current issues in educational management and leadership

Current issues in educational management and leadership

Journal of Management Development

ISSN : 0262-1711

Article publication date: 1 January 2012

Beycioglu, K. (2012), "Current issues in educational management and leadership", Journal of Management Development , Vol. 31 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/jmd.2012.02631aaa.001

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2011, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Article Type: Guest editorial From: Journal of Management Development, Volume 31, Issue 1

When the related literature is reviewed, one may claim that educational administration is a vast and problematic area (Bush, 2008; Evers, 2003; Greenfield and Ribbins, 1993; Gunter, 2005; Hodgkinson, 1996; McCarthy, 1999; Smylie and Bennett, 2005; Şimşek, 2004; Turan, 2004; Waite, 2002). For Allix and Gronn (2005), for example, the field of educational administration and leadership is a theoretical enigma and paradox.

There have been various discussions on the issues of the field such as the theory-practice gap issues, leadership issues, principal/leader development issues, etc. (Donmoyer, 1995, 1999; English, 1994, 2002, 2003, 2006; Firestone, 1996; Fullan, 2001; Gronn, 2002; Heck and Hallinger, 2005; Hodgkinson, 1991; Leithwood and Duke, 1999; Sergiovanni, 2007; Smylie and Hart, 1999; Spillane, 2006).

This special issue intends to have a look at the current issues in the field of educational administration and leadership. The authors have contributed to the issue with their partial research conducted in their unique context or they have contributed to the issue with their conceptual papers which are of a value for the field. For example, the first article entitled “Distributed leadership: implications for the role of the principal” by Dr Alma Harris focuses on distributed leadership in schools and explores the implications arising from this model of leadership for those in formal leadership positions. The paper considers how the role of the principal, in particular, is affected and changed as leadership is more widely shared within the organization.

In the article entitled “Contextual framing for school leadership training: empirical findings from the Commonwealth Project on Leadership Assessment and Development (Co-LEAD)”, Dr Stefan Brauckmann and Dr Petros Pashiardis are in search to find out school leaders’ training needs around the Commonwealth in order to provide some answers with regards to the professional development needs of school principals. Charles F. Webber and Shelleyann Scott’s article entitled “Student assessment in a Canadian civil society” discusses the need for respectful open dialogue and trusting relationships in educational assessment among stakeholder groups including teachers, educational leaders, parents, unions, professional associations, department of education personnel, academics, informal community leaders, and politicians. Helen Wildy and Simon Clarke’s paper entitled “Making local meaning from national assessment data: A Western Australian view” presents a case study of the support provided to all three education sectors in one state of Australia to assist school leaders. In their paper “Relationship between the school administrators’ power sources and teachers’ organizational trust levels in Turkey” Yahya Altınkurt and Kürşad Yılmaz aim to explore the relationship between school administrators’ power sources and teachers’ organizational trust levels. In “Are we legitimate yet? A closer look at the casual relationship mechanisms among principal leadership, teacher self-efficacy and collective efficacy”, a paper by Türker Kurt, Ibrahim Duyar, and Temel Çalık, aims to examine the relations among principal leadership styles, collective efficacy, and teacher self-efficacy.

Based on the content of this special issue we may conclude that current issues in the field of educational management and leadership have, in a sense, centered on the issues of leadership in school organization, leadership development/training and the importance of assessment in educational administration.

I would like to thank to the JMD editorial team for giving us a space to discuss our current issues in a leading scholarly journal. I also would like to express my sincere thanks to the following colleagues for their contribution to this special issue; Dr Allan David Walker, Dr Alma Harris, Dr Charles Webber, Dr Ciaran Sugrue, Dr Daniel Muijs, Dr David Gurr, Dr Esmahan Ağaoğlu, Dr Helen Wildy, Dr Lars Björk, Dr Lejf Moos, Dr Mehmet Şişman, Dr Mualla Aksu, Dr Özge Hacıfazlıoğlu, Dr Petros Pashiardis, Dr Selahattin Turan, Dr Simon Clarke, Dr Deniz Örücü, Dr Şefika Mertkan Özünlü, and Dr Yaşar Kondakçı.

I wish to express my deepest gratitude to the authors of the articles published in this special issue. I hope this issue would be an asset and contribution to the field.

