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Effective Leadership Education: Developing a Core Curriculum for Leadership Studies

Willis M. Watt, Ph.D. 10.12806/V2/I1/RF1

Willis M. Watt, Ph.D.

Director, Division of Professional Studies Methodist College

5400 Ramsey Street

Fayetteville, NC 28311-1498 [email protected]

Educators must develop leadership studies programs that prepare students to deal with the reality of a diverse world so they are able to handle constant change as they lead in the 21st century. The purpose of this paper is to consider a variety of questions that need to be answered when developing core curricula for college and university leadership studies programs. The discussion is based many years of researching, developing, and teaching in this area at state universities as well as at private liberal arts and Christian colleges. This paper offers a review of the importance of leadership education, a review of Hosford’s (1973) curriculum development model, and an examination of three case histories. Hosford (1973) has developed a model of instructional design that suggests a strong interrelationship exists between any given curriculum program and the subsequent teaching involved in the program. Hosford’s model challenges the educator to ask a variety of questions concerning issues affecting professional, practical, political, package (i.e., program), organizational, interrelated dynamics, teaching/learning, and implementation. As illustrated by the three case histories, with attention to each dimension of curriculum development it is possible to develop meaningful and successful leadership studies courses and programs at the college and university levels.

Introduction

Living in the 21st century means needing new technologies to deal with challenges such as population growth, food supplies, disease, pollution, waste disposal, urban sprawl, societal unrest, economic crisis, corporate growth, and war. Just as importantly people need leaders who are skilled in critical thinking, communicating, and effective leadership. Leaders are needed who are capable of dealing with family problems, poverty, politics, ethics, interpersonal and international relations as well as many other problems. Effective leaders are needed at all levels of our society. Obviously “understanding leadership has practical importance for all of us” (Hackman & Johnson, 2000, p. 1).

Leadership education must not be limited to discussions in classrooms and think tanks. In 1988 Alvin Toffler (cited in Sawin, 1995) said, “we use the ‘first wave’ to mean the process associated with agriculturalization and the agrarian era; the ‘second wave’ to mean the processes of industrial era; and the ‘third wave’ to mean the changes forming a new society today” (p. xviii). Effective leadership education will need to prepare people to deal with the diverse reality present in a pluralistic world. Leaders must be able to communicate effectively — interpersonally and organizationally. They need to be able to handle constant change. They need to understand human perception, physiology, neurology, psychology, and social behavior. Such individuals need to apply critical thinking, language, and behavior that are appropriate in a myriad of situations. All in all the leaders of the 21st century will need to be able to skillfully communicate with people in order to lead effectively while promoting cooperation and mutual understanding among diverse people.

The good news is that today there is general agreement that leadership can be learned. Few people would deny there is a critical need for effective leadership in human affairs. Certainly a person’s thoughts are shaped by the leaders that individual comes in contact with daily. And, while leadership behavior may appear to be subconscious, such learning is not inconsistent with much of human behavior. People often are not conscious of various aspects of their personalities and behaviors. Yet, because too little about what constitutes effective leadership is known, leadership educators must strive to make the subconscious dimensions of leadership conscious, and thus, at least in theory, enhance the education and training of effective leaders.

The purpose of this paper is to consider a variety of questions that need to be answered when developing core curricula for college and university leadership studies programs. The discussion is based on many years of researching, developing, and teaching in this area at state universities as well as at private liberal arts and Christian colleges. This paper offers a review of the importance of leadership education, a discussion of Hosford’s (1973) model for developing a core curriculum, and an examination of three case histories involving the development of leadership studies courses and programs.

Importance of Leadership Education

The 20th century saw an ideological shift in higher education from the belief that education is a tool of cultural transmission to a more contemporary belief that it should serve the needs and wants of students (Watt, 1980). This shift is reflected in increased accessibility to higher education. It supports the importance of education. College attendance, once only for the well-to-do or rich, is now considered a right that everyone enjoys. While significant social and racial

barriers still exist, higher education is making strides to meet the needs of all citizens in the United States of America.

For over 2,500 years liberal arts education has reflected a basic philosophy of what is needed to adequately educate students to fulfill the responsibilities placed on them (Watt, 1980). Today colleges and universities are involved in preparing students for a wide variety of professions and occupations. In more recent years changes within liberal arts education has included a focus on effective leadership education. Many colleges and universities recognize the importance of including courses and programs that provide education for developing effective leadership.

Leadership education has experienced many theoretical explanations that have shifted from one model to another and then back again (Brungardt, 1996 Summer). Brungardt identified five major theories — “trait, behavioral, situational, power-influence, and transformational” (p. 82). Crawford, Brungardt, and Maughan (2000) note that “leadership theorists have struggled with one basic concept: the definition of leadership” (p. 1).

Brungardt (1996 Summer) points out that “it is important from the outset to distinguish and define the critical and sometimes confusing terminology” (p. 83). “Leadership development” deals with almost all forms of growth or stages of development in the life cycle that promotes a person’s leadership potential. On the other hand, “leadership education” refers to those learning activities and educational situations intended to enhance leadership abilities. Unfortunately throughout history leadership education has been for a select few and not always available to everyone who can and should benefit from leadership development programs (Watt, 1995).

Certainly leadership education can and should achieve a number of goals (Wolfe, 1996 Fall). A function of any leadership education program is to promote both youth and adult leadership as a key component of individual and community growth. Secondly, such programs should enhance leadership by establishing relationships for the exchange of ideas, information, and research. Another dimension of leadership education is to develop an environment that encourages the translation of leadership theory and research into practice. Leadership programs should encourage the creation of new educational partnerships. And, finally, they should provide opportunities for personal and professional development.

According to Quigley (1996 September), there is a clear need for emergent leaders who have the capacity for resolving divergent human problems. These divergent problems require ethically based leaders. In support of this point, Holkeboer and Hoeksema (1998) assert that “leadership should endorse ethical principles and embody moral integrity” (p. 5). “Contrary to popular belief, being ethical makes us more, not less, successful. Being a ‘good’ leader means being both ethical and effective” (Johnson, 2001, p. 138). Woyach (1993) claims that

“anyone can exercise leadership…young or old, assertive or quiet, a man or a woman” (p. xi). Leadership brings together diverse points of view to achieve common goals and create shared visions. Watt (1995) advocates that it is possible to provide students with learning environments that foster the learning and development of leadership skills.

Wren (cited in Watt, 1995) identified seven considerations in teaching leadership development. His considerations include:

• Students must be made to feel comfortable with the concept of leadership.
• Students must be able to recognize the various elements of leadership.
• Students need to know about the process of leadership.
• Students ought to have an increased awareness of the practice of leadership.
• Students should have a sense of the purposes of leadership.
• Students should begin to develop an awareness of their individual strengths and weaknesses as leaders.

In today’s pluralistic and complex world people need to be able to lead effectively in many different settings. What are needed are not masses of intellectuals, but women and men educated to feel, to act, and to think. A curriculum that contains a leadership studies component is better able to provide students with requisite leadership skills. Students so prepared are better able to explore their world, to maximize their intellectual capabilities, and to be life-long learners with an ability to act autonomously. Such people are better able to lead others. Leaders are needed who are well educated in their fields, yet, possess the capability to lead effectively at home, play, and work.

Quigley (1996 September) discusses the “leader as learner” (p. 18). He points out that leaders “must continuously learn the skills of effectiveness to ensure economic survival in a competitive environment” (p. 18). This recognition of the importance of effective leadership skills affirms the need to develop appropriate leadership curricula. Therefore, it is appropriate to consider how educators can develop worthwhile leadership studies courses and programs.

Curriculum Model

Hosford (1973) has developed a model of instructional design that suggests a strong interrelationship exists between any given curriculum program and the subsequent teaching involved in the program. Improving teaching and instruction in the classroom results in a higher quality of education. It cannot be overlooked, however, that the better the curriculum program being taught the better the chance the student will experience a positive learning environment. In Figure 1 Hosford’s model depicts the relationship needed between curriculum, instruction, and teaching. Without attention to each dimension there will be inadequacies in developing any educational program.

The Hosford (1973) model for curriculum development is helpful in developing effective leadership education programs. The model is applicable to meeting the needs for course and program development at any college or university around the nation. It addresses national trends on issues related to the development of leadership studies.

• Will there be a gain in prestige or a loss if the institution is involved in the program?
• Who will teach the new course/s?
• Will those involved in teaching and administering the program receive acceptance from their “client/s”?
• Is the program vocational, technical, professional, or liberal arts?
• Are the personnel too overspecialized to effectively handle the program?
• Will their self-concept allow them to function freely in the new program?
• Is there likely to be a fear of failure?

Instruction

Figure 1. Ideal Relationship Between Curriculum and Instruction

Adapted from An instructional theory: A beginning (1973) by Philip L. Hosford.

• Is the new program feasible?
• Is the new program cost effective?
• Will it require new materials?
• How much will it cost?
• Is the institution going to have to hire new personnel? How many?
• Will someone else be lost because of the new program within the system?
• How long will the program last?
• Is the new program an improvement?
• Will it improve the educational process for students?
• Will it improve the students’ life experiences?
• Is the program such that it is local enough for those wishing to participate in it?
• Will there be enough students interested in the program?
• Can the new proposal be effectively and efficiently evaluated?
• Will the community accept the new plan for teaching their students?
• Will the societal norms allow for instruction in the specific areas covered in the program?
• What about the religious sanctions within the community that might come in to play if the new program is adopted?
• What effect will government have on the proposed curricular development — local, state, and national?
• What about the philosophic value biases that face the new program?
• Is the program creative enough to allow the students to encounter new learning experiences in a meaningful way?
• Does the program include experiential, interactive hands-on types of learning experiences that can enhance the knowledge gained in the classroom?
• Are the students capable of handling this particular series of learning experiences at this time in their education?
• Are the students likely to be interested in learning the program material?
• Are the overall costs and time spent worth the development and adoption of the curriculum?
• Does anyone know who is responsible for the program?
• Does the program fit within the institutional philosophy and mission?
• Is the program a consistent activity or is it haphazard and ineffective?

The sixth consideration deals with the “interrelated dynamics” of the various concerns in the developmental process. In this discussion these will be referred to as – “interaction effects.” One must consider the interactions among administration, curriculum, faculty, governing personnel, and students if new program development is to be successful. During these negotiations it is essential for the participants to recognize the interdependence of these diverse items. Each

entity must listen to the others’ positions concerning the proposed curriculum. Approaching the issues with a win-win attitude will result in synergy allowing for positive outcomes that promote the development process.

• Are new teaching strategies required or will the instructional methods presently in use work in the new program?
• How does the new program fit into the instructional goals and objectives that have been set down?
• Where will the curriculum program fit in the scope and sequence of the overall educational offerings at the institution?
• Will the program require further education and training for faculty who teach in the new program?
• Can the teacher provide alternate settings for learning within the framework of the program?
• How will the program be evaluated and assessed?
• Will the philosophy and values held by the teacher interfere in the effective instruction of students?
• How will the instructional supervisor assess student progress and learning?
• Is the teacher likely to be too dependent on someone else for the effective and efficient completion of her or his task because of the manner in which the program was implemented?
• Does the experience of the teacher allow for effective instruction?
• Will those involved with the program be able to identify with it?
• Are personnel and students likely to accept the course of study?
• Who is going to make the decision to implement the program?
• How can the decision be enforced without alienating everyone involved?
• Will the proposal remain consistent over an extended period of time?
• Does the program fit the overall curriculum structure at the institution?
• Do those involved in the implementation process have the initiative to see the program through to its natural conclusion?

