The Antecedents of Primary School Principals' Management and Leadership Behaviors

Haim H.  Gaziel; Yael  Cohen-Azaria; Amalia A.  Ifanti

Authors

Haim H. Gaziel Professor, School of Education, Bar Ilan University, Ramat-Gan 52900, Israel
Yael Cohen-Azaria Yael Cohen-Azaria, Lecturer, Bar Ilan University, Ramat-Gan 52900, Israel
Amalia A. Ifanti Professor, Department of Educational Sciences and Early Childhood Education, University of Patras, Rion-Patras 26504, Greece

Abstract

This study explores the relationship between management and leadership behaviors of primary school principals from
the perspective of personal and contextual variables. Although the school effectiveness literature has put much attention to
school principals’ behavior outcomes, however, a few studies have investigated the background of principals’ behaviors. The
sample of this study was consisted of 140 primary school principals, who were chosen randomly from three of the six
educational districts in Israel. For the purposes of this piece of work two anonymous Likert-type questionnaires were used: the
Instructional Leadership Inventory and the School Administrator Assessment Survey. Data analysis revealed that school
principals’ management behaviors were mostly influenced by contextual factors whereas their leadership behaviors were mainly
affected by personal factors. It was also found that the principals’ demographic variables had different effects upon their
management and leadership behaviors. Besides it was indicated that staff and community characteristics affect both school
principals' management and leadership behaviors.