Industry, business, military and other government agencies
are increasingly recognizing the significance of human factors in the
productivity of complex organizations. Educational institutions are
no exception to this fact. It is assumed that morale and productivity
are related to the managerial style of the supervisor. Leaders are
faced with the challenge of directing the work group toward the target
of increased productivity while at the same time maximizing member
satisfaction.
The basic research problem of this study was to investigate
the relationship between leadership style of high school principals
(in terms of their Concern for Production and Concern for People)
and certain dimensions of teacher morale. The null hypothesis
which guided this study was that there was no significant relationship
between teacher perceptions of administrative behavior and
teacher morale.
A stratified random sampling technique was used to select
132 teachers from ten high schools in the state of Oregon. The results
are based on 126 returns, 90 male and 36 female respondents.
Principal Leadership Style Questionnaire was used to measure two
dimensions (Concern for People and Concern for Production) of administrative
behavior. Purdue Teacher Opinionaire was used to
measure ten factors of teacher morale.
All hypotheses were tested at .05 level of confidence. The
first primary hypothesis asserting that there would be no partial
correlation between administrative dimensions and Teacher Rapport
with Principal was rejected. The second primary hypothesis that
there would be no partial correlation between administrative dimensions
and Satisfaction with Teaching was accepted. Partial correlation
was 4ppliedto analyze the primary hypotheses by eliminating
the effects of secondary hypotheses (Rapport Among Teachers,
Teacher Salary, Teacher Load, Curriculum Issues, Teacher Status,
Community Support of Education, School Facilities, Community
Pressures, Age and Sex). T-test based on regression coefficients
was applied to analyze the secondary hypotheses. Out of 20 secondary
hypotheses tested, five of them were rejected.
Analysis of the primary and secondary hypotheses concluded
that Curriculum Issues, Rapport with Principal and Teacher Salary
are positively related to both the dimensions of administrative behavior.
Rapport Among Teachers was positively related to Concern
for People but not Production. Satisfaction with Teaching, Teacher
Load, Teacher Status, Community Support of Education, School
Facilities and Services, Community Pressures, Age and Sex of the
teachers are not related to the perceived leadership style of the
principal. Teachers Satisfaction with Teaching is probably related
mostly to those things that happen directly with pupils inside the
classroom over which principals have little influence.
Results of the two administrative dimensions indicated that a
principal's leadership behavior is perceived by his faculty in various
ways. However, on the average, administrators were rated high on
both the "Production" and "People" dimensions of administrative
behavior and perceived as having a "6,7" or "7,8" leadership style
as described by Blake and Mouton (1964).
Analysis of this research further suggest that educational administrators
investigated in this study seem to have above average
skills in the eyes of their faculty in promoting both goal achievement
and member satisfaction. It is recommended that the design of this
study be replicated on a larger teacher population and sample size
in different geographical areas. / Graduation date: 1975
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ORGSU/oai:ir.library.oregonstate.edu:1957/37291 |
| Date | 14 February 1975 |
| Creators | Bhella, Surjit Kaur |
| Contributors | Fielder, William R. |
| Source Sets | Oregon State University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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