Cherkassova O.L.

Pedagogical Sciences\ Management in education

Taraz State Pedagogical Institute, Kazakhstan, Taraz city

The application of Adair’s theory to the Higher educational system in Kazakhstan

The Sorbon Declaration at 25 May 1998 pointed out the central role of universities in the development of European cultural values. It substantiated the making of the European Area of the Higher education as a key way to the development of people’s mobility with the opportunity of job placement for the continent’s development. So, the European Ministers of Education have made a decision to achieve the world wide level of attraction for the European educational system. To make the university a place of the highest level of education that can manage all the challenges of globalization we need good leadership. The leadership that can be centered around definite goals.

Although Kazakhstan is still a developing country, it can not escape the process of globalization. In the progress of globalization the whole world faces challenges concerning education, as globalization has brought the free market to universities. Moreover society wants and expects universities to provide a good education. In order to achieve this, universities must go through a lot of changes and constantly need to upgrade a process which requires effective leadership.

The Action-Centered Leadership according to Kippenberger (2002) is a situational model. The first to introduce this model was John Adair. Adair’s approach to leadership is based on the use of authority, which is appropriate to the given situation. Gronn (1999) states that in order to get people to co-operate, a leader will need to understand the circumstances of the organization and choose which type of authority would be most effective. Kippenberger says that ‘the leader who knows what to do inspires confidence in others’ (2002, p.96).

Also Adair’s approach underlines the importance of group actions and teamwork. Working together a group of people develops a special personality that has three overlapping areas of need. The first area is to achieve the task. The second one is to build and maintain the team. And the third area is to develop the individual. In order to understand the Adair’s Action-Centered Leadership Model, these three areas should be examined.

Figure 1. The three overlapping circle of the Action-Centered Leadership Model.

From an Action-Centered Leadership perspective Adair (2000) there are some key things that the good leader should do. First of all, the leader should have the ability to select people for the university which will be able to achieve the set task. The leader should not only select the people but he should be able to delegate the work according to their abilities and involve them into the whole process in order to motivate them to make their own decisions. The setting of the time limit to complete the work makes the people to have the definite purpose.

The next thing in good leadership is people’s evaluation and people’s training which lead them to better performance. The primary and the most obvious duty of the leader is to accomplish the task for which the university exists. The effectiveness of the leader depends on his ability to influence people. And the most important thing is to be influenced by the members of the team in the implementation of the task.

Since independence Kazakhstan’s government has chosen the policy of democracy for the state but in fact it continues to follow the Soviet policy of bureaucracy. The three overlapping circles that best explain the practice in Kazakhstan are:

Task of the leader

The task of Action centered Leader is varied, to become a leader of higher education institute in Kazakhstan the individual must have the expertise in the particular subject and besides that he/ she should have a doctorate and be able to boast of number of publication in national and international journals in his tenure as a professor. One of the important points in this context is the age of the candidate- he/ she has to be of matured age i.e. youth is not looked at in favourable light. The leader is appointed by the minister of education not by democratic selection.

The leader of the higher education institution is an absolute authority for his subordinates. He leads managers, the organization single-handedly. His decisions are most important which cannot be questioned or changed. The policy of the government supports the authoritative style of leadership. Hare (1997) says that the leader in Kazakhstan is given lot of power, he is responsible for the finance that is spend on the research, maintenance of the university and students. He is also responsible for recruitment of the staff and admission criteria of the students to some extent. He also plays a vital role in student’s job placement. He is responsible to open new courses and work for funding. The huge responsibility on the shoulders of the leader isolates him from the rest of the staff and makes him a distant overlord who is looked at in awe and reverence. This distance naturally leads to complex working relationship and a rigid top down structure of the organization. Leader then is not in touch with the real situation and is not in apposition to make effective change.

Brundett et al (2003) state that achieving the task requires defining what must be involved in the process and planning how to manage changes and complete the work. The ability to inspire people is part of leadership.

Adair (2000) believes that it is possible to inspire individual by setting an example. One of the task of the action centered leader is to be ready to adapt to new situations for example if he sets a task then he should be ready to listen to the implementers of the job i.e. accept new ideas from the subordinate although they may not be as matured as he is.

Some suggestions to promote Action Centered leadership are:

· The leader should clearly define every task that needs to be performed.

