Dissertation
Coping with conflict: a study of superintendent leadership in the State of Washington
Washington State University
Doctor of Education (EdD), Washington State University
05/2007
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7273/000005709
Abstract
The purpose of the study was to determine whether or not there are noteworthy differences in role expectations and perceptions between superintendents and board chairs. The study used the previously-developed Situational Expectation Record (SER) which asks both superintendents and their board chairs 1) what should be done by the superintendent in a given scenario and 2) what they believe would actually be done in that given scenario. The SER consists of 25 scenarios, divided into five leadership strands: Finance, Personnel, Public Relations, School Programs and Superintendent/Board Relations. The scenarios consisted of situations that might occur in a school district and were followed by four possible responses. Respondents were also given the opportunity to provide free-form comments. Responses were classified in terms of who was taking action in the given scenario, i.e., as either "superintendent" or "board/other". Comparisons were then made in each leadership strand, using both district characteristics (district size and location) and individual characteristics (tenure, experience and gender) to assess whether or not there were differences in how respondents believed each scenario should be addressed. Analysis of this data revealed several interesting trends. Rarely did perceptions of what should be done differ appreciably from would be done in a given situation. It was also evident that the finance strand was most fraught with differences, and personnel the least. Additionally, it was found that while district size often had a major impact on responses, any difference in east-side/west-side responses was usually a function of district size, rather than an east/west divide. Both tenure and experience were useful in analyzing differing responses; men and women superintendents did not differ notably in their responses. Female superintendents and female board chairs showed some tendency to view the expected response in a given scenario differently
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Details
- Title
- Coping with conflict
- Creators
- Stephen A. Holland
- Contributors
- Paul Goldman (Chair)Gail C Furman (Committee Member) - Washington State University, College of EducationGay V. Selby (Committee Member)Dennis A Ray (Committee Member)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- College of Education
- Theses and Dissertations
- Doctor of Education (EdD), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 147
- Identifiers
- 99901054759601842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Dissertation