Leadership in the implementation of innovations

Leadership in the implementation of innovations involves not only understanding the distinct constructs of leadership, implementation, and innovation, but it also requires a deeper understanding of their intersections. In this article, we have chosen an integrative approach focusing on the relationships among these three constructs. We begin first, however, with a brief review of the classical history and literature on planned change, diffusion, and implementation. We then have adopted a conceptual framework grounded in complex theories (see Maguire et al., 2006) as a lens for understanding the tensions across the three constructs, leadership, implementation, and innovation. In so doing, we emphasize the uniqueness of educational innovations which makes it possible then to study how societal and institutional barriers have continued to influence and constrain educational policies, theories, and practices. Our contribution ends with a critical overview of how educational leadership research, as it focuses on change and innovation, has progressed, beginning with the 1982 publication of Michael Fullan’s seminal text The Meaning of Educational Change. Fullan’s nine concluding themes identified deliberate choices available to educational leaders. Over a quarter century ago, Fullan concluded that educators “can no longer hide behind the excuse that worthwhile change in practice through deliberate means is impossible” (p. 297). He made very concrete suggestions for conceptualizing innovations and promoting professional development. Unfortunately, progress along each of these themes has not steadily advanced. Why not? We turned to Hargreaves and Fink’s (2004) findings on sustainable leadership in order to better understand the tensions among the constructs. In our concluding section, therefore, we offer our own critical comments regarding leadership, implementation, and innovations and the future research agenda on this important topic.