Expanding Leadership Capacity toward Social Justice

Abstract

Educational administrators are consistently challenged to find the right mix of leaders and to identify potentials that can be harnessed to expand the cadre. In both the academic and research communities, there has been much dialogue surrounding the way in which leadership is developed in organisations. These discourses continue to provide avenues for researchers to identify and recommend best practices for leadership development. Varied types of leadership could be explored as a means of expanding leadership capacity and sustaining a cadre of leaders suited to meet the growing needs in educational communities and other spheres. This study investigated perceptions of staff concerning distributed leadership as a possible strategy for enhancing succession planning, expanding leadership capacities, and ensuring that social justice is practiced within their organisation. Two main questions were explored in this study to uncover participants’ perceptions of current leadership practices and distributed leadership; and to have them suggest how distributed leadership could be used within their academic unit to expand leadership capacity and to practise social justice. This research provides valuable information regarding how distributed leadership can be used to augment leadership capacities, enhance succession planning, and expand leadership capacity to ensure social justice is practised within the specified context.