In summary, the Hosford (1973) model focuses discussion on a number of curriculum related questions that must be dealt with in the development and adoption of leadership studies programs at colleges and universities. Developers of new courses and curricular programs will find the work is difficult and time

consuming, but it is worthwhile when it is done correctly. When developers of leadership studies respond to these developmental questions, the answers will likely enhance the development of courses and programs of leadership education offered by various institutions.

Goals and Objectives

Understanding leadership, levels of learning, leadership studies philosophy, figure 2. relationship of leadership curriculum development factors, leadership studies: case histories of program development.

The following discussion focuses on five factors that were a part of the creation and development of three leadership studies programs (refer to Figure 2). These include (a) levels of learning, (b) understanding leadership, (c) leadership studies philosophy, (d) goals and objectives, and (e) assessment. These factors were considered as a result of the writer’s research, teaching, and development of leadership studies courses and degree programs at state universities as well as private liberal arts and Christian colleges.

In each of the three academic settings, three levels of learning were identified: comprehension; analysis and synthesis; and, application. Comprehension deals with the fact that the students should be introduced to theories and concepts through assigned readings, lectures, and audio-visual materials. Students need to

be tested to reinforce their intellectual mastery of course material. Analysis and synthesis focuses on the expectation that students must be able to demonstrate they have critically analyzed course materials, thereby enabling them to synthesize the materials presented in class discussions, oral reports, and written assignments. Finally, students must be able to effectively apply their understanding of leadership behavior in a “relatively” safe environment by participating in structured learning exercises (SLEs) in the classroom.

Understanding leadership is important. In the forward of his book entitled, Developing the Leader Within You , Maxwell (1993) notes that “leadership is not an exclusive club for those who were ‘born with it’” (n.p.n.). Understanding leadership cannot be achieved without recognizing that several factors affect the way actions and leadership potential is interrelated. Maxwell hints at this interrelatedness when he points out that those concerned with leadership must “link the definition of leadership (influence) with the responsibility of leadership (people development)” (p. 118).

Birnbaum (cited in Watt, 1995) claims that leadership is behavior that influences others. This is known as “legitimation.” Legitimacy is a matter of interpretation that depends on the perceptions of those being led. He also stresses the importance of the concept of “intentions” as an important factor in understanding leadership. Birnbaum suggests outcomes must in some way reflect the desires of the leader. Because outcomes are related to human action rather than external forces or chance, the tendency is to search for a connection between events and leadership actions. A third dimension identified by Birnbaum is that of “initiative.” He contends leadership is not “routine.” Leadership involves interpretation. This means that people expect the leader to respond to situations by exercising independent judgment and discretion. Thus, leaders must make choices. Birnbaum correctly identifies another important leadership concept, “morality.” Manz and Neck (1999) support his point. “We choose what we are and what we become” (p. 1). Birnbaum (cited in Watt, 1995) claims as individuals make choices, those very same choices define the moral dimension of the their leadership because they require value judgments outside the bounds of the rules. Finally, Birnbaum claims that leaders must be able to motivate and influence others. Thus, “behavior” is a critical element in understanding leadership. Leaders must be able to evoke changes in followers’ behaviors by changing followers’ perceptions.

With this view of learning and of understanding about leadership in mind, it is possible to set the parameters of the philosophy of leadership courses for concentrations, minors, and degree programs. The leadership studies programs

• Given the complex problems and challenges of today’s world, the need for leadership is as great as ever before. Effective leadership can make a positive contribution to a better quality of life at all levels of society.
• Leadership can be taught. It is possible to develop and provide students with a learning environment that will foster critical leadership skills and capabilities.
• Leadership education is not just for a select few, but rather, all individuals can and should benefit from leadership development activities.
• Develop critical thinking skills.
• Develop increased written communication skills.
• Develop increased oral communication skills, both speaking and listening.
• Develop an understanding of the mental, physical, social, organizational, and emotional factors affecting individuals.

Assessment of leadership studies programs is an important matter. It is essential for verifying that leadership studies programming is effectively accomplishing what it is intended to accomplish. According to Brungardt and Crawford (1996), effective assessment furthers the academic discipline of leadership education.

Leadership education should be assessed based on multiple method strategies and conducted longitudinally as well.

Assessment efforts reflect the fact that the college and university leadership studies programs mentioned in this paper have grown by leaps and bounds during the past decade. While each leadership program is unique to its institutional mission, they have experienced many accomplishments and successes. Indeed enrollments continue to grow in the various programs.

• First, the focus, purpose, and direction of the program must be refined, refocused, and redeveloped over the years on a regular basis.
• Second, consistency between the sections of each course must be ensured.
• Third, the course, concentration, minor and/or degree program objectives and content must be regularly examined in order to evaluate the potential for new course methodologies and content.
• Fourth, it must be ensured that the core programming is aligned to deal with questions within the cognitive, behavioral, and affective domains of learning.
• Fifth, it is a good idea to seek to “grow” the leadership program.

Three Case Histories Concerning Leadership Studies Programs

According to Brungardt (1996 Spring), the leadership studies program at the state university has grown to over 400 majors. The program has continued to grow in size over the past several years.

At the private Christian college the mission is to educate, equip, and enrich leaders. Therefore, college personnel implemented a 10-hour leadership concentration for all of its bachelor degrees. Following the implementation of the leadership studies program the college has achieved regional accreditation and its most recent graduating class is the largest in school history.

The private liberal arts college is offering an interdisciplinary major in organizational communication and leadership. The program is a 30-hour program including course work in business, interdisciplinary studies, leadership studies, mass communication, sociology, and speech communication. The program is growing. The program appears to have strong potential for increased numbers of majors in the degree program.

This paper offers a justification for developing effective leadership courses and programs for training today’s leaders as well as for preparing future leaders in the 21st century. The overview of leadership education literature clearly affirms the need and value of leadership education. The writer examined the development of core curricula for leadership studies courses and programs at the college and university levels. Applying the questions generated by the Hosford (1973) model for curriculum development, it was found through three case histories that the issues raised where instrumental in developing effective leadership education courses and programs. The model addresses important issues concerning professional, practical, political, package, organization, interrelated dynamics, teaching/learning, and implementation matters essential in the development of leadership studies programs.

The discussion of the three case histories involving courses and leadership programs at a mid-western regional university, a private Christian college in the

plains, and an eastern private liberal arts college support the application of Hosford’s (1973) principles of curriculum development in developing leadership studies programs. The success of these three programs underscores the importance of giving proper attention to the educational foundation and curriculum development model used by an institution wishing to develop and implement leadership studies courses and programs.

From this examination, the writer suggests there are five essential elements of successful curriculum development. First, educators need to understand and apply what they know about students’ levels of learning. Second, it is vital for educators to have an understanding of leadership. Third, leadership studies courses and programs ought to be well grounded in an appropriate philosophical foundation.

Fourth, the goals and objectives of any course or program of leadership education must be clearly stated and understood by teacher and learner alike. Finally, assessment cannot be underestimated in importance as part of an effort for continuous improvement of a leadership studies course or program.

The challenge in the decades ahead will be for educators to expand their leadership studies programs. If the current program is a course, expand to a concentration of required courses. Should the program be a concentration, then seek to develop a minor. If it is a minor, go for a major. If it is a major, try to establish a certificate program. If it is a certificate program then you should consider expanding it into a bachelor degree program. If it is already a bachelor degree program, expanding to the next level – a masters degree – makes good sense. Ultimately, if resources allow and it fits the mission of the college or university, the institution may want to develop a doctoral program.

Hopefully educators will consider the issues and questions raised in this discussion in order to provide quality leadership programming for their students. Effective leadership studies courses and programs will help prepare students to deal with the reality of a diverse world. We need trained and educated leaders capable of handling the constant change facing them as leaders in the 21st century.

Brungardt, C. (Ed.). (1996 Spring). Leadership studies – year three – program review . Prepared by the Faculty of Leadership Studies, Fort Hays State University, Hays, KS. Unpublished document.

Brungardt, C. (1996). The making of leaders: A review of the research in leadership development and education. The Journal of Leadership Studies, 3 (3) , pp. 81-95.

Brungardt, C., & Crawford, C. B. (1996 Winter). A comprehensive approach to assessing leadership students and programs: Preliminary findings. The Journal of Leadership Studies, 3 (1) , pp. 37-48.

Crawford, C. B., Brungardt, C. L., & Maughan, M. (2000). Understanding leadership: theories & concepts . Longmont, CO: Rocky Mountain Press.

Hackman, M. Z., & Johnson, C. E. (2000). Leadership: A communication perspective (3rd ed.). Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland.

Holkeboer, R., & Hoeksemsa, T. (1998). A casebook for student leaders . New York: Houghton Mifflin.

Hosford, P. L. (1973). An instructional theory: A beginning . Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Johnson, C. E. (2001). Meeting the ethical challenges of leadership: Casting light or shadow . Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage publications.

Manz, C. C., & Neck C. P. (1999). Mastering self-leadership: Empowering yourself for personal excellence (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Maxwell, J. C. (1993). Developing the leader within you . Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson.

Quigley, M. E. (1996 September). Leader as learner. Executive Excellence: The Magazine of Leadership Development, Managerial Effectiveness, and Organizational Productivity, 13 (9) , pp. 18, 19.

Sawin, G. (Ed.). (1995). Thinking & living skills: General semantics for critical thinking. Concord, CA: International Society for General Semantics.

Watt, W. M. (1995 Winter). Teaching essential behaviors of leadership. The Journal of Leadership Studies, 2 (1) , pp. 149-161.

Watt, W. M. (1980). A curriculum model and a cooperative program of study involving religion, theatre and the related arts between the state-supported institutions and the private religious liberal arts colleges of higher education . Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS.

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Why is school leadership key to transforming education? Structural and cultural assumptions for quality education in diverse contexts

Monica mincu.

1 Department of Philosophy and Educational Sciences, University of Turin, Palazzo Nuovo, Via Sant’Ottavio, 20, 10124 Torino, TO Italy

2 Institute of Education, UCL, Centre for Educational Leadership, London, United Kingdom

Failing to recognize the role of leaders in quality and equitable schooling is unfortunate and must be redressed. Leadership is fundamentally about organized agency and collective vision, not managerialism, since it is an organizational quality, not merely a positionality attribute. Most important, if change is to be systemic and transformative, it cannot occur uniquely at the individual teachers’ level. School organization is fundamental to circulating and consolidating new innovative actions, cognitive schemes, and behaviors in coherent collective practices. This article engages with the relevance of governance patterns, school organization, and wider cultural and pedagogical factors that shape various leadership configurations. It formulates several assumptions that clarify the importance of leadership in any organized change. The way teachers act and represent their reality is strongly influenced by the architecture of their organization, while their ability to act with agency is directly linked to the existence of flat or prominent hierarchies, both potentially problematic for deep and systemic change. A hierarchical imposition from above as well as a lack of leadership vision in fragmented school cultures cannot determine any transformation.

In recent years, transformation has emerged as a high priority in key policy documents (OECD, 2015 , 2020a , 2020b ; Paterson et al., 2018 ; UNESCO, 2021 ) and been recognized as a major pillar on which the very future of education is based. A galvanized international scene has put transformation at the top of the agenda. One reason is found in the recent Covid-19 emergency and the need to recover, and possibly to “build back better”. Other reasons are longer-term and relate to dissatisfaction with the quality of education in many parts of the world. Major international agencies have been directly involved in reform and have variously endorsed “educational planning” (e.g., Carron et al., 2010 ), systemic reform in highly centralized countries, school autonomy (framed as school-based management or decentralization), systemic adjustment and restructuring (e.g., Carnoy, 1998 ; Samoff, 1999 ), and accountability (Anderson, 2005 ), as well as capacity building and development (De Grauwe, 2009 ). However, in practice, only segments of reforms have been enacted, focusing on one aspect of the school system while neglecting others, without considering the larger governance and school architecture, and local pedagogical cultures. Some agencies have also expressed a renewed interest in innovation and the possibility to measure it (Vincent-Lancrin et al., 2019 ), from a rather managerial perspective.

The transformation of education is a trendy movement nowadays, with the potential to generate lasting change through wide-reaching actions, not just stylistically or in local projects. Transformation of this kind will occur when structural and organizational conditions are in place in a range of different settings. When this happens, transformation as a revamped concept of change can be wholeheartedly embraced. Nonetheless, both academic and development-oriented NGO research has long dedicated itself to and learned from systemic change, improvement, and reform, based on what have been defined as effective practices (Ko & Sammons, 2016 ; Townsend, 2007 ). The school effectiveness findings are typically transversal principles of what has proved valuable despite contextual variation, whilst noting the local variability of such principles (Teddlie & Stringfield, 2017 ) especially in low and middle income countries (Moore, 2022 ) and even in similar areas of education development (Boonen et al., 2013 ; Palardy & Rumberger, 2008 ). Some variability often occurs between consolidated and less consolidated school systems. School improvement has been based on scholars’ findings on school effectiveness, as these two areas can merge up to a certain point (Creemers & Reezigt, 2005 ; Stoll & Fink, 1996 ). Reform at the top and improvement at the ground level have long been trialed in different national and organizational settings and with different school populations, with the aim of establishing generalizability or local variation. Quality teaching (Bowe & Gore, 2016 ; Darling-Hammond, 2021 ; Hattie, 2009 ) or teachers (Hanushek, 2010 , 2014 ; Mincu, 2015 ; Akiba & LeTendre, 2017 ), as well as equitable effective practices (Sammons, 2010 ) have also been classic research topics that have emerged center-stage in any change project.

In order for quality-promoting endeavors such as change, improvement, and reform to produce a transformed education, several assumptions are indispensable: (a) recognize the larger school and organizational context as crucial, alongside school architecture and processes, (b) define what quality education means across a variety of country contexts and with regard to specific structural arrangements and pedagogical cultures, (c) distinguish the degree and type of autonomy for schools and teachers, and estimate the effectiveness of their mixed interactions, (d) understand and cope from a change perspective within a variety of school cultures, (e) recognize the structural limitations faced by school leadership, as well as the margins to produce local, gradual improvement that can pave the way to radical transformation, and (f) start any significant change at the school level, in the interaction of leaders and teachers.

What is school leadership and how can it bring about change? On the one hand, leadership is about a vision of change, collectively shaped and supported. In this sense, radical change—i.e., transformation—cannot occur without leaders and especially school leaders. In addition, an effective vision about a desired change grows from the interactions of the school actors and is stimulated and orchestrated by the school leadership. An imposition from above as well as a lack of leadership vision in fragmented school cultures cannot determine any transformation, nor its subsequent stability or growth, given that some grass roots changes happen accidentally, in limited school areas. In fact, if change is to be systemic and transformative, it cannot occur at the individual teachers’ level, as then it cannot be circulated and consolidated in stable, coherent collective practices. Action at the school level is fundamental for change to occur and last, as well as for individual teachers to be encouraged, supported, and rewarded for their innovative behavior. On the other hand, change is often conceptualized as a gradual process of a series of stages (Fullan, 2015 ; Kotter, 2012 ), carefully incorporating structural and cultural adjustments (Kools & Stoll, 2016 ). Transformation, a less orthodox and robust concept, incorporates the desire for more abrupt and radical change. It is imagined as a possibility to “leapfrog”. This desire to move rapidly forward resonates with the “window of opportunity” phase when big changes can occur more smoothly. However, at the school and even systemic level, complex changes resulting in net improvements are most often gradually prepared and stimulated, since any change is cultural in essence, and as such it needs time to occur. Another relevant aspect is related to leadership as an ingredient and quality, not just a positionality attribute. Both assumptions suggest the inevitability of its role to any change in education as an organized endeavor.

Larger contexts and school organizations are key in any transformation

Education does not occur in an organizational vacuum, since deschooling, mass home-schooling, or online-only paradigms are neither implemented nor envisioned. In addition, a concept of education exclusively posed in philosophical and theoretical terms, especially when aimed at transforming the status quo, neglects to take into account that schooling is enmeshed with different organizational and governance forms, at times in contradiction with its own theoretical bases. Most important, forms of sociality such as those sustained by schools have not declined in relevance but increased, in the aftermath of the global online experiment of the pandemic emergency. At the same time, improvements and even radical changes in education have been embraced and actively promoted in certain parts of the world. For instance, in Norway, renewed weekly timetables are in place, allowing for deep learning as well as better integration with virtual knowledge in high-stakes exams. One should not forget that most pupils around the world are educated in environments displaying significant structural convergences across countries, despite locally diverse values. Such teaching-oriented settings are characterized by the centrality of the adult as teacher, and most often by textbook-based education. The organizational arrangements are linear, based on daily subjects and teachers’ contractual time, mainly dedicated to teaching activities (the stavka system, see Steiner-Khamsi, 2016 , 2020 ) or to ad hoc self-help actions in extreme emergency contexts. Linked to these, school cultures can be both hierarchical (rules are delivered “from above”) and fragmented, since class teachers may be left to themselves without adequate professional support. Whilst the reality is nuanced and school typologies are in any case sociological abstractions, most systems can still be described as basically centralized or decentralized, depending on the level of autonomy granted to schools or local authorities. The larger school contexts as well as the local ones are even today very diverse in these two cases, despite a global increase in diversified combinations of centralization of some aspects and decentralization of others. What Archer ( 1979 ) theorized in her landmark work is still a key valid explanation of how school organizations usually operate and change. With renewed categories, a centralized system is largely characterized by “hierarchies”, real or perceived, and less by “networks and markets”, whilst in the case of decentralized systems, the opposite is true. The same differences can be highlighted in more comprehensive or selective school types, whose visions and ways of functioning are coherent with their structural patterns and influence, and in turn, with how leaders perceive their role and mission.

In terms of leadership, differing configurations will bring differing consequences. Centralized countries with weak school autonomy approach the role of school leaders in a rather formalist way: as primus inter pares or as administrative and legal head. In these settings, the intermediate level is also very weak and largely based on ad hoc tasks. Flat organizations may not support leadership as an essential element in the school’s operational life, and instead focus primarily on teaching, which is mainly viewed as an individual endeavor. School organizations at odds with leadership as a system quality, both in organizational and instructional terms, often exhibit forms of fragmentation (Mincu & Romiti, 2022 ), even in societies that may share a collectivistic or communitarian ethos, such as in East Asia. In countries with significant school autonomy, leadership structures are more manifestly in place, given the increased tasks performed by schools. Often, an excess of hierarchical leadership is a major negative outcome. However, the school context can be characterized by mixed combinations of types of governance (hierarchies, networks, markets) (Mincu & Davies, 2019 ; Mincu & Liu, 2022 ), which have a significant influence on the way leadership is oriented and how it accomplishes its visionary, organizational, and instructional functions within the school and in relation to society. School leadership is both a processual quality and a positional trait, and thus it can be variously performed in high autonomy school systems. In the case of centralized arrangements, it can be much harder to identify leadership as process where there is just some form of leadership positionality: a legal school head or the existence of subject-matter departments. School contexts and organizations around the world are also diverse in terms of leadership configurations and roles: some schools may share the same leader (Italy), some may not provide many leadership positions at all (India), and others may specify a headship position which does not in fact offer any leadership or cohesion in organizational and pedagogical matters. Indeed, leadership may be entirely missing from certain school systems.

To summarize, the way teachers act and represent their reality is strongly influenced by the architecture of their organization, along with the quality, direction, and margins of power that can be exerted by leadership at the school and intermediate levels. Nevertheless, schools are large organizations, and as such a certain amount of alignment and direction is needed, which is what leadership provides.

The autonomy of schools and that of teachers are not mutually exclusive

Closely related to the first assumption, for a functional and dynamic school organization, a certain amount of school autonomy is required to adequately balance teachers’ autonomy. In high school autonomy systems, there is a tendency to assume that teachers’ autonomy is quite reduced, and this is certainly the case if the education model is accountability-oriented and leadership is hierarchical. In less autonomous systems, huge resistance to instill more autonomy at the school level is usually deployed—for example, in strongly unionist cultures, which aim to extend and expand teachers’ independence. This translates into quite radical teachers’ autonomy on pedagogical matters, as is the case in certain European school systems (Mincu & Granata, 2021 ).

An excess of teachers’ autonomy is detrimental to coherence and alignment at the school level and affects both quality and equity. The metaphors of teachers in their classes as eggs in their egg crates or lions behind closed doors, in the words of a ministry official in Italy, are particularly telling about flat, non-collaborative structures. The idea that high teacher autonomy may automatically support collegiality in flat organizations is not supported by the reality on the ground in certain school systems. In sociological terms, any human organization requires a certain amount of hierarchy and collegiality. In fact, a certain quantity of school autonomy is beneficial in many ways and can enhance teachers’ agency: (a) it emphasizes the role of leaders, including the possibility for teachers to act with leadership, (b) it offers a direction that can be shared, (c) it stimulates people to come together in effective ways (communities of practice) whilst presenting the risk of some contrived collegiality, and (d) it encourages teachers to feel more supported in their own work and professional development.

In a nutshell, leadership’s margins of influence are shaped not only by overall system governance, but also by the amount of school autonomy they enjoy. In addition, the extent of organizational autonomy is directly linked to the existence of flat or prominent hierarchies, both potentially problematic for deep and systemic change.

