Strategic Leadership, Article Critique Example

This article contains strong theoretical relevance to the continued discussion of strategic leadership insofar as the definition and practice of leadership traits and actions that is theoretically successful within a school setting.  The authors utilized a wealth of previous research to express seven key principles that are meant to be a framework for educational professionals to build or enhance leadership through careful institutional and individual reflection.  This research relates directly to strategic leadership in attempting to create a formal definition for strategic leadership that is much more relevant today than in previous decades where the authors describe the definition as being flawed.  The authors also attempted to create the principles as a reflection-based method to analyze the effectiveness of strategic leadership or to create a new methodology of developing strategic leadership both institutionally and individually.  Each principle is supported by scholars through direct citation and quotes to enhance the appropriateness of each principle being included within this research.

Methodologically, the research has a major flaw in that the authors claim to have spent three years working closely with professionals in a school setting to determine what traits and actions are best reflected by strategic leadership.  However, the prime disadvantage of this article is that it shows no direct examples of their time studying in the school environment to express any gained knowledge.  All of the sources cited by the authors to support their claims and present fundamental information come from previous studies.  Furthermore, no formal discussion exists within the article to explain what research had been conducted and the methodology that was utilized for the authors to have developed the conclusions made within the article.  Despite this lack of connection, the authors still provide strong reasoning through a wealth of peer-reviewed scholarly research to enhance the discussion that the seven principles are justified to include in the process of creating and analyzing the effectiveness of strategic leadership by educational professionals.

References

Quong, T., & Walker, A. (2010). Seven principles of strategic leadership. ISEA, 38(1), 22-34.