Value-Bounded Situational Leadership in Muhammadiyah Upper-Secondary Schools: A Multiple-Case Study Across Institutional Conditions

Istanto Istanto; Mutohharun Jinan; Aflit Nuryulia Praswati; Nurul Latifatul Inayati; Bella Misbahati Putri; Abil Fida Muhammad Qois Al Hadi; Fadhia Ananda; Siti Rosilawati Ramlan

doi:10.32806/jf.v15i03.2337

Authors

Istanto Istanto Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta, Indonesia
Mutohharun Jinan Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta, , Indonesia
Aflit Nuryulia Praswati Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta, Indonesia
Nurul Latifatul Inayati Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta, Indonesia
Bella Misbahati Putri Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta, Indonesia
Abil Fida Muhammad Qois Al Hadi Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta, Indonesia
Fadhia Ananda Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta, Indonesia
Siti Rosilawati Ramlan Universitas Sains Islam, Malaysia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.32806/jf.v15i03.2337

Keywords:

school leadership; , situational leadership; , faith-based schools; , Muhammadiyah; , institutional condition; , values-based leadership

Abstract

School leadership research shows that effective practice depends on context. Yet two questions remain open in faith-based schools: how principals vary their leadership across the institutional conditions of schools within a single religious organization, and how far the organization’s values shape that variation. This study addresses both through an interpretive multiple-case study of five Muhammadiyah upper-secondary schools in Karanganyar Regency, Central Java, selected for maximum variation across three institutional conditions: Pioneering, Expansion, and Institutionalization of Excellence. Data came from interviews with principals, vice-principals, and administrative staff, as well as from school documents, and were analyzed through reflexive thematic analysis. A sixth school, first classified as Pioneering, proved to be an established institution and was analyzed as a contrasting case. Principals did not lead through a fixed style. They read each school’s condition and moved among service-oriented, developmental, strategic, and directive modes, and a directive or transactional mode appeared in every condition, not only in struggling schools. The balance tracked institutional condition, from service toward staff with directive control of pupils under scarcity, to a relational base paired with a transactional apparatus during expansion, to service and strategic direction in established schools. Across all conditions, adaptation stopped at limits set by Al-Islam and Kemuhammadiyahan values. The study proposes the Value-Bounded Situational Leadership model, which extends situational leadership from follower readiness to institutional condition and from value-neutral to value-bounded fit

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