Decision-making, leadership and performance links in private education institutes


Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the relationships between participative decision-making, ethical leadership and leadership performance, which might make school leaders quit autocratic behavior and enhance their performance at private K12 schools in Iraq.


Design/methodology/approach
The researchers collected data through a questionnaire using a stratified sampling methodology from 207 educators of 10 institutions. The research methodology included demographic analysis, factor analysis, structural equation modeling and mediation analysis.


Findings
The participative decision-making affected moral, knowledge and attitude that contributed to leadership performance. Besides, the only attitude mediated the relationship between participative decision-making and leadership performance.


Research limitations/implications
The study is limited to private K12 schools in Iraq. Therefore, the findings cannot be generalized. It might guide educational institutes to change their management style.


Originality/value
The study delivers a unique insight into education in Iraq.



Introduction
The participative decision-making (PDM) has become popular in education due to the autocratic managerial style in educational institutes where the administrators who have power make the decisions, and those who work at the middle and lower levels implement instructions without any input (Hallinger, 1992). The educational institutes moved toward a more subordinate-centered management style by which students and educators could positively benefit from this democratic process (Lindelow, 1989). Likewise, a decentralized experience a sense of belongingness to their workplace and close the gaps between management and employees through PDM (Helms, 2006). As well, Vangrieken et al. (2016) and Bouwmans et al. (2017) detected PDM improves team-learning among the teachers by matching knowledge sharing with innovative ideas, which increases school effectiveness. Ultimately, as identified by Sagie and Aycan (2003), PDM has four categories: including the direct interaction of employees with their superiors; representative involvement in decisionmaking; paternalistic PDM between the superior and subordinate; and pseudo-PDM in which superiors pretend they do not know the best for their subordinates.
There are several effective processes in PDM that assist organizations in encountering complex issues. While brainstorming eases the expression of many valuable ideas, the nominal group technique secures equal participation of participants in decision-making (Redman, 1992: Roth et al., 1995Boddy, 2012). However, the Delphi technique connects people who are geographically dispersed (Rowe and Wright, 1999;Abdolhosseinzadeh and Abdolhamid, 2020).
In PDM, the participants might prefer the group cohesiveness to the realistic evaluation of alternatives within problem-solvinggroupthink (McMrry, 2003). Likewise, the participants could desire to accept more risks in PDM due to the sharing of the responsibilities for the consequences of a decisionrisky shift, which might cause harmful situations for the organization (Stoner, 1968;Valverde-Moreno et al., 2020). Ultimately, an individual within the group might develop the attitude in the rational and socially desirable direction through group discussion due to the desire to be perceived favorably by others, which could lead to a maximum pointgroup polarization (Isenberg, 1986;Curseu et al., 2016).

Ethical leadership
According to Boyatzis (1982), Blanchard and Peale (1988) and Kanungo and Conger (1993), EL promotes "genuine altruism," "affiliative interest," "empowerment," and "patience" leading to personal sacrifice, interpersonal competence, followers' self-growth, and the leader's calmness in difficulties respectively. As revealed by Brown et al. (2005), EL is "the demonstration of normatively appropriate conduct through personal actions and interpersonal relationships, and the promotion of such conduct to followers through twoway communication, reinforcement and decision-making." Hence, the followers envisage leader effectiveness, leader's extra effort on the job, and employee commitment. As noted by Trevino et al. (2000Trevino et al. ( , 2003, EL possesses two elements: "moral person" and "moral manager." The former implies followers' perceptions of the leader's characteristics, personality and humane motivation. To be specific, the leader should be honest, trustworthy and fair. Moreover, the leader cares about people and society as they decide and behave ethically in their personal and professional lives. The latter represents that the leader explicitly and intentionally communicates moral norms and values and uses the reward and punishment system to hold followers responsible for ethical conduct. Consequently, the leader draws followers' attention by being a prominent figure. Hence, the EL should possess wisdom, moral competence, honesty, caring, fairness, humility and tolerance for mistakes (Trevino et al., 2000). Accordingly, EL exhibits three characteristics: moral (M), knowledge (K) and attitude (A).
As noted by Palanski and Yammarino (2007), M represents justice, honesty and courage. While justice refers to objectivity, equality and fairness to others, honesty implies trustworthiness and truthfulness. Moreover, courage embodies the stability of the mind in a problematic situation. Riggio et al. (2010), Hackett and Wang (2012), Morales-S anchez and Cabello-Medina (2013) and Zaim et al. (2020) also considered moral features as the knowledge that simplifies ethical behaviors.
The leader proposes a collective vision at the workplace that refers to tacit K, encouraging organizational members to assume vaster responsibility, innovation, ethical judgment and problem-solving skills (Melé, 2005;García-Morales et al., 2008;Morales-S anchez and Cabello-Medina (2013). Moreover, Wong et al. (2018) noted that sharing K among the members significantly affects their creativity. In this respect, K refers to the ability of judgment between variables in ethical decision-making (Morales-S anchez and Cabello-Medina, 2013;Budur, 2018). Additionally, K is the collection of wisdom, which develops a moral judgment (Melé, 2005). Accordingly, knowledge and attitude sustain a significant impact on EL (Ferrell and Gresham, 1985).
A includes support and appreciation of others (Ajzen and Fishbein, 2005;Exline and Hill, 2012) refers to the leader's courtesy and humbleness. While the former comprises the leader's control over their anger, kindness and tolerance to failure, the latter signifies modesty and respect for others (Tangney, 2000).

