This research investigated the correlation between the principal's leadership style
and the school organisational climate. The literature study established the
importance of leadership in the context of an open and positive school
organisational climate. In this regard, it was found that a supportive principal
leadership style is positively related to an open and positive school climate,
where educators are engaged and enjoy high collegiality and intimate
relationships.
The school organisational climate as variously defined, relates to educator
perceptions of principals or school management behaviour and refers to how
educators experience, especially the management aspects that influence the
climate in the school. Thus, organisational climate is related to the quality of
experiences an educator has in the school, which is expressed in how he or she
experiences the school life.
The Organizational Climate Descriptive Questionnaire for Elementary Schools,
consisting of six organisational climate descriptive dimensions was used for data
collection. The dimensions describe the behavioural aspects of principal
leadership namely, supportive, directive and restrictive and educators'
behavioural aspects namely, collegial, intimate and disengaged. The behavioural
interactions of principals and educators provided the basis for the analysis of the
correlation between the principal's leadership style and the school organisational
climate.
It was established that there was a correlation between principals' leadership
styles and school organisational climates. It was found that the organisational
climates of the surveyed schools are characterised by principal leadership
behaviour that is high on directive behaviour, slightly below average on
supportive and restrictive. Educator behaviour was found to be slightly below
average on collegial behaviours. Educator behaviour scored below average on
intimate behaviour and scored slightly above average on disengaged behaviour.
Principal openness behaviour was found to be below average while educator
openness behaviour was found to be average which translate to school
organisational climates that are relatively closed, which actually indicates a
relationship between principal leadership style and school organisational climate.
This research therefore draws a conclusion that there indeed is a correlation
between school principals' leadership styles and school organisational climates. / Thesis (M.Ed. (Education Management))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2008.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nwu/oai:dspace.nwu.ac.za:10394/1782 |
| Date | January 2008 |
| Creators | Motsiri, Tshigwane Elizabeth |
| Publisher | North-West University |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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