The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of principal transformational leadership and school organizational culture on school evaluation in a bid to lay the groundwork for improving school performance and the quality and accountability o...
The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of principal transformational leadership and school organizational culture on school evaluation in a bid to lay the groundwork for improving school performance and the quality and accountability of school education.
The research questions were posed as follows:
1. What differences does the level of principal transformational leadership make to the results of school evaluation conducted by local educational authorities?
2. What differences does the type of school organizational culture make to the results of school evaluation conducted by local educational authorities?
3. What is the correlational relationship of principal transformational leadership and school organizational culture to school evaluation?
4. What firsthand and secondhand impact do principal transformational leadership and school organizational culture have on school evaluation?
5. What sorts of causality models are there between school evaluation and principal transformational leadership and between school evaluation and school organizational culture?
To address the research questions, relevant literature and earlier studies were analyzed, and a conceptual model for the study was selected.
The subjects in this study were teachers in elementary schools evaluated by local educational authorities in the region of Gyeongin in 2005. After 1,200 questionnaires were sent out to 100 elementary schools according to the results of school evaluation by local educational authorities, school location and size, 822 answer sheets were gathered from 84 schools, and 770 answer sheets were analyzed except 52 incomplete ones.
The instruments used in this study were three different questionnaires that respectively covered the outcome of school evaluation, principal transformational leadership and school organizational culture. The questionnaire about the output of school evaluation was designed to consist of two segments that respectively dealt with the quality of school education and school curriculum, after common items used by all the local educational authorities were selected.
The questionnaire for principal transformational leadership behavior was prepared by modifying Nho Jong-hui(1996)'s Principal Transformational Leadership Questionnaire(PTLQ) and Kim Chang-geol (2003)'s Transformational Leadership Questionnaire. There were two categories in principal transformational leadership, including educational leadership and administrative leadership, and four subvariables were selected, which contained vision presenting, initiative drive, personal consideration and achievement expectation.
As for the questionnaire for school organizational culture, Kim Chang- geol(2003)'s School Organizational Culture Questionnaire and Lee Seok- ryeol(1997)'s one were modified to serve the purpose of the study. There were two dimensions in it as well, including external environments and internal problem solving process, and four subvariables were selected, involving group culture, innovative culture, hierarchical culture and rational culture.
The collected data were analyzed with SPSS(Statistical Package for the Social Science) WIN 12.01 program and AMOS 4.01 program, and x2(Chi-square) test, correlational analysis, multiple regression analysis, covariance structure analysis and Scheffe test were employed. The level of significance was respectively set at p<.05, p<.01 and p<.001.
The findings of the study were as follows:
First, the transformational leadership of the principals made a difference to the output of their school evaluation. It seemed to indicate that principals who are responsible for school management should exert a transformational leadership, as local educational authorities evaluate overall school performance.
Second, the outcome of school evaluation varied with school organizational culture including innovative, rational, group and hierarchical culture. It showed the importance of a teacher group that assumes the responsibility of school education. There were satisfactory school evaluation results when the teachers were community-minded and took an active participatory attitude toward school education and management.
Third, there was a significant correlation between the transformational leadership of the principals and school evaluation. That implied that the use of transformational leadership led to effective school education, and that transformational leadership affected school evaluation. Besides, school organizational culture was significantly interrelated to school evaluation, which signified that the teacher group that was in charge of school education was responsible for enhancing the quality and accountability of school education, and that the quality of school education hinged on the teachers, one of school members.
Fourth, the transformational leadership of the principals and school organizational culture exercised a great influence on school evaluation. It suggested that principal transformational leadership and school organizational culture were considered important in terms of school evaluation. It's urgently needed to take institutional measures to give a more free hand to each principal who leads a school, and to guarantee his or her managerial autonomy. Also, teachers who are members of school should be given a free hand in education and shoulder the responsibility for that.
Fifth, the transformational leadership of the principals affected school evaluation in a firsthand manner, and that had a greater secondhand impact on that through school organizational culture as well. It seemed that the transformational leadership of the principals served to raise the quality of school education by encouraging the teachers to try to bolster the quality of school education. It should be noted that the transformational leadership of the principals exerted a positive influence on school evaluation results, and that the schools whose principals deployed this type of leadership were selected as excellent schools according to the results of school evaluation by local educational authorities. Principals who take charge of schools should have a strong conviction of educational ideals, and present a future-oriented, innovative vision. They should motivate teachers to direct their energy into attaining educational objects, stir up their needs for self-realization, and expect them to give their utmost. That will contribute to enhancing the quality and efficiency of school education.