This article used a qualitative interviewing approach to explore psychosocial and organizational dimensions of leadership of two elementary school leaders (principals) in Southern California. At each ...school, interviews with the school's principal as well as two key informants were conducted, and we analyzed the findings based on principals' mental models, self-efficacy, and immunities to change. Using Kellar and Slayton's (2016) leadership framework, we considered how psychosocial and organizational leadership contexts fostered conditions to promote organizational change. The findings for this study highlight some of the conditions principals believed were important for organizational improvement as well as challenges faced. Findings indicate that psychological and organizational dimensions reveal complexities of educational leadership by providing a fine-grained portrait of leadership and organizational learning. A study implication is that leaders must not only have time for reflection but also be open to identifying their immunities that may deter efforts at growth and change. Research directions are proposed, including further exploration of how leaders' efforts are shaped by their contexts as well as particular challenges experienced in the role.
The subject of special education teachers’ intentions to leave has been a longstanding concern of researchers and practitioners. This paper reports on a study that examined the workplace predictors ...of teachers’ intentions to leave for a nationally representative USA sample of 2060 secondary school special education teachers (with students aged approximately 13–18). Structural equation modeling was used to assess the plausibility of a conceptual model, specifying linkages among special education teachers’ perceptions of workplace factors, job satisfaction and commitment, and teachers’ intentions to leave. Using the 2007–2008 Schools and Staffing Survey data set, two models were tested to assess job satisfaction and commitment as mediators. Administrative support and teacher team efficacy had strong, significant direct and indirect effects on special education teachers’ intentions to leave. Teacher job design/autonomy, poor socio-economic/human conditions, and student disengagement also exerted significant indirect effects through satisfaction and commitment. However, administrative support and team efficacy were the most important for these teachers in their effects. Among several demographic variables, teacher age was the most powerful demographic factor, with more experienced teachers having lower intentions to leave. The authors suggest that several conditions and attitudes embedded in the teachers’ responses are influenced by administrators.
Using a case study approach, the authors examined university administrator and instructor perspectives about a writing program's organizational culture. In so doing, members of the writing program ...were invited to participate in interviews over a three-year period. The case study suggests that examples of culture through a three-lens perspective (integration, differentiation, and fragmentation) provided a more nuanced reading of the program's identity than a single lens could. The authors suggested that this wider frame of organizational culture for understanding policy and practice has implications for leadership in such areas as personnel evaluation and the encouragement of experimentation with teaching.
This article reports on a study that investigated the relationship between three dimensions of campus racial climate and faculty satisfaction with a large, nationally representative faculty sample (N ...= 29,169), using a multilevel structural equation model. Results indicate that campus racial climate has a large and highly significant effect upon faculty satisfaction at the individual level.
Structural equation modeling was used to examine a conceptual model specifying hypothesized linkages among teachers’ perceptions of school organizational factors, including classroom context and role ...stress, and commitment, satisfaction, and intentions to leave. Respondents to survey questions designed to capture the above constructs included 177 teachers in seven high schools in a southern coastal region of California. Structural equation modeling results indicated that all three study predictors (class size, student behavior, and role stress) affected intentions to leave, and satisfaction and commitment mediated the relationship between the school organizational factors and intentions to leave.
Structural equation modeling was used to assess the plausibility of a conceptual model specifying hypothesized linkages among teachers' perceptions of the role stresses of role ambiguity, role ...conflict, and role overload and commitment, satisfaction, and intentions to leave their employing school. 178 teachers in four high schools in a southern coastal region of California responded to survey questions designed to capture the above constructs. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to assess whether the role-stress items fit hypothesized constructs. Structural equation modeling results indicated that satisfaction and commitment are two mediators in the role stresses–intentions to leave relationship.
The purpose of this paper was to explore how accreditation processes aided a school principal in making reform happen. Using routinized action theory (Feldman, 2000), we examined how the routines in ...school accreditation were used to transform what had been a demoralized, low performing middle school. This theoretical lens is important as it demonstrates that routinized actions can offer more than stabilizing elements in a school organization but also help administrators seeking to make change. We begin by describing the setting of Ironwood Middle School, presenting the research inquiry methods, and examining how accreditation processes enabled the school to move forward in the face of uncertainty and instability. AbstractThe purpose of this paper was to explore how accreditation processes aided a school principal in making reform happen. Using routinized action theory (Feldman, 2000), we examined how the routines in school accreditation were used to transform what had been a demoralized, low performing middle school. This theoretical lens is important as it demonstrates that routinized actions can offer more than stabilizing elements in a school organization but also help administrators seeking to make change. We begin by describing the setting of Ironwood Middle School, presenting the research inquiry methods, and examining how accreditation processes enabled the school to move forward in the face of uncertainty and instability.
A previous study examined role stress in relation to work outcomes; in this study, we added job structuring antecedents to a model of role stress and examined the moderating effects of locus of ...control. Structural equation modeling was used to assess the plausibility of our conceptual model, which specified hypothesized linkages among teachers' perceptions of (a) mechanistic/organic job structuring, (b) role ambiguity, role conflict, and role overload, and (c) commitment, satisfaction, and intentions to leave the school. Respondents to survey questions designed to capture the above constructs included 177 teachers in seven moderately sized comprehensive high schools in Southern California. Results indicated that predicted patterns of relationships were partially moderated by locus of control. The study suggests ways to reduce role stress and enhance the work outcomes of teachers through identifying an appropriate job structure.
Using structural equation modeling, this paper compares a more traditional, unmediated model of work-based role stress and its consequences on job satisfaction and burnout to two models in which the ...role stress-affective work outcome relationship is mediated (partially and completely) by work-home conflict across two samples of public sector professionals: engineers and nurses. The findings indicate that a model in which role conflict and overload have both direct and indirect effects-via work-home conflict-on job burnout and satisfaction (`Partial Mediation' model) achieves a better overall `fit' than two alternative models. Furthermore, the findings suggest that while the two groups perceive many aspects of the work-home relationship differently, for both groups, work-based role conflict is an important antecedent of work-home conflict, and increased burnout an important direct consequence of work-home conflict. Finally, on the basis of the findings, the authors conclude that perspectives which view the work and non-work realms as independent must be reconsidered, and that the nature of the work-home relationship may, to a great extent, be contingent upon the way different occupational groups perceive their work situations.
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