What Can Leaders Learn From Good And Bad Parenting?

Source: findmykids.org

What can school leaders learn from psychological research into parenting styles and their effects on such important outcomes as children’s self-management and social skills, as well as academic performance and overall well-being? The argument, here, is not that leadership has any kind of psychoanalytic dimensions (although that might very well be the case), but that it has a distant “family resemblance” with parenting. More precisely, two defining traits they have in common are...

demandingness and responsiveness. Building on the work of Baumrind (1971), Maccoby and Martin (1983) contrasted four parenting styles based on these two dimensions.

2  Dimensions  of  Parenting

• Demandingness - Extent to which a parent sets high expectations for their children and guides their progress.

• Responsiveness - Extent to which a parent demonstrates support and communicates effectively with their children.

4  Parenting  Styles

• Authoritarian - Demanding, but unresponsive.
• Authoritative - Demanding and responsive.
• Permissive - Undemanding but responsive.​
• Neglectful - Undemanding and unresponsive.

Good  and  Bad  Parenting

Based on this typology, an extensive body of research has compared the effects of different parenting styles on various outcomes.

• Its main finding is that authoritative parenting is usually preferable, for instance in terms of children’s academic achievement, as illustrated by Pinquart (2016).

• Likewise, authoritarian and neglectful parenting are consistently found to be the worst, notably because of their detrimental effects on mental health (Yap et alia, 2013).

• The evaluation of permissive parenting is not as clear, however. While some studies have shown that children of “indulgent” parents can lack proper self-management skills (Barton and Hirsch, 2016), others have found that they had the lowest risk of depression (Susheela, 2018) and anxiety (Sanjeevan and de Zoysa, 2018).

• Finally, while authoritative parenting seems to promote prosocial behavior, but not prevent negative social interactions, permissive parenting seems conducive to better social skills overall, without necessarily fostering high levels of care or sense of responsibility (Altay and Güre, 2012).

Transposition  To   Leadership

The transposition of parenting styles into leadership styles seems quite straightforward: 

• Authoritarian - The “Boss” is both distant and controlling. They put in place strict accountability systems, but do not provide much support or sense of purpose. Likewise, their communication is usually limited to one-way commands, praise and criticisms. An authoritarian approach might be needed in very specific circumstances, such as emergencies, but as an enduring leadership style it is likely associated with low motivation, low morale, and low performance.

• Authoritative - The “Leader” is both inspiring and supportive. They set challenging goals for the organization, its teams and individual members; but their communication makes these hard-to-reach objectives meaningful, and the authoritative leader is also receptive and responsive to the professional needs of those who have to work toward them. An authoritative approach seems optimal and conducive to high motivation and performance. However, this style can only be cultivated over time. What is more, constantly enforcing high expectations can still have negative consequences, such as internal competition and overwork. Its impact on morale thus depends largely on the culture of the organization and the competence of  its employees.

• Permissive - The “Friend” creates a relaxed climate in the organization, but does not “push” its members in any way. Despite its long-term negative impact on motivation and performance, such an approach can be appropriate for a limited time, and/or in specific domains, due to its positive impact on morale. This is  especially true if employees are highly capable and dedicated.

• Neglectful - The “Absentee” is an empty chair behind a closed door. Uninvolved, they do not provide any kind of guidance or help, thus negatively impacting motivation and performance without any benefit in terms of morale.​

Lessons  For  School  Leaders

Clearly, the previous taxonomy also has a “family resemblance” with other models of leadership, such as:
​

• Managerial Grid Model (Blake and Mouton, 1964)

Source: researchgate.net

• Styles of Leader Behavior (Muczyk and Reimann, 1987)

• Situational Leadership (Hersey and Blanchard, 1988)

Source: workplacepsychology.net

On the one hand, this large family of models indicates that our understanding of leadership is still at an early stage and requires further investigation and integration of its multiple facets. On the other hand, it gives credibility to a “parenting style” lens, from which the following lessons can be tentatively drawn: 
​

• Overall, the “authoritative” style seems superior to alternative options, which highlights the importance of balancing rigorous direction and extensive support.

• Although insufficient, a “permissive” approach might also have unique benefits, boosting morale and preventing some of the potential excesses of high demandingness.

• In the end, the most effective leadership style could consist less in a particular approach than in the flexible use of appropriate approaches in different situations. Organizational culture and climate, as well as employee competence and motivation, could call for varying degrees of direction and support to achieve specific goals.

• Moreover, this agile leadership would not only balance demandingness and responsiveness, but also direction and participation, as well as concern for production and concern for people. Drawing mostly from an authoritative approach, it would skillfully resort to “permissive” strategies as needed, and might even find circumstances where giving direct orders or staying “uninvolved” becomes necessary.​

References

Altay and Güre (2012) - Altay F. B. and Güre A., “Relationship among the Parenting Styles and the Social Competence and Prosocial Behaviors of the Children Who are Attending to State and Private Preschools”, Educational Sciences: Theory and Practice, vol. 12, no. 4, 2012, pp. 2712-2718.

Barton and Hirsch (2016) - Barton, A. L. and Hirsch J. K., “Permissive Parenting and Mental Health in College Students: Mediating Effects of Academic Entitlement.” Journal of American College Health, vol. 64, no. 1, 2015, pp. 1–8.

Baumrind (1971) - Baumrind D., “Current Patterns of Parental Authority.” Developmental Psychology, vol. 4, no. 1, Pt.2, 1971, pp. 1–103.

Blake and Mouton (1964) - Blake R. B. and Mouton J. S., The Managerial Grid. Gulf Publishing, 1964.

Hersey and Blanchard, 1988 - Hersey P. and Blanchard K., Management of Organizational Behavior, Pearson, 2012.

Maccoby and Martin (1983) - Maccoby, E. E., Martin, J. A., “Socialization in the context of the family: Parent-child interaction”. In P. H. Mussen (Ed.), Handbook of child psychology, vol. 4, Wiley, 1983,  pp. 1-101.

Muczyk and Reimann, 1987 - Muczyk J. P. and Reimann B. C., “The Case for Directive Leadership”, Academy of Management Perspectives, vol. 1, no. 4, 1987, pp. 301–311.

Pinquart (2016) - Pinquart M., “Associations of Parenting Styles and Dimensions with Academic Achievement in Children and Adolescents: a Meta-Analysis”, Educational Psychology Review, vol. 28, no. 3, 2016, pp. 475-493.

Sanjeevan and de Zoysa (2018) - Sanjeevan, D. and de Zoysa, P., “The association of parenting style on depression, anxiety and stress among Tamil speaking adolescents in the Colombo city”, Sri Lanka Journal of Child Health, vol. 47, no. 4, 2018, pp. 342–347.

Susheela (2018) - Susheela,   "A Study of the Relationship between Depression and Parenting Styles among Adolescents", International Journal of Engineering Development and Research (IJEDR), vol. 6, no. 1, 2018, pp. 42-44.

Yap et alia (2013) - Yap, M. B. et al. “Parental Factors Associated with Depression and Anxiety in Young People: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis”, Journal of Affective Disorders, vol. 156, 2013, pp. 8–23.