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PUBLIC SCHOOL PRINCIPAL.
Term Paper ID:21336
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Essay Subject:
Role as human relations agent & its effect on leadership effectiveness.... More...
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8 Pages / 1800 Words
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Paper Abstract:
Role as human relations agent & its effect on leadership effectiveness.
Paper Introduction:
ROLE OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOL PRINCIPAL AS HUMAN RELATIONS AGENT:
CONTRIBUTION OF THE ROLE TO PRINCIPAL LEADERSHIP EFFECTIVENESS
Introduction
Greenfield (1991) has noted that the public school principal must play many roles: (1) managerial; (2) instructional;
(3) political; (4) social; and (5) moral. Several authors (e.g. Amey, 1991; Hutchinson, 1988) have characterized the principal's social role as that of being a human relation's agent.
However, the question can be asked: Can the public school principal effectively fulfill any of the just cited administrative roles without good human relations skills? This paper examines the principal's social or human relations role toward the objective of determining the extent to which the role of human relations agent is a defining characteristic of
Text of the Paper:
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Cunard's findings indicated that principals were more effectiveinstructional leaders when they exercised a democratic approach by sharingdecisions about instruction with teachers. The effective principal and curriculum--A focus on leadership. Sergiovanni (199 ) makes an interesting distinction between "valuedimensions" and "value-added dimensions" of the school principal'sleadership role. Further, Olivia (1993) states that the approach calls for principalsand other administrators (e.g. Toward a theory of school leadership. (1989). In other words, they are administrators with stronghuman relations skills who apply these skills to all administrative tasksand functions which they are required to perform. Research Hypothesis 2: If the public school principal is not a goodhuman relations agent he or she will not be an effective public schooladministrator. Rather, theapproach that works best is dependent upon the nature of the worksituation. (199 ). Value-added leadership: How to get extraordinaryperformance in schools. Managing individual and groupbehavior in organizations. It is interesting to note that an implication of the reviewedtheories is that principals need to recognize that the effects ofleadership are limited. (4th ed.) NY: Longman.Sergiovanni, T.J. Olivia states thatadministrators who understand their role as human relations agents do notview administrative tasks as merely the handing down of methods andinstructions to teachers followed by the subsequent monitoring of theirperformance. Hypothesis The central assumption of this study is that review of the existingliterature on the role of the public school principal as a human relationsagent will provide documentation justifying the assertion that this role isa pivotal characteristic of school leadership, and that without effectivehuman relation skills, the public school principal will not be effective inany of the various administrative tasks to which he or she is assigned.This assumption can be translated to the following general hypotheses: Research Hypothesis 1: The social role of the public school principle(defined as a role requiring the school principal to be a human relationsagent) is a role which has a component in all other roles the principal isrequired to fulfill, and which may therefore be characterized as a pivotaldefinitional administrative role. (1985). ERIC Document Reproduction Service NO. (1993). (199 ). Orlando, FLA: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.Vecchio (1991). As such, the principal pays closeattention to teachers' degree of satisfaction with their jobs, theircommitment and loyalty to the organization, the presence of mutual trustamong all groups at the school, the mechanisms for teachers' input into thesystem, and to the frequency and quality of communication among members ofthe organization. & Weisz, E. Principals,therefore must attend, as carefully and systematically as possible, to thenature of the situational demands. The study's second hypothesis stated that if the public schoolprincipal is not a good human relations agent he or she will not be aneffective public school administrator. human relationsorientation) for managers, administrators and others in authority toinfluence people and successfully manage an organization. