Session Information
26 SES 13 A, Links Between Educational Leadership and Teachership
Paper Session
Contribution
Introduction
The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of ethnic sector affiliation on the relation between leader’s style and teachers’ accountability disposition.
Accountability disposition is teacher's tendency to be answerable for his/her work decisions and performance (Frink & Klimoski, 2004). External accountability refers to teacher’s answerability to political and bureaucratic audiences, while internal accountability is about teacher’s answerability to one’s inner professional and moral codes (Firestone & Shipps, 2005).
The relevancy of leadership to employee accountability may be inferred from consistent evidence on the firm positive relations found between accountability disposition and effective work performance (e.g., Jackson & Lunenburg, 2010).
A useful framework to predict leadership style’s relation to teacher accountability is Bass’ (1985) theory on transformational and transactional leadership styles. Transformational leaders are characterized as inspiring followers with motivation to achieve (Walumbwa, Orwa, Wang & Lawler, 2005). Such leaders see that school procedures are observed, and accordingly mentor teachers' work, thus promoting teachers’ external accountability. Furthermore, transformational leaders empower teachers to be professionally accountable by becoming role models, and by devoting individual attention to teachers while inspiring them to be loyal to their values (Lerner & Tetlock, 1999), thus encouraging them to be internally accountable. Hence we hypothesize:
H1. Transformational leadership will be positively related to both external and internal accountability.
Both external and internal accountability may also be encouraged by transactional leadership. This is based on exchange relations between leader and followers, where reward or punishment serves as a response to work performance quality. Transactional leaders may encourage teachers to comply with accountability regulation by clarifying tasks, directing work, and providing necessary resources in exchange for teachers' effort and work outcomes; this leads to improved external accountability.
Transactional leaders are also expected to support teachers' professional growth and participation in decision making (Koford, Krejsler & Moos, 2008). They encourage teachers to engage in periodic professional development activities and specialize in improved teaching methods, leading to internal accountability. These activities will be closely monitored and rewarded by the transactional leaders. Hence our second hypothesis:
H2. Transactional leadership will be positively related to both external and internal accountability.
We expect that a teacher’s ethnic affiliation will moderate some of the above relations. In Israel, the site of the present study, public school teachers are grouped into two ethnic sectors: Israeli-Jewish and Israeli-Arab. Israeli-Arab teachers are considered more collectivist, namely more traditional and communally-oriented, than their Israeli-Jewish counterparts, who are considered more individualist, namely more modern, competitive and achievement-oriented (Eilam, 2002). The predominantly Jewish Ministry of Education oversees both sectors.
Transformational style characterizes collectivist cultures, because of its focus on common goals and humanistic values (Ardichvili & Kuchinke, 2002). Because the Israeli-Arab sector is more collectivist than the Israeli-Jewish sector we expect that transformational style in the Arab sector will be more strongly related to external and internal accountability than in the Jewish sector. Hence our third hypothesis:
H3. In the Israeli-Arab sector transformational leadership will be more strongly and positively related to external and internal accountability than in the Israeli-Jewish sector.
The transactional leadership style tends to characterize individualist cultures due to its focus on individual goals and interests (Avolio, Bass & Jung, 1999). Because the Israeli-Jewish sector is more individualist than the Israeli-Arab sector we expect transactional leadership in the former to be more insistent on teachers' external and internal accountability than in the latter. Hence our fourth hypotheses:
H4. In the Israeli-Jewish sector transactional style will be more strongly and positively related to external and internal accountability than in Israeli-Arab sector.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
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