The Fourth Industrial Revolution (FIR) has already moved past our doorstep and has influenced unprecedented changes in every industry. The educational ecosystem is no exception and Education 4.0 has been developed to respond to these new demands. As the quality of school leadership is one of the important determinants of student outcomes, and effective school management is heavily dependent on school leaders’ professional competencies, there is an urgent need to re-skill or up-skill school leaders’ competency to prepare the country to compete in FIR. While the need of effective school leadership for the era of Education 4.0 is widely acknowledged, there is much less certainty about which leadership behaviors are most likely to produce favorable outcomes. The conceptual framework derived in this paper provides a basis for identifying the critical educational leadership competencies that include a) Leading for Learning; b) Integrity and Accountability; c) Communication; d) Collaboration; e) Critical Thinking; f) Creative and Innovative; g) Decision Making; h) Problem Solving; i) Managing Change; j) Entrepreneurial; k) Digital Literacy; and l) Emotional Intelligence. The paper may provide useful feedback in designing future training programmes for school leaders in enhancing their competence in meeting the needs and challenges of Education 4.0.
Abrahamsen, H., & Aas, M. (2016). School leadership for the future: Heroic or distributed?
Translating international discourses in Norwegian policy documents, Journal of Educational Administration and History, 48(1), 68-88.
Akbar, F., & Haitham Obaid, A. A. (2014). Explaining the relationship between creativity,
Innovation and entrepreneurship. International Journal of Economy, Management and Social Sciences, 3(12), 1-4.
Angeli, C., & Valanides, N. (2012). Epistemological beliefs and ill-structured problem-solving
In solo and paired contents. Educational Technology and Society, 15(1), 2-14
Bharwani, S., & Talib, P. (2017). Competencies of hotel general managers: A conceptual
Framework. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 29, 393– 418. doi: 10.1108/IJCHM-09-2015-0448
Bitterova, M., Haskova, A., & Pisonova, M. (2014). School leader's competencies in
Management area. Procedia Social and Behavioural Sciences, 149, 114-118.
Brown-Martin G. (2018). Education and the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Retrieved from
https://medium.com/learning-re-imagined/education-and-the-fourth-industrial-revolution-cd6bcd7256a3
Bueno, C., & Tubbs, S. (2005). Identifying global leadership competencies: An exploratory
Study. The Journal of American Academy of Business, 5(1/2), 80-87.
Day, C., & Sammons, P. (2013). Successful leadership: A review of the international literature. CfBT Education Trust, UK: The University of Nottingham.
Dubovicki, S, & Jukic, R. (2017). The importance of acquiring pedagogical and didactic
Competencies of future teachers – the Croatian context. Early Child Development and Care, 187(1), 1557-1567. doi: org/1080/03004430.2017.1307839
Drydale, L., & Gurr, D. (2011). Theory and practice of successful school leadership in
Australia. School Leadership and Management, 31(4), 355-368.
Duffy, F. (2009). Change leadership competencies (Part 2). Retrieved from
http://cnx.org/content/m19578/1.4/
Freeman, R.E., & Auster, E.R. (2011). Values, authenticity and responsible leadership.
Journal of Business Ethics, 98(1), 15-23.
Gray, S. P., & Streshly, W. A. (2010). Leading good schools to greatness: Mastering what
great principals do well. Alberta: Sage Publication.
Hallinger, P. (2011). Making education reform happen: Is there an ‘Asian’ way? Retrieved
From http://www.ied.edu.hk//apclc/roundtable2011/paper/Philip%20Hallinger.pdf.
Hallinger, P., & Huber, S. (2012). School leadership that makes a difference: International
Perspectives. School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 23(4), 359-367.
Hallinger, P., & Walker, A. (2017). Leading learning in Asia: Emerging empirical insights from
Five societies. Journal of Educational Administration, 55(2), 130-146. doi: 10.1108/JEA-02-2017-0015
Herold, G. (2016). Leadership in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. San Francisco: Stanton
Chase. Retrieved from https://executiveacademy.at/fileadmin_synced_
assets/documents/White_Papers/Leadership-in-Fourth-Industrial-Revolution-Stanton-Chase.pdf
Holmes, K., Clement, J., & Albright, J. (2013). The complex task of leading educational
Change in schools. School Leadership and Management, 33(3), 270-283. doi: 10.1080/13632434.2013.800477
Huber, S.G., & Muijs, D. (2010). School leadership effectiveness: The growing insight in the
Importance of school leadership for the quality and development of schools and their pupils. In S.G. Huber (Ed.). School leadership: The International perspectives (pp. 79-100). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer.
Joe, Y. F.L. (2011). An introduction to critical thinking and creativity: Think more, think better.
United State: John Wile & Sons.
Lappalainen, P. (2015). Predictors of effective leadership in industry: Should engineering
Education focus on traditional intelligence, personality, or emotional intelligence? European Journal of Engineering Education, 40(2), 222-233.
Lee, W. O. (2015). Moral leadership: Where the East meets the West.
In-Text Citation: (Kin & Kareem, 2019)
To Cite this Article: Kin, T. M., & Kareem, O. A. (2019). School leaders’ competencies that make a difference in the era of Education 4.0: A conceptual framewor. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 9(5), 214–225.
Copyright: © 2019 The Author(s)
Published by Human Resource Management Academic Research Society (www.hrmars.com)
This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this license may be seen at: http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode
