A comparison of the leadership characteristics of practicing male and female public school administrators

The purpose of this study was to investigate the leadership characteristics of male and female high school principals and superintendents. The study addressed the questions, How did male superintendents compare to female superintendents in leadership characteristics? How did male high school principals compare to female high school principals in leadership characteristics? and How did superintendents and high school principals compare in leadership characteristics? The review of literature revealed that research on leadership and management went through three phases--(1) identifying specific traits of great leaders, (2) identifying the behaviors that would guarantee leadership effectiveness, and (3) identification of what effective leaders do in different circumstances. The prominent areas of leadership research examined were traits of leaders, leader and follower roles, the situational approach, contingency models, transactional and transformational leadership, and charismatic leadership. Visionary leadership was closely examined. The positions of high school principal and superintendent were described. Data were collected by sending the Leadership Behavior Questionnaire (Sashkin, 1996) to a stratified random sample of all superintendents and high school principals in public schools in the United States. The self questionnaire was completed by each participant and a similar other questionnaire was completed by three others selected by the participant. Items were identified as to the degree they were true about the participant as a leader. Analysis of the data showed no statistically significant difference between self and other scores for superintendents. High school principals rated themselves significantly lower than others rated them, with male high school principals having the lowest of all the eight visionary leadership total self scores reported. Female self scores were significantly higher than male self scores. No significance was indicated in the comparison of others\u27 scores for males and females. Both male and female high school principals and superintendents rated themselves significantly lower than others rated them. Female principals and superintendents rated themselves significantly lower than others rated them. Six of the ten highest scored and six of the ten lowest scored behaviors for male and female superintendents and high school principals matched, indicating more similarities than differences