Readiness of future educational institution leaders to apply innovative management technologies

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National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine

Readiness of future educational institution leaders to apply innovative management technologies

Oleksandr Vydyborets

PhD student of the department of management and educational technologies

Abstract

The relevance of this article is determined by the necessity to ensure the competitiveness of educational institutions in the educational services market. Modern challenges require educational institutions to continuously improve their activities. Successful development of an educational institution is possible only through the integration of innovations that stimulate the achievement of its goals and contribute to improving the quality of education for students. This aligns with the interests of Ukrainian society, which, like any other developed society, is interested in a high level of educational services.

With the growth of the educational services market and increasing competition, it is important for leaders of educational institutions to focus on searching for and implementing innovative management technologies to secure significant competitive advantages. Thus, the current market conditions and the need for competitive struggle highlight the importance of innovations for leaders, with innovative management technologies becoming key to achieving the goals of the educational institution and enhancing the quality of education.

Objective: To analyze the readiness of future leaders of educational institutions to implement and apply innovative management technologies to enhance the competitiveness of their organizations in the educational services market.

Methods: Study of scientific sources, legislative and normative-legal documents, surveys and interviews, case studies, SWOT analysis, expert assessments, and modeling.

Results: During the study, the readiness of future educational institution leaders to implement innovative management technologies was evaluated; key barriers and challenges faced by future leaders, including limited resources, fear of change, and an insufficient level of knowledge about innovative technologies, were identified. At the same time, positive aspects were also discovered, namely a high level of motivation for learning and improvement, and readiness to introduce innovations to enhance the quality of education and adapt to modern labor market requirements.

A comprehensive set of measures to increase the readiness of future leaders for innovation was developed and substantiated. This includes professional development programs, mentorship, and the creation of innovative educational spaces for experimentation and practical application of new approaches. The role of strategic planning in the successful implementation of innovative management technologies was also determined, which involves clear formulation of the mission, vision of the educational institution, as well as the development of specific goals and tasks to achieve defined results.

Conclusions: This article examined the readiness of future educational institution leaders to apply innovative management technologies, which is crucial for enhancing competitiveness and the quality of educational services provided. The main barriers and challenges leaders may face when implementing innovations were identified, and methods to overcome these challenges were proposed. Special attention was given to the importance of a systematic approach and strategic planning in the process of adapting and implementing new practices in management.

Developed and substantiated recommendations for focusing on innovative management practices include: enhancing the qualifications of future leaders, developing openness to change, and stimulating creativity and innovative thinking. It was determined that the successful implementation of innovative management technologies depends on a comprehensive approach that takes into account the specifics of the educational institution, the readiness of the staff for changes, and the presence of the necessary material and technical base.

The findings of the study make it clear that innovative management technologies play a decisive role in forming an effective management model in modern educational institutions. Their implementation not only improves the quality of educational services but also ensures the sustainable development of educational organizations, meeting the challenges of the contemporary dynamic educational environment.

Keywords: development, readiness, future leader, innovative management technologies, educational institution.

Introduction

Modern challenges pose to educational institutions the task of constant improvement in their activities. The successful development of an educational institution is only possible through the integration of innovations that stimulate the achievement of its goals and contribute to improving the quality of education for students. This aligns with the interests of Ukrainian society, which, like any other developed society, is interested in a high level of educational services. Due to the growth of the educational services market and increasing competition, it is crucial for educational institution leaders to focus on finding and implementing innovative management technologies to secure significant competitive advantages.

In the contemporary world, where the pace of technological development and societal changes set new standards for the quality and accessibility of education, special attention is not only paid to the content of educational programs but also to the management methods of educational institutions. This poses a range of challenges for future educational institution leaders, the most crucial of which is the readiness to apply innovative management technologies. This readiness becomes a decisive factor in enhancing the effectiveness of the educational process and the competitiveness of the institution in the educational service market, ultimately affecting the quality of education that students receive.