School cultures converge and diverge in multiple ways within and across countries

Pedagogical transformation is about a change in cultural assumptions, which entails a slow process of cognitive and emotional modification that has to be supported beyond school walls by concerted social and economic actions. Structural change will not be successful without an adjustment in people’s cognitive schemes about their practices and values. How teachers conceive of teaching and learning, and of equitable and inclusive approaches, is not essentially a matter of “lack of training”, for which more preparation may be the solution. It is instead a matter of deep pedagogical beliefs, whose roots are shared and societal. How to discipline class misbehavior, for example, and even what inappropriate classroom behavior is, varies widely across societies: it denotes (generational at times) power distance, gender relations, assumptions about individuality and collectivistic entities, as well as merit recognition and social envy avoidance. For Hargreaves ( 1994 ), school culture is the result of the intertwining of attitudes such as individualism, collaboration, contrived collegiality, and “balkanization”, i.e., fragmentation of ethical goals. Stoll ( 2000 ) herself describes schools in terms of social cohesion and social control as traditional, welfarist, “hothouse”, or anomic. In contrast, for Hood ( 1998 ), there are four possible combinations of social cohesion and regulation: (a) fatalistic: compliance with rules but little cooperation to achieve results, (b) hierarchical (bureaucratic): social cohesion and cooperation and a rules-based approach, (c) individualist: fragmented approaches to organizing that require negotiation among various actors, and (d) egalitarian: very meaningful participation structures, highly participatory decision-making, a culture of peer support.

In reality, mixed combinations of two, three, or more types of cultures can be found and supported by a variety of factors within and beyond schools as organizations. Some Southern European realities, as well as some Eastern European systems, belong to the individualist typology: weak collaboration and weak hierarchy, given the absence of a teaching career structure with levels of preparation and strong autonomy of the individual teacher. Some aspects of institutional “fatalism” are present, because a certain culture of respect for rules nevertheless exists, and of egalitarianism of a rather formal type. In fact, while the collegial culture on a formal level may appear robust—given the presence of collegial bodies—in practice organizational coherence remains very weak. The reason lies in the fact that these bodies can also decide not to agree on any systemic solution and defer decisions to the individual teacher, since teacher autonomy is still the superior criterion governing informal culture in schools. In the Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian school systems, for example, schools express more coherent and cohesive cultures that oscillate between very hierarchical and more participatory models, with more diffuse leadership (Seashore-Louis, 2015 ). Even though these latter school systems favor a mostly cohesive ethos, it is not uncommon to find fragmented and inconsistent schools with weak leadership.

As an example of how school cultures work, a culturally well-rooted premise that teachers “are all good” is very much at work in certain flat hierarchical or Confucian-oriented school cultures, meaning they are equally effective because morally oriented for the profession. This is, in fact, a convenient belief allowing those within it to oppose forms of evaluations (including between peers and in the wider community of parents and stakeholders) and to resist more school autonomy and cohesiveness measures that might be envisioned by school or system leadership. Whilst teachers may be reluctant to work together and observe each other (as in a lesson study format) in most countries, this may be particularly the case where teachers’ autonomy is quite radical, where collaboration and mentoring are not common practices, or where stimulated by school arrangements and work contracts (e.g., in Italy; see Mincu & Granata, 2021 ).

Another way to characterize pedagogical cultures is with reference to formalism (respect for rules and social distances, focus on adults’ role and transmissive pedagogies) or to progressivism (more egalitarian interactions and a focus on the learner and their way of acquiring and creating knowledge). There are many ways in which various school cultures can be appropriately characterized, offering plenty of nuances and details of social, economic, and cultural stratifications and contradictions: for instance, in certain East Asian contexts, there is a combination of Confucianism, socialist egalitarianism, and revised individualism of consumption or of possession, based on previous rural forms of it. However, along the lines of centralized/decentralized typologies that are still valid for describing school functioning and structures, the reality of countries around the world allows scholars to characterize school cultures as formalist versus progressivist. It is legitimate to do so in spite of the local nuances and anthropological cultures that may filter and support such pedagogies (Guthrie et al., 2015 ).

Any cultural change imposed from above or from abroad may be doomed to failure if the hardware is that of centralized systems and if school actors are not allowed to engage in a cultural exercise of adaptation, adequately supported with infrastructural measures. Whilst there is no single model, there are some pillars of good teaching and some key lessons about how to produce change. A major premise is that any change must reach the school level and be able to activate and energize its school actors. School systems may be distinguished therefore in terms of formalist/progressivist typologies, which is coherent with other types of systemic characteristics, including lack of leadership (be it hierarchically formalized, legally representative only, or peer-oriented) that may preclude any effort of cultural transformation.

Without leadership, individual teachers may act as a loosely connected group, without vision and motivation to produce an expected and socially praised change. The expectation to encourage reforms from the regional and district level, when not from the top, is purely utopian. Schools remain remote realities in such change models. Most systems in poorly resourced contexts are entangled in hierarchical school models and grounded in traditional power distance and colonial legacies. Without significant leadership processes stimulated by school principals at the very heart of such systems, cultural and new structural processes cannot be expected. To produce cultural change, the top leadership stratum must create the proper conditions, such as salaries, workload, and other incentives for training and knowledge dissemination; but action and cognitive schemes characterize the school level and teachers cannot be blamed for what they cannot do by themselves.

Defining quality for present times education in context

We cannot move toward possible futures without deeply understanding what good education can be in our present societies, in a variety of localities around the world. Research has long dedicated itself to the task of defining quality in education, particularly in the fields of school effectiveness and school improvement. Meta-research has become a bestseller scholarly genre (Hattie, 2009 ), and the drive toward evidence-based knowledge has been equally impressive, across universities, NGOs, and other major international players. Research studies distinguish between quality teachers (their attributes, amount of preparation, and years of experience) and teaching quality, based on dimensions of quality teaching that produce effective learning. Since structures and cultures can be effectively encapsulated in categories (centralized/autonomous, formalist/progressivist, etc.), quality teaching is also condensed (a) in key dimensions, for instance by Bowe and Gore ( 2016 ), subsuming further aspects, or (b) as rankings of most effective factors in terms of learning.

Mistrust of evidence-based and best-practice research traditions is justified when ready-made solutions are implemented without adaptations and the engagement of those involved. Even the adoption of South-South solutions can be ineffective at times (Chisholm & Steiner-Khamsi, 2008 ). Since problems in education are messy and “wicked” (Ritter & Webber, 1973 ) changes must be systemic and cultural.

Anderson and Mundy, 2014 proved that improvement solutions and practices in two groups of countries—developed and less developed—are very much convergent. Both developing and developed countries present a series of common challenges: the need for fewer top-down approaches, for instance, and for approaches less narrowly focused on the basics. Comparative evidence and perspectives on student learning in developing countries converge on a common cluster of instructional concepts and strategies: (a) learning as student-centered, differentiated, or personalized, associated with using low-cost teaching and learning materials in the language which students understand, and (b) the appropriate use of small group learning in addition to large group instruction. This enables regular diagnostic and formative assessment of student progress to guide instructional decision-making, clear directions, and checking student understanding of the purpose of learning activities. It also involves personalized feedback to students based on assessments of their learning, and explicit teaching of learning skills to strengthen students’ problem-solving competencies. With the possible exception of low-cost learning materials, these prescriptions for good teaching are consistent with international evidence about effective instruction (Anderson & Mundy, 2014 ). But quality teaching and teachers equally assume specific contextual meanings. For instance, Kumar and Wiseman ( 2021 ) indicate that traditional measures of quality (teacher preparation and credentials) are less relevant in India compared to non-traditional measures such as teachers’ absenteeism and their attitude/behavior toward their students.

Teachers alone cannot make a better school

Teachers and their actions at the classroom level are key to inspiring learning and students’ progress. Nonetheless, a misreported finding from an OECD ( 2010 ) study that “the quality of an education system can never exceed the quality of its teachers” is only partially correct. In fact, the full quotation said that the system’s quality cannot exceed the quality of its teachers and leaders. The incomplete quote mirrors a common misconception that teachers alone can and should improve the system. Instead, teachers are part of organizations, and as such they behave and respond to dynamics in place in those contexts, and not as individuals, or as a professional group, not even in the most unionized countries. The quality of a public service cannot be attributed solely to its members, but also to their organization and to specific choices made by its leadership, which is responsible for organizational vision and translating theories into action. Launching heartfelt calls for teachers to change their practices is both naive and sociologically inaccurate regarding how people act and behave in social organizations, such as schools. The presence of leadership as a processual and qualitative dimension at the school level also indicates the existence of the structures of school leadership teams and middle managers, in which leadership is robustly in place as positionality.

In this sense, the quote indicates the relevance of teachers’ work in carefully designed organizations, in which hierarchy and horizontal interactions of collaboration between peers are in a functional equilibrium. In other words, schools and teachers’ autonomy reciprocally reinforce one another.

Whenever teachers are required to act with leadership, autonomy, and innovation, the larger system and school culture should be carefully considered. Teachers cannot by themselves be directly responsible for systemic changes. National-level teams of experts cannot blame teachers for a lack of change when the necessary knowledge and resources are not cascaded effectively to the school level. As the end point of the chain of change, teachers cannot be accused for a lack of success and adequate culture to facilitate innovation when decision makers do not consider the school architecture and how leaders are prepared and ready to support a change in culture. This has been the case with reforms in less resourceful countries around the world, often in highly centralized systems, where more progressivist changes are expected from teachers in the absence of proper consideration of the school architecture, long-standing interactions with the school leaders, and the overall pedagogical culture. Unfair blame for these teachers is expressed at times by international or national teams of experts, unrealistically expecting individual teachers to produce significant structural and cultural changes, otherwise they play the part of “those who wait on a bus” for a change to happen. The possibility to develop, to act innovatively, and to be motivated for teaching depends largely on the organizational support received by teachers at the school level from their head teacher and the wider environment. Professional development is a key ingredient that impacts teacher quality (Cordingley, 2015 ), and its effectiveness and provision depends heavily on the school leadership. Without support from the larger school context and leadership, even the most autonomous teachers may not act with the necessary teaching quality that can make a difference, as clearly illustrated by TALIS 2020.

Leadership, as an organizational quality, is indispensable

The final assumption involves the idea that one cannot crudely distinguish between teachers and leaders, especially middle managers and more informal leaders. Obviously, there is a continuum between such roles: teachers themselves can act with agency and leadership, formally or informally, and head teachers may draw upon their experience as teachers.

Since schools are organizations and not collections of individuals, the field of school effectiveness and school improvement has incontrovertibly identified the influence of leadership as vital: “school leadership is second only to classroom teaching as an influence on pupil learning” (Leithwood et al., 2008 ). Through both organization and instructional vision (Day et al., 2016 ), effective leadership significantly enhances or diminishes the influence that individual teachers have in their classes. Regardless of cultural considerations, when teachers’ work is uncoordinated and fragmented, the overall effect in terms of learning and education cannot be amplified and adequately supported. A lack of coherence within organizations is unfavorable to more localized virtuous dynamics that may be diminished or suffocated.

Moreover, unjustified allegations of managerialism and the striking absence of this topic from key policy documents, including those of UNESCO ( 2021 ), should be highlighted. Whilst the “executive” components implicit in any leadership function must be in place in organizations enjoying wide autonomy, this does not necessarily translate into managerialism and quasi markets. It is indeed the larger school context that can make an autonomous school perform in a managerial way or simply, with broader margins of action, that can facilitate good use of teachers’ collective agency, as in some Scandinavian countries. In order to produce even modest change, let alone radical transformation, we must overcome the widely held misconception that leadership has to do with managerial tasks, competition, and effectiveness from a highly individualistic stance. Whilst this can be the case in certain country contexts and with particular disciplinary approaches, educational leadership does not simply overlap with managerialism as a technical ability. It is essentially about vision and collaboration around our global commons, as well as locally defined school goals.