Kadir Beycioglu Guest Editor

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Donmoyer, R. (1999), “The continuing quest for a knowledge base: 1976-1998”, in Murphy, J. and Seashore, K.S. (Eds), Handbook of Research on Educational Administration , Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA, pp. 25–43

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Turan, S. (2004), “Modernite ve postmodernite arasında bir insan bilimi olarak eğitim yönetimi” (“Educational administration as a balancing discipline in the human sciences between modernity and post-modernity”), Akdeniz Üniversitesi Eğitim Fakültesi Dergisi ( Akdeniz University Journal of Faculty of Education ) , Vol. 1 No. 1, pp. 1–8

Waite, D. (2002), “‘The Paradigm Wars’ in educational administration: an attempt at transcendence”, International Studies in Educational Administration , Vol. 30 No. 1, pp. 66–81

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The Current Scholarship About Educational Leadership

• First Online: 07 October 2022

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• Khalid Arar   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-4094-966X 11 &
• Izhar Oplatka   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-2759-2515 12  

Part of the book series: Policy Implications of Research in Education ((PIRE,volume 14))

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The first chapter reviews current conceptualizations of educational leadership and the significant streams of research on this organizational phenomenon at the school level. We deal with different challenges, including diversity, equity, and inclusion in the neoliberal era and current school leadership in an emergency. Different theoretical views of leadership (e.g., sociological, economic, psychological) are analyzed, and traditional leadership models (e.g., trait, behavior, contingency, transformational, moral, distributed) are briefly described. Some reference is given to the issue of women in educational leadership, business management leadership, and student achievement, and leadership and the influences of cultural contexts.

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Arar, K., Oplatka, I. (2022). The Current Scholarship About Educational Leadership. In: Advanced Theories of Educational Leadership. Policy Implications of Research in Education, vol 14. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-14510-0_1

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As part of the submission process you will be required to warrant that you are submitting your original work, that you have the rights in the work, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you, that you are submitting the work for first publication in the Journal and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has not already been published elsewhere. Please see our guidelines on prior publication and note that Educational Management Administration & Leadership  may accept submissions of papers that have been posted on pre-print servers ; please alert the Editorial Office when submitting (contact details are at the end of these guidelines) and include the DOI for the preprint in the designated field in the manuscript submission system. Authors should not post an updated version of their paper on the preprint server while it is being peer reviewed for possible publication in the journal. If the article is accepted for publication, the author may re-use their work according to the journal's author archiving policy. If your paper is accepted, you must include a link on your preprint to the final version of your paper.

If you have any questions about publishing with Sage, please visit the Sage Journal Solutions Portal

• What do we publish? 1.1 Aims & Scope 1.2 Article types 1.3 Writing your paper
• Editorial policies 2.1 Peer review policy 2.2 Authorship 2.3 Acknowledgements 2.4 Declaration of conflicting interests 2.5  Research Data
• Publishing policies 3.1 Publication ethics 3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement 3.3 Open access and author archiving
• Preparing your manuscript 4.1 Formatting 4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics 4.3 Supplemental material 4.4 Reference style 4.5 English language editing services
• Submitting your manuscript 5.1 ORCID 5.2 Information required for completing your submission 5.3 Permissions
• On acceptance and publication 6.1 Sage Production 6.2 Online First publication 6.3 Access to your published article 6.4 Promoting your article
• Further information

1. What do we publish?

1.1 Aims & Scope

Before submitting your manuscript to Educational Management Administration & Leadership , please ensure you have read the Aims & Scope .

1.2 Article Types

Educational Management, Administration & Leadership publishes articles that include original primary research that can be empirical, literature reviews, or new conceptualisations of policy and practice.

Your articles should be no more than 8,000 words, including references.

Authors are also able to provide a translation of their article in a language of their choice. Please indicate at submission if a translation of your article exists. This translated version should be uploaded as Supplemental Material ( see 4.3 ) when uploading the final version of your article. Please note that only the English version will be subject to peer review.

1.3 Writing your paper

The Sage Author Gateway has some general advice and on  how to get published, plus links to further resources. Sage Author Services also offers authors a variety of ways to improve and enhance their article including English language editing, plagiarism detection, and video abstract and infographic preparation.

1.3.1 Make your article discoverable

When writing up your paper, think about how you can make it discoverable. The title, keywords and abstract are key to ensuring readers find your article through search engines such as Google. For information and guidance on how best to title your article, write your abstract and select your keywords, have a look at this page on the Gateway: How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online .