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association (Chicago, IL, April 3-7). ROLE OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOL PRINCIPAL AS HUMAN RELATIONS AGENT: CONTRIBUTION OF THE ROLE TO PRINCIPAL LEADERSHIP EFFECTIVENESS Introduction Greenfield (1991) has noted that the public school principal mustplay many roles: (1) managerial; (2) instructional;(3) political; (4) social; and (5) moral. According to Vecchio, the existing literature on leadershipeffectiveness indicates that human relations-oriented leaders are moreeffective than authoritative leaders in situations where the work settingis only moderately facilitative of task accomplishment. NASSP Bulletin, 74(525), 3 - 34.Feldman, D.C. NASSP Bulletin, 74(525), 15-18.Olivia, P.F. 315). He view the more traditional aspects of public schoolleadership as value dimensions designed to ensure the function of schools(e.g. Leadership skills. Rather, the literature demonstrated that thefavorableness of the work situation in terms of facilitating taskaccomplishment was a determinate of effectiveness that mediated whether ornot principal human relations skills and orientation would be effective inschool management. This prediction was translated to a research hypothesis which statedthat the social role of the public school principle in terms of theprincipal being a human relations agent is a pivotal definitional role ofthe job. These principals were described as having strong human relationshipskills in the areas of collaboration and tolerance of other points of view. The democratic approach and the use of collaboration betweenadministrative and subordinate groups is a central characteristic of thehuman relations approach. (1991). Paperpresented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational ResearchAssociation (Chicago, IL, April 3-7). Cunard's (199 ) findings of more effectiveinstructional leadership for high school principals using democratic andcollaborative strategies to fulfill their instructional role is supportiveof this paper's hypothesis that human relation skills may be more importantto successful supervision than technical skills or knowledge. Performance and Instruction, 27(8), 2-5.Kanpol, B. The next section of this reportexamines this literature.Empirical Studies Testing Central Assumption of Human Relations Approach To what extent does the existing research on leadership effectivenesssupport the notion that human relation skills are more important tosuccessful supervision than technical skills or knowledge? Rather than showing the superiority of the human relations approachto organizational leadership, these critics state that the empiricalevidence supports a situational approach. ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. Characteristics of leaders serving value-added dimensions includepassion, personal involvement, deep commitment and risk-taking; theseleaders are said to be most comfortable using a human relations approach toadministrative tasks. Organizational behavior (2nd ed.) Chicago, IL: The DrydenPress.----------------------- 1 (2nd ed.) NY: McGraw-Hill.Fiedler, F.E. (p. supervisors) to be sensitive to the behaviorof groups and individuals within groups. However, the question can be asked: Can the public school principaleffectively fulfill any of the just cited administrative roles without goodhuman relations skills? On the other hand,the authoritative leader is more effective than the human relationsoriented leader in work situations that are either extremely facilitativeof task accomplishment or extremely unfacilitative of task accomplishment. However, there are critics of thisview who state that the trumpet-blowing for the superiority of the humanrelations approach may be premature. Constructive/development theory and leadership: A question of perceived leadership. Taylor, Graicunas, Worthy, Likert and Thayer: Span of control and organizational structure: Where they fit on the leadership continuum. Effective leadership requires a match or fit between thedemands of the situation and the capabilities of the leader. In addition, they were said to establish open and honest dialogue betweenthemselves and teachers, thereby creating an atmosphere of trust. In other words, the paper attemptsto determine the relationship between human relation skills and effectivepublic school leadership. However, the literaturealso shows that the effectiveness of a leader is not merely a function of aprincipal's human relation skills. Indeed, the most effectiveprincipals were those who utilized such strategies as assigning teachersstaff development responsibilities, creating an instructional council andan instructional dean position, and implementing techniques of peercoaching. Corderapplauds this shift and sees is as, "an end to hierarchy" in both theorganizational and educational setting. While findings were not clear-cut, the authors didnote that the most effective principals were those that worked withteachers to negotiate curriculum meaning. New approaches to effective leadership. These styles are:(1) the human relations oriented leader style (leaders who arecommunicative, supportive, open, democratic, collaborative) and (2) theauthoritative leader style (leaders who are task oriented, set goals forothers, are commanding, and do not often delegate responsibilities). Indeed, in some situations, a principalusing the human relations approach will be less effective than theauthoritative leader. Vecchio (1991) provides a comprehensive review of the generalliterature on leadership effectiveness and the situational theory ofleadership--this in a wide variety of organizations including theeducational setting. Conclusions The review of literature presented here indicated that human relationskills are a strong component of effective public school principals andthat they can be brought to bear upon the effectiveness with which thepublic school principal fulfills other administrative roles such asinstructional and