Leadership performance
As noted by Alexandra (2013), performance refers to the capability of achieving preset goals using employees efficiently and effectively. Richard et al. (2009) revealed that performing includes the actual performance of an employee as gauged against the desired goals. However, Robbins and Coulter (2013) emphasized that only the committed employees embracing the organization's vision and mission direct their actions toward goal achievement. Hence, employees should possess a sense of duty in the execution of the task (Manning and Curtis, 2009). Moreover, as revealed by Griffin and Lopez (2005), employees' attitudes toward their job will affect leadership performance. Therefore, leaders should search for ways to improve employee satisfaction, which results in organizational effectiveness (Covey, 1989;Jacobs and Singell, 1993;Robbins and Coulter, 2013). Though the leaders often use financial indicators in the achievement of organizational goals, they should also consider physical and mental effort applied to a task (Venkatraman and Ramanujam, 1986;Armstrong, 2006). So, the survival of an organization is dependent upon both financial competitiveness and fair treatment of subordinates' values, beliefs and interests (Paauwe, 2004). McCann (2011) noted committed and satisfied lecturers, teachers, and educators greatly influence the performance of students as well as the long-term effectiveness of their educational institutions.
3. Literature review and hypotheses 3.1 Relationships between participative decision-making and ethical leadership Locke and Schweiger (1979) and Steel and Mento (1987) found a significant positive relationship between PDM and M. Lenssen et al. (2009) detected that PDM leverages the fairness perception of employees about their organization, which demonstrate the moral sense in the workplace. Likewise, Sukirno and Siengthai (2011) noted that PDM influences the teacher's insight and knowledge. Arar et al. (2016) also found a significant positive relationship between EL and decision-making in the Arab educational system in Israel.
Besides, Ho (2010) found that teacher's participation in curriculum and pedagogical decisions positively affect their professional knowledge and capability. Bouwmans et al.

Leadership and performance links
Moreover, Sagie et al. (1995) noted that PDM affects attitudinal outcomes. As revealed by Subbulakshmi et al. (2014), PDM in quality circles in manufacturing firms affects the employee attitude. Shaed et al. (2015) also detected a significant positive relationship between PDM and employee attitudes. Ultimately, Pathak and Rana (2019) found an association between job-related attitudes and employee participation at workplaces. Therefore, the researchers formulated the following hypotheses: H1. PDM has a significant direct effect on M.
H2. PDM has a significant direct effect on K.
H3. PDM has a significant direct effect on A. Melé (2005) found that the moral development and behavior of the accountants significantly affect their performance. Reave (2005) detected that integrity, honesty and humility affect the LP. García-Morales et al. (2008) also revealed that EL positively affects the motivation of the employee for the effectiveness of the organization. Likewise, Johnson et al. (2011) found that humility and honesty positively influence employee performance. Morales-S anchez and Cabello-Medina (2013) also revealed that moral virtues enable the leaders to understand and solve problems wisely, leading to high organizational performance. Furthermore, courage, temperance, justice, prudence, humanity and truthfulness positively affect the LP (Riggio et al., 2010;Hackett and Wang, 2012). Khuong and Hoang (2015), Palanski et al. (2015), Faris and Abdalla (2018) and Sosik et al. (2019) also noted that the leader's courage, fairness and humility significantly and positively influence employee performance.