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2. Editorial policies

2.1 Peer review policy

The journal adheres to a rigorous double-anonymize reviewing policy in which the identity of both the reviewer and author are always concealed from both parties. Each manuscript is subject to initial review by the Editor. All papers are then reviewed by at least two referees.Guidelines for referees are available here . All manuscripts are reviewed as rapidly as possible, and an editorial decision is generally reached within 6-8 weeks of first submission. Translations of articles uploaded as Supplemental Material are not peer reviewed.

2.2 Authorship

All parties who have made a substantive contribution to the article should be listed as authors. Principal authorship, authorship order, and other publication credits should be based on the relative scientific or professional contributions of the individuals involved, regardless of their status. A student is usually listed as principal author on any multiple-authored publication that substantially derives from the student’s dissertation or thesis.

Please note that AI chatbots, for example ChatGPT, should not be listed as authors. For more information see the policy on Use of ChatGPT and generative AI tools .

2.3 Acknowledgements

All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, or a department chair who provided only general support.

Please supply any personal acknowledgements separately to the main text to facilitate anonymous peer review.

2.3.1 Third party submissions

Where an individual who is not listed as an author submits a manuscript on behalf of the author(s), a statement must be included in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript and in the accompanying cover letter. The statements must:

•    Disclose this type of editorial assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input  •    Identify any entities that paid for this assistance  •    Confirm that the listed authors have authorized the submission of their manuscript via third party and approved any statements or declarations, e.g. conflicting interests, funding, etc.

Where appropriate, Sage reserves the right to deny consideration to manuscripts submitted by a third party rather than by the authors themselves.

2.4 Declaration of conflicting interests

Educational Management Administration & Leadership encourages authors to include a declaration of any conflicting interests and recommends you review the good practice guidelines on the Sage Journal Author Gateway .

2.5 Research Data

The journal is committed to facilitating openness, transparency and reproducibility of research, and has the following research data sharing policy. For more information, including FAQs please visit the Sage Research Data policy pages .

Subject to appropriate ethical and legal considerations, authors are encouraged to:

• share your research data in a relevant public data repository
• include a data availability statement linking to your data. If it is not possible to share your data, we encourage you to consider using the statement to explain why it cannot be shared.
• cite this data in your research

3. Publishing Policies

3.1 Publication ethics

Sage is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the Publication Ethics page on the Sage Author Gateway .

3.1.1 Plagiarism

Educational Management Administration & Leadership and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with duplication-checking software. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarised other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where the authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.

3.1.2 Prior publication

If material has been previously published it is not generally acceptable for publication in a Sage journal. However, there are certain circumstances where previously published material can be considered for publication. Please refer to the guidance on the Sage Author Gateway or if in doubt, contact the Editor at the address given below.

3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement

Before publication, Sage requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. Sage’s Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement is an exclusive licence agreement which means that the author retains copyright in the work but grants Sage the sole and exclusive right and licence to publish for the full legal term of copyright. Exceptions may exist where an assignment of copyright is required or preferred by a proprietor other than Sage. In this case copyright in the work will be assigned from the author to the society. For more information please visit the Sage Author Gateway .

3.3 Open access and author archiving

Educational Management Administration & Leadership offers optional open access publishing via the Sage Choice programme and Open Access agreements, where authors can publish open access either discounted or free of charge depending on the agreement with Sage. Find out if your institution is participating by visiting Open Access Agreements at Sage . For more information on Open Access publishing options at Sage please visit Sage Open Access . For information on funding body compliance, and depositing your article in repositories, please visit Sage’s Author Archiving and Re-Use Guidelines and Publishing Policies .

4. Preparing your manuscript for submission

4.1 Formatting

The preferred format for your manuscript is Word. LaTeX files are also accepted. Word and (La)Tex templates are available on the Manuscript Submission Guidelines page of our Author Gateway.

4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics

For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures and graphs in electronic format, please visit Sage’s Manuscript Submission Guidelines.

Figures supplied in colour will appear in colour online regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. For specifically requested colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Sage after receipt of your accepted article.

4.3 Supplemental material

This journal is able to host additional materials online (e.g. datasets, podcasts, videos, images, translations etc) alongside the full-text of the article. For more information please refer to our guidelines on submitting supplementary files .

