The relationship between North Carolina elementary principals' and teachers' perceptions of principals' leadership styles and the social organization of the school
Abstract
Emphasis on school restructuring continues to be a focal point of school research, while principals' leadership practices are examined as we enter the next generation of research into school effectiveness. Effective school research also recognizes the importance of quality leadership by consistently identifying strong instructional leadership as instrumental in creating a positive school climate. The purpose of this study is to ascertain whether there are statistical relationships between principals' perceptions of their leadership styles and teachers' perceptions of principals' leadership styles and the social organization of the school. The researcher examined the relationship of leadership styles demonstrated by twenty-eight elementary principals to determine if there was a significant difference between the self reported mean scores of the principals and the mean scores assigned to the principals by the teachers. As a result of extensive review of the literature, the researcher noted that earlier studies have not conclusively addressed the relationship between principals' leadership styles and teachers' perceptions of principals' leadership styles and the social organization of the school. Two survey instruments were utilized: The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) 5x-short of (Bass and Avolio, 1990) was used to survey the principals and teachers on principals' leadership styles. The MLQ Leader Form was used to survey principals' perceptions of their leadership styles and the MLQ Rater Form was used to survey teachers' perceptions of principals' leadership styles. Rosenholtz's (1989) Social Organizational Questionnaire (SOQ instrument was used to measure the impact of the five social organizational constructs: Teacher Commitment, Teacher Learning, Teacher Certainty, Teacher Collaboration and Shared School Goals. This instrument was used to determine the effect of principals' and teachers' perceptions of principals' leadership style on the social organization of the school. Data gathered from this research will add to the existing literature on how schools initiate effective change to create a positive school climate. Among the findings were: (a) Teachers' perceptions of the principals' leadership style was statistically significant in the transformational leadership styles inspirational motivation and idealized influence (attributed); (b) Statistically low relationship between teacher collaboration and contingent reward, teacher collaboration and idealized influence (attributed), shared school goal and individualized consideration, teacher collaboration and intellectual stimulation, teacher collaboration and individualized consideration, and teacher certainity and individualized consideration; (c) Statistical significant differences were noted between the principals' self-evaluation of leadership styles and gender with a p-value of less than .01 in individualized consideration; (d) Statistically negative correlations existed between teachers' perceptions of principals' leadership styles and the social organization of the school based on teachers' years of professional experience and years working with the same principal; (e) Three of the test indicated significant relationship existed between contingent reward, management-by-exception (active), and idealized influence (attributed) as it relates to principals' years of experience at the same school and leadership styles.
Subject Area
Educational administration|Teacher education|Curriculum development
Recommended Citation
Smith, Janice McDowell, "The relationship between North Carolina elementary principals' and teachers' perceptions of principals' leadership styles and the social organization of the school" (2005). ETD Collection for Fayetteville State University. AAI3287784.
https://digitalcommons.uncfsu.edu/dissertations/AAI3287784