Abstract
This study examined what role informal leaders play on school climate within secondary public schools in the United States. Informal leaders are people who are considered leaders by their peers and who do not hold an official leadership title (Smylie et al., 2002; Spillane & Zuberi, 2009; Sun & Xia, 2018). While studies have shown that formal leaders impact school climate, there is a gap in the literature in reference to the role in which informal leaders play in relation to school climate (Aldridge & Fraser, 2016; Black, 2010; Halawah, 2005; Kelley et al., 2005; Miskel et al., 1979). Although we know that informal leaders are present within school sites, this study tried to explore more about their roles and what that meant around climate. Findings from this concurrent mixed methods study suggest that informal leaders’ roles impact school climate quite strongly. This study uses French and Raven’s (1959) five bases of power as a foundational framework for exploring the power and influence of informal leaders; delves into transformational leadership theory in the form of attributes or qualities that informal leaders possess; and finally, undertakes a political leadership lens to understand how informal leaders use their people and coalition building skills to carve their path into unwritten, peer-elected leadership. This study posits that elements of all three are cores of successful informal leadership in schools.Recommendations for policy, practice, and leadership include providing the space for creating authentic relationships and for developing more employees to be in positions where they can experience informal leadership for themselves, e.g., write it into contractual agreements that each employee must perform a minimum of one leadership task per school year (or quarter). Other example recommendations include fostering an environment of risk-taking, lifetime commitment to learning, and creating/maintaining genuine relationships between formal and informal leaders.
Keywords: informal leaders, informal school leaders, school climate, mixed-method study, focus groups, relationships, influence