The Relationship Between Organizational Climate and Power and Influence as Perceived By Teachers and Department Chairpersons in Selected Schools in Texas.

Abstract

The purpose of this investigation was to find ways to assist administrators in reducing teacher stress by providing information about the manner in which power, as perceived by teachers and department chairpersons, related to the administrative use of various organizational climates. Two aspects of the relationship between administrative use of various work climates (System I through System IV) and power as perceived by teachers and department chairpersons were investigated. The first aspect involved the determination of whether or not the teachers' and department chairpersons' perceptions of power varied in accordance with their perceptions of organizational climate. The second aspect involved the determination of whether or not the teachers' and department chairpersons' perceptions of the degree of power and influence which they have in three different realms of their work life, varied in accordance with their perceptions of organizational climate. Nine secondary schools were r and omly selected from a pool of fifty-seven schools in North Central Texas. All professionally certified teachers and department chairpersons were automatically selected as subjects for this investigation as a result of their full-time employment in one of the nine selected schools. Teachers and department chairpersons were surveyed by means of two questionnaires: (1) The Profile of a School, Form 3, Teachers' Form, and (2) The Power and Influence Questionnaire developed by the researcher. Responses from the surveys were checked for error, then professionally keypunched for computer processing. Frequencies, percentages and other descriptive data were calculated. Hypotheses were statistically tested by the use of one-way analysis of variance, Fisher's Least Significant Difference Test, Multiple Regression analysis and Chi-square tests of independence. Results and conclusions were presented and implications were stated based on the statistical testing of the hypotheses. Recommendations for further research, which would exp and the knowledge related to the two variables investigated in this study, were also presented. Findings. In this investigation, six major hypotheses and three minor hypotheses were tested. On the basis of statistical analysis of the data, the following conclusions were reached: (1) there was a significant difference in the teachers' perceptions of organizational climate in the nine selected secondary schools; (2) there was a significant difference in power and influence among the nine schools as perceived by teachers; (3) there was a significant relationship between the teachers' perceptions of power and influence and their perceptions of organizational climate; (4) there was a significant relationship between the teachers' perceptions of power and influence in the area of classroom operations and their perceptions of organizational climate; (5) there was a significant relationship between the teachers' perceptions of power and influence in the school environment and their perceptions of organizational climate; (6) there was a significant relationship between the teachers' perceptions of power and influence in the area of school operations and their perceptions of organizational climate; (7) there was not a significant relationship between the department chairpersons' perceptions of power and influence and their perceptions of organizational climate; (8) teachers' responses to the three subscales of the Power and Influence Questionnaire were independent of the individual teacher's number of years teaching experience; and (9) teachers' responses to the three subscales of the Power and Influence Questionnaire were independent of the individual teacher's sex.