Title: Indicators of personal mastery in the life narratives of principals of high-performing schools: an organisational perspective

Authors: Siphokazi Kwatubana

Addresses: Faculty of Education, North-West University, Vanderbijlpark, South Africa

Abstract: Internationally, personal mastery has been found to have an influence on organisational performance in the field of business. Although personal mastery is regarded as having a positive influence on principals' ability to demonstrate effective school management, in South African schools it has had less focus and integration. This study investigated indicators of personal mastery in the life narratives of two principals of high-performing high schools. Specifically, the guiding questions were: what indicators of personal mastery did high school principals possess? Were those indicators perceived as responsible for improving organisational performance? Six life narrative interviews were conducted with each participant to elicit data leading to the events of their current situation which were analysed through the lens of organisational theory. The life narrative interviews, yielded biographical stories of two principals. The findings of this research conceded five indicators of personal mastery with four of them embedded in the personal values of the participants. The analysis implies that personal mastery can have a positive impact on schools as organisations.

Keywords: personal mastery; school principals; life narratives; personal vision; high self-belief; personal learning; organisational theory.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMIE.2021.114943

International Journal of Management in Education, 2021 Vol.15 No.3, pp.229 - 244

Received: 28 Jan 2020
Accepted: 09 Jun 2020
Published online: 12 May 2021 *

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