School leadership is correctly identified as a key strategy to improve teaching and learning toward SDG4 (the Incheon Declaration and Framework for Action adopted by the World Education Forum 2015). A specific task assigned to school leadership is an increase in the supply of qualified teachers (UNESCO, 2016 ). At the same time, the need to transform schools is sometimes decoupled from the potential of school and system leadership to ensure such transformation. Failing to recognize the role of leaders in quality and equitable schooling must be rectified. A humanistic vision and a focus on the global public good cannot be at odds, programmatically, with a field dedicated to understanding how contemporary schools are organized and how they operate.

Conclusion: Leadership is about organized agency, not managerialism

Innovations in education are complex because they can often be incremental and less frequently radical, but some have the potential to be truly transformative. The more effective tend to be small micro-context innovations that diffuse “laterally” through networks of professionals and organizations but need facilitation and effective communication from above to be deep and long-lasting. They are never just technical or structural, but rather cultural and related to visions about education. In this context, leadership and leaders are crucial in a variety of aspects, but foremost in shaping a coherent organization and engaging collectively to clarify and make explicit key pedagogical and equity assumptions, which has a dramatic direct and indirect influence on the effectiveness of the school. Most significantly, school leadership at all levels is the starting point for the transformation of low-performing (and) disadvantaged schools.

We should not underestimate the impact that the larger political, social, and economic context has on schools and leaders around the world. A variety of autonomous schools can perform in a managerial way or simply make good use of teachers’ collective agency, and a variety of less autonomous organizations may dispose or not of a certain dose of organizational coherence and leadership (Keddie et al., 2022 ; Walker & Qian, 2020 ).

What has proved valuable in most contexts may not always be effective in every case; a balance has to be struck between cultural awareness related to pedagogies in contexts and lessons learned across cultural boundaries. Available universal solutions have to be pondered, and adaptations are always required. It can be the case that, in certain conditions, we borrow not only solutions but the problems they address, in the way these are rhetorically framed. However, since convergences occur in structures and cultures, problems may also converge across contexts. In addition, micro-changes occur fluidly at any time, but for transformation to emerge, we need to draw on the accumulated wisdom and the potential implicit in system and school leadership. Last but not least, the complexity lying at the heart of learning from others and from comparison should not be assumed to be insuperable.

is an associate professor in comparative education with the Department of Philosophy and Education, University of Turin, and a lecturer in educational leadership with the Institute of Education, University College, London. She has acted as a consultant with UNESCO and other major Italian NGOs. She engages with education politics and governance from a social change and equity perspective.

Open access funding provided by Università degli Studi di Torino within the CRUI-CARE Agreement.

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Collaborative Actions for Empowering Youth Leadership in Food and Nutrition Education

• Kritika Gupta, PhD, PMP, CHES Kritika Gupta Affiliations ACPP Member, SNEB Search for articles by this author
• Douglas F. Williamson Douglas F. Williamson Affiliations Managing Partner Collective Leadership Institute USA Search for articles by this author
• Shreyaa Venkat Shreyaa Venkat Affiliations Founder and CEO, NEST4US Search for articles by this author
• Sophie Healy-Thow Sophie Healy-Thow Affiliations Founder of Act4Food Search for articles by this author
• Himaja Nagireddy, MS Himaja Nagireddy Affiliations 11th Youth Observer to the United Nations, United Nations Association of the United States of America Search for articles by this author
• Kazuki Kitaoka Kazuki Kitaoka Affiliations Global Coordinator of the World Food Forum Search for articles by this author
• Jessica Vega Ortega Jessica Vega Ortega Affiliations Advisor, Global Indigenous Youth Caucus and Indigenous Network of Latin America Search for articles by this author
• AY Young AY Young Affiliations UN Youth Ambassador for Sustainable Development Goals Search for articles by this author
• Yenory Hernández-Garbanzo, PhD Yenory Hernández-Garbanzo Affiliations SNEB President Search for articles by this author

INTRODUCTION

Society of Nutrition Education and Behavior. 2023 International Conference Schedule. 2023. https://www.sneb.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Preliminary-Programme-3.pdf . Accessed February 14, 2024.

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YOUTH-LED INITIATIVES

United Nations. The 17 Sustainable Development Goals. https://sdgs.un.org/goals . Accessed January 10, 2024.

World Food Forum. ABOUT US #worldfoodforum. https://www.world-food-forum.org/ . Accessed January 10, 2024.

ACT4FOOD. Our Global Actions 4 Change. https://actions4food.org/en/actions/ . Accessed February 10, 2024.

NEST4US. About NEST4US - Impacts. https://www.nest4us.org/about-impacts.html . Accessed February 10, 2024.

AY Music. What is Project17? https://www.aymusik.com/project17 . Accessed February 10, 2024.

Global Indigenous Youth Caucus. UNGIYC - Leadership for a better world. https://www.globalindigenousyouthcaucus.org . Accessed February 10, 2024.

United Nations Association of the United States of America. UNA-USA Announces 11th Youth Observer to the UN. https://unausa.org/una-usa-announces-himaja-nagireddy-as-11th-youth-observer-to-the-un/ . Accessed February 10, 2024.

FOSTERING COLLABORATION

Collective Leadership Institute. The Collective Leadership Compass. https://www.collectiveleadership.de/blog/article/the-collective-leadership-compass/ . Accessed January 10, 2024.

• • Future possibilities: Conference participants envisioned a future where youth have joyful experiences with food, gardening, and cooking, creating lasting memories and fostering a lifelong connection to healthy eating habits.
• • Engagement: Strategies such as teaching kitchens, agri-food advocacy and impactful volunteer/internship/research/extension opportunities were discussed to involve diverse stakeholders, particularly youth, in shaping FNE programs.
• • Innovation: Advocating for a holistic approach, participants proposed incorporating systems sciences, community voices, social justice, and equity considerations into FNE curricula.
• • Humanity: Prioritizing empathy and inclusivity, participants considered human-centered approaches in FNE that resonate with the cultural diversity of youth.
• • Collective intelligence: Collaboration, iterative learning, and diversity were emphasized, to drive meaningful change in FNE.
• • Wholeness: The session underscored the reciprocal relationship between FNE and youth leadership, emphasizing how FNE re-connect, re-nourish and re-inspire youth leaders while also advancing broader goals of nutrition, food systems, and sustainable development.

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Identification.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jneb.2024.02.002

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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Servant leadership, brand love, and work ethic: important predictors of general health in workers in the education sector.

• 1 UPG de Ciencias Empresariales, Escuela de Posgrado, Universidad Peruana Unión, Lima, Perú
• 2 EP de Administración, Facultad de Ciencias Empresariales, Universidad Peruana Unión, Juliaca, Perú
• 3 EP de Administración, Facultad de Ciencias Empresariales, Universidad Peruana Unión, Lima, Perú

Background: Building a path aimed at the wellbeing of workers in the education sector is the fundamental basis to encourage quality education. To fill the gap in knowledge and address this aspect by understanding the behavior of the study population, it was proposed as with the objective of determining if servant leadership, brand love and work ethic predict the general health in workers.

Methods: A non-probability sampling was applied for convenience. For this purpose, a sample of 509 workers from Peru was submitted to study, who completed a questionnaire consisting of: scale of servant leadership, work ethic, GHQ-12 and brand love. By applying a quantitative method using a structural equation modeling partial least squares approach.

Results: The present study demonstrated that the three constructs (servant leadership, brand love, and work ethic) predict the general health of workers in a positive and significant way, in a sample of Peruvian workers in the education sector. Furthermore, the results suggest that these factors can be used to improve the health of employees in educational institutions in Peru and possibly in other contexts as well.

Conclusion: Given these results and after knowing the solidity of the predictions, the importance of promoting general health in workers in the education sector.

Introduction

Currently, many companies have seen the great need to predict future changes in the management of human talent, therefore, one of their priority tasks is to redefine traditional roles and responsibilities, which allow increasing the internal health of the organization through the overall employee health ( Pino et al., 2020 ; Wang et al., 2020 ; Lunde et al., 2022 ; Tinella et al., 2022 ; Bezuidenhout et al., 2023 ); to achieve this end, organizations must have the ability to discover competent people with leadership qualities that promote better results in their work environment, as well as the use of strategies and mechanisms to develop more love ( Tijjang et al., 2023 ), commitment ( Grabowski et al., 2019 ; Tacadena and Muico, 2022 ; Mitonga-Monga et al., 2023 ) and ethics ( Grabowski et al., 2019 ; Sakr et al., 2022 ; Tacadena and Muico, 2022 ), from employees to your organization.

Today, there are few studies carried out to predict the general health of employees within the workplace ( Shi et al., 2022 ), in a post-COVID context where various jobs are carried out from the homes of employees; and it is here where there is a greater need to evaluate the changes in the general health of workers for the education sector. On the other hand, important scientific evidence shows that the practice of the leadership style of bosses/directors/managers has a significant impact on the health of workers ( Sakr et al., 2022 ; Tinella et al., 2022 ; McKimm et al., 2023 ). Although it is true, the transformational leadership is an affective and high-profile leadership style, which is why many institutions disseminate and practice it ( Miao and Cao, 2019 ), however, servant leadership has become one of the most studied, admired, disseminated and useful in various business sectors, due to the variety of benefits it produces ( Kaltiainen and Hakanen, 2022 ). In recent years, researchers have given greater consideration to the study of servant leadership, and how this construct behaves in the various dimensions of the organization ( der Kinderen et al., 2020 ), since not only favors collaborators, managers, senior managers, but its sphere of influence reaches all stakeholders ( Newman et al., 2017 ; Iqbal et al., 2020 ; Meuser and Smallfield, 2023 ).

Taking into consideration the current challenges in the educational environment, where the general health of academic staff is vital for the achievement of the purposes that it pursues, allowing anticipation of the changes and challenges posed in this very relevant field of life itself, it is important consider the factors that have been the reason for this study. Therefore, servant leadership is one that is recognized as a style of leadership focused on serving its followers and satisfying their needs, which in turn produces a shared spirit of purpose, trust, commitment, desire for wisdom, and effort in the community organization ( Gocen and Sen, 2021 ). For another on, brand love is an important factor in the recognition of institutional identity, it is the positive emotional connection with a brand, coming to manifest their love for it, allowing them to be more likely to commit and be loyal to it ( Larregui-Candelaria et al., 2019 ). And in turn, studies on work ethics have been validated in various business sectors, considering it as a set of norms and values that serve as a guideline for the activities of a job, taking the contribution of Sharma and Rai (2015) , who carried out the operationalization of this variable in three parameters from the point of view of the collaborator; work as a central interest in life, moral attitude toward work and intrinsic work motivation.

