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This paper reports on research into Australian school principals' leadership. It explores an emerging construct – that of ‘readiness to lead’ – and showcases the development of a tentative tool for determining school principals' readiness to lead.

Seven principals from Australian and International Schools were interviewed about their leadership strategies, intentions and expectations for impending school reform. Qualitative analyses using grounded theory and an interpretivist constructivist paradigm were applied.

The construct of ‘readiness to lead’ emerged during initial analysis and a tool was developed from a compilation of literature on leadership. Findings revealed that five principals were well-aligned with the strategies, intentions and expectations the research literature indicates are characteristic of good leadership. These principals could be regarded as ‘ready to lead’ their schools in significant school reform. An unexpected finding was that the concepts of ‘hope’ and ‘trust’ also played a significant role in leadership. ‘Hope’ appeared important as a major strategy for the less-well aligned principals, whereas mutual ‘trust’ appeared to be evident in the principals with stronger leadership readiness.

The tool warrants peer review and validation; data revealed an emerging construct and review is welcomed. The authors are continuing to research and investigate in this field, and invite further academic dialogue.

The study has explored the fecundity of the tool for analysis, and evaluated the principals' preparedness to lead reform. Having a tool to determine whether and to what degree school principals are ready to lead would be advantageous for the profession.

Extant research documents the importance of lean thinking for organizations, however, as prior research has largely focused on hard lean practices, but little is known about the effects or the significance of soft lean practices. This research attempts to address this issue by examining how soft lean practices enhance organizational lean readiness, and in turn increase the success of lean implementation.

This research adopts a single case study design in a small-medium enterprise livestock feed manufacturing organization, and investigates the period from late 2011 through the end of 2019 covering two attempts at lean implementation – an initial failed attempt followed by a successful introduction of lean within the case organization. The research analyzes interviews with 29 managers and employees from all organizational levels and departments within the case organization. Secondary data including organizational documents and performance measures and metrics were also incorporated into the research design.

Drawing on agency theory, the authors advance a principal-agent interaction perspective to conceptualize organizational lean readiness – specifically, the authors consider the “state or condition” of four agency factors (goal conflict, information asymmetry, risk aversion and length of relationship), and explore if these four agency factors can be utilized as proxies for organizational readiness for lean implementation. The authors identify the formation of a shared vision and identity within the organization as an effective mechanism through which soft lean practices enhance organizational lean readiness. Finally, the analysis offers an understanding of how the long-term success of lean implementation is improved by the introduction of soft lean practices as a prerequisite to create organizational readiness for the implementation of hard lean practices.

The study is unique in the sense that it empirically links agency theory and the role of soft lean practices in developing organizational lean readiness in a small-medium enterprise context by defining the ideal state of four agency factors as proxies for organizational readiness.

The purpose of this paper is to ascertain how two urban principals, in high schools that feature comprehensive college-and-career readiness practices, utilize distributed leadership to facilitate their implementation.

This study employed qualitative methods. Drawing upon semi-structured interview data, observational data gathered as part of site visits, and internal and electronic documents, case descriptions were developed of each school, focusing on principals’ activities in support of career pathways.

The principals contributed significantly to their schools’ college-and-career readiness reforms and programming. Although their approaches were distinct, six common themes were identified: facilitating processes to form a shared vision, developing relational trust, a focus on learning, successful partnerships, conducive structures, and developing leadership skills and capacity. The principals described utilizing distributed leadership approaches – including practices, structures, and tools – to support these reforms.

This study represents the initial phase of a multi-year research project investigating the implementation of college-and-career pathways in urban communities. Prior research has overlooked the important role of principals in leading and facilitating these reforms, and this study contributes to the literature because it focuses on principals’ contributions in supporting college-and-career readiness. Additionally, in both cases, substantive, regular leadership contributions were made by business representatives external to the organization.

Explains how we used the change message components of discrepancy, appropriateness, efficacy, principal support, and personal valence and the message conveying strategies of active participation, persuasive communication and management of information suggested by Armenakis and colleagues to help an organization create readiness for a major reorganization. We describe and evaluate our experiences from our initial coaching with the president, through initial management meetings to determine the new business unit’s strategy and structure, to the initial company‐wide announcement of the plans. We conclude with a set of observations and lessons and suggestions for future research on the use of the change message framework.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze change process perceptions of public service employees and document how change readiness belief salience fluctuates and evolves throughout the implementation of a major organizational restructuring effort.

This research is a longitudinal multiple-case study of a major transformation initiative in a large North American public recreation organization. Over the course of 15 months, the authors conducted four rounds of personal interviews with 19 participants (65 interviews in total, each lasting 25–45 min). Additionally, the authors analyzed internal e-mail correspondence, memos, and meeting agendas, as well as external stakeholder communication. Finally, the primary researcher spent a significant amount of time collecting field notes while shadowing high-level managers and employees and attending meetings.

Overall, the authors documented a clear hierarchy of change readiness dimensions. The relative strength and temporal persistence of these dimensions can be traced back to various public organizing particularities. Moreover, the authors found that an initial focus on some readiness dimensions facilitated subsequent sensemaking processes whereas others hindered such engagement with the change project.

This research is the first to empirically document temporal fluidity of change readiness dimensions and salience. Moreover, it offers a rare in-depth look at a changing public service organization.

This research helps change agents in developing tailored change messages and to better understand potential sources of frustration and resistance to change efforts.

No similar efforts exist to document the underlying dynamism of evolving change readiness perceptions.

This paper seeks to provide guidance on specific ways by which organizations can overcome resistance by matching readiness strategies with forms of resistance.

