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To be a successful change manager depends
largely on the power of potential innovation and
mastery of the foundation of decision making,
especially strategic decisions. It is therefore that the
study focuses on such things.
2 THE URGENCY OF
INNOVATIVE LEADERSHIP AT
SCHOOL
The era of globalization is marked by the progress of
information and communication technology. Under
these conditions the school is required to continue to
adapt in order to remain able to perform its ideal
function. For that reason, the innovative leadership is
required at school. According to Higgs and Rowland
(2000) innovative leadership “is ability to influence
and enthuse others, through personal advocacy,
vision and drive, and to access resources to build a
solid platform for change”.
The rapid development of information and
communications technology (ICT) is increasingly
strengthening and even being a proof of the
realization of a world without limits. Furthermore,
ICT in the midst of globalization has brought
fundamental implications by shifting the value of
products and services from the physical to digital
realm. Toffler (1990) describes (in "Power-shift")
that we are in an era of globalization that, among
other things, is characterized by a "super symbolic"
culture. Only innovative leadership is able to respond
to the rapid development. The presence of an
innovative leadership will be able to do self renewal
in line with the life of the digital era That type of
leadership is needed as an e-leadership (Blau and
Presser, 2013) It is stated that
“e-Leadership is the ability of a person to
influence the behaviour of others in a digital
technology-mediated environment; ...... e-Leadership
is realized by data-driven decision-making;
monitoring curriculum implementation, learning
performance and student activity; and e-
communication among staff, students and parents; ....
e-Leadership through school management systems
should become an integral part of daily practice for
school principals and teaching staff”.
In relation to these changes the organizational
experts divide the three main features concerning the
specific role of leaders (Kanter, 1983). First,
imagination to new things. To foster innovation,
effective leaders help develop concepts that define
different organizations. Second, professionalism to
perform. Leaders provide organizational and personal
competence, supported by training and development
workforce, to execute perfectly and deliver more
value than customers demand. Third, open to
collaboration, Leaders connect with partners who can
expand the reach of the organization, improve their
presentation, or add to their work habits.
Thus there is no longer any organization that can
be immune to change, including school-type
educational organizations. According to Alava et al.
(2012) it can also be assumed that the chain of change
will occur continuously and become more intense. It
therefore becomes more important how to keep the
principals constantly innovating. For if it only
implements externally enforced changes according to
Bush (2017) they tend to do so without the
enthusiasm that causes failure. Fullan (2002) said
enthusiasm is an important personal characteristic of
leadership in addition to energy and hope.
Of the many organizations that have attempted to
respond by also making changes to the reality, not
many are successful in a glorious way (Kotter, 1998).
According to the results of his studies there are many
mistakes have been made by the leaders of these
organizations. A lot of learning thereof for future
organizational changes. In this connection, we
suggest eight steps for organizational change, 1) to
create a sense of urgency, 2) to form a strong coalition
to guide, 3) to create a vision, 4) to communicate
vision, 5) empower others to act on vision, 6) create
plans to win in the short run, 7) consolidate
improvements and make more changes, and 8)
institutionalize new approaches.
The stronger meaning is that the principal must be
the problem solver, he is also at the same time,
ideally, as an innovator. At least he should be an early
adopter or early majority according to Rogers (1983).
Innovative is defined by Rogers (1983) as “the degree
to which an individual or other unit of adoption is
relatively earlier in adopting new ideas than the other
members of a system”. He further categorizes five
types of adopters, (1) innovator: venturesome, (2)
post-tests: respectable, (3) early majority: deliberate
(4) late majority: sceptical, dan (5) laggards:
traditional. In this regard, a principal must function as
a manager of change, even more ideal as a master of
change. The basic competences that have to be
mastered as the qualities of a change master
according to Ruth (2008) covers such aspects as:
Common sense. And the courage to use it.
Credibility and trust - the ability to work at all
levels in the organisation.
A wide range of business knowledge -
preferably someone with experience in 3-4
The Tendency of Principals’ Innovation Ptentials and Decision Making Foundation Mastery
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