Superintendent leadership in a curriculum management audit: A micropolitical perspective

This dissertation is a descriptive case study. A micropolitical lens is used to understand how the superintendent attempted to advance her vision in a highly political context. For the purposes of this paper, micropolitics is defined as "those strategies by which individuals and groups in organizational contexts seek to use their resources of power and influence to further their interests" (Hoyle, 1982, p.88). The study will answer the following overarching research question: How does a superintendent work to marshal resources to further her vision in a highly political context? The following sub-questions are included in this inquiry: (1) What were the actions of the Superintendent in relation to her top-level administrators regarding the allocation of resources to support her vision? (2) How did the top-level administrators perceive her actions in the context of these resource allocations? How did these perceptions shape their responses? (3) How did the Superintendent use the CMA to influence the allocation of resources? What elements in the context of the district informed her work and the response to her work by top-level administrators?;This study contributes to a growing body of research on superintendent leadership. For scholars and practitioners it provides an opportunity to learn more about the daily work of a superintendent as she attempted to translate her vision into practice through interactions with her four top-level administrators. These interactions reveal the importance of micropolitical behavior to the work of the superintendent and those whom she relied on for carrying out her vision. The events took place within the context of the conduct and implementation of a curriculum management audit. The superintendent employed both a closed and an open leadership style in her interactions with her key administrators. Though she primarily employed a transactional approach to leadership early in her administration, she moved toward a transformative approach as she continued in her practice. Nevertheless, her leadership continued to have elements of both transactional and transformative approaches as she attempted to guide her administrators in a highly charged political context filled with micropolitical interactions.