LEADERSHIP INFLUENCE QUALITY ENHANCEMENT AT COMMUNITY COLLEGES

Abstract

This study was conducted as an attempt to see the influence of educational leadership on employees for motivating them in quality enhancement mission. The assumption behind it was the need of creative and innovative leadership for motivated and efficient team spirit in quality education. Researcher’s professional experience of above a decade had played inspirational role behind selecting the topic from quality attempts of community colleges. The research questions were obviously centralized in the leadership perceptions and their strategic efforts for imparting quality education. The main purpose of this research was to study and explore the influence of leadership in motivating the employees for improved performance. The philosophical and theoretical support of transformational leadership theory and continuous improvement approach strengthened the research. I gave due emphasis to leadership behaviors, faculty development, promotion of effective team work and practical efforts in real field as well. Those themes of my study were guided by the philosophy ii that transformational leaders inspire and stimulate followers to transcend their own self interests for higher collective purpose, mission or vision. The research adopted interpretative research paradigm with the beliefs that the perceptions of participants and theoretical support with researcher’s understanding could derive meanings through continuous interactions and interpretations. From philosophical stance, I believed that knowledge could be generated on the ground of multiple realities and people’s subjective expressions. I had adopted in- depth interview and field observation as primary sources and the other printed documents and available literatures were taken as the secondary sources. The basic data were collected from twelve participants of three different community colleges with differences. The perceived data were presented and interpreted under various themes via perceptions and efforts in quality enhancement, leadership influence on employees, human resource development and mobilization for institutional strength and shifting threats into opportunities. The roles of leaders were found critically supported by the followers. The differences in the quality of observed research sites were specifically on the ground of formation and implementation of strategies. The findings hinted varied and insufficient attempts of leaders as the prominent cause behind quality deterioration in community colleges. The concluding remarks further encourage college leaders in general and community college leaders in particular to plan and implement farsighted strategies to cope with the ever widening challenges in academia.