Asia Pacific Education Review - Vol. 6 - No. 2 - Improving Public School Performance through Vision-based Leadership

Oct 15, 2026

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Improving Public School Performance through Vision-based Leadership analyzes how vision-based (transformational) leadership relates to public school performance in Thailand. A model is proposed linking vision attributes—brevity, clarity, future orientation, stability, challenge, abstractness, and desirability/ability to inspire—to school performance indicators including teacher and student satisfaction and organizational efficiency. The review also addresses principal and teacher factors, summarizes prior findings across individual, business-unit, and organizational levels, and discusses managerial implications and future research directions.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages13

Reading Time33 min

AccessFree to download

Improving Public School Performance through Vision-based Leadership

Vision-based leadership and transformation

Conceptual model and research focus

Literature review on vision and performance

Asia Pacific Education Review Copyright 2005 by Education Research Institute 2005, Vol. 6, No. 2, 124-136. Improving Public School Performance through Vision-based Leadership Sooksan Kantabutra Mahidol University Bangkok While vision-based leadership, frequently referred to as transformational leadership in the education literature, is widely regarded as critical to successful organization transformation, little research has been conducted into the relationship between vision-based leadership and public school performance in Thailand. Derived from substantial literature, a model is proposed to investigate if vision attributes (brevity, clarity, future orientation, stability, challenge, abstractness, and desirability or ability to inspire) and content (relating to teacher and student satisfaction, and efficiency) are associated with higher public school performance, while taking into account Principal, Teacher, & Organizational Factors. Future research directions and managerial implications are also discussed. Key Words: visionary leadership, vision, transformational, school performance With the ever-changing rate, form and scope of global changes, governments in the Asia Pacific region are faced with increasing difficulty in putting their educational policies into practice (Caldwell, 1998; Cheng & Townsend, 2000; Dimmock & Walker, 1998; Fullan, 1990; Hallinger, 1998; Hargreaves & Fullan, 1998; Murphy & Adam, 1998) . With that in mind, leadership scholars around the world have long searched for the kind of leadership needed for organizations to survive and remain competitive, and for many of them, leadership with vision as a core component is the answer (Avery, 2004; Bass, 1990; Conger, 1991; Conger & Kanungo, 1987; Hallinger & Heck, 2002; Kantabutra & Kantabutra, 2005; Tichy & Divanna, 1986) . Educational leaders can no longer be passive, but will need to look ahead to the future and scan the environment for external forces of change impacting upon schools, a CEO-like function called“visioning”(Bolman & Deal, 1992; Deal & Peterson, 1990; Leithwood, 1994) . Sooksan Kantabutra, Group Leader of the Leadership Research Group, College of Management, Mahidol University, Bangkok; PhD in management, Macquarie University, Sydney. Correspondence concerning this article should be emailed to [sooksan.k@cmmu.net](sooksan.k@cmmu.net). In particular, public schools are facing an increasingly competitive and dynamic educational environment, as well as numerous challenges, such as a general public demand for quality education. In academia, the importance of visionbased leadership, frequently referred to, or better known, as transformational leadership (e.g. Hallinger & Heck, 2002; Leithwood, Hallinger, & Colleagues, 2002), has also been widely discussed. Particularly relevant to education reform, vision has been asserted as the starting point of successful transformation process (e.g. Collins & Porras, 1994; Doz & Prahalad, 1987; Hunt, 1991; Kantabutra & Kantabutra, 2005; Kotter, 1990; Robbins & Duncan, 1988; Sashkin, 1988) . Overall, vision-based leadership has been studied in a wide variety of samples and industries, predominantly at the individual level rather than at the business-unit and organizational levels. Generally positive findings between vision-based leadership and individual follower performance, attitudes, and perceptions have been reported (Baum, Locke,& Kirkpatrick, 1998), with no published studies reporting a negative relation between charismatic/visionary leadership and individual performance. At the business-unit level, two studies of corporate managers (Barling, Weber, & Kelloway, 1996; Howell & Avolio, 1993) reported significant relationships between Vision-Based Leadership in Schools charismatic leadership and performance. At the organization level, a major study found positive relationships between characteristics of CEO visions and venture growth, as measured by sales, profits, employment, a

FAQs

What relationship does the paper examine between vision-based leadership and public school performance in Thailand?

It investigates how vision attributes and related content factors are associated with higher public school performance in Thailand, while accounting for principal, teacher, and organizational factors.

Which vision attributes does the proposed model include?

The model includes brevity, clarity, future orientation, stability, challenge, abstractness, and desirability or ability to inspire.

How does the literature review frame prior findings on vision-based leadership and performance?

It reports generally positive findings linking vision-based leadership with follower and performance outcomes at the individual level, and positive relationships at broader organizational levels, while noting limited Thailand-specific evidence.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Grenda