My New Book (co-authored with Suzana Abdul Latiff)

This book can be downloaded at this site :

 http://myrepositori.pnm.gov.my/xmlui/handle/123456789/3477?show=full

Book cover.
We were honoured that Prof. Dr. Tony Bush from The Nottingham University, UK wrote the foreword of the book.

CONTENT

FOREWORD

I am pleased to have the opportunity to provide a foreword for this important new book on 

leadership development.   The significance of specific preparation and development for school 

principals, and other leaders, is increasingly recognized and Malaysia makes a valuable 

contribution to this process through the work of the Institut Aminuddin Baki, the National 

Institute of Educational Leadership and Management, where both authors are employed.

Suzana Abd Latif and Sazali Yusoff have produced an engaging text which connects ideas on 

school leadership to notions of leadership development, drawing on a wide range of 

international research and literature.   The book is intended as a reference point for scholars, 

educational leaders and practitioners and is likely to be particularly helpful for the latter 

groups.  The authors make the important point that leadership is not a uni-dimensional 

phenomenon and they also stress that it is both a practical and a theoretical concept.     

The first part of the book, ‘Educational Leadership and Management’, sets the scene and 

introduces the three dimensions of capacity, capability and competency, which inform the rest 

of the text.   The authors also make a significant distinction between ‘self’, ‘other’, and 

organization, which is a useful device for reflective leaders and practitioners.   Self-knowledge is 

regarded as increasingly important and the international literature shows clearly that leaders’ 

impact on school and student outcomes is indirect, exerted through colleagues and other 

stakeholders.  The authors’ focus on the organization is also very welcome because it shifts the 

lens from individual leaders, the core of most texts on this subject, to leadership, which is a 

Part two focuses on developing leadership capacity and the authors identify four key elements 

of this construct; knowledge, skill, attitude and drive.  This is a helpful distinction because many 

leadership development programmes focus primarily on knowledge acquisition and under-

represent the other more practical dimensions.   The best international practice addresses 

understanding, what leaders know and need to know, and application, how leaders develop 

their skills and apply their learning to their school contexts.

The final part examines how leadership capability can be enhanced.    There is an important 

distinction to be made between capacity and capability and the authors do this in a helpful way.   

They stress the interdependence of self, other and organization, discussed earlier, and link 

them to the key notions of structure, culture and character.   They conclude by stressing the 

need for principals to shape and reshape their work as educational leaders.

This book is likely to be of great value for aspiring and current leaders and I hope that the 

authors will consider preparing a companion volume that will reflect on the leadership 

preparation and development opportunities available to Malaysian principals and their impact 

on school and student outcomes.

Professor Tony Bush

University of Nottingham (UK and Malaysia)

INTRODUCTION                                                                             

PART 1. EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP AND DEVELOPMENT

1.1       Points of Departure                                                                

1.2       A Dynamic Disequilibrium                                                     

1.3       Leadership Development : An Integrated Model                   

PART 2. DEVELOPING LEADERSHIP CAPACITY

2.1       Knowledge, Skill, Attitude and Drive                                               

2.2       Skills                                                                                       

2.3       Attitude                                                                                  

2.4       Drive                                                                                       

PART 3. ENHANCING LEADERSHIP CAPABILITY

3.1       Self, Other, Organization : An Interdependency                   

3.2       The Self : The Multiplicity of Roles and Function                 

3.3       The Others : “The Heart and soul of an organization”           

3.4       Organization : Its Structure, Culture and Character             

CONCLUSION                                                                                 

BIBLIOGRAPHIES