better serve the needs of educational institutions and communities. The aim of this study has been to find out how the principals experience and understand the concept of shared leadership in practice and what kind of shared leadership models they have in use in educational institutions, as well as what possible obstacles they see to the implementation of shared leadership in the school. There are some similar studies on principals' views on shared leadership. In general, principals' perceptions of shared leadership are mainly related to the division and delegation of work tasks. However, according to the theoretical background, the deeper idea of shared leadership is related to interactive leadership. Previous studies have found that principals' views on shared leadership as delegation become stronger when interaction decreases in leadership situations. Correspondingly, when the view of shared leadership as delegation decreases, the view of shared leadership as interaction in situations becomes stronger. In a broader sense, management is an interpersonal activity that arises in interaction between individuals. This is how management develops and takes shape during the interaction, and the parties can influence its development. In this study, the research method was qualitative, and the material of the thesis consisted of interviews with seven principals. The data was collected with a semi-structured thematic interview and analyzed with a theory-driven content analysis. The results section of the thesis is based on the theme classifications created in the analysis. As a conclusion of the results of the study, it could be stated that the principals felt that shared leadership was mainly about dividing and delegating tasks, although shared leadership structures aimed at both formal and informal interaction were in use in all schools. All principals considered interactive management to be important and desirable. The principals also strongly connected trust and sharing of expertise and know-how to shared management. Team organization models were used the most as models of shared leadership, of which management teams were used in all schools, in some schools various development teams and grade level groups were used. Six of the organizations that participated in the study used an assistant principal or a vice principal system. The principals saw factors related to the working culture as obstacles to the implementation of shared management, such as not getting used to the operating model of shared management, resource, and human factors, as well as the increase in the workload of the employees and thus the deterioration of work well-being.