Relationships between ethical leadership and leadership performance
Likewise, the leader's K significantly correlates with leader achievement and performance (Connelly et al., 2000;Mumford et al., 2000). Besides, while Sosik et al. (2012) found integrity, bravery, perspective and social intelligence influence executive performance, Zacher et al. (2014) noted personal wisdom positively affects the leaderfollower relationship and increases the subordinate's well-being at the workplace.
Also, religiosity and spirituality significantly affect job performance (Osman-Gani et al., 2013). Ultimately, humility provides physical and mental health and improves performance (Woodruff et al., 2014). Therefore, the researchers formulated the following hypotheses: H4. M has a significant direct effect on LP.
H5. K has a significant direct effect on LP.
H6. A has a significant direct effect on LP.

Mediating effect of ethical leadership on the relationship between participative decisionmaking and leadership performance
One of the authors of this study witnessed several moral difficulties encountered by the teachers and administrators working in private K12 schools in Iraq. The managers frequently made decisions and announced them to the members of the schools. They arranged so-called productive meetings with the staff, though they did not allow them to talk openly with the management about the problems and goals of the schools. Likewise, the managers did not seek information and opinions of school members, leading consensus and decisions. Hence, teachers did not possess a sense of effort in performing tasks and were mostly dissatisfied with their work. The problem at K12 schools represented an autocratic leader behavior that did not empower teachers and the administrative staff to offer suggestions concerning the organizational goals and strategies. In this case, the authors assumed, if the leaders of K12 schools sought the preferences of followers or involved them in decision-making, they could be impartial, creative and benevolent in the eyes of subordinates, resulting in promoted leader effectiveness. Wainaina et al. (2014), Arar et al. (2016) and Yıldırım et al. (2019) found PDM significantly influenced EL and staff commitment in educational institutions. As well, Mumford et al. (2000), Sosik et al. (2012) and Woodruff et al. (2014) detected a positive relationship between EL and performance. However, Sagie (1994) noted that A mediates the relationship between PDM and performance in a non-educational milieu. Besides, Wagner (1994) and Black and Gregersen (1997) detected PDM positively and significantly affects employee performance by generating alternatives in planning. Likewise, Conway (1984) found PDM enhances the acceptance of a decision and secures quality and performance in teaching. Ultimately, Locke and Schweiger (1979), Ndiku et al. (2009) and Sukirno and Siengthai (2011) found PDM promotes the teacher's moral, new knowledge and the interaction between teachers and managers, resulting in high performance at schools. Based on the research site observations and the literature, the researchers formulated the following hypotheses: H4a. M has a mediating effect between PDM and LP.
H5a. K has a mediating effect between PDM and LP.
H6a. A has a mediating effect between PDM and LP.

Sample
One of the authors of this study was the consultant of the K12 schools' group in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The group had ten private schools in the region and invited one of the authors of this paper to elaborate on the chief managerial problems in schools. Hence, the authors collected data from K12 schools for counseling purposes.
The researchers collected the sample data by using a stratified random sampling method from 207 teachers who work full-time at private K12 schools in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Therefore, the researchers selected each school as a separate stratum. The administrative board of the schools recognized the research appropriately and administered the process, which helped ensure quality and sensitivity in the feedback. At each school, there were between 30 and 50 teaching staff.
In total, there were approximately 500 teachers in the private K12 schools the authors sampled. Initially, the researchers distributed questionnaires by hand in the Kurdish, English and Turkish languages and briefly explained questions to the participants. At that time, the researchers collected responses by examining each participant at the school. However, only 279 participants responded to the questionnaire, with 72 being returned incomplete and, therefore, eliminated from further analysis. Considering the valid responses, the number of fulfilling the questionnaire was a minimum of 16 and a maximum of 33 per school. As follows, the response rate comprised 40%.
The study proposed Harman's single factor test to prevent the usual method variance problem that indicated that there was no common variance problem because the explained variance of the first dimension was 39%, which was far below the threshold of 50%.

