Leadership was likened to a series of layers that are comprised of all members and all parts of the organization, and appear to be virtual and changing in nature. The layers appeared when they were required, changed when it was necessary, and vanished when they had accomplished their purposes. Contains 22 references. ED430297 EA029820 The Relationship of Organizational Health, Leadership, and Teacher Empowerment. It reports on a study in which survey responses were collected from 10,170 teachers in 331 Chicago schools.
Results reaffirm the commonly held belief that teachers are the primary force in a school's output.
However, findings indicate that the teachers' influence on a school's organizational health is statistically less significant than that of the principal. The teachers saw themselves as the main characters within the school and the determinant of the productive output, yet it was the students themselves, the organizational health of the school, and the external community that determined the educational output. The findings suggest that whereas teachers may view the principal as a deliverer of goods and services, they believe his or her task as the leader is to maintain the teachers' commitment to productivity, while drawing the parents and community into the school in a manner that the teachers find significant. Teachers also reported that the relationship between principals and teachers improves with empowerment, such as the empowerment derived from site-based management. It is recommended that when examining the educational environment, the principal's view be explored in conjunction with the teachers' outlook.