The paper summarizes literature on resistance to change and readiness to change, leading to the development of specific recommendations for reducing resistance through specific readiness strategies.

Resistance, though common, may be more effectively managed if specific readiness strategies are matched with requisite sources of resistance.

The paper provides guidance on addressing primary sources of resistance by matching them with specific elements proposed by Armenakis et al. that lead to readiness for change.

The synthesis of literature related to creating readiness for change and resistance to change leads to a resistance to change typology, including three domains. While these domains have been addressed in change literature, the paper further expands on these domains by offering potential sources of resistances within each domain. This should lead to future research that explores these domains and sources within each domain in greater depth.

Although change is a necessary part of organisational life, achieving a successful change is complex. Change readiness is a critical element in successful change implementation, yet studies assessing change readiness as an underlying mechanism in the link between organisational-level factors and successful change implementation are scarce, particularly in the African context. Accordingly, the present study examined the extent to which change readiness mediates the link between learning organisation and successful change implementation in the Ghanaian context.

The study utilized a standardized questionnaire to collect data from 364 participants, working in public and private universities in Ghana. The participants were selected via the convenience sampling strategy to complete the survey on the main variables at a single point in time. The study was purely quantitative, as path analysis – a form of structural equation modelling was employed to test the hypothesized relationships in the study.

The results show that both learning organisation and change readiness facilitated successful change implementation. Finally, it was observed that change readiness served as an important mediating mechanism in the link between learning organisation and successful change implementation.

Change readiness was found to explain the link between learning organisation and successful change implementation. Thus, it is important that managers and leaders of public and private sector educational institutions in Ghana invest resources into preparing and getting employees to accept, be committed to and ready for change.

The present study contributes to the scarce knowledge of the mediating role of change readiness in the link between learning organisation and successful change implementation in the African context.

The purpose of this paper is to compare two years of results for one state’s performance-based assessments for principal licensure Performance Assessment for Leaders (PAL). This includes the field trial (2014–2015) and first year of statewide implementation (2015–2016) when passing score requirements and fees were added. Survey results on candidates’ career aspirations provide concurrent validation.

Two years of PAL submissions (n=569 candidates) were scored by trained, certified scorers. Task and total score results were compared by year, preparation pathway and gender. Online feedback survey results on career aspirations for (n=146 candidates) were compared by year.

The results show that PAL assessments measure independent dimensions of leadership, differentiate candidates on leadership knowledge and skills, and confirm PAL’s internal validity. Implementation year scores were higher than field trial scores, and preparation program candidates scored better than non-program candidates did. Candidate career aspirations were stronger in the implementation year than during the field trial.

The study is limited to one state’s candidates, but findings are generalizable based on the wide range among candidates’ districts (demographically and economically).

The results are promising for the leadership preparation and assessment field, demonstrating the effectiveness of performance assessment for authentic evaluation of leadership candidates’ knowledge and skill and overall readiness for initial leadership work.

This is the first large scale performance assessment for aspiring leaders designed for state licensure decisions. It is being replicated in another state and shown promise for both formative and summative leadership assessment.

The purpose of this paper is to provide concrete examples of what leadership behaviors and strategies look like in high-poverty urban schools in Chicago that are successful at improving student outcomes. The authors compared the strategies used by principals who were rated by their teachers on annual surveys as being strong instructional leaders but had varying success in improving student outcomes for comparison.

This paper is part of a larger mixed-methods study exploring the link between leadership and student learning. For the qualitative portion of the study, the authors utilized a contrasting case study design (Merriam, 1998) to distinguish leadership practices in schools with improvements in student achievement from practices in schools with stagnating or declining student achievement. The authors conducted case studies in a total of 12 schools–6 schools with improving student achievement and 6 schools with stagnating or declining student achievement. For brevity, the authors chose 4 schools to highlight in this manuscript that best illustrate the findings found across the full sample of 12 schools. The authors coded each interview using both inductive and deductive coding techniques.

The study findings indicate that there are subtle but important differences between the strategies principals in improving and contrast schools use to lead school improvement efforts. Principals in improving schools were able to create learning environments where staff were open to new ideas and work together towards goals. Principals in improving schools were also more likely to create structures that facilitated organizational learning than principals in contrast schools.

This study is unique because the authors provide concrete examples of what principals do in their schools to help create strong learning climates that foster organizational learning and improvement. The authors also identify differences in leader practices and structures in schools that are having a harder time making improvements for comparison. The study findings can be used by principals and other educators to better understand which of their various efforts may result in stronger school cultures conducive to organizational learning as outlined in Louis' and colleagues' work.

The purpose of this paper is to retroactively study a positive organizational change by showing how the elements of readiness creation and the change strategies in a widely accepted change model applied to a 20‐month change in one US Army company.

The commander was not familiar with many of the contemporary change management models. Retrospective analysis of the change strategies reveals congruence with components of a widely accepted change model. The commander's actions, matched with the model's components, highlighting the model's potential value in the military.

The most significant finding is that a military commander with limited theoretical experience in organizational change successfully turned around a military unit while unconsciously paralleling an existing change model, suggesting that the military should study the model further.

The paper is limited by the number of organizations studied.

One implication is that military leaders and other professionals can benefit by looking outside traditional sources for tools and inspiration to solve challenging problems in their unique environments.

This application of the organizational change model outside a business setting suggests that the model may have greater utility than previously thought. Additionally, the application of business change management strategy in a military organization impacts on military professionals who are seeking new ways of conducting operations. Finally, the paper is original because of the retroactive change model application, suggesting the model is grounded in leadership and organizational development theory and practice.