meljun cortes study examining the effects transformational leadership

8/13/2019 MELJUN CORTES Study Examining the Effects Transformational Leadership

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A Study Examining the Effects of TransformationalLeadership Behavior on the Factors of Teaching

Efficacy, Job Satisfaction and Organizational

Commitment as Perceived by Special Education

Teachers

MELJUN CORTES

esearchstudy


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MELJUN CORTES

INTRODUCTION

There are Special education teacher

shortages that have struggling in the

field of special education since theestablishment of the Education for All

Handicapped Children’s Act in 1975

(Brownell, Sindelar, Bishop, Langley,& Seo, 2002).


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(McLeskey, Tyler, & Flippin, 2004)

Characterized these shortages as

severe and chronic because specialeducation teachers creates vacancies

that are often left unfilled or filled by

uncertified personnel, negativelyaffecting the delivery of special

education programming to students

with.

INTRODUCTION


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Lashley and Boscardin (2003) extensively

reviewed literature regarding administrators’

roles in supporting and developing a special

education work force. They concluded that

“administrative support is critical to retaining

special educators and improving their

abilities to have a positive effect onoutcomes for students with disabilities”

INTRODUCTION


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Boe, Barkanic and Leow (1999) found

that teachers who stay in their current

teaching positions are almost fourtimes more likely to strongly perceive

administrators’ behavior as supportive

and encouraging than those wholeave.

INTRODUCTION


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Miller, Brownwell and Smith (1999)

concluded that teachers’ perceived

administrative support was significantly

related to attrition. Billingsley and Cross(1992) found that teachers who report

higher levels of administrative or principal

support are more likely to be less stressed,more satisfied and committed to their jobs.

INTRODUCTION


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Gersten, Keating, Yovanoff and

Harniss (2001), completed a study that

provided a better understanding of howadministrative support influenced

teachers’ intent to leave through other

variables, such as job satisfaction,stress, and commitment.

INTRODUCTION


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(1) Emotional Support

Emotionally supportive show theirteachers they are esteemed and

trusted professionals, show

appreciation, take an interest inteachers’ work, maintain open

communication, and consider their

teachers’ ideas.

Four dimensions of principal

support:


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(2) Instrumental Support

Shown when principals ensureteachers are provided necessary

materials, space, and resources, help

teachers with work-related tasks, andensure adequate time to teaching and

nonteaching duties.


support:


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(3) Informational Support

Provide teachers with usefulinformation they can use to improve

classroom practices, such as

allowing them to teaching andnonteaching duties.


support:


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(4) Appraisal Support

Provide teachers with frequent and

constructive feedback about their

work, information about clear

effective teaching and guidanceregarding job responsibilities.


support:


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Significance and Purpose of the

Study

This study sought to investigate

whether special education teachers’

perceptions of transformationalleadership behaviors significantly

influence the factors of teaching

efficacy, job satisfaction, andorganizational commitment.


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Conceptual representation of

Theoretical Framework(Horn-Turpin, 2008).


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The following questions guide and define

the research for this study:

1) Is there a significant relationship between transformational

leadership behaviors and teaching efficacy?


leadership behaviors and job satisfaction?


leadership behaviors and organizational commitment?

4) Does teaching efficacy significantly influence

organizational commitment?

5) Does job satisfaction significantly influence organizational

commitment?

6) Is job satisfaction significantly influenced by teacher

efficacy?


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REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE


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Leadership is an aspect of power, but unlikepower, leadership is inseparable from followers’needs and goals (Burns, 1978). In his discussionof power, Burns states the following:

Power is exercised when potential powerwielders, motivated to achieve certain goals oftheir own, marshal in their power base resources

(economic, military, institutional, or skill) thatenable them to influence the behavior ofrespondents by activating motives orrespondents relevant to those resources and to

those goals. (p.18)

Leadership as a Concept


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Historical Evolvement ofLeadership

During the early 1800s, century the concept of

leadership was studied in terms of leadership

characteristics or traits (Creighton, 2005).


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In the mid 1970s, James MacGregor

Burns (1978), who is generally

considered to be the founder of modernleadership theory (Marzano, Waters, &

McNulty, 2005), first conceptualized

leadership in his seminal bookLeadership as either transactional or

transformational.



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In transactional leadership, leaders

lead through social exchange (Bass

& Riggo, 2006).In transformational leadership, the

leader strives to understand

followers’ motives and needs. (Bass& Riggo, 2006).


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The mid 1900s were dominated with

behavioral leadership theories.

- Leaders who demonstrated the

employee orientation behavior alsoexhibited human - relation oriented skills

and relationships with their employees. It

supported the notion that effective leadershad to be cognizant of both task and

relationship orientation. (Creighton, 2005).



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Transformational Leadership

Transformational leadership focuses

more on change, and inspires followers to

“commit to a shared vision and goals for

an organization or unit, challenging them

to be innovative problem solvers, and

developing followers’ leadership capacity

via coaching, mentoring, and provision ofboth challenge and support” (Bass &

Riggo, 2006, p. 4).


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4 behavioral components :(4I’s by Leithwood,1994)

Indiv idual con siderat ion

the transformational leader is an effective listener,

and recognizes and is accepting of employee’s

individual differences.

Intel lectual st im ulat ion

Transformational leaders encourage innovation

and creativity by questioning assumptions,

reframing problems, and approaching old

situations in new ways. In


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Insp irat ional mot ivat ion

Transformational leaders demonstrate behaviors

that inspire those around them by providing meaningand challenge to their followers’ work.

Ideal ized inf luence

Transformational leaders demonstrate behaviors

that allow them to serve as role models for their

followers.

4 behavioral components :(4I’s by Leithwood,1994)


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Confirmatory Factor Analysis

Confirmatory factor analysis was used to

summarize the factors among the existing

relationships of individual variables in this

study. This analytical procedure serves asa data reduction method that condenses

large sets of data into smaller, more

manageable amounts of data (Bordens & Abbot, 1991).


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Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that

administrative support was the transformational

leadership behavior most frequently recognized

by participants of this study.

Pearson correlation analysis indicated that

administrative support was significantly related to

the factors of job satisfaction and organizational

commitment.

Confirmatory Factor Analysis


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Findings:

The extraction of the factors of Teaching

Efficacy, Organizational Commitment, and

Job Satisfaction from the survey were

expected because the survey instrumentsselected to develop these sections of the

Special Education Teacher Survey were

specifically designed by the developingresearchers to measure these constructs.


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However, an unexpected finding was

that Administrative Support was the only

discrete factor identified from the survey.

Findings:


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Recommendations for Future

Research

To investigate special education teachers’

perceptions of transformational leadership

behaviors that significantly influenced or were

significantly related to the variables of teachingefficacy, job satisfaction, and organizational

commitment.

Teaching efficacy was subjectively measured as a

product of teachers’ perceptions of their own skills,capabilities, and their abilities to successfully

accomplish specific teaching tasks.

R d i f F


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To exclusively measure special educationteachers’ perceptions of their primary influencingadministrator’s leadership behaviors.

To identify gaps and discrepancies that often existbetween teachers’ and principals’ perceptions ofleadership, but would be beneficial in thedevelopment of collaborative training opportunities.

To explore the collaboration efforts used betweenuniversity administrator training programs andpublic school districts that will increase theawareness of the critical importance ofadministrative support among newly trained schooladministrators

Recommendations for Future

Research

meljun cortes study examining the effects transformational leadership

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