4.4 Reference style

Educational Management Administration & Leadership adheres to the Sage Harvard reference style. View the Sage Harvard guidelines to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style.

If you use EndNote to manage references, you can download the Sage Harvard EndNote output file

4.5 English language editing services

Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript formatting to fit the journal’s specifications should consider using Sage Language Services. Visit Sage Language Services on our Journal Author Gateway for further information.

5. Submitting your manuscript

Educational Management Administration & Leadership is hosted on Sage Track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/emal to login and submit your article online.

IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in the system before trying to create a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for the journal in the past year it is likely that you will have had an account created.  For further guidance on submitting your manuscript online please visit ScholarOne Online Help.

As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent and fair peer review process Sage is a supporting member of ORCID, the Open Researcher and Contributor ID . ORCID provides a unique and persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher, even those who share the same name, and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between researchers and their professional activities, ensuring that their work is recognized. 

The collection of ORCID IDs from corresponding authors is now part of the submission process of this journal. If you already have an ORCID ID you will be asked to associate that to your submission during the online submission process. We also strongly encourage all co-authors to link their ORCID ID to their accounts in our online peer review platforms. It takes seconds to do: click the link when prompted, sign into your ORCID account and our systems are automatically updated. Your ORCID ID will become part of your accepted publication’s metadata, making your work attributable to you and only you. Your ORCID ID is published with your article so that fellow researchers reading your work can link to your ORCID profile and from there link to your other publications.

If you do not already have an ORCID ID please follow this link to create one or visit our ORCID homepage to learn more.

5.2 Information required for completing your submission

You will be asked to provide contact details and academic affiliations for all co-authors via the submission system and identify who is to be the corresponding author. These details must match what appears on your manuscript. The affiliation listed in the manuscript should be the institution where the research was conducted. If an author has moved to a new institution since completing the research, the new affiliation can be included in a manuscript note at the end of the paper. At this stage please ensure you have included all the required statements and declarations and uploaded any additional supplementary files (including reporting guidelines where relevant).

5.3 Permissions

Please also ensure that you have obtained any necessary permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further information including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please see the Copyright and Permissions page on the Sage Author Gateway .

6. On acceptance and publication

6.1 Sage Production

Your Sage Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be made available to the corresponding author via our editing portal Sage Edit or by email, and corrections should be made directly or notified to us promptly. Authors are reminded to check their proofs carefully to confirm that all author information, including names, affiliations, sequence and contact details are correct, and that Funding and Conflict of Interest statements, if any, are accurate.

6.2 Online First publication

Online First allows final articles (completed and approved articles awaiting assignment to a future issue) to be published online prior to their inclusion in a journal issue, which significantly reduces the lead time between submission and publication. Visit the Sage Journals help page for more details, including how to cite Online First articles.

6.3 Access to your published article

Sage provides authors with online access to their final article.

6.4 Promoting your article

Publication is not the end of the process! You can help disseminate your paper and ensure it is as widely read and cited as possible. The Sage Author Gateway has numerous resources to help you promote your work. Visit the Promote Your Article page on the Gateway for tips and advice. 

7. Further information

Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the manuscript submission process should be sent to the Educational Management Administration & Leadership editorial office as follows:

Professor Tony Bush Editor Educational Management Administration & Leadership The University of Nottingham School of Education Jubilee Campus Wollaton Road Nottingham NG8 1BB UK

email: [email protected]

Technical queries: Louise England

email:  [email protected]

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• Blended Learning
• Communications
• Competency-Based Learning
• Crisis Management
• Curriculum Strategy & Adoption
• Decision-Making
• Digital Content
• Innovative Leadership
• Instructional Model Design
• Learning Walks
• New School Design
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By: Mike Wolking - Guest Author on August 15th, 2017

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6 Critical Issues in Educational Leadership and How to Address Them

Personalized Learning  |  School Districts  |  Innovative Leadership  |  District Leadership

When our team partners with a school district to tackle its toughest education leadership challenges , relationships are built at all levels of the organization. We may encounter superintendents and cabinet staff first, but we tend to find ourselves learning in many nooks and crannies of an organization over time, listening to content area specialists, IT staff, teachers and school leaders, and even attending parent nights or school board meetings.

