Role Theory

For at least a generation of scholars and practitioners of educational leadership, role theory stood as a fundamental component of social systems theory. Social systems theory provided a structural-functionalist view of the interactions and relationships between people, their work, the organization, and its purposes for their work. Role conflict studies focused on the ways that people negotiated their own needs against the requirements of their jobs or the expectations of others, those in their role set, including complementary role holders.

Although through the ensuing decades educational leadership studies based on role theory seem to have waned considerably, role theory expanded in other social science disciplines. Social role theory as developed in the disciplines of sociology and industrial psychology explains gendered actions and relationships between men and women, the ways they approach work as well as differences in their managerial styles. Continued works in these disciplines demonstrate how role models derive from social networks and group dynamics. The influence of role on individuals depends on role saliency. Role saliency represents the strength of a role within the organization and provides a structural-functional lever to organizations in rewarding specific role enactments and role models.

The ways that people interpret their place within a group and organization depend on the dynamics of the group interacting with personalities and personal experiences. People inhabit roles in life from their behavior within their families to their socialization through school days, community groups and agencies, and their work groups. Educational leaders face students, teachers, parents, and community members whose interactions depend on their personal interpretations about the roles they hold socially, informally, and in formal, titled positions. School leaders must understand the ways that people's expectations and behaviors derive from their socialization into social, group, and work roles.

Despite the relevance of role theory to the group and individual dynamics that shapes school leaders' work, recent educational research lacks mention of role theory. Role theory suffers the taint of its association with the much-maligned social systems theory. Social systems theory suffered repeated attacks over the past two decades for failing to provide a nuanced insight into the dynamics of schools. Nevertheless, as each person holds multiple social, personal, informal, and formal roles in the complex communities within and surrounding schools, role theory can provide insights into the ways that socialization works to shore up as well as erode social support for education.