**2. Method**

autonomy. Ambos et al. [24], in their structural equation modeling study, found that taking initiative influences institutional autonomy positively. Taking initiative as a primary focus of administrative processes, functional autonomy, organizational change, execution of organizational behavior beyond predefined roles and responsibilities, strengthening personnel, and transfer of authority will possibly accelerate the expected structural shift, especially in educational organizations [12, 25–29]. Recent studies, which proposed that school education and administration require reconsideration of concepts like autonomy, responsibility, accountability, and effectiveness, advocate that these key concepts could make a reformist change in public schools [14]. Taking initiative, at this very point, emphasizes personal and professional competencies of school administrators for such reformist expectations of change. Demand on organizational and administrational change in educational

Current legal definitions of educational administrators' authority and responsibilities are insufficient for efficient and effective actions against administrative complications they often face. Consequently, hierarchically defined roles that are tied to bureaucratic mechanisms and centralized approaches have been hindering the perception of schools as an agent of change in the social structure. Studies on taking initiative have recently been emphasizing changing paradigms especially on school improvement, school-based administration, and reforming schools in an information society. Possessing similar opportunities and under similar restrictions, what make a world of difference, are leadership traits of administrators. Capitalizing the conditions of school, exploring resources of the institution, and enhancing academic and organizational performance are the outcomes of an effective leadership. Taking initiative may be regarded as a vital first step for an effective leadership. Finally, concepts such as entrepreneurship, creating alternatives, organizational citizenship, and organizational identification that appear frequently in recent literature on administration and organization emphasize the importance of taking initiative. Taking initiative emerges an important personal characteristic for educational administrators since it helps to activate the cultural dynamics of democracy in educational

The objective of this study is to investigate school administrators' use of initiative. Consistent with this objective, it also aims to identify the conditions and frequencies of school administrators' encounters with unordinary situations, references, and strategies they apply when there is a complication without formal solution, conditions under which they take initiative instead of over-validating the legislation, principles, values, ethical outlines, and outcomes of

**1.** Do school administrators experience any situations not explained by legislation and

**2.** Under the circumstances where legal texts, legislation and regulations are unable to

explain or are not enough, which strategies do school administrators use?

Thus, the sub-objectives of the research were determined as follows:

organizations is of greater concern recently.

24 Open and Equal Access for Learning in School Management

organizations.

taking initiative.

regulations?

This study aims to identify the conditions of taking initiative, characteristics of these conditions and outcomes of the conditions where an initiative was taken by school administrators based on conducted interviews. The study group included voluntary school administrators working in Eskişehir province, Turkey. Purposive sampling was used in the study.

#### **2.1. Research model**

The present research, which aimed to define school administrators' opinions about the situations and results of taking the initiative on decision-making, was designed as a case study (single case study), one of the qualitative research methods. A case study, which is conducted with description and investigation of a restricted system, is a type of qualitative study. In a case study, an up-to-date phenomenon is generally investigated in real-life context. The object of investigation in the present study is a restricted system. A restricted system is where the investigated object is just a person, a program, a group, an institution, a society, or a special policy. In a case study, researcher defines the interaction of significant factors related to that phenomenon by focusing on the phenomenon. The model in which the researcher explores the restricted situation using the data in depth and reports it by describing the themes about this situation is an approach [30–32]. In the present study, the situation is thoughts created by the regulations concerning the appointment of school administrators. In other words, unit of analysis in the case is opinions of school administrators concerning the use of initiative-taking situations.

#### **2.2. Data collection tool**

Interview technique is the method where the interviewer and interviewee take part by focusing on the questions about the area of research [30]. Interview is a type of interaction [32]. Interview is a technique that is effective in defining behavior, feelings, and expressions, which are not observed [30]. For this reason, in the study, the interview method was used as a data collection tool to observe the change school administrators' views and thoughts about conditions, reasons, and results of taking initiative in the administrative processes. The questions in the semi-constructed form were constituted using flexible expressions to collect personal data. The questions in the interview form were created to focus on topics that were expected to be explained.

#### **2.3. Data analysis**

After the interviews were recorded elaborately, the collected data was encoded to determine the identified concepts and expressions and evoked by the research questions and subquestions. Interview details were indexed and categorized by reading the manuscript line by line [32]. On the categorization, theoretical perspective was used. As the data were read, the concepts and words that data evoked and indicated were noted down on the side sections. It was detected that the codes emerged were located in correct frames under the suitable topics and connected to themes created in subproblems of the research. Content analysis was used for data analysis in the current study. The principal objective in content analysis is to collect similar data within the frame of specific concepts and themes and to comment those by arranging the data in a manner that readers could understand ([33], p. 227).

**Gender Age Experience** 

**(years)**

G3: male 46 21 Bachelor's degree (primary school

G1: male 47 23 MA (Educational Administration) Middle class G2: male 40 17 MA (Educational Administration) Middle class +

teaching)

G7: male 42 18 Bachelor's degree (Physics) Middle class +

teaching)

teaching)

teaching)

G12: male 47 20 Bachelor's degree (Agriculture) Middle class G13: male 34 12 MS (Educational Administration) Middle class G14: male 41 17 Bachelor's degree (Geography) Middle class G15: male 43 19 Bachelor's degree (History) Low

Accounting)

G17: male 49 25 Bachelor's degree Middle class G18: male 48 22 MA (Educational Administration) Low

teaching)

teaching)

teaching)

teaching)

teaching)

teaching)

teaching)

G21: male 47 21 Bachelor's degree (Biology) Middle class + G22: male 33 10 Bachelor's degree (Physics) Middle class

G4: male 42 18 MA (Educational Administration) Low G5: male 49 26 Bachelor's degree (Physics) Middle class G6: female 34 12 Bachelor's degree (Chemistry) Low

G8: male 48 25 Bachelor's degree (Moral and Religious Ed.)