The transformation of traditional management approaches in education, the introduction of innovative technologies and methods, and the adaptation to continuously changing external conditions require from future leaders not only a high level of professionalism but also a readiness for continuous learning and development. These challenges highlight the need for research into the level of readiness of future leaders to apply innovative management technologies in their professional activities. competitiveness educational innovative

This article identifies key aspects and conditions that either facilitate or, conversely, limit the readiness of future educational institution leaders to implement and effectively use innovative management technologies. Analyzing current research, legal frameworks, and the results of empirical studies, we aim to identify factors that influence such readiness and propose ways to enhance it.

Sources

The problems of innovation in Ukrainian education have been the subject of research by a number of well-known domestic scholars, including: L. Vashchenko, L. Danylenko, L. Kalinina, L. Karamushka, and others. The issues of implementing innovations in education have been significantly addressed by well-known domestic and foreign scientists, such as: K. Angelovsky, I. Bogdanova, L. Burkova, I. Dychkivska, O. Kozlova, O. Marmaza, L. Momot, V. Palamarchuk, and others. The innovative culture as a component of the general culture of professionals was studied by scholars like S. Bykonia, V. Husev, V. Kurok, T. Davil, J. Epstein, B. Santa, G. Ternkvist, R. Shelton, and others. The management of innovative processes has been covered in the scientific work of L. Vashchenko, L. Danylenko, O. Marmaza, N. Pogribnaia, E. Fateeva, and others. Applied problems of management were researched by O. Baieva, I. Zavadsky, A. Mazaraki, M. Martynenko, and others. The peculiarities of innovative management have been characterized in the works of V. Vasylenko, V. Demchuk, O. Marmaza, L. Zabrodska, I. Shorobura, and others. The formation of innovative competence in educational institution leaders has been dedicated to the scientific works of N. Alekseenko, S. Zavgorodny, O. Yevdokymov, and others.

In the majority of studies, it is noted that innovative activity in education, especially in educational institutions, significantly depends on two main factors - effective management of this activity and the psychological readiness of educational staff and leaders to apply innovative technologies. However, to date, the development of readiness among educational institution leaders to implement innovative management technologies has not been the subject of research by Ukrainian scholars.

The aim is to conduct a theoretical analysis of the concept of "readiness of future leaders of higher education institutions to implement and apply innovative management technologies."

Methods include reviewing scientific sources and legislative and normative documents to perform a theoretical analysis of the key concepts of the study; synthesis is used to define the essence of the concept of "readiness of future leaders of higher education institutions to implement and apply innovative management technologies."

Results and discussion

Research on innovative processes in education and innovative technologies in educational institutions is currently primarily focused on educational staff and educational teams, leaving management subjects of innovative activity unnoticed. Moreover, the development processes of educational institutions cause the dynamics and ambiguity of the volume, content, and nature of innovative processes, which directs leaders' activities predominantly towards implementing innovative educational technologies rather than focusing on applying innovative management technologies. This also necessitates further scientific research in this area as the content and structure of leaders' management activities continuously evolve, as does the structure of management of innovative processes in educational institutions. This underscores the theoretical, practical, and psychological readiness of leaders to apply innovative management technologies, as well as the need to possess unique innovative skills, abilities, and qualities.

It is believed that the term "innovation" as a new economic category was introduced by Austrian scholar Joseph Schumpeter. In scientific use, the definition of "innovation" appeared in the 19th century and meant the penetration of some elements of one culture into another. Subsequently, it was adopted by representatives not only of the economic field of science but also by many others (1883-1950) (Sumets, & Ignatova, 2010).

Schumpeter defined innovation as the "nonpermanent" conduct of "new combinations" in five typical cases of changes (Schumpeter, 1939), namely:

* the introduction of a new product, i.e., a product with which consumers are not yet familiar, or a new variety of a product;

the introduction of a new production method, i.e., a method not yet practically tested in the production sphere;

the discovery of a new market, i.e., a market in which a certain area of a country's economic activity was not previously present, regardless of whether such a market existed before or not;

mastery of a new source of raw materials or semi-finished products, regardless of whether this source existed or was newly created;

the creation of a new organization of industry, for example, achieving a monopolistic position, or losing it.