Instrumentation
In the survey, there were three dimensions concerning EL: M, K and A scales in 29 items. The researchers borrowed M from the work of Ngambi (2011) and Riggio et al. (2010); K from the work of Berson et al. (2001) and Anwar et al. (2013), and A from the work of Owens (2009) and Bright et al. (2006). The authors also borrowed PDM from the work of Smylie et al. (1996) and LP from the work of Owens and Hekman (2016) and Tarim et al. (2014). The researchers modified all items to be appropriate for the current study (Table A1).
Based on the initial reliability and exploratory factor analysis (EFA) results, the authors dropped four items from the questionnaire. After all, M included ten items with a Cronbach's alpha value of 0.925, K nine items with a Cronbach's alpha value of 0.953, and A six items with a Cronbach's alpha value of 0.902. PDM comprised three items with a Cronbach's alpha value of 0.880 and LP four items with a Cronbach's alpha value of 0.790 (Table 1). The researchers used a seven-point Likert-type scale. Answers to questions ranged from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree).

Data analysis and research findings
The analysis methodology includes IBM SPSS for EFA and IBM AMOS 23 software for SEM.

Demographic analysis
The demographic information included gender, job experience, position and the subject of teaching. The percentage of males and females are perfectly distributed as 50. The majority of the target population is teachers with 79%, while psychological counselors are 12.9%; senior teachers are 7.3% and deputy directors are only 0.6%. 60.6% of participants have job experience between 1-6 years; 31.1% have job experience between 7 and 15 years, and only 8.2% have job experience over 16 years. Finally, while 25.8% of participants teach positivist sciences, 20.5% teach languages and 53.8% teach other subjects.
5.2 Measurement model assessment 5.2.1 Exploratory factor analysis. The researchers assessed the internal validity of the survey questionnaire by Cronbach's alpha that ranged between 0.791 and 0.953 which equally satisfy the recommended threshold value of 0.70, thus meeting the reliability of the constructs. The researchers determined sample adequacy by both the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin sampling adequacy (KMO) index and Bartlett's test of sphericity. KMO (0.96) is significantly above the threshold value of 0.7, while Bartlett's test of sphericity is significant at p # 0.01 that confirms the appropriateness of data for EFA procedures.
EFA reduces the number of constructs. This is then followed by the eigenvalue of each factor, which must be equal to or above one so that the concerning clusters of questions can be considered as a factor. Five dimensions have an eigenvalue of the above one. Those factors also explain 74% of the variance. Descriptive statistics results are provided in Table 1. The average of EL results varies between 4.879 and 6.02, while PDM and LP averages are between 4.96 and 5.35.
Factor loadings of M range between 0.476 and 0.835; K between 0.505 and 0.716; and A between 0.598 and 0.817, while PDM between 0.723 and 0.752 and LP between 0.495 and 0.502, which are above the suggested value of 0.35 based on the sample size (Hair et al., 2010). Moreover, Cronbach's alphas for all dimensions are above 0.7, thus satisfying the reliability of the constructs ( Table 1).
The researchers elaborated on the clusters of each dimension in which the questions under each construct are about justice, courage and honesty; knowledge and vision; and courtesy and humbleness.
Due to the concerning sequence of distribution, the first grouping could be considered as M, the second grouping as K and the third grouping as A. The results show that all items are appropriately classified under the concerning dimension by illustrating sufficient values that consider factor loadings, communalities and Cronbach's alphas (Table 1). These results prove that the constructs are conveniently formed.
5.2.2 Confirmatory factor analysis. The researchers used CFA to determine the dimensions that allowed EFA results to be analysed for further proof (Straub et al., 2004). Comparative and absolute model fit values are tracked. The comparative fit indexes such as CFI (0.95) and Trucker-Lewis' coefficient (TLI, 0.92) are above the threshold values (Olobatuyi, 2006). Furthermore, absolute fit indexes, chi-square (X 2 , 2.228), root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA, 0.067), good fit index (GFI, 0.87) and adjusted good fit index (AGFI, 0.82) are also at the acceptable levels (Marsh and Hocevar, 1988;Byrne, 2013).
As a part of validity tests, the researchers used discriminant validity (DV) and convergent validity (CV) tests to understand whether the dimensions maintain the required distance from each other, while the items under each dimension have sufficient closeness to each other (Khine, 2013). DV is achieved because all square roots of average variance extracted are above the correlation coefficients of other dimensions.
CV is also assessed by the average variance extracted (AVE) holding a threshold value minimally 0.5 and composite reliability (C.R.) holding a minimal value 0.7 (Fornell and Larcker, 1981). CV is achieved due to the existence of composite reliability (C.R.) and average variance extracted (AVE) above the concerning thresholds for all dimensions ( Table 2).
According to the results, PDM explains the overall variance (i.e. square of multiple correlations) of 62% in M; 61% in K; and 45% in A. M, K and A also explain 88% of variance about LP.

Mediation analysis
To test the mediation effects of M, K, and A between PDM and LP, the researchers used bootstrapping of IBM AMOS software. Furthermore, MacKinnon et al. (1995) suggested that the Aroian test performs best when the sample size is above 50. Due to the sample size that is well above the threshold, the authors used the Aroian test. PDM positively significantly mediates (b = 0.817, P < 0.01) LP. In elaborating mediators, Table 4 illustrates that A significantly mediates the relationships between PDM and LP. Besides, M and K did not mediate relationships between PDM and LP significantly. Therefore, EL partially mediates the relations between PDM and LP.   Although M and K are very close to significant mediation, the authors cannot suggest the significant mediating effect due to p values of M (0.054) and K (0.053), which are slightly above the p-value threshold that is expected to be below 0.05. Furthermore, only A significantly mediates the relationship between PDM and LP. Therefore, the data supported H6a, while rejected H4a and H5a.

Discussion
The results of direct significant positive relationships between PDM and EL in this paper were similar to the outcomes of studies of Locke and Schweiger (1979), Steel and Mento (1987) (2019). Therefore, if the K12 school management fully involves teachers and administrators in decisionmaking, empowers them to make contributions concerning the school well-being, and uses consensus to make the final choice, the school members' leadership perception about management could become more optimistic. In other words, the subordinates could perceive their managers as fair, trustworthy, steady, communicative, creative and tolerant. Likewise, the results of direct significant positive relationships between EL and LP in this paper were similar to the outcomes of works of Connelly et al. (2000), Mumford et al. (2000), Melé (2005) Palanski et al. (2015), Khuong and Hoang (2015), Faris and Abdalla (2018) and Sosik et al. (2019). Therefore, if the K12 school management cares about justice, honesty and courage and behaves kindly and tolerant toward their subordinates, teachers/administrators could become committed. In other words, the followers could develop a sense of duty in task performance, embrace the mission and vision of K12 schools and direct their actions toward goal achievement and institutional welfare. Besides, in this study, A affected LP more than M and K. This meant the K12 school members cared more about their managers' kindness, helpfulness and modesty than their knowledge and trust. So, K12 school management might give more attention to their attitudes that are the most critical indicators of their good performance.
Moreover, a significant mediator role of A between PDM and LP found in this work was consistent with the study of Sagie (1994). However, prior studies, such as Conway (1984), Wagner (1994), Black and Gregersen (1997) and Sukirno and Siengthai (2011), considered the sole relationship between PDM and LP and ignored the mediating effects of M and K on the PDM and LP relationship. As well, while Wainaina et al. (2014), Arar et al. (2016), andYıldırım et al. (2019) detected a significant relationship between PDM and EL, Mumford et al. (2000), Sosik et al. (2012) and Woodruff et al. (2014) found a positive association between EL and performance. Therefore, the K12 school management should be sympathetic and tolerant toward the opinions and suggestions of teachers and administrators in group debates and deliberations. To be specific, the K12 school management could recognize pluralism in selecting participants of the discussion, defining objectives of the school, exploring the issues, identifying options, researching options, comparing options, deciding action and monitoring/evaluating performance. The supportive behavior of K12 school management in deliberations and debates will close the gap between superior and subordinate and assist teachers and administrators in the achievement of the objectives of the school.

Theoretical implications
The authors found PDM allowed the managers of the K12 schools to make decisions after considering the ideas of the teachers and the administrative staff, who could view the managers as fair, creative and helpful. In this way, the subordinates might consider their superiors as successful leaders. However, the kindness and humbleness of the managers were the chief causes of a high LP. Ultimately, the knowledge of the managers was an additional reason, which also affected the LP positively and more significantly than the M.
Many empirical studies in the education sector investigated the PDM (Hoy and Tarter, 1993;Canaya, 2008;Lenssen et al., 2009;Ndiku et al., 2009;Ho, 2010;Sukirno and Siengthai, 2011;Wainaina et al., 2014;Bouwmans et al., 2017;Yıldırım et al., 2019), the EL (Lindelow, 1989;Melé, 2005;Lenssen et al., 2009;Eyal et al., 2011;Cuellar and Giles, 2012;Arar et al., 2016;Shapiro and Stefkovich, 2016;Cansoy, 2019) and the LP (Jacobs and Singell, 1993). However, there was no research considering the relationship between PDM, EL and LP. This study shows that the coercive work environment in the K12 schools shaped the distress and dissatisfaction of the teachers and administrative staff, limiting their good intentions for their jobs and extending the gap between the leader and the follower, resulting in the poor performance of the leader. However, the management might have adopted democratic and moral conduct, which could lead to leader effectiveness.
The leader's A had a considerable mediating effect on the relationship between PDM and LP. There was no study regarding this relationship reported in the literature. However, this paper indicates that A is indeed such a mediator.

