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This report examines the function of experience in the role of vice‐principal as preparation for the school principalship, proposing that a dysfunctional socialization outcome of this career entry pattern is the development of a role orientation that emphasizes managing rather than leading the school. The authors differentiate these two dimensions of the administrative role by suggesting that the managerial function emphasizes organizational stability and maintenance of the day‐to‐day operation, and that the leadership function emphasizes improvements in instructional and organizational arrangements facilitating teaching and learning. While a balance in functions is the preferred orientation implicit in theoretical as well as prescriptive models of the principalship, and principals themselves espouse the desirability of an instructional leadership emphasis, most empirical studies of the principalship indicate a substantial skewing of emphasis in the direction of managerial activities. The paper offers an empirically grounded theoretical explanation of this occurrence. Based on data from the studies of the enculturation process and the work activities of vice‐principals, and guided by socialization theory, the report discusses role‐learning implications of experience in the vice‐principalship role and concludes with seven propositions for further study.

Drawing on Blumberg and Greenfield′s studies of effective principals, offers an operational definition of school vision, based on teachers′ perceptions of that vision. The instrument developed consists of three subscales: (1) vision exchange – the principal′s effectiveness in exchanging his/her vision with the school community; (2) vision internalization – the principal′s effectiveness in getting others to internalize this vision, and; (3) vision sacrifice – the principal′s effectiveness in encouraging others to sacrifice for this vision. In an effort to validate the School Vision Inventory (SVI), three hypotheses were tested. The perceived robustness of the principal′s role was significantly correlated with two subscales of the SVI: exchange and sacrifice. Significant correlations were also found between teachers′ perceptions of the principal′s supervisory expertise and vision exchange and sacrifice. Finally, there were higher mean principal vision scores in schools where teachers perceived progress being made towards vision realization. Presents the SVI as a potentially useful way of assessing school vision, providing further insight into the dynamics of professional life in schools.

Part One of this initial report of a longitudinal study of the organizational socialization of educational administrators offered an analysis of data ordered by the GASing construct and the two related concepts of anticipatory socialization and interpersonal orientation. The data to be analyzed here are ordered using the concepts of situational adjustment and organizational space. A theoretical model interrelating major individual and organizational variables influencing the socialization of administrators during the candidacy portion of their career then builds upon the hypotheses proposed in Part One and Part Two. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of the implications these data portend for both training programs and public school systems, calling special attention to the uniqueness of the long‐term serial character of the socialization of educators as an occupational group.

This two‐part paper reports the initial results of a longitudinal study of the organizational socialization of educational administrators. The data analyzed in Part One are ordered using the construct, GASing (Getting the Attention of Superiors), and the related concepts of anticipatory socialization and interpersonal orientation. Data analyzed in Part Two are ordered using the concepts of situational adjustment and organizational space. A theoretical model proposing the interrelation of major individual and organizational socialization variables concludes this initial report. In Part One the claim is made that socialization through the life‐cycle may be conceived as a series of learned interpersonal relationships through which individuals build up a repertoire of interpersonal responses which condition new‐role learning. Attention is fixed on the interrelatedness of both interindividual differences in candidate behavior dispositions and contextual properties of the situations in which candidates found themselves during this period of their career. Anticipatory socialization and the GASing construct direct attention to processes occurring between the time a teacher first becomes positively oriented toward the administrative group and when he/she actually gains membership in that group, i.e. the period of candidacy. Interpersonal orientation directs attention to behavioral predispositions among candidates relative to their stance toward the situation of candidacy itself. Hypotheses evolving out of an analysis of these data are proposed for testing.

The genesis of the moral leadership concept in educational administration and examples of studies exploring this idea during the 1979‐2003 period are discussed. The author recommends more contextually sensitive descriptive studies with a focus on the social relations among school leaders and others, giving particular attention, in a phenomenological sense, to the meanings, perspectives, and espoused purposes of school leaders’ actions, social relationships, and interpersonal orientations.

The paper shares observations on each article in this volume, concluding that educational administration has continued to evolve in the application of organizational theory to schools and universities. A very important but recent focus of several studies reviewed is the connections they illustrate between organizational characteristics and processes and teaching and learning. Suggestions for future inquiry conclude this article.

Articles are summarized briefly and the author offers a brief critical commentary on each.

Each of the studies is an excellent example of the power and utility of organizational theory and its applicability to educational organizations. There is a real sense of theoretical pluralism represented in this collection, and a focus on studying real problems of administrative and organizational practice.

While the papers discussed illustrate advances in thinking since the early days of the “theory movement”, there remains the critical task of theory development. All articles are a reminder of the importance and utility of theory, and the advantage of validated theory as a guide to practice. However, only a few are a reminder of the need for scholars to focus on theory development and, more specifically, of the need for theory development addressing real problems of educational organization and administrative practice. Such studies are vital to the future of organizational theory as a field of inquiry.

An increasingly popular argument proposes that the problems in public schooling may be solved through stronger, more morally imaginative leadership. School administrators ought to set forth a vision growing out of this moral responsibility, and may be trained to utilise moral imagination in directing teachers and students towards certain moral visions. A critique of the argument is presented and alternative (and conflicting) meanings of “moral imagination” surveyed. Four models of moral imagination are located: as discovery; as moral authority; as faculty of mind, and as super science. It is argued that each of these conceptions has inherent difficulties. The logical relationship of these views is explored. The notion of “school leadership” is traced in the literature as it has been attached to “moral imagination”. The work of W. Greenfield is examined and a philosophy of school administration, with certain assumptions, regarding values and authority, that reveal key difficulties for the unfettered use of “moral imagination” in school administration, is found. It is concluded that “moral imagination” ought to be replaced with “critical imagination”, coupled with “democratic value deliberation” and by so doing a richer leadership will result, leading to the empowerment of teachers and a fuller serving of the public good.

This study was built upon earlier research by Ronald Blood, William Greenfield Jr. and Harry F. Wolcott and explored the informal socialisation of first, second, and third year Ohio Catholic elementary school principals. It identified the significant others and socialisation stages of 25 selected socialisation content items for the position. The items were related to four dimensions of their roles: i.e. personnel relations, administration/ management, curriculum/supervision and religious leadership. The investigation also reaffirmed the development of an “administrative perspective”.

This study examines how foreign R&D investment may explain interfirm variations in productivity performance of home country firms in terms of spillovers. Many have studied spillovers from MNCs to host country’s firms, but there is still scarce evidence on spillovers from outward FDI to the home country. This study analyzes spillovers from foreign R&D investment and hypothesizes that the benefit of outward R&D spillovers occurs only when knowledge accumulated in foreign R&D centers is effectively transferred to MNCs’ parent companies at home. This benefit depends on the mandate of foreign R&D units, their embeddedness in the host economy, and their entry mode. Using detailed firm-level data for Switzerland, our findings seem to support our arguments.

In this paper, which was presented at a Conference for Lecturers in Educational Administration held in Melbourne in August 1981, the author expands upon past criticisms of the phenomenological and Marxist perspectives, provides an extensive analysis of the concept of loose coupling and puts forward a philosophical alternative to the phenomenological and positivistic positions. The interplay of philosophical viewpoints with issues in theory, research and preparation in educational administration is emphasized.