The Competent Head

A Job Analysis Of Headteachers' Tasks And Personality Factors

Dilum Jirasinghe, Geoffrey Lyons

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2004
• ISBN:
  9781135717094
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Pedagogía
• Subtopic: Educación general

This text provides an evaluation of headteachers' tasks, including categories and specific tasks. It also contains a list of heads' preferred personality characteristics, indicating their favourite ways of working, leadership styles and team roles.

Part I
Rationale and Framework

The imposition of new tasks and responsibilities upon those who lead schools has been such that in order to deal effectively with current reforms it is necessary that school leaders develop and use a range of managerial skills and behaviours. The latter may be far removed from those headteacher attributes and skills which have emerged from much previous research into school management, e.g. the head’s functions polarized into professional and administrative leadership.

The job of headteacher is changing significantly. In these circumstances it is appropriate to provide an accurate description of the behaviours and attributes underpinning headship at the present time. Thus approaches to training, management development, selection and recruitment of headteachers may need to be recast, first to be of support to headteachers at the present time, and second to be more accurate, objective and lead to successful long term outcomes.

Management competencies are put forward in this book as an approach to describe those behaviours and attributes comprising effective headship. Such competencies can be objectively assessed, enabling an accurate evaluation of a headteacher’s current or potential job performance and prove crucial in underpinning management development, training, selection and recruitment.

New and different tools and techniques will be needed to identify accurately the ‘emerging’ competencies underpinning job performance at the current time. In selecting a methodology which is sufficiently sophisticated to identify the competencies, and in ensuring that the technique is replicable for others to emulate, a systematic process known as job analysis is adopted here.

Job analysis is widely used in non-educational employment sectors as important to a greater understanding of managerial jobs. It has not previously been used in such a consistent manner, and with such a large sample, with headteachers as in this book.

Part I of the book examines what job analysis and a competence-based approach can offer education management, and explores the underpinning rationale and framework behind each of these concepts. Part I is in two chapters. Chapter 1 reviews job analysis, while Chapter 2 discusses the major issues surrounding management competencies: conceptualizing competence, selection of a suitable approach to competence, and measuring and assessing competence. Those who at this stage do not require the detail of the theoretical underpinning to the approaches treated here, should move to Chapter 3 where the research data gathered by job analysis is reported.

Chapter 1
Job Analysis

Introduction

This chapter describes and discusses job analysis and its relevance for today’s managers in the education sector. It offers practical advice on the conduct of job analysis; sets out the advantages and disadvantages of some job analysis techniques; and discusses some underlying issues of the job analysis process.

What is Job Analysis?

Job analysis is a systematic process for acquiring objective and detailed information about jobs. It is not a single methodology but a generic term representing a range of techniques. The data gathered may be in the form of information on job tasks, roles, and job holder attributes relevant to job performance. Material collected can relate to the job currently being performed or directed at a job which is likely to be performed in the near future.

Job analysis is carefully structured although the extent of structure will vary according to the different techniques available. The process is analytical, and breaks down the job into its component parts, rather than describing the job as a whole (Saville and Holdsworth 1995).

Job analysis is designed to achieve a specific goal(s), and is typically in the form of the ‘what’—tasks and activities which are associated with the job; the ‘how’—the skills and abilities required to perform these tasks; and the ‘context’ —the environment or culture in which tasks are executed. For example the job analysis of headteachers (described in detail in Chapter 3) identifies the major job tasks of heads—planning, motivating, implementing/coordinating, etc.; derives the skills and abilities critical to successful job performance such as confidence, the need to be sympathetic and tolerant, to be consultative, etc.; and constructs a picture of the context in which the head undertakes his/her work, including his/her freedom to structure the job, the number of staff in school, working hours and so forth.

Job analysis can be viewed not only as a process capable of producing a number of practical outcomes of benefit to practitioners, trainers and the like, but also as an applied form of research (Pearn and Kandola 1988). The job analyst gathers pertinent data in a systematic and reliable manner in the identification, resolution, or redefinition of a problem or in addressing a specific need. For example, the job analysis of heads undertaken here has enabled us to derive up-to-date job relevant criteria to underpin improved and more objective selection and recruitment of headteachers.

Job Analysis and Its Application to the School Sector

Schools and in particular headteachers, as they face the challenges of today’s changing competitive world with its new technology, have to adopt new roles and ways of working. For example, in the UK there is a move towards greater accountability and increased responsibility of governors, a four year inspection cycle, and responsibility for the school’s financial management, which have presented new, challenging demands to headteachers. It is therefore timely to redefine tasks, objectives and responsibilities for those who work in schools, and have clear and easily accessible information about jobs and the human characteristics required to perform job tasks.

It is argued in this chapter that job analysis based on evidence is more appropriate than speculation or reliance on informal procedures which may have previously been successful (Pearn and Kandola 1988). Processes linked with job analysis and those employed in the present research are objective, rigorous and utilize tools and techniques of proven validity and reliability to ensure accurate identification of job information.

