ADMINISTRATIVE AUTHORITY, LEADERSHIP STYLE AND THE MASTER CONTRACT
| Pages | 5-13 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb009864 |
| Published date | 01 January 1983 |
| Date | 01 January 1983 |
| Author | DONALD L. ROBSON,MARLENE E. DAVIS |
| Subject Matter | Education |
THE JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION
VOLUME
XXI,
NUMBER 1 WINTER 1983
ADMINISTRATIVE AUTHORITY, LEADERSHIP STYLE AND
THE MASTER CONTRACT
DONALD L. ROBSON AND MARLENE E. DAVIS
With the proliferation of collective bargaining in public schools, administrative
prerogatives have been assumed to be curtailed. The influence of the school
administrator on teacher behavior has been viewed as beng diminished with the
constraints and the formal relationship of the master agreement. This study, based
on the notion that administrative influence is not diminished by the negotiation
process, measured the teacher's professional zone of acceptance as the dependent
variable and compared this measure among those teachers in schools with teacher
oriented contracts and those with management oriented contracts. Further, the
relationship of leadership style was examined both within and between those groups.
It was found that personnel in districts with teacher-oriented contracts reported a
wider professional zone of acceptance than those in management-oriented districts.
In addition, teachers operating under task-oriented leaders reported greater
administrator influence than those whose administrators were high in consideration.
It is concluded that task-oriented leaders in districts with teacher-oriented contracts
have greater influence among their teachers than do people-oriented leaders,and
that leaders high in both task and people orientation have greater influence among
teachers in systems with management-oriented contracts.
In the decade between 1963 and 1973, most of the approximately two
million active teachers in the United States gained some legal right to
bargain collectively with their employer, the board of education. School
principals, not typically included at the table, have voiced their concerns
about the erosion of their authority due to the ascendency of teachers'
unions and the existence of the negotiated contract. Where once they
operated at the head of a paternalistic oligarchy, their prerogatives in
dealing with subordinates are now often circumscribed in the legalize of the
master agreement.
With the approach of human rights and individual rights for both
students and employees, more and more administrators are seeking
"reassignment" back to the classroom and out of the courtroom. Some
would contend that the principal is losing authority, that the principal's
influence over subordinates has been eroded, and that administrators are
not as able to influence subordinates as once they were.
The essence of the administrator's "art" is the ability to get things done
DONALD L. ROBSON is Assistant Professor of Educational Administration at Purdue
University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907 and MARLENE E. DAVIS is Principal of Oroville
High School, Oroville, California.
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