And in this context, general health has an important meaning in the lives of workers in the education sector, where this construct has currently been linked to many others: such as coping strategies ( Tinella et al., 2022 ), depression ( Gladstone et al., 2018 ), job insecurity ( Setati et al., 2015 ), psychological discomfort ( Jakubiec et al., 2014 ), machine learning ( Hoekstra et al., 2023 ), working capacity ( Kisiel et al., 2023 ), quality of life ( Bezuidenhout et al., 2023 ), among other. Understanding general health as the mental, emotional and physical wellbeing that allows us to face challenges ( Lunde et al., 2022 ) and acquire greater concentration in the activities that are carried out ( Chavez-Espinoza et al., 2022 ).

Previous studies have concentrated on some elements as predictors of general health ( Ebert et al., 2002 ; Mirsaleh et al., 2011 ; Nadi et al., 2020 ; Malakoutikhah et al., 2022 ), however, there is still a need for a scientific precedent where the usefulness of general health as a contextual factor to explore the behavior between servant leadership, brand love, and work ethic of educational workers ( Dahleez and Aboramadan, 2022 ).

In that sense, after a diligent review of the aforementioned background, there has been a growing interest in continuing to study these topics, both on the part of academics and professionals in the business and health sectors. Although scientific evidence validates that among the study topics, the one that has caused the greatest interest is general health focused on various contexts. On the other hand, bibliometric indicators reveal the 10 countries that most disseminate their scientific results on these topics, among which are: United States ( Meriac et al., 2023 ), United Kingdom ( Wang W. et al., 2022 ), Iran ( Malakoutikhah et al., 2022 ), China ( Yuan et al., 2020 ), Australia ( Sajtos et al., 2021 ), India ( Sharma and Rai, 2015 ), Pakistan ( Iqbal et al., 2020 ), Netherlands ( Fernstrand et al., 2017 ), Spain ( Ruiz-Palomino et al., 2021 ), and Germany ( Moll and Kretzschmar, 2017 ). The same ones who have applied their study to various areas, sectors and populations, such as: medicine ( Ebert et al., 2002 ), business ( Suryani et al., 2022 ), social sciences ( Mustafa et al., 2022 ), psychology ( Jakubiec et al., 2014 ), economics ( Peng et al., 2022 ), humanities ( Raja et al., 2020 ), among others. When discerning scientific dissemination by country, it has been found that the studies carried out in the Peruvian population ( Caycho-Rodríguez et al., 2020 ; Pino et al., 2020 ; Chavez-Espinoza et al., 2022 ; Rocha-Vallejos et al., 2022 ; Alipio et al., 2023 ) are very limited, that is, there is very little scientific literature that can provide support and guidance for future studies, and that can provide relevant information to develop communication strategies, health promotion, improving wellbeing and general health in the Peruvian context. Given the prevalence of diseases and the current situation of occupational health, this research aims to fill the knowledge gap and provide a valuable contribution to the academic community and professionals of the sectors involved. Based on existing evidence, the objective was determining whether servant leadership, brand love, and work ethics predict the general health of educational workers.

Literature review

Servant leadership.

Among the leadership approaches that focus on the collaborator is the transformational leadership approach that seeks to influence those they lead in order to achieve business objectives ( Charbonnier-Voirin et al., 2010 ; Miao and Cao, 2019 ; Purwanto, 2020 ; Sjamsoeddin et al., 2023 ), unlike the servant leadership approach that is oriented to the wellbeing of those led ( van Dierendonck and Nuijten, 2011 ). In this sense, a prudent review of the literature on this last topic will refer to the founder of the servant leadership movement, Robert Kiefner Greenleaf, a notable researcher who developed the theoretical foundation of this construct and published his famous work in 1970 called, “The Servant as Leader,” where he describes servant leaders as those who lead through service, but always with the aim of satisfying the needs of collaborators, providing them with learning opportunities and improving their self-management skills ( Eva et al., 2019 ); equally helps and guides the group by showing compassion, healing, awareness, persuasion, management, and commitment to its growth ( Wang W. et al., 2022 ).

Likewise, it encourages employees to reveal their doubts, take on challenges and reward this attitude by providing resources to feel this freedom ( Page and Wong, 2000 ; Olesia et al., 2014 ; Gandolfi and Stone, 2018 ; Lusiani et al., 2020 ; Pino et al., 2020 ; Gocen and Sen, 2021 ). Recent studies provide new evidence on how organizations, through servant leadership behaviors, help employees not only perform better in their tasks, but also to optimally manage work stress ( Quick and Henderson, 2016 ; Zetterberg et al., 2023 ), to reduce job exhaustion that is therefore associated with the psychological and physiological health of the employee ( Kaltiainen and Hakanen, 2022 ).

Approximately since 1990, the relationship between the company and its brand has been investigated ( Batra et al., 2012 ; Bagozzi et al., 2017 ; Na et al., 2023 ), in terms of loyalty, trust and commitment toward organizations, for this reason the study highlights the theme concerning the relationship and emotional connection that is established through trust, commitment, and loyalty ( Larregui-Candelaria et al., 2019 ). In the research by Shi et al. (2022) , refers that the positive connection between trust in the brand and love for the brand has been recently established. In the same way, brand trust is closely linked to attitudinal loyalty due to its ability to provoke positive emotions in customers and workers, in addition to developing a sense of belonging and commitment. There is also a relationship between the company and the employee, which means that employees can commit themselves and be loyal to the brand of the company where they work, considering the few studies that address the issue, some of them refer to the connection between the commitment of staff that goes beyond performing their professional tasks ( Wang and Binti, 2023 ), is also translated as that emotional connection that employees have with the company and how this can influence their health and wellbeing.

The work ethic is considered a construct that indicates how much a person values work in their life. It began as the Protestant work ethic, being a classic work by Max Weber around 1958, being the subject of many studies and discussions for being considered a religiously oriented work, however, over time it was called general ethics from work ( Sharma and Rai, 2015 ). Work ethic is the set of attitudes and behaviors at work, as a motivational construction reflected in behavior ( Sakr et al., 2022 ). In addition, in recent years, a number of investigations show that ethics is a predictor of important results at work, some theorists associate its dimensions with the individual’s job performance ( Woehr et al., 2023 ), job satisfaction and stress ( Meriac et al., 2023 ), therefore, it could be shown that it is somehow related to the health of the worker. Work ethic focuses on how ethical practices in the workplace can improve the health and wellbeing of employees. Recent studies highlight the need to support workers in maintaining ethical behavior in their workplace, even from other non-work settings ( Alfano, 2022 ).

General health

World Health Organization (2004) in its definition of health, it includes the three most important dimensions of life, referring to a complete state of physical, mental, and social wellbeing, and not only the absence of conditions or diseases. The definition of general health encompasses a series of components that define it as a continuous process of satisfaction that enables people to develop their abilities and potential naturally ( Chavez-Espinoza et al., 2022 ). General health reflects a person’s perception of physical symptoms, sleep disorders, anxiety symptoms, depressive symptoms, and social functioning ( Tinella et al., 2022 ), reflecting both positive and negative aspects of health ( Nadi et al., 2020 ).

Furthermore, previous studies have shown that general health reflects not only physical health but also mental health ( Bezuidenhout et al., 2023 ), because general health is a broader outcome than physical and mental health ( Shi et al., 2022 ). A wide range of factors are known to be associated with health status ( Hoekstra et al., 2023 ), such as lifestyle ( Isola, 2020 ), socioeconomic status ( Nadi et al., 2020 ), wellbeing at work ( de Ceballos and Santos, 2015 ), anxiety ( Malakoutikhah et al., 2022 ), perceived disease burden ( Nielsen et al., 2015 ), sociodemographic factors ( Tinella et al., 2022 ), work facilitation ( Shi et al., 2022 ), and work ability ( Kisiel et al., 2023 ). By conducting a thorough review, studies show other multidimensional models, however, it is believed that for this non-clinical study it is better suited using the GHQ-12 ( Montazeri et al., 2003 ; Hystad and Johnsen, 2020 ; Mayhew et al., 2021 ; Lütke et al., 2022 ).

Hypothesis development

Servant leadership predicts general health.

Servant leadership has emerged as an alternative to mitigate some of the stress experienced by professionals in their fields of work; in this context, the application of the PERMA model is proposed, a model that establishes the way in which each individual chooses to carry out activities that make them happy, contributing these activities to generate a feeling of wellbeing, this feeling being what allows the individual to have a positive experience ( Turner, 2022 ). The service leader brings together certain qualities of honesty, righteousness and selflessness that make his collaborators feel good, as they are immersed in an atmosphere of harmony, thus opening the way to a greater likelihood of greater wellbeing for both the collaborators and the leader ( Siu et al., 2015 ; Zeng et al., 2022 ). And servant leadership, beyond being an admirable quality, has a special recognition for fostering positive behavioral outcomes and active participation that contributes to the wellbeing of workers ( Yuan et al., 2020 ).

From another perspective ( Dollard and Bakker, 2010 ; Montano et al., 2017 ), the role of the leader is important for this purpose; thus, the leadership of someone who chooses to give priority to others is required, someone who supports his followers to develop their maximum potential, thus contributing to the mental and psychological health of the workers; that is, in this scenario, the active participation of a service leader who contributes, by his way of acting and proceeding, to the wellbeing of the workers is required; this is a key point in the construction of a healthy work environment ( Cottey and McKimm, 2019 ). This context reinforces the idea that a leader can develop a proactive approach to employee health, since his function, beyond managing human resources, is also based on generating a long-term vision that recognizes how important employee health is to the sustainable success of the company. Based on the above, the following study hypothesis is proposed:

H1: Servant leadership predicts general health in workers in the education sector.

Brand love predicts general health

The researchers ( Ahuvia et al., 2022 ) establish that a consumer who has a deep affinity for a product or service significantly values the brand, this fact denotes interpersonal connections that transcends or goes beyond the commercial transaction and according to the literature a brand has the ability to create a strong lasting emotional bond that impacts the consumer’s overall wellbeing. Furthermore, considering that brand love is associated with the consumer experience, scholars are convinced that from a holistic approach, brand love independently to support any marketing outcome, can also be part of the positive impact on the overall health of individuals and is that according to evidence, when a consumer develops brand love, it tends to create feelings of belonging and identity, thus releasing a positive impact on the welfare of consumers, their mental and physical health ( Junaid et al., 2020 ; Attiq et al., 2022 ; Rodrigues et al., 2022 ); in the context of this study, it is specified that a worker who loves a certain brand in the educational sector, can experience positive feelings of motivation and satisfaction that can boost their contribution to the objectives of the brand, thus maintaining a positive feeling of general health and increase the feeling of commitment to their educational work. In this way, a special emphasis is made that establishes that the investigations that study consumer behavior have begun to focus on consumer welfare that extends to the health of the same, as it is addressed, in some way, that emotional and psychological needs can be addressed within the environment where the brand and the consumer interact ( Bairrada et al., 2019 ). Based on the above, the following study hypothesis is proposed:

H2: Brand love predicts general health in workers in the education sector.

