Leadership attributes in a cultural setting in Singapore

Abstract

Deals with one aspect of cultural leadership – leadership attributes. Based on recent research on cultural aspects in educational leadership in Singapore, attempts to identify essential attributes possessed by school principals that are found to be an indispensible yardstick for measuring leadership effectiveness. The leader, e.g. a school principal, has the responsibility to design and maintain a school culture as a framework with its unique environment and atmosphere in which teachers and administrators work. Attempts to search for some answers to: what are the personal characteristics that one possesses to be a school leader?; what leadership attributes are essential for leadership effectiveness?; how do these characteristics and attributes help a leader build up the strengths of the school culture? Presents the results of interviews and discussions with around 200 heads of departments of schools in Singapore.