As we can see, this definition includes only the technical, economic, and organizational aspects of innovation, predominantly concerning the new organization of industry, the discovery of new markets, and new production methods, as well as the introduction of products unknown to consumers. Thus, according to J. Schumpeter, the subject of innovation can be a product, a production process, or an organization, if all are new and already implemented in practice. At the same time, Schumpeter posits that innovation is the primary source of profit, which itself results from the implementation of innovations: without development, there is no profit, and without profit, there is no development.

We fully support such a stance of the researcher and consider development an integral component of any organization, enterprise, institution, or facility whose activities are aimed at creating a product with specified qualities and characteristics.

Let's consider the definition of the concept under study in normative legal documents and scholarly sources. The Law of Ukraine "On Innovation Activity" (2013) provides the following definition of the term we are analyzing: "Innovations are newly created (applied) and/or improved competitive technologies, products, or services, as well as organizational and technical solutions in production, administrative, commercial, or other aspects that significantly improve the structure and quality of production and/or the social sector" (Law of Ukraine "On Innovation Activity," 2013). This definition is significant for our research as it highlights the importance of improving both the structure and quality not only in the production sphere but also in the social sector, including educational institutions. Thanks to new or improved competitive innovative technologies, educational institutions are capable of achieving higher education quality.

In the Regulation of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine "On the Procedure for Conducting Innovative Educational Activities," the term "innovation" is defined as follows: "For the first time created, improved, or applied educational, didactic, educational, management systems, their components, which significantly improve the results of educational activities" (Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, 2000). As we can see, it discusses significantly improving the results of educational activities. In our view, this can be ensured by applying innovative management technologies, which, besides their direct purpose--ensuring the effectiveness of the leader's activities--significantly affect the quality of activities of all participants in the educational process and ensure the quality of education for students.

As V. Kremen (2010) notes, "Innovations are an integral part of educational pedagogical theory and practice, as it is through innovations that education takes a progressive step forward. Moreover, innovations help solve a number of tasks, which allows for significant changes in the existing state of socio-economic and cultural existence. Every actor-- politician, administrator, scientist--must realize that innovation enables the achievement of new results in any sphere, which, in turn, develops and enhances the spectrum of other practices. Advanced science develops through the constant search for innovations and their energetic and effective implementation."

In this manner, innovation serves as an active source for educational development. Innovations facilitate new progressive changes in the pedagogical, educational, and administrative subsystems, preventing these subsystems from operating at the level of outdated standards, and instead promoting and ensuring their continuous development. Accordingly, the development of higher education, professional training, and general secondary education systems involves the creation and implementation of innovations and innovative educational and administrative technologies.

The innovative process in managing an educational institution involves the incorporation of novelties in methods, forms, techniques, and means (technologies), as well as in the content of administrative activities or its objectives, conditions, and technologies. This primarily requires the subject of management to be prepared to engage in such activities. Thus, the formation of theoretical, practical, and psychological readiness of future educational institution managers to apply innovative management technologies also involves conducting a theoretical analysis of the concepts: "readiness," "theoretical readiness," "practical readiness," and "psychological readiness."

The term "readiness" is defined in the World Dictionary of the Ukrainian Language (2017) as "agreement, the desire to immediately do something." According to Gnedko (2015), there are three approaches to understanding the concept of "readiness": functional - readiness as a special mental state of the personality, a psychological condition for successful performance, selectively-conscious activity; readiness as a psychological set that conditions the individual's formation towards activity; and readiness as a complex personal formation, a multi-layered and multi-level structure of qualities, properties, and states that define a person's capacity for activity.