Work ethic predicts general health

Work ethic has been seen as a positive resource that fosters a sense of psychological wellbeing and general health in workers ( Maaz and Farroq, 2017 ; Raja et al., 2020 ). From this concept lies how important it is to preserve a positive state of those who make up an organization, thus having a vision of work ethics that extends to form part of the sustainable development of a company and when workers perceive that work ethics are valued within an organization, healthy working environments are promoted ( Chukwuma et al., 2023 ). In this context, special emphasis is given to human resource management systems where, independently of constantly striving for greater competitiveness, it can also improve work ethics practices ( Tadesse Bogale and Ayenew Birbirsa, 2023 ), since according to Bazzy (2018) , work ethics allows to break the paradigm that establishes that hard work, effort, and other sacrifices are indispensable to achieve success, this is how work ethics fulfills an important function of interceding for the wellbeing and health of workers, maintaining a healthy balance between the work and personal life of the worker. Based on the above, the following study hypothesis is proposed:

H3: Work ethic predicts general health .

This research has focused on determining whether servant leadership, brand love, and work ethics predict the general health of educational workers, and in this way provide relevant information to interest entities that seek to have employees who enjoy greater wellbeing in their work environments; thus, awakening a greater need in leaders to design strategies that seek a healthy balance in their institutions ( Figure 1 ).

Figure 1. Theoretical model proposed. SL, servant leadership; WE, work ethic; LV, brand love; GH, general health.

Materials and methods

Design, procedure, and participants.

Cross-sectional explanatory study ( Ato et al., 2013 ).

In the survey, participation was voluntary for the sample of workers from regular basic education (56%), institutes (5%), and universities (40%). The sample comes from Peru. A non-probability sampling was applied for convenience. To be included in this study, participants had to meet the following inclusion criteria: work as a teacher or administrator in the public sector or private from a regular basic institution, institute, or university, have a minimum of 6 months working in the institution regardless of the type of work. Those who did not meet the inclusion criteria were excluded. The data was collected through an online survey platform (Google Forms). A total of 509 questionnaires were considered. From the descriptive analysis of the demographic information ( Table 1 ), 223 were men and 286 women, 43% of the respondents were between 31 and 43 years old and the majority of the subjects (55%) were married, and 36% of them were single, whilst the rest of the participants stated that they were cohabiting, divorced, and widowed. Workers from the coast and mountains predominate (39% each region). The greatest instruction that stood out was higher education (85%). The public sector stands out with 79%. Most of the participants declared less than 14 years of service at their institution (70%). The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the EPG of the Universidad Peruana Unión (2022-CE-EPG-0000167). Informed consent and assent were obtained from the institutions participating in the study.

Table 1. Sociodemographic characteristics of the sample.

On the other hand, the surveys were self-administered by each participant. Regarding the servant leadership and work ethic scale, its original language was English, and it went through the pretest process. The survey techniques were in English, so they were translated by two native specialists who speak English and Spanish. Likewise, for the application of the four scales (servant leadership, work ethic, general health, and brand love), validation was carried out by expert judgment (six teachers with a master’s degree and doctorate) who evaluated clarity, objectivity, topicality, organization, sufficiency, intentionality, consistency, coherence, methodology, and relevance, resulting in an Aiken’s V indicator of 90.5%, 91.6%, 90.9%, and 90.7%, respectively. Additionally, a focus group session was held which allowed for sematic modifications of the work context, made up of workers from the education sector: two from regular basic education, two from institutes, and two from university. The questionnaire is ready to be applied to these three groups of educational workers. Regarding data collection, the questionnaire was hosted in the Google Form application, which was shared via WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram in order to have a greater reach to the study population. Its application lasted 31 weeks, from October 26, 2022 to June 4, 2023.

Outcome measures

For the purposes of this study, it was estimated to use four scales collected from articles housed in high-impact journals. The data collection instrument was built considering the four scales of the study, finally adding a section of questions to identify the educational level where the participant worked, as well as the institutional region, the labor sector, and other sociodemographic questions. The questionnaire consisted of 32 items: the first 7 items on leadership servant of Gocen and Sen (2021) . For work ethics, the scale of Sharma and Rai (2015) that used 10 items. For general health, the scale known as GHQ-12 applied to the Peruvian context by Chavez-Espinoza et al. (2022) , this instrument in question was adapted taking into account the questions that were adequate for the realization of the present study, of the 12 items only 6 factorially adequate were used. On the other hand, these first three variables were valued on a Likert-type response scale from 1 to 5, where 1 is “Strongly disagree” and 5 is “Strongly agree.” However, to measure love for the brand, 3 items established by Larregui-Candelaria et al. (2019) , the latter was assessed in a 5-point Likert-type response format, ranging from 1: “Completely disagree” to 5: “Completely agree.” Unlike the original instruments, these have been translated and adapted to the Peruvian educational context, considering the particularity of each sector (public and private).

Data analysis

In the data analysis, the partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to test the hypotheses. The PLS-SEM is a comprehensive approach to multivariate statistical analysis that includes measurement and structural components to simultaneously examine the relationships between each of the variables in a conceptual model, which has the characteristic of multivariate analysis, that is, it involves a quantity of variables ≥3 ( Hair et al., 2010 ). In addition, the PLS-SEM was used in the present study because it facilitates the construction of theory ( Hair et al., 2011 ). WarpPLS (Version 8.0) was used to perform the PLS-SEM analysis. This software was used because according to Kock (2014) , the WarpPLS provides options to use different algorithms for the external and internal models in the calculation of the scores of the latent variables, such as the path coefficient and the parameters associated with the p -value, identifying and taking into account non-linear relationships in the model structural ( Kock, 2011 ).

The evaluation of a model using PLS-SEM is a two-step process that involves the evaluation of the measurement and structural models ( Chin, 2010 ; Hair et al., 2011 ; Magno et al., 2022 ; Mustafa et al., 2022 ; Peng et al., 2022 ; Zada M. et al., 2022 ; Zada S. et al., 2022 ; Guenther et al., 2023 ).

Evaluation of the measurement model

To assess the quality of the reflective constructs, the convergent validity and reliability of the construct must be assessed, that is, internal consistency ( Chin, 2010 ; Hair et al., 2011 ; Kock, 2015 ). And the following indicators must be met ( Table 2 ):

Table 2. Indicators to assess convergent validity and reliability of the constructs.

Table 3 shows that all the indicators are met. All loadings comply with being greater than 0.7 except for the items SL7 and WE7 whose values are 0.694 and 0.646, respectively, nevertheless, these items have been retained because the reliability indicators as a whole represent a good indicator; the Cronbach’s alpha and CR are greater than 0.7. Likewise, AVE also complies since they are all greater than 0.5. Also the full collinearity VIFs complies since all the values are less than 2.351 which is in the required range; under these terms ( Conforti et al., 2014 ) establish that tolerance lower than 0.2 or an indicator higher than 5 of VIFs represents a multicollinearity problem, for the case of this study the values oscillate between 1.116 and 2.351; this means that, the dispersion of the variables does not have a high correlation between them, this represents a high robustness in the results and estimated coefficient. According to the skewness and kurtosis, it is observed that the data do not have a normal distribution, however, one of the characteristics of the PLS-SEM approach is that it is relatively robust to deviations from normality ( Ramírez et al., 2014 )and requires assumptions less demanding about the distribution of data ( Hair et al., 2013 ). Since all the indicators comply, we proceed to the discriminant assessment.

Table 3. Results of the evaluation of the measurement model.

Discriminant validity provides an indication of the extent to which each construct is different from other constructs in the model ( Chin, 2010 ). To meet discriminant validity, the square root of the AVE for each construct must be greater than the highest correlation between the construct and other constructs in the model ( Chin, 2010 ; Hair et al., 2011 ; Kock, 2014 ). Table 4 shows that the square root of the AVEs for all the constructs is greater than the correlation with the other constructs, indicating that the model has acceptable discriminant validity.

Table 4. Discriminant validity.

Goodness of fit of the structural model

Evaluating the fit of the statistical model to the study data involves evaluating the goodness of fit of the structural model. Table 5 shows the six goodness of fit indices that have been considered ( Kock, 2014 ), with a confidence level of 95%. In the case of the present study, the six fit indices suggested that the model fit was more than acceptable. The predictive validity of a construct can be confirmed when the value of its associated R 2 coefficient is greater than zero. This was the case for all values of the endogenous variables in the model, suggesting acceptable predictive validity across the model.

Table 5. Model fit and quality indices.

Structural model evaluation

To evaluate the structural model, two preliminary criteria must be verified and reported: the importance of the path coefficients and the coefficient value of R 2 for endogenous constructs. Each hypothesis is associated with a causal link in the structural model, which represents the relationships between a pair of constructs. Path coefficients have been calculated for each relationship in the model, as well as their corresponding p -values. Although the path coefficients must be significant, the value of the R 2 coefficient is highly dependent on the research area. Chin (1998) suggests values of 0.67, 0.33, and 0.19 as, respectively, substantial, moderate, and weak measures of R . In behavioral studies, a value of 0.2 for R 2 is generally considered acceptable ( Kock, 2013 ; Hair et al., 2014 ).

In the present study, the R 2 coefficient for GH was 0.43; this means that the proposed model explains 43% of the observed variability ( James et al., 2023 ); that is, servant leadership, love of the brand and work ethic predict the general health of workers by 43%. Therefore, this value has a high and acceptable level. Table 6 and Figure 2 show the results of the hypothesis tests and the evaluation of the path coefficients. The results show a positive and significant predictive value of SL on GH (H1), of LV on GH (H2), and WE on GH (H3).

Table 6. Hypothesis test results.

Figure 2. Results of the structural model.

For the fit index of the global model, the six indices of goodness of fit have been considered ( Kock, 2014 ), with a confidence level of 95%, the efficiency indices are the following:

• Average Path Coefficient (APC) and p < 0.05

• Average R -squared (ARS) and p < 0.05

• Adjusted mean R -square (AARS) > 0.02 and p > 0.05

• Average block VIF (AVIF), acceptable if ≤5, ideally ≤3.3

• Average complete collinearity (AFVIF), acceptable if ≤5, ideally ≤3.3

• Tenenhaus GoF, small ≥0.1, medium ≥0.25, large ≥0.36

In the case of the present study, the six fit indices suggested that the model fit was more than acceptable: APC = 0.247, p < 0.001; ARS = 0.429, p < 0.001; AARS = 0.426, p < 0.001; AVIF = 2,045 (acceptable if ≤5, ideally ≤3.3); AFVIF = 1.751 (acceptable if ≤5, ideally ≤3.3); and Tenenhaus GoF = 0.567 (small ≥0.1, medium ≥0.25, large ≥0.36). The predictive validity of a construct can be confirmed when the value of its associated to the coefficient R 2 is greater than zero. This was the case for all values of the endogenous variables in the model, which suggests an acceptable predictive validity in the whole model. This means that the fit indices submitted for evaluation support the robustness of the model, which affirms that servant leadership predicts general health by 15%; likewise, love for the brand also predicts general health by 10%, while work ethic predicts it by 49%; thus, it stands out that work ethic is a strong predictor of the variability of workers’ general health, this information provides an accurate picture to have a better understanding of the factors that predict general health.

