Insight on the personal interpretative framework and following actions of leaders in educational innovation of higher education by the use of feedback.

Abstract

Over the last years, leadership development has become an important topic for leaders in educational innovations. Often it is found that innovations fail to success. One of the possible causes could be the personal interpretative framework. Since limited research is done towards leadership development this study will make a focus on the different personal interpretative frames and how a designed 360-degree methodology can influence this. In this case study-oriented research (1) five in-depth interviews are performed to discover the different interpretation frames, (2) a 360-degree feedback methodology has been developed and tested, to discover behavior of innovation leaders by the concepts of transformational leadership, personal interpretative framework, and feedback and finally (3) the effects of the designed methodology are discussed through 5 in-depth interviews to see if insight in the underlying personal interpretation framework is acquired. It is found that leaders in innovation of higher education apply several personal interpretative frames, such as loyalty, limited effectiveness of relations, choosing battles, and high responsibility. Especially the frame of realism and collaboration are strongly present for leaders. This led to a typification of leaders who are focused on relations in educational innovations and leaders who are task-oriented. Furthermore, it is found that the use of 360-degree feedback led to the confirmation of personal frames, emphasized differences, and brought new insights into applied frames or actions.