Små, store eller måske rettere mellemstore organisationer? En undersøgelse af sammenhængen mellem ledelsesspænd, ledelsesidentitet og brugen af transformationsledelse i danske daginstitutioner

The purpose of this study is to examine how different spans of control in ECEC correlate with a leader's use of transformational leadership defined by the leader focussing on developing and disseminating a shared vision that encourages staff to work towards organisational goals. The author investigates how staff in ECEC centres with varying spans of control assess their leader's use of transformational leadership. Moreover, the study examines whether leader identity (an identity as a general leader versus ECEC teacher) can explain some of the correlation between spans of control and transformational leadership. Span of control means the number of employees for which a leader is responsible.

Overall, the study shows that the level of staff-perceived transformational leadership is highest in ECEC centres with medium-sized spans of control (12-20 staff members), and that leader identity explains the different levels of transformational leadership between ECEC centres with small and medium-sized spans of control.

The author assesses that the high level of transformational leadership in ECEC centres with medium-sized spans of control may be due to the fact that leaders of such ECEC centres have the best conditions for developing their leadership identity and for focussing on vision work, at the same time as disseminating the vision and sharing the vision with the individual staff members. The results indicate that equalisation of the differences in transformational leadership between ECEC centres with small and medium-sized spans of control requires that leaders of small spans of control obtain a stronger identity as general leaders who spend time on vision work and consider themselves responsible for this very task.

According to the author, the differences in the levels of transformational leadership between ECEC centres with medium-sized and large spans of control can be due to the fact that it is more difficult for leaders with large staff groups to share and maintain effectively the ECEC centre's vision with the individual staff member. The author indicates that leaders with large spans of control must spend time on interplay with individual staff members and on sharing and maintaining the visions in order to increase the level of transformational leadership.

The author draws on a questionnaire survey of staff and leaders from 118 ECEC centres, broken down by organisations with relatively small (five-11 staff members), medium-sized (12-20 staff members) and large spans of control (21-45 staff members). Leader and staff responses were collected in connection with a leadership training project at Aarhus University in Denmark (the LEAP project). The final statistical analyses were based on responses from 118 leaders and 830 staff members.

Bro, L. L. (2016). Små, store eller måske rettere mellemstore organisationer? En undersøgelse af sammenhængen mellem ledelsesspænd, ledelsesidentitet og brugen af transformationsledelse i danske daginstitutioner. Politica 48(2), 158-178.

Holm-Petersen et al. (2015): Ledelsesspænd på daginstitutionsområdet