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 Research News

The Hong Kong Connection -
SLers Nicholas Pang and John Pisapia report out the first phase of their research on school principals strategic thinking and strategic leadership.    

1. Paper 1 - John presented their findings of a crosscultural look at the strategic leadership influence actions of school principals in China and America at the World Educational Research Association Conference in Kaoshuing, Taiwan.
 
They found that local culture exerted a greater influence on principal actions than societal culture.  There were no significant differences between the use of the directional actions of transforming and managing influence actions in China and America.  These were universal actions used by principals.

There were significant differences on the related to the maneuveriing influence actions of bonding, bridging and bartering.  School Principals in Hong Kong used bonding to a greater degree than principals in Shanghai and the USA.  School Principals in Shanghai used bridging and bartering actions significantly more often than principals in Hong Kong and America.

The school principal leader influence action profile centers on Bonding, Managing, and Transforming. Slides can be found here.  Paper will be out shortly - check Facebook and Twitter for the announcement.

2. Paper 2 - Nick presented their findings of the relationship of strategic thinking skills and strategic leader actions at the 2012 ICSEI Conference in Malmo, Sweden.  Systems thinking once again was shown to be the most often used strategic thinking skill by school principals in Hong Kong, followed by reframing and reflection.  This finding is consistent across principals, vice principals, and department heads.  

Bonding was the most often used leader influence actions used by Hong Kong principals followed by transforming and managing actions.  The least often used leader actions were bartering and bridging.  

Regression analysis indicates that the more often principals use systems thinking the significantly greater the likelihood they will use bonding, transforming and managing actions to accomplish their goals.  The more reflection was used predicted high usage of managing, transforming, bridging, and bartering but not bonding.  Reframing posted signficant positive predictors of transforming and bartering influence actions but was negatively associated with managing, bonding, and bridging.  Slides can be found here. Paper will be distributed shortly - check Facebook and Twitter for the announcement.

The USA Connection - 
1. SLer Tabitha Fazzino is in the final stages of presenting her research on the use of strategic leader actions of school principals in the 4th largest school district in the USA. 

The results indicate that schools who are led by principals who use managing, transforming, bonding, bridging, and bartering perform better on external productivity measures than school who are led by principals who use these skills less often.  Look for this study -- the findings explain 72% of the variance in school outcomes.

2. SLers Deborah Robinson and John Pisapia presented their findings from 2 case studies of a higher education department and a college who used SLN's Strategic Thinking Protocol (STP) to find the future.  The STP uses 2 generative processes - strategic listening and strategic conversations - to create a shared reality and then a shared direction for the college and department. Preliminary results are promising -- attidudes and beliefs as well as work activities were positively affected by the use of the protocol.  Read the study here. 

The Scottish Connection - 
SLers John Pisapia and Tony Townsend receive a seedcorn grant from the University of Glasgow to conduct research on  the effectiveness of multidisciplinary teams.

Research in beginning stages

The Turkish Connection -
SLers Ozgur Ugurluglu and Hale Oner begin collecting data on strategic thinking and acting of business, nursing, and higher education leaders.

The Iranian Connection -
SLer Roshanak Amirlou begins to develop her research design for use of the SLQ.

                          ASSESSMENTS

The SLQ^TM and STQ^TM are OnLine and available for self assessment or research

The SLQ and STQ Online gives you a mirror into your ability to Think and Act in a strategic way.

These instruments are used in two University Business executive programs as well as 33 researchers around the world.
Click Here to review!

                       Applications of SL Principles

1. After completing the SL Acccreditation Workshop, Insights Inc becomes the FIRST certified deliverer of SLN products - SLQ - STQ - STP - Formed by Randy Prange and Jack O'Hearn in 1991, Insights, Inc. offers a unique approach to business development strategies through the use of precise, data-driven methodologies to identify challenges and opportunities, followed by practical, cost-effective solutions implementation oversight.

Congratulations Randy, Jack, Ken, and Kendall.

John will give the keynote address to the New Zealand Principal's Association Annual Conference in March.  Topic: How to lead your school strategically!