Relationships between interpersonal behavior or group roles of elementary school principals and their management systems

Purpose. This investigation was concerned with studying group role behaviors of elementary school principals as superordinates or group leaders within their schools and as coordinates or subordinates within a school district's Administrative Council. The purpose of the study was twofold: first, to determine if a relationship existed between the perceived group role behaviors of elementary principals as subordinates or coordinates and the perceived group role behaviors of the principals as superordinates; second, to determine if a relationship existed between the principals' perceived group role behaviors and perceptions of the management systems which they employ in their schools. Procedures. The subjects for this study were the nine elementary principals in one school district. Assessment instruments were administered to the subjects in the school district in which the principals functioned as subordinates or coordinates in the Administrative Council and as superordinates in their schools. Complete data for analysis were obtained from three hundred eighteen faculty members, the nine elementary principals and the Assistant Superintendent for Elementary Education. The Interpersonal Rating Form A (Bales, 1970) was administered to assess perceptions of interpersonal or group role behavior. Summary assessments provided categorization as follows: 'Upward or Downward' (dominance), 'Positive or Negative' (affective domain), and 'Forward or Backward' (task orientation). The management system of each elementary principal was assessed by administering the Profile of Organizational Characteristics (Likert, 1967) to his faculty. Principals were seen employing management systems as: 'System One - exploitive authoritative,' 'System Two - benevolent authoritative,' 'System Three - consultative,' 'System Four - participative group.' Analysis of the Data. Analysis of the Interpersonal Rating Form data revealed extensive agreement in identifying group role behaviors of all principals. At least two of three referent sets in the school and Administrative Council were in agreement in their perceptions of each principal's group role behavior. Three principals were perceived the same by all referent sets in the two situations. The Interpersonal Rating Form data revealed that the referent sets' perceptions of principals' group role behavior tended to concentrate in the 'Upward Positive Forward' directions. Analysis of the Profile of Organizational Characteristics revealed that in five of the nine schools, the principals and their faculties agreed on their perceptions of the principal's management system. Where principals and faculties did not agree, the principals tended to perceive their own management systems to be more open and supportive than did their faculties. Testing of the Hypotheses. Three null hypotheses were tested using Spearman's rho, for rank order correlation and Kendall's associated t-test of significance. H01 -- There will be no significant relationship between principals' group role in the school and Administrative Council. The null hypothesis was rejected. The rho correlation was significant at the p>.05 level. There were significant relationships between principals' group role behaviors in their schools and their group role behaviors in the Administrative Council. H02 -- There will be no significant relationship between principals' group role and management system in the school. The null hypothesis was rejected. The rho correlation was significant at the p>.05 level. There were significant relationships between principals' group role behavior in their schools and the management system they employ in their schools. H03 -- There will be no relationship between the principals' group role in the Administrative Council and his management system in the school. The null hypothesis was not rejected, it could not be substantiated that a relationship existed between elementary principals' group role behaviors in the Administrative Council and their management systems within their schools. H04 -- There will be no relationship between the Assistant Superintendent's perceptions of the principals' group role behavior as a superordinate or subordinate. No test of statistical significance was possible, but data indicated that this null hypothesis could not be substantiated. Examination of the data indicated a high relationship probably existed between the superordinate's (Assistant Superintendent) perceptions of principals' group role behaviors in their schools and the Administrative Council. Conclusions. In general the data collected tend to confirm the assumption of the study that there are significant relationships between (1) the group role behaviors of the principals in the two different groups in which they function and (2) faculties' perceptions of their principals' group roles and their perceptions of the management systems they employ in their schools. As the principal is perceived as employing the interpersonal directional indicators of 'Upward Positive Forward,' he will also be perceived by his teachers as employing a more open and supportive management system. The findings of this study do not allow conclusions of causation in the established relationships between group role behaviors and a leader's management system. The findings would indicate that the greater skill and ability an administrator demonstrates in interpersonal behaviors, within groups, the more likely it is that he would be perceived as supportive. Further research was recommended to determine whether purposeful change in group role behavior can result in perceived change in the management system of the leader.Education, College o