Distributing leadership in a day care setting

Authors

• Leena Halttunen University of Jyväskylä, Finland

Keywords:

early childhood education, leadership, distributed leadership, distributed organization

Abstract

The latest leadership theories require leadership to be distributed, but there is little evidence of how the distribution is made in practice, particularly in the context of early childhood education. This article describes leadership in two day care organizations in which the organizational structure was different than the traditional one. One organization comprised four day care units and the other had five units. According to the findings, leadership was implemented in the spirit of distributed leadership. The staff and the day care centre director in co-operation took responsibility for their organization. The relationship between the director and the staff was interactive and there was readiness to share the tasks and duties of the director.