The 6 Challenges Facing Educational Leadership 

With that concept in mind, I’ve found it extremely helpful to reference a diagnostic framework from Harvard professor Dean Williams, outlined in his book “ Real Leadership ”. Williams argues that good leaders do not simply create followers - rather, they facilitate learning within and across groups in order to address complex realities that demand change. In doing that work a variety of challenges may emerge, which Williams organizes into 6 primary domains. Over the past five years working with districts across the country, I’ve seen many of these challenges in action.

• The Activist Challenge

In an activist challenge, a group’s values and principles may not reflect the the reality of the choices it makes or the systems it has in place. In the classroom this might occur if a school espouses the belief that students learn at different paces but has no systems for students to make up work or receive extra support if they fall behind. The leadership work here entails helping a group align its values with its systems, structures, and actions. My teammates and I often find ourselves engaging in district work of this type when developing a leadership strategy that requires a vision and implementation plans for system-wide shifts to personalized learning or competency-based education .

• The Leadership Development Challenge

In a development challenge, a group has untapped potential that is simply not yet developed. For example, this challenge may be present in staffing models in which all teachers have the exact same responsibilities, when in reality some may be well-suited for coaching or curriculum work beyond the the 4 walls of their classroom (some good resources on how to address that here ). The leadership work here requires tapping into the raw potential of the group and bringing out latent capabilities that are overlooked or simply stifled by current systems.

• The Transition Challenge

In a transition challenge, if the current value set shifts to a new value set great progress can be made by the organization. I think of professor Todd Rose’s work challenging the conventional wisdom of averages in favor of individuality and “jaggedness” in education, and of technology’s role in accelerating and supporting that process. In the classroom, I think of the growth mindset transition in getting students to shift from “I’m not smart” to “I’m able to learn if I try.” The leadership work here involves helping a group unpack its current beliefs and principles in order embrace a new set of ideas that can improve performance.

• The Maintenance Challenge

In a maintenance challenge, a group must weather changing circumstances and preserve the work it has done in order to be able to move forward in the future. I saw this taking place a few years ago in several districts as Common Core support eroded in state legislatures and leaders were left alone to adjust to changing state standards and assessments. Effective leaders and teachers had been focused all along on broader competencies and principles of teaching and learning that allowed practitioners to stay focused on a coherent instructional vision; those hyper-focused on specific tests or curricular materials faced a more difficult battle in adjusting to a changing landscape. The leadership work here is to preserve the essentials and keep performance at a high level until a threat passes or the unknown becomes known.

• The Creative Challenge

In a creative challenge, a new opportunity arises that gives a group a window to explore new ways of thinking and doing in hopes of making a permanent and lasting change for the organization. This is often the “innovation” work that schools are charged to tackle through grants like Next Generation Learning Challenges , the XQ Super School Project , or Race to the Top funding; it might also come in the form of a community passing a penny tax to fund new resources for schools, an election that allows for a fresh start with a new school board majority, or a chance for leaders to enact policy waivers that enable new work. My colleagues and I are often called on to help groups with creative challenges such as these in order to imagine new realities, develop curiosity about possible solutions, and connect partners across the country doing similar work.

• The Crisis Challenge

In a crisis challenge, a group faces an unexpected event or change in circumstances that threatens its ways of working or even its very existence. This might occur when a state or district takes over management of schools, or when an abrupt shift in leadership occurs within an organization. The immediate leadership work is to establish a process to de-escalate the situation and then focus on addressing the key issues that led to the crisis in order to prevent its recurrence.

Whatever the challenges you face, leadership work will require a mix of short-term steps and long-term planning to address key structures in your organization and changing circumstances that surround it. It’s complex stuff, and having a framework in mind as you move through the process won’t solve all of your problems. But it might help determine just what type of challenge you are facing in the first place.'

Do you want to learn more about how to develop innovative leaders in your school districts? Read and download this free Innovative Leadership Development Guide .

About Mike Wolking - Guest Author

Mike Wolking was formerly a Senior Strategist at Education Elements, and left to pursue the Ian Axford Fellowship in Public Policy in New Zealand.

• Connect with Mike Wolking - Guest Author

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Wharton@Work

April 2024 |  Nano Tools  |  Management

• Cultivating a Healthy Work-Life Integration Culture

Nano Tools for Leaders® are fast, effective leadership tools that you can learn and start using in less than 15 minutes — with the potential to significantly impact your success as a leader and the engagement and productivity of the people you lead.