The general health of workers has become an innate need in the work environment, especially in the educational sector, where teaching and administrative staff play a fundamental role in the development of students. Thus, it is important to promote the general health of workers in the education sector, since this act not only has benefits for them individually, but also has a positive impact on the work environment and on the quality of the education provided; in this context, this study proposed as its first objective to determine if servant leadership predicts the general health of employees. According to the findings, servant leadership predicts the general health of employees. This statement is supported by various scientists ( Hoch et al., 2016 ; Wang W. et al., 2022 ; Meuser and Smallfield, 2023 ), servant leadership has increased significantly among business leaders as it is considered a positive quality that is aimed at making them a role model due to their ethical behavior that contributes to the wellbeing of people; about, Wang Z. et al. (2022) and Iqbal et al. (2020) they show that the servant leader has a high capacity to promote the general health of employees through work motivation and empowerment; In this way, it is argued that promoting servant leadership is an assertive decision that opens the fulfillment of common objectives, thus generating a positive state in workers ( Xanthopoulou et al., 2012 ; Miao and Cao, 2019 ).

Additionally, a significant index of the brand love has been detected as a predictor of the general health of employees, this behavior is very recurrent, according to Junaid et al. (2020) the east arises as a result of positive feelings and satisfaction in different areas of life. About, Attiq et al. (2022) they highlight that the happiness, attachment and good relationship of people in the same environment can predict general health; specifically in the case of workers in the education sector, Strauss and Daniels (2013) establish that because teachers are exposed to extreme pressures due to daily work with students, parents and educational policies, their general wellbeing is at risk, attributing this fact to unhappiness in the workplace. work, for which they suggest healthy working conditions, which supposes a positive feeling in the school–teacher relationship, this statement is consistent with Li and Miao (2022) and Li et al. (2019) , who specify that positive emotions are vital issues in the teaching exercise, so the general health of workers is the result of their attachment or love that they maintain with their institution. And it is that every prosperous social connection established over time generates a special feeling called love, the same one that has the capacity to generate a feeling of wellbeing ( Oravecz et al., 2020 ).

Another of the findings guarantees the prediction of work ethics toward the general health of employees; about, Suryani et al. (2022) they place special emphasis on workers developing positive attitudes, including work ethic, which generates a feeling of wellbeing and health that can be moderated by the role assumed by the leader. In addition, another study linked to these results establishes that moral values are highly related to the prosperity of workers; that is, a healthy work environment promotes wellbeing and it is that according to research, workers value working conditions to a great extent, even when there are positive and negative aspects, they remain firm in their work ethic in order to achieve greater wellbeing ( King et al., 2011 ; Tacadena and Muico, 2022 ). Other studies that support the results of this research address work ethics as the construction of attitudes that derive from work-oriented values; in this way, a work environment governed by ethics and morality has a high potential to increase the general health of workers ( Sakr et al., 2022 ; Zúñiga et al., 2022 ); in this context, it is highlighted that promoting ethical principles creates a work environment where employees feel valued and motivated, and that the connection between work ethics and general health contains a solid approach that fosters an ideal work environment for personal development and professional of an individual.

Theoretical implications

This study leaves theoretical evidence of the connection of general health promoted as a result of servant leadership, brand love, and work ethic. The antecedents that were reviewed highlight that promoting servant leadership contributes to the general health of workers, so there is a need to create an adequate management culture in educational institutions, this implies maintaining a work environment where the leader promotes a climate of positive work that allows the wellbeing and health of workers. In addition, other research is highlighted that describes work ethics and love for the brand as a key element for the general health of workers, so a work environment where good practices exist will undoubtedly be a space where the worker express your wellbeing and general health, this being additionally supported by the emotional attachment you feel toward the institution where you work.

Practical implications

A concrete measure to take into account in the study population is to train leaders with a focus on servant leadership, this through training programs for leaders in order to develop the necessary skills that allow them to efficiently guide the work group. Likewise, it is necessary to foster a work environment that promotes for the brand love, establishing strategies and policies that strengthen the sense of belonging and pride of workers toward their institution. Finally, it is important to also prioritize work ethics, for which clear policies must be established in favor of integrity, equity and mutual respect. Therefore, all actions together could significantly improve working conditions, generating a virtuous circle where workers feel valued, encouraging them to contribute to quality education and the achievement of common institutional objectives.

Limitations and future research

Like previous studies, this research has some limitations that should be taken into account in future research. First, only one leadership style, servant leadership, was tested in this study. Therefore, future research should consider the use of other leadership styles (transformational, ethical, compassionate, charismatic, etc.) so that their behavior can be compared to a similar sample. Secondly, given that the study filtered out educational workers who had worked at the institution for a minimum of 6 months, it was a limitation for the research team, because in some institutions the worker was new staff, because the data began to be collected in the first 2 months of the academic year, in this sense, it is recommended to collect data after the half academic year, so that the leadership evaluation is relevant, unless an inclusion criterion unrelated to this is considered.

Third, the sociodemographic data from this study were not used in the hypothesis analysis. In future research, some sociodemographic data could be used as moderator variables, and consider expanding the sample. Fourth, this research only uses one leadership style, future research is expected to use charismatic leadership styles, transformational leadership, transactional leadership, business leadership, and e-leadership. And fifth, it is believed that it could be a great contribution to evaluate these constructs together with other associates, such as: environmental factors, job insecurity, labor ergonomics, among other important topics, as well as comparing the results in a longitudinal study.

And finally, based on the findings of this study, it is suggested that educational institutions promote the servant leadership style among their leaders and managers, including training in servant leadership skills and reinforcing programs that promote their application. In the same way, they should establish strategies that allow employees to foster love and loyalty toward their workplace, promoting the development of specialized programs that promote a healthy attachment to the brand. In addition to promoting a solid work ethic among leaders and employees, which allows favoring the organizational ethical climate. Knowing that this will also generate a better corporate reputation. In short, the results of this study have managed to achieve the proposed objectives and the hypotheses addressed at the beginning of the research have been tested, however, we believe that in future research the correlated construct could be evaluated in other economic sectors, as well as compare results over time.

The present study demonstrated that the three constructs (servant leadership, brand love, and work ethic) predict the general health of workers in a positive and significant way, in a sample of Peruvian workers in the education sector. Furthermore, the results suggest that these factors can be used to improve the health of employees in educational institutions in Peru and possibly in other contexts as well. The nature of the factors has shown that servant leadership skills, rather than a theoretical definition, is a significant factor shaping the health and wellbeing of an educational business community. Better leadership fosters professional attitudes, encourages ethical behavior, and improves worker health.

Data availability statement

The original contributions presented in this study are included in this article/supplementary material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.

Ethics statement

The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of the Universidad Peruana Unión (2022-CE-EPG-0000167). The participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study.

Author contributions

EL-A: Conceptualization, Data curation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. MV-G: Conceptualization, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. DM-L: Data curation, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Resources, Software, Supervision, Validation, Visualization, Writing – review & editing.

The author(s) declare that no financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher’s note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Keywords : servant leadership, brand love, work ethic, general health, education sector, Peru

Citation: Laura-Arias E, Villar-Guevara M and Millones-Liza DY (2024) Servant leadership, brand love, and work ethic: important predictors of general health in workers in the education sector. Front. Psychol. 15:1274965. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1274965

Received: 16 August 2023; Accepted: 01 March 2024; Published: 05 April 2024.

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Copyright © 2024 Laura-Arias, Villar-Guevara and Millones-Liza. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Miluska Villar-Guevara, [email protected]

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In recognition of Arab American Heritage Month, formally established by the Biden administration in April 2021, this reading list celebrates the varied cultures, achievements, and contributions of Arab American people. Through poetry, cooking, short stories, memoirs, and more, the following books reveal many facets of Arab American communities, histories, and experiences. These titles, and those selected from previous years, are available as a downloadable spreadsheet.

In recognition of Arab American Heritage Month, formally established by the Biden administration in April 2021, this reading list celebrates the varied cultures, achievements, and contributions of Arab American people. Through poetry, cooking, short stories, memoirs, and more, the following books reveal many facets of Arab American communities, histories, and experiences. These titles, and those selected from previous years, are available as a downloadable spreadsheet  . 

Abdel Gawad, Aisha. Between Two Moons. Doubleday. Jun. 2023. 336p. ISBN 9780385548618. Fiction/Muslim

Abu-Jaber, Diana. Fencing with the King. W. W. Norton & Company. Mar. 2022. 320p. ISBN 9780393867718. Cultural Heritage

Alameddine, Rabih. The Wrong End of the Telescope. Grove Press. Sept. 2021. 368p. ISBN 9780802157805. Literary

Cypher, Sarah. The Skin and Its Girl. Ballantine Books. Apr. 2023. 352p. ISBN 9780593499535. Literary

Joukhadar, Zeyn. The Thirty Names of Night. Washington Square Press. Jul. 2021. 320p. ISBN 9781982121525. Coming of Age

Lalami, Laila. The Other Americans. Pantheon. Mar. 2019. 320p. ISBN 9781524747145. Literary

Rum, Etaf. A Woman Is No Man. Harper. Mar. 2019. 352p. ISBN 9780062699763. Cultural Heritage

Zarou, Paul Aziz. Arab Boy Delivered. Cune Press . Mar. 2022. 240p. ISBN 9781951082390. Cultural Heritage

Zeineddine, Ghassan. Dearborn. Tin House Books. Sept. 2023. 240p. ISBN 9781959030294. Short Stories (single author)

Zgheib, Yara. No Land to Light On. Atria Books. Jan. 2022. 304p. ISBN 9781982187422. Family Life

Adayfi, Mansoor. Don't Forget Us Here. Hachette Books. Aug. 2021. 384p. ISBN 9780306923869. Biography & Autobiography/Memoirs

Ali, Wajahat. Go Back to Where You Came From. W. W. Norton & Company. Jan. 2022. 272p. ISBN 9780393867978. Biography & Autobiography/Memoirs

Almontaser, Threa. The Wild Fox of Yemen. Graywolf Press. Apr. 2021. 96p. ISBN 9781644450505. Poetry/American

Assil, Reem. Arabiyya. Ten Speed Press. Apr. 2022. 304p. ISBN 9781984859075. Cooking/Regional & Cultural/Middle Eastern

Charara, Hayan. These Trees, Those Leaves, This Flower, That Fruit. Milkweed Editions. Apr. 2022. 112p. ISBN 9781571315410. Poetry/Middle Eastern

Geha, Joseph. Kitchen Arabic. University of Georgia Press. Mar. 2023. 192p. ISBN 9780820364001. Biography & Autobiography/Memoirs

H, Lamya. Hijab Butch Blues. The Dial Press. Feb. 2023. 304p. ISBN 9780593448762. Biography & Autobiography/Memoirs

Jarrar, Randa. Love Is an Ex-Country. Catapult. Feb. 2021. 240p. ISBN 9781948226585. Biography & Autobiography/LGBTQ+

Salman, Ayser. The Wrong End of the Table. Skyhorse. Mar. 2019. 288p. ISBN 9781510742079. Humor/Form/Essays

Zeineddine, Ghassan. Hadha Baladuna. Wayne State University Press. Jun. 2022. 248p. ISBN 9780814349250. Biography & Autobiography/Memoirs

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