· The leader should make strategic plans.

· The leader should allocate work and resources for achieving the task.

· The leader should monitor and evaluate the process and modify the plans.

The team

In Kazakhstan’s higher educational organizations the teams are not selected keeping in mind the skills and talents of the staff member but according to the wishes of the head of the department. This bureaucratic style leads to the conflict and mistrust in the organization which results in poor performance.

The complex relationship between the leader and the subordinates is difficult to untangle and simplify. Action centered leader needs to support the team, encourage them recognizing their success and learning from the failure while developing the individual.

There is not much encouragement for the teams to join decision making. The teams are not given crucial roles to perform leading to the teams be undervalued.

Some suggestions to promote team work are:

· Team spirit should be built.

· The teams should be made aware of their boundaries.

· Good communication should be ensured.

· Feedback should be given and the teams should be further trained for improvement.

The Individual

The ideas from the managers is deliberated but not always implemented. The subordinate respect and fear the leader to an extent as he can make or break their career. The decisions of the leader is always followed, any one questioning the task is thought to be disobedient and not a good worker. The situation is compounded by the fact that the deans or heads of department at crossroads of their careers cannot risk anger from the leader as finding new job in other institution is difficult.

The subordinate respect heir leader as he is an expert in the field and hence commands authority but now in the changing world there is a recognition of the opinions of subordinate and many times ideas is welcomed but in many respect the change is not easily accepted and the mindset of people in Kazakhstan is difficult. Steers et al (1996) state that the staff has to be motivated by the leader and it is through his actions and words that this can be achieved because

the culture of the country pays greater attention to the completion of the task by any means and it is noted that human resources is ignored and neglected. The leader needs to recognize and use talent and individual’s abilities in achieving the task thus he should advise and listen to ideas, provide good training and be attentive to individual needs.

Some suggestions to develop individual potentials are:

· The personal concern and anxiety of the individual should be addressed.

· The individual should be praised and given recognition

· The individual should be trained according to the various tasks and constructive feedback should be given him / her.

The article was devoted to the issues concerning the Higher Education in Kazakhstan and its structure. It was found that the leader in higher education institution in Kazakhstan is authorized and has great power above their subordinates. The Action-Centered Leadership Model was studied and it benefits were explored. The attempt to study the possible application of the Action-Centered Leadership Model in Kazakhstan was made. It was also found that in the era of globalization the system and the leadership in the higher education institutions in Kazakhstan need to change in order to be competitive in the globalized market.

Considering the context of Kazakhstan some suggestions to improve practice are:

· Individual should be confident of their opinions

· Deans in their turn should make teams from the heads of the department and set bigger tasks than their subordinates .

· Heads of the department must respect individual’s ideas and encourage them for further decision. They should select individual on their abilities and make teams to achieve small goals which should help to achieve big organizational tasks.

· Deans should not only set the task they should encourage heads of the department to complete the task in set time.

· Deans should give good direction to planning and organizing the work which should be made on equal contributions.

· Pro-rectors should closely work with the Rector. The Rector should define the objectives of the organization. He should organize effective team that will help to achieve the vision efficiently and effectively.

· The leader should provide for training the managers throughout their career regularly.

· The leader should be open toward his subordinate in order to make them feel useful in the organization and motivate them for better results.

· The evaluation of individual’s work is a motivating factor thus the rector should arrange for impartial assessment of the staff.

The studied questions showed that the Kazakhstan’s higher education leadership is in a period of transition. The article has studied just Action Centered Leadership but it hasn’t studied the application of the other theories. Some suggestion for further research is to investigate the appropriate leadership model for the higher educational organizations in Kazakhstan.

References

1) Adair, J. (2000). The Action Centered Leader. London: Industrial Society.

2) Brundrett, M., Burton, N. & Smith, R. (2003). Leadership in Education. London: Sage Publications.

3) Gronn, P. (1999). The Making of Educational Leaders. London: Cassell.

4) Hare, P. (1997). Structure and Financing of Higher Education in Russia, Ukraine and the EU. 5) Kippenberger, T. (2002). Leadership Styles. Oxford: Capstone Publishing.London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

6) Steers, R.M., Porter, L.W. & Bigley, G.A. (1996). Motivation and Leadership at work. New York: Mc Grew-Hill Companies Inc.