THE SYSTEM OF RULES THAT GUIDES THE BEHAVIOR OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PRINCIPALS WAS INVESTIGATED. THIS BODY OF RULES, TERMED "THE NORMATIVE STRUCTURE OF THE COMMUNITY AS IT PERTAINS TO SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS," WAS STUDIED BY MEANS OF AN INSTRUMENT CALLED THE "ROLE NORM INVENTORY." SEPARATE INVENTORIES WERE DEVELOPED FOR ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHERS AND FOR ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PRINCIPALS. THE RESPONSE PATTERNS TO THE PRINCIPAL ROLE NORM INVENTORY WERE DISCUSSED IN THE FOLLOWING ORDER--(1) THE EXTENT OF AGREEMENT AMONG PRINCIPALS AND AMONG OTHER POPULATIONS REGARDING THE ROLE OF THE PRINCIPAL, (2) THE EXTENT OF PERMISSIVENESS AMONG PRINCIPALS AND AMONG OTHER POPULATIONS, (3) DIFFERENCES IN VIEWS OF THE ROLE OF THE PRINCIPAL, (4) THE PRINCIPAL'S PERCEPTION OF THE VIEWS OF OTHERS, AND (5) RANK ORDER AGREEMENT OF ITEMS BASED ON MEAN SCORES OBTAINED FROM THE VARIOUS POPULATIONS. RESPONSES WERE SCORED ON A SCALE OF PLUS 100 PERCENT FOR COMPLETE AGREEMENT TO MINUS 100 PERCENT FOR COMPLETE DISAGREEMENT. A SUMMARY OF THE SCORES REVEALED THAT THE LEVEL OF AGREEMENT FOR EACH SEGMENT OF THE COMMUNITY INVENTORIED RANGED FROM NEAR ZERO PERCENT TO APPROXIMATELY 80 PERCENT, THE AVERAGE FOR EACH GROUP BEING CLOSE TO 40 PERCENT. THE AUTHOR REPORTED (1) THE SCHOOL SYSTEM THAT WAS STUDIED APPEARED TO BE A STABLE, SMOOTH RUNNING ORGANIZATION OPERATING WITH A MINIMUM OF STRESS AND (2) THE SCHOOL SYSTEM APPEARED ABLE TO TOLERATE A WIDE RANGE OF VIEWS. (AL)