Retain and engage your workforce by supporting their commitment to work and the rest of life.

Despite efforts to attract and retain talent, organizations across industries continue to face high turnover rates and retention issues. Why do quit rates remain stubbornly high? A survey by Deloitte Global found that a lack of work-life balance is the top reason working women across generations are considering leaving their current employer. And a new study finds that career advancement and having time for a meaningful life outside the office are the key ambitions motivating Gen Z and millennial workers, but they see these goals as mutually exclusive — they are choosing to work hard now to save enough that they can retire early and enjoy “life outside of work obligations.” When these workers don’t advance fast enough or aren’t compensated financially to the degree they expect, they leave.

In the 10th anniversary edition of Baby Bust (Wharton School Press, 2024), Wharton professor and founding director of the Wharton Work/Life Integration Project Stew Friedman says to be able to pursue career advancement and have a rich life outside the office, employers need policies and programs that support families both with and without children.

Recognizing that meaningful change is unlikely to happen at the federal or state level any time soon, Friedman shows how some organizations have recognized the frustration of their employees and taken steps to ameliorate it on their own. They are experimenting with new models of employment that embrace the whole person and support commitment to work, family, community, and the private self (mind, body, and spirit). These models, detailed below, are helping individuals manage boundaries, reduce the negative spillover of work pressures on life beyond work, make work more meaningful, and enable greater flexibility. As a result, these organizations are reaping rewards that include increased productivity, engagement, health, and retention of talent.

Action Steps

• Set clear goals pursued by flexible means: Offer clear and measurable goals and expectations, along with as much flexibility as possible as to where, when, and how work is conducted. Recognize that compensation is not limited to a paycheck — especially for millennials, who make up nearly 40 percent of the U.S. workforce, it includes control of their time. A new study provides another compelling reason to offer flexibility: return-to-office mandates don’t affect a company’s financial performance, but do produce negative side effects for its workforce.
• Make your efforts inclusive: Work and family considerations are not “women’s issues”; frame non-work interests as affecting mothers, fathers, couples, single people without children, and those living in other family structures.
• Provide support for childcare: Businesses that can afford it should offer regularly scheduled and emergency childcare; leaders should also encourage government sponsorship of excellent childcare for all.
• Make work meaningful: Younger workers especially seek to make a positive social impact through their work. Connect work to valued social benefits by providing more direct feedback from customers and clients about the value of your firm’s services or products (check this Nano Tool for ideas) or by undertaking more initiatives to serve a charitable aim.

How Leaders Use It

Professional services firm PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers) promotes flexible work arrangements, including remote work options, flexible hours, and compressed work weeks. According to their website, their hybrid work model is “driven by client engagement needs, where our people spend an average of 50 percent of their time at a client site or in a PwC office and have the option to work virtually the remainder of the time.” The company also provides resources such as employee assistance programs, wellness initiatives, and parental leave benefits.

Illinois-based Brunswick Corporation, which designs and manufactures boats and marine engines, empowers employees to focus on their lives outside of work by offering perks such as 12 weeks of paid parental leave. As part of the company’s "Be Your Best" culture, it also offers well-being programs such as earning a discounted medical plan rate by completing a health check survey and two preventive care activities.

Full-time employees at retailer Etsy get unlimited sick or mental health days, four weeks of fully paid sabbatical leave every five years, and 26 weeks of fully paid parental leave (regardless of gender). Employees may also work full-time remotely or in the office, or adopt a flex schedule.

Contributor to this Nano Tool

Stew Friedman, PhD, Emeritus Practice Professor of Management, The Wharton School; founding director of the Wharton Leadership Program; founding director of the Wharton Work/Life Integration Project; author of Baby Bust: New Choices for Men and Women in Work and Family, 10th Anniversary Edition (Wharton School Press, 2024); Total Leadership: Be a Better Leader, Have a Richer Life (Harvard Business Review Press, 2014); and other titles.

About Nano Tools

Nano Tools for Leaders® was conceived and developed by Deb Giffen, MCC, director of Custom Programs at Wharton Executive Education. Nano Tools for Leaders® is a collaboration between joint sponsors Wharton Executive Education and Wharton’s Center for Leadership and Change Management. This collaboration is led by Professors Michael Useem and John Paul MacDuffie.

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