Theoretically, schools led by principals providing structure, resources, consideration, useful influence, and professional support in an even-handed, noncontrolling manner should be work places that elicit teacher commitment. This hypothesis was tested using a sample of 72 New Jersey secondary schools. Close control blunts teacher commitment.…

Administrator succession can have varied effects on organizational performance. Although most studies have focused on performance outcomes, this paper reports the personal sense making of a successor to the principalship. The successor found that leadership validation and attribution influenced her transformation from an interloper to an effective…

Principals are confronted daily with opportunities to choose either bureaucratic or nonbureaucratic leadership behaviors. Effective principals make a conscious leadership choice, recognizing that the options have paradoxical implications and produce different school cultures. In the process, new administrator role definitions are emerging.…

Pulling up stakes is seldom the best way to handle difficult people at work, because they exist everywhere as bullies, "yes" people, whiners, nonentities, know-it-alls, or "no" people. This article examines these six personality types and tells how administrators can avoid being victimized. (MLH)

Conceptualizes and develops the OCDQ-RM, a measure of middle schools' organizational climate. Generates a typology of school climates based on openness and tests the relationship between openness and authenticity in teacher and principal behavior. Finds that openness in the school climate is related to authenticity in both teacher and principal…

Although listening is the most widely used communication skill, it is rarely taught. This study of California and Arkansas principals explored how principals and their staffs perceived the principals' listening behaviors. Results suggest that principals and their staffs perceived the principals to be moderately good listeners. Includes 11…

Summarizes a study exploring how teachers characterize their administrators' supervisory behaviors and administrator-teacher relationships, including how administrators show respect for teachers. Four distinct supervisor patterns (backstage, collaborative, surly, and imperial) emerged. Data indicate a correlation between principals' respect for…

In November 1996, the National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP) approved the revision of the Administrative Diagnostic Inventory (ADI), the diagnostic procedure conducted in their assessment center. To assist the NAESP in the use of the ADI for the assessment of current and prospective school principals, the construct validity…

K.E. Ferguson's analysis of women's place in capitalist society and the concurrent elevation of bureaucratic structures seriously challenges administration analysts. According to Ferguson, modern bureaucracy requires constant maintenance in reifying its dominance structure and locating and suppressing opposition. This analysis can be applied to…

Summarizes a study that tested a theoretical model concerning elementary and secondary school principals' influence on student achievement. Results showed that 3 latent instructional leadership variables (school governance, instructional organization, and school climate) affected student achievement. Includes 54 references. (MLH)

Principals help teachers become more reflective practitioners by providing a supportive environment, using specific facilitative behaviors (asking questions, informally critiquing, and questioning program irregularities), and enabling program implementation. Principals create a supportive environment by encouraging justification of practice,…

The principal's role must change to meet the challenges of the 21st century. Administrative thinking must shift from efficiency to effectiveness. This article presents an Iceberg Model to enable the administrator to become an instructional leader by building a knowledge base, developing a philosophy and vision, and modifying observable behavior.…

For a beginning administrator, understanding school culture, maintaining a school's cultural elements, and gaining acceptance for building or changing a school's culture are major challenges. Preparation programs blending understanding about school culture with acknowledgment of four developmental stages in an administrator's professional…

Identifies important aspects of faculty trust and school climate. Trust in the principal and trust in colleagues were aspects of faculty trust that were affected in this study of middle schools. The organizational climate factors of supportive, directive, and restrictive principal behavior and collegial, committed, and disengaged teacher behavior…

To discover whether peer coaching is altering the teacher-supervisor relationship, teachers, supervisors, and staff developers in several states were surveyed concerning principals' attitudes and motivations concerning this innovative approach. For some teachers, peer coaching seems to stimulate transformations in self-perception and relations…