G9: male 33 11 Bachelor's degree (primary school

G10: male 40 18 Bachelor's degree (primary school

G11: male 39 14 Bachelor's degree (primary school

G16: male 34 10 Bachelor's degree (Finance and

G19: male 37 12 Bachelor's degree (primary school

G20: male 34 11 Bachelor's degree (primary school

G23: male 38 14 Bachelor's degree (primary school

G24: male 45 22 Bachelor's degree (primary school

G25: male 44 20 Bachelor's degree (primary school

G26: male 46 24 Bachelor's degree (primary school

G27: male 38 15 Bachelor's degree (primary school

**Table 1.** Characteristics of the workgroup.

**Educational background Socioeconomic status of** 

The First Step to Leadership in School Management: Taking Initiative

**neighborhood worked**

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.70789

27

Low

Low

Low

Middle class +

Middle class

Middle class

Middle class

Low

Low

Low

Middle class

Middle class

Middle class

The research is structured in five steps: (*i*) development of the interview questions, (*ii*) data collection, (*iii*) data analysis, (*iv*) validity and reliability assessment, and (*v*) interpretation of the data. Development of the data collection tool*:* At this step of the research, interview form was developed. The "school administrator and initiative" form was utilized to collect data. Interview form was developed by the authors, and in order to provide content validity, five academicians were requested to review the form, and it was finalized based on their suggestions. Data collection: School administrators participated in the study were selected from conveniently available volunteering administrators in the city. Semi-structured questions were asked to the participants, and whenever required, probing questions were used to ease the interview to focus on the details. Data analysis: In order to assess the obtained data, *content analysis* method was used. Data were coded with elemental structural coding method, which is one of the qualitative data coding methods. As a result, a direct and integrative relationship was aimed to be constituted within the general structure of the content of the study. Validity and reliability: In order to obtain validity of the findings, data analysis procedure was explained in brief, and all utilized codes, which were used to generate categories, were provided. Moreover, direct citations from the interview transcripts were used to achieve validity [34].

In order to assess the reliability of the research, expert opinion was requested to confirm code representations, which were organized in the form of separate themes in the category they were assigned. Expert consensus was obtained, and the categories formed by the authors were compared, and a number of agreements and disagreements were established. Reliability of the research was calculated by using the formula (*reliability = number of agreements*/*number of agreements + disagreements*) by Miles and Huberman [35]. The reliability = 106/(106 + 8) = 0.92 was calculated using the abovementioned formula.

#### **2.4. Study group: study participants**

*2.4.1. Characteristics of the workgroup*

See **Table 1**.


**Table 1.** Characteristics of the workgroup.

**2.3. Data analysis**

26 Open and Equal Access for Learning in School Management

understand ([33], p. 227).

validity [34].

See **Table 1**.

was calculated using the abovementioned formula.

**2.4. Study group: study participants**

*2.4.1. Characteristics of the workgroup*

After the interviews were recorded elaborately, the collected data was encoded to determine the identified concepts and expressions and evoked by the research questions and subquestions. Interview details were indexed and categorized by reading the manuscript line by line [32]. On the categorization, theoretical perspective was used. As the data were read, the concepts and words that data evoked and indicated were noted down on the side sections. It was detected that the codes emerged were located in correct frames under the suitable topics and connected to themes created in subproblems of the research. Content analysis was used for data analysis in the current study. The principal objective in content analysis is to collect similar data within the frame of specific concepts and themes and to comment those by arranging the data in a manner that readers could

The research is structured in five steps: (*i*) development of the interview questions, (*ii*) data collection, (*iii*) data analysis, (*iv*) validity and reliability assessment, and (*v*) interpretation of the data. Development of the data collection tool*:* At this step of the research, interview form was developed. The "school administrator and initiative" form was utilized to collect data. Interview form was developed by the authors, and in order to provide content validity, five academicians were requested to review the form, and it was finalized based on their suggestions. Data collection: School administrators participated in the study were selected from conveniently available volunteering administrators in the city. Semi-structured questions were asked to the participants, and whenever required, probing questions were used to ease the interview to focus on the details. Data analysis: In order to assess the obtained data, *content analysis* method was used. Data were coded with elemental structural coding method, which is one of the qualitative data coding methods. As a result, a direct and integrative relationship was aimed to be constituted within the general structure of the content of the study. Validity and reliability: In order to obtain validity of the findings, data analysis procedure was explained in brief, and all utilized codes, which were used to generate categories, were provided. Moreover, direct citations from the interview transcripts were used to achieve

In order to assess the reliability of the research, expert opinion was requested to confirm code representations, which were organized in the form of separate themes in the category they were assigned. Expert consensus was obtained, and the categories formed by the authors were compared, and a number of agreements and disagreements were established. Reliability of the research was calculated by using the formula (*reliability = number of agreements*/*number of agreements + disagreements*) by Miles and Huberman [35]. The reliability = 106/(106 + 8) = 0.92
