Teachers' satisfaction related to teachers' perception of principal's consideration and initiating of structure levels
Date
1973
Authors
Rothnie, Ronald Coutts
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Abstract
This study was directed toward gaining knowledge of factors which could promote greater teacher satisfaction within the elementary school situation. The factors of satisfaction which were considered are: Teacher Rapport with Principal, Personal Satisfaction with Teaching, Teacher Rapport with Other Teachers, Teacher Load, Teacher Relationships with the Community, School Facilities, and Status. These seven factors were correlated with the teacher's perception of the principal's level of consideration and the teacher's perception of the principal's level of ability to initiate structure. The term, "initiating structure," refers to the principal's behavior in delineating the relationship between himself and the members of his group, and in endeavoring to establish well-defined patterns of organization, channels of communication, and ways of getting the job done. The study attempted to determine if teacher satisfaction was positively correlated with teacher perception of principal's consideration and initiating of structure levels. The study further attempted to determine whether or not the variable of school size was an important factor in the perceived satisfaction of teachers. A small school was regarded as having less than fifteen full-time teachers, and a large school was regarded as having more than fifteen full-time teachers.
An analysis of the questionnaire subscores indicated that, for the majority of satisfaction variables, teacher satisfaction was significantly correlated with teacher perception of principal's consideration and initiating of structure levels. The only negative correlations involved these variables: Teacher Load, and Teacher Relationships with the Community. The correlation coefficients between consideration and initiating structure were significant beyond the .01 level.
The analyses of the t tests indicated that small and large groups of teachers had significant mean differences (p < .01) on the following variables:
1. Teachers of large schools perceived themselves as having a greater teaching load than did teachers of small schools.
2. Teachers of large schools rated their principals higher on the dimension of initiating structure than did teachers of small schools.
3. Teachers of small schools rated themselves higher on the dimension of status than did teachers of large schools.