Readiness for professional activity is also defined as a mental state that includes: operational readiness, requiring urgent activation of a person, their involvement at a certain level of activity; functional readiness - an individual's awareness of their goals, assessment of existing postulates, and determination of the most probable means of action; personal readiness, which consists of prolonged high activity of the personality when involved in the production process, the necessity and distribution during motivational, volitional, and intellectual efforts, and assessment of the likelihood of achieving life successes through activity (Vasylenko, 2008).

The readiness of an educational institution's leader for various types of activities can be defined as:

a complex of knowledge, skills, abilities, motives, and personal qualities that ensure effective management of changes in the organization (Karamushka & Moskalyov, 2011);

the integrative ability of an educational institution's leader, which depends on the special selection of educators potentially capable of managerial activities, is formed during their organized professional training, and is determined by the level of development of professional and personal qualities of a school principal (Zhebrovsky, 2002);

a complex, multifaceted personal formation containing a set of knowledge, skills, abilities, motives, and personal qualities that ensure effective management of the educational process (Bondarchuk & Pinchuk, 2013);

a set of knowledge and skills necessary for performing specific functions that reflect the main directions, types, and forms of managerial activity and overall constitute the basic foundation of the job competence model (Yelnikova, Zaichenko, & Maslov, 2010).

Accordingly, based on these perspectives, it can be asserted that the readiness of the leader of a higher education institution to apply innovative management technologies should be considered from the positions of theoretical readiness, which is defined as the ratio of the ideal model of knowledge and its actual state, psychological readiness (motives and personal qualities), and procedural readiness, characterized by the general ability of the leader to perform all managerial functions of innovative activity and apply innovative management technologies.

In our study, the concept of "innovative management technologies" will be understood as modern diagnostic, economic, digital, information, and psychological technologies that enable the creation of conditions for effective influence of the management subject on the activity of the educational institution and the making of management decisions aimed at achieving the goals of the educational institution and ensuring the quality of education of its recipients. Accordingly, the concept of "readiness of future leaders of higher education institutions to apply innovative management technologies" we define as the theoretical, practical, and psychological ability of the leader of an educational institution to apply innovative management technologies. It is appropriate to develop the readiness of future leaders of educational institutions to apply innovative management technologies during their professional training in higher education institutions. Training represents a purposeful educational process, and readiness, accordingly, is the result of this process. Thus, the readiness of a future leader of a higher education institution to apply innovative management technologies is an integrative systemic formation, the purpose, and the result of the special professional training of future leaders in higher education institutions.

Conclusions

Innovative management technologies play a crucial role in developing an effective management model for modern educational institutions and ensuring their sustainable development. The concept of "readiness of future leaders of higher education institutions to use innovative management technologies" is an integrative systemic formation, which demonstrates the theoretical, practical, and psychological ability of a leader to apply innovative management technologies. The readiness of future educational leaders to employ innovative management technologies enhances the competitiveness and quality of educational services provided. The effectiveness of management activities is decreased by limited resources, fear of change, and insufficient knowledge of innovative technologies, among others, while it is increased by a high level of motivation for learning and improvement, and readiness to implement innovations to enhance education quality and adapt to modern labor market demands. The development of management competence will benefit from the implementation of a comprehensive set of measures to enhance the readiness of future leaders for innovations (training programs, mentorship, creation of innovative educational spaces for experiments and practical application of new approaches, etc.). The role of strategic planning in the successful implementation of innovative management technologies lies in the clear formulation of the institution's mission and vision, as well as in developing specific goals and tasks to achieve the defined outcomes. Recommendations for educational institution leaders regarding the use of innovative management practices include: ensuring systematic enhancement of future leaders' qualifications, fostering openness to change, stimulating creativity and innovative thinking; considering the specifics of the educational institution, developing staff readiness for change, and modernizing the material-technical base. Among the promising directions for research is the design of a structural-functional model for developing the readiness of future leaders of higher education institutions to use innovative management technologies and the development of technology to foster this readiness.

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