Entrepreneurial leadership in schools: linking creativity with accountability

Abstract

The relationship between education and organizational financial efficiency can be described as tense and ambiguous. Therefore, issues of educational leadership inspired by models stemming from the business sector are currently hardly dealt with. Consequently, not much attention has been given to findings from the field of Business Financial Management in order to learn more from their models, theories and practices and, then, examine their applicability into educational management theory and practices. This seems even more important as schools have become a multifaceted pedagogical action field with many cross-sectional leadership tasks, which bear resemblance with business tasks. Against this background the current exploratory paper draws from international desktop research as well as previous research that the authors themselves were involved in. Thus, it offers an informed and insightful basis for reflection on the possible influences of Entrepreneurial Leadership in education, a concept where economic efficiency has to operate and collaborate complimentary to pedagogical leadership. Thus, the aspect of educational entrepreneurship that interests us includes individual persons in school management who, as pioneers, point out new paths and enable or even drive innovation in their schools. In order to do so, they scan their external environments looking for opportunities and creative solutions to complex educational issues.