The importance of rigorous and detailed job analysis in underpinning human resource development and in sustaining an integrated approach to human resource management in schools cannot be overestimated. Recruitment and selection procedures, training needs analysis, and appraisal procedures etc., are all likely to benefit from job or competency definitions which are produced directly from an analysis of job behaviours. As a result procedures for recruitment and selection, etc. are likely to be more accurate and less susceptible to bias and distortion than some other previously utilized techniques, for example, the traditional interview process relying on instinctive criteria or a ‘gut feeling’.

Employment and equal opportunities legislation are additional factors supporting the application of the job analysis process to schools. There is a requirement to safeguard job applicants and employees from discrimination due to race, gender or disability. In the case of a school, for example, asked to justify the criteria used in selection, the systematic use of evidence collected through a rigorous and accurate job analysis is likely to represent the best means of defence from legal scrutiny, as well as the desire to deal with people in an ethically accepted way.

Employing procedures of proven precision and validity is likely to enhance job holders’ satisfactions and perceptions of assessment processes, be they for selection or development purposes. This may prove vital in gaining willing participation and cooperation of school staff.

Three Approaches to Job Analysis

It is generally accepted in the work relating to job analysis that it can be broadly divided into three different types of approaches, each with its own supporting techniques. These are: task or job orientated approaches, behaviour or job holder methods, and attribute or trait strategies (McCormick 1976). The purpose of the section that now follows is to describe them and show their usefulness to school management.

The first of these, task or job orientated job analysis, describes work in terms of outcomes or tasks completed (e.g. produce annual budget; formulate school development plan). The work of the UK Management Charter Initiative (MCI) in producing nationally recognized ‘standards’ of performance for managers, and of the National Council for Vocational Qualifications (NCVQ) in producing National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) exemplifies the adoption of such a job analysis approach (see Chapter 2). To do this, the MCI and the NCVQ have employed the technique of functional analysis which is discussed in Chapter 2.

The most common tools by which the description is achieved however are task inventories or checklists. The task descriptions derived from these tend to be specific to a particular job and the technology currently in use. The approach, while capable of giving a very detailed and specific description of a job, is limited in its ability to identify common elements across jobs. For example, many of the job descriptions to be found in earlier school handbooks suffered from similar limitations.

The converse is true of behaviour or job holder orientated job analysis techniques, which describe work in terms of more generalized behaviours or activities (e.g. analyzing numerical data, making decisions after evaluation, encouraging cooperation). This method produces information about the job which is less specific, but behaviours generated are common to a much wider range of jobs enabling similarities and differences to be identified. The information generated is likely to be more useful than checklists for training and management development, particularly in identifying those elements of the job which are transferable, for example, across school sectors, and possibly even across occupational domains. For schools this might for example include elements such as planning long term and short term objectives; creating a good team spirit; formulating or adjusting policy due to change. The approach focuses on what the job holder does rather than the specific job outcomes to be achieved, and is therefore also referred to as ‘job holder orientated’.

Finally attribute or trait orientated job analysis techniques depict jobs in terms of the human attributes, i.e. abilities, personality characteristics etc., that are required to perform work activities (e.g. self-confidence, creativity, numerical reasoning). The major advantage of this approach is that it collects and presents job information in a manner which is directly amenable for use in assessment procedures such as selection, appraisal, and management development. The problem with this approach, however, is that in practice it is difficult to move directly from an analysis of job content to the corresponding human attributes necessary for job performance.

For schools, while the approach to job analysis adopted is likely to be contingent upon the purpose of the job analysis and the particular position under study, the authors would advocate a two stage process: first, to arrive at a description of the job in terms of tasks and/or behaviours, and second, to use this description to identify the underlying attributes or ‘competencies’ that underpin and give rise to these tasks and behaviours.

Practical Issues to Consider

The authors, based on their experience, suggest that there are a number of practical issues to be considered in conducting a job analysis which should prove helpful for those readers who wish to examine the possibilities:

• selection of an appropriate job analysis technique. The choice of method should be led by the purpose of the job analysis investigation. A clear vision of the end point is essential in guiding the selection of a suitable method, in ensuring objectives are met, and in making sure the analysis stays on course. It is also important from the experience of the authors to ensure that all elements of the job are covered, e.g. task identification, frequency of occurrence and time spent on tasks, prioritization of tasks, and job context factors. These all interact to determine the necessary human attributes in describing effective performance;
• the job under study will make some job analysis methods more preferable to others. For example, in some jobs key elements—such as problem solving or decision making—may not be amenable to direct observation methods, the duties of senior management being a case in point. In such a case, a structured job analysis questionnaire or job analysis interview would seem to be more appropriate;
• access factors, i.e. ease of access to job holders, their superordinates and subordinates;
• resourcing and timescale issues;
• expertise of job analysts; some job analysis techniques require training before use;
• availability ...