Leadership Succession in New South Wales Catholic Schools: Identifying potential principals

This article reports research conducted on leadership succession in New South Wales Catholic schools. Using a specially developed instrument, the Impediments to Leadership Succession Inventory (ILSI), hierarchical cluster analysis was conducted using data collected from 943 middle management and senior management staff located in Catholic schools throughout New South Wales. A four cluster solution was accepted. One cluster consisted of 182 respondents who did not see major impediments to becoming a principal in the future. While short-term targeting of this subpopulation could be an effective strategy in the recruitment of principals, it is necessary to address the underlying impediments to leadership succession in New South Wales Catholic schools.