Optimizing Middle Managers' Performance During Crises: Some Practical Transactional and Transformational Leadership Strategies for Schools

Introduction

The driving force behind any society is change. Kalkan et al. (2020) and Gordon et al. (2021) emphasized the necessity of individuals and organizations in employing effective leadership styles that may influence people to change and grow with the demands necessary to achieve organization-wide goals. Equally important, Nanjundeswaraswamy and Swamy (2014) asserted that a leadership style is a representation of the method adopted, to guide subordinate’s support in driving the achievement of the organization’s goals. Undoubtedly, the style itself must be carefully considered before its adaptation in practice. Subramaniam (2022) warned that the monotonous traditional autocratic leadership styles in use within some schools and organizations are no longer effective styles of leadership, especially in a crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic. In such instances, the organization is forced to reinvent itself due to unforeseen developments. Therefore, the versatility of the leadership style adopted in schools by middle managers must be effective.

This chapter proposes the possibility of the transformational and transactional leadership styles as solutions to the challenges many middle managers encounter in crises. As recent research such as Gigliotti (2020) and Ayyildiz and Baltaci (2020) revealed that a crisis can be portrayed as an event or occurrence that interferes or restricts the normal mode of operations within any group, micro or macro. Therefore, a crisis usually demands immediate alternative measures of operation or leadership to drive performance. On the other hand, Wisittigars and Siengthai (2019) define a crisis as any situation that is deemed unforeseen, perilous, and exudes great uncertainty that disrupts normalcy within any group. Similarly, Brinkmann et al. (2021) further add to the debate explaining a crisis as being related to happenings characterized by big data impacting leadership channels coupled with great uncertainty. Consequently, within schools, crises may impact leadership from internal occurrences and management failures: or externally resulting from uncertainties arising from the effects. Hence, the leadership and leadership styles used to charter and guide an organization’s success are crucial in alleviating the impact of crises and the achievement of targeted performance goals.

The literature has evidenced that middle managers operating within schools are faced with several difficulties in driving high performance when there is a crisis. An illustration of this can be seen in the way crises impact the personal and professional duties and responsibilities of both the middle managers and subordinates. Consequently, many challenges are brought to bear on the practice of middle managers. For example, Hulme et al. (2021) identified issues in middle management in some United Kingdom (UK) schools, such as lack of collaboration, creativity, proper support systems, and problems adapting to the fluid changes for operation to deal with the demands of a crisis situation. Similarly, a case study done in Italy by Ferri et al. (2020) also emphasized the impact of social difficulties, teaching practice challenges, and technological inadequacies compounding complications in the role of middle managers. Martinez and Broemmel (2021) further report the same challenges besetting middle managers in the United States of America (USA). Bent-Cunningham and Mauzad (2021) likewise, corroborated that middle manager, in Jamaica, were equally affected by the same difficulties identified in the UK and the USA. Finally, in the Bahamas, middle managers serving in schools have battled similar obstacles in influencing subordinates in achieving high performance targets (Miah, 2009).