Managerial implications
An emphasis on PDM might bring educators and administrators from different units and levels into active participation and encourages a careful and thorough debate for a variety of challenges and problems. However, the management of the K12 schools should ensure direct involvement and the modes of representation that allow participants the freedom to express themselves, which eases responsiveness to the dynamics of the situation. In doing so, a sense of involvement of employees in their workplace, their commitment to the school, as well as their work satisfaction, individual growth and mutual trust could increase. Likewise, the perception of supportive management among the personnel might assist in closing the gap between the administration and subordinates, resulting in moral, communicative and tolerant leader conduct. As well, the recognition of accomplishments and innovative ideas might ease the adaptation of an educational institute to the rapidly changing conditions of the learning environment. Hence, the managers should give the utmost care to the ideas of subordinates before they decide on an issue. Managers need to accommodate employees and empower them to make contributions regarding the well-being of the institution. In other words, the managers should involve followers in decision-making, seek their suggestions and reach consensus to make the final choice.
Besides, the study builds a bridge between PDM and EL that boosts LP. In particular, the management should be sensitive to followers' interests and consider them partners in problem-solving, which will cause the leader's sacrifice and the followers' self-growth. The leaders should foster teamwork, interdepartmental cooperation and programs in which the leaders and the representatives of teachers and administrative staff should compare and contrast alternative courses of action. Then, they should select the option that best protects the rights of all group members and secure the equal distribution of benefits and detriments of a decision based on social achievement. However, the leaders should evaluate problems in light of moral standards, remain calm in uncertainty and involve in personal risk to achieve the vision of K12 schools.
"Moral altruism" and interpersonal competence of the leaders might guarantee their goal of accomplishment and organizational effectiveness. In doing so, the leader might abandon compliance behavior and personal empowerment and start with interacting with people and being loyal to ethical standards to meet the best interest. However, the absence of EL might promote a considerable distance between the leader and the organization members, a lack of trust in the leader and a poor leader performance.

Limitations and future research
This study is limited to only K12 schools in Iraq and cannot be generalized unless the other researchers further studied diverse organizations, cultures or countries. Moreover, the study focused on private K12 schools, which ignored the management in public schools. Also, the sample size could have been larger to sketch a more reliable picture for the literature. In the end, the authors analyzed the impact of PDM on the LP and ignored the issues of rewards and job design. However, future studies might examine the effect of the virtues of EL on organizational performance, employee commitment, job satisfaction, contextual and task performances and future optimism of employees.

Conclusion
This study investigated the relationships between PDM, EL and LP at K12 schools in Iraq and suggested that the school leaders could democratize their motives, their influence and their character in decision-making and interaction with followers that result in improved LP.
The leaders at K12 schools could encourage the participation of all units, levels and layers in a debate through evaluating various suggestions in the decision-making. In doing so, the leaders might secure fair treatment, judgment, honesty, creativity, shared vision, lenience, modesty and graciousness easing conciliation and consensus among the members of a discussion. In this way, the leaders will respect the right of organizational members to monitor their work and facilitate their involvement and autonomy.
Besides, the leaders could arrange periodic meetings, seminars and workshops in which equal treatment, risk-taking, honest behavior, faithfulness, sharing of technical knowledge, collective understandings, patience, thoughtfulness and humility should be prominent. The approach of the leaders might strengthen the group members' belief in the leader's skills, ensure the individuals' inspiration and willingness to work with the leader and assist the leader in accomplishing goals. Therefore, the leader will quit norms and power structures that discriminate against those who are silenced and alienated and be loyal to standards that meet the best interest.
Finally, the leaders could emphasize solely mercy, respect, care and humility that might facilitate the relationship between the incorporation of viewpoints of subordinates in decision-making and the leader's goal accomplishment as well as the subordinates' willingness to contribute to the welfare of the K12 schools.