Leadership for collaboration: An affective process

This article draws on the results of a larger qualitative, self-contained focus group study that identified effective behaviours for school principals to collaborate successfully. Participants, representing various stakeholder groups, including principals themselves, were asked to respond to the research question, 'what are the ways in which the principal influences collaboration'? They identified specific emotional competencies (amongst other supportive behaviours) as significant for educational leaders. The paper explores the aspects of leadership for collaboration, which render it an affective process - underpinned by, and linked to, the emotional domain. Issues related to the need for, and development of, a new skill-set on the part of principals working within the collaborative context are discussed and recommendations are given.