Elements of Principled Assertiveness in Principal Steward Leadership Practices for Expenditure Control in Primary Schools

Elemen Ketegasan Prinsip dalam Amalan Kepimpinan Steward Guru Besar bagi Kawalan Perbelanjaan di Sekolah Rendah

Abstract

This study was conducted to explore the principle of assertiveness element for the raising awareness and personal vision components in the steward leadership practices of headmasters in primary schools who have created a collective culture in the expenditure control process until they have successfully obtained excellent audit status. This study uses a fully qualitative research approach. In this study, a total of seven study participants were selected, namely seven headmasters in fully government-aided primary schools who have received excellent financial audit status for the current year. This research uses interview as a main data collection method. Data were analyzed using Nvivo 12 software. The finding shows that practices under the principle of assertiveness element for the raising awareness component are promoting the importance of ethics and using communication tools, while the practices that appear for the personal vision component are defending ethics and promoting integrity. This practice in the headmaster's leadership is carried out in their organization to ensure that the expenditure control related to accounting, payment management and payment under Arahan Perbendaharaan 59 can be carried out effectively and public funds can be spent for the benefit of the students. Researcher suggests that a steward leadership module in the aspect of expenditure control can be built and widely disseminated in the educational ecosystem as an effort to become a guideline for the quality leadership of headmasters so that it can have an impact on good financial governance in primary schools’ organizations.