curriculum development roles. ReferencesAmey, J. Several authors (e.g. In other words, the existing research indicatesthat leader behavior is only one of many factors influencing schooleffectiveness. For example, Cunard (199 ) studied the instructional roleof high school principals for leadership effectiveness. In this regard, it will be remembered that this paperpredicted that the existing literature would indicate that the humanrelations role was a pivotal characteristic of school leadership, and thatwithout effective human relation skills, the public school principal willnot be effective in any of the various administrative tasks to which he orshe is assigned. Specifically, what the literature indicated was that administratorsmust carefully attend to a variety of situational factors in eitherselecting a person for a particular position or in personally choosing aleadership style. NY: Wiley.Greenfield, W.D. Kanpol and Weisz (199 ) examined a comprehensive sampling of theliterature on effective principal leadership and its relationship tocurriculum development. ED 315 8 .Cunard, R.F. ERIC Document Reproduction ServiceNo. There is a need for awareness ofand sensitivity to the needs of teachers/staff as they themselves perceivethese needs instead of attention to the satisfaction of the principal's ownneeds and his or her "superior judgement." The importance of the human relations role for public schoolprincipals has been addressed by Sergiovanni (199 ) who states that therole calls for making teacher satisfaction a top priority with increasedeffectiveness as the means to that goal. (1987). Rather, the human relations approach emphasizes collaboration andpartnership between administrators, teachers, and staff. Similarly, Vecchio (1991) notes that: ...in extremely difficult situations...what is needed is firm, task-oriented leadership...Interpersonally oriented leaders, however, may have an advantage in settings that emit "mixed" signals...Such leaders can apply their social skills to overcoming the more manageable obstacles to perform. Amey,1991; Hutchinson, 1988) have characterized the principal's social role asthat of being a human relation's agent. ED 332 378.Hutchinson, C. Based on these findings, conclusions can be formulated regarding thestudy's hypothesis. This approach has beendelineated by Fiedler and Garcia (1987) who state that the situational viewof leadership holds that there is no one best way (e.g. This paper examines the principal's social orhuman relations role toward the objective of determining the extent towhich the role of human relations agent is a defining characteristic ofeffective public school administration. Supervision for today's schools. The approach,according to Olivia (1993), recognizes that success as a an administratoris dependent more upon interpersonal and relational skills than upontechnical skills and knowledge. (199 ). According to Corder (1985), the weight of evidence for effectiveleadership through the human relations approach cannot be denied and, as aresult, has been responsible for a shift in administerial philosophy froman authoritative perspective to a more subordinate-centered view. In otherwords, this study also shows that human relationship skills are animportant determinant of principal effectiveness in roles other than thesocial role, namely in the role of curriculum development. & Garcia, J.E. The literature did not support thissecond hypothesis. He states that the existing literature shows twoleadership styles in particular as contributive to leadershipeffectiveness. (1991). & Arnold, H.J. Other contributors include the characteristics of theindividual workers, the nature of their jobs, the nature of their coworkersand organizational policies and rules (Feldman & Arnold, 1989). (1988). It can be concluded that this prediction was supported by theliterature; that is, the existing literature indicated that the role of theprincipal as a human relations agent was a pivotal characteristic ofeffective school leadership. directive managerial behavior and the use of extrinsic motivators).Value-added dimensions include such role components as collegiality and theuse of intrinsic motivators. Review of the LiteratureDefinition of the Human Relations Approach to Administration Olivia (1993) defines the notion of educational administrators ashuman relation agents as a leadership approach that emphasizes groupdynamics, the democratic process, and the application of the principles ofthe behavioral sciences to the educational setting. Several studiesin the educational and organizational literature have attempted to answerthis question. Vecchio (1991) explains the foregoing findings by noting that leaderswho are authoritative are more successful in favorable work situationsbecause all that these situations require is persistence in taskaccomplishment. Sharing instructional leadership--A view to strengthening the principal's position. ED 333 539.Corder, L.E. In order to test the research hypothesis formulated in this report,there is a need to determine whether the key assumption of the humanrelations approach--the assumption that interpersonal skills are moreeffective to strong leadership than technical skills and knowledge---hasbeen supported in the existing research.
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