Contribution to School Principals' Effectiveness
While there has not been much in the way of empirical research directly assessing for relationships between principal effectiveness and the structural organization and its implementation in School Districts, several articles do either directly or indirectly address themselves to how factors related to School Districts' structural organization and implementation might contribute to principal effectiveness.
For example, Shedd (1988) notes that one structural factor by which School Districts can influence school principals' behavior in general and their effectiveness in particular is collective bargaining. In this regard, Shedd suggests that School Districts can engage in two forms of collective bargaining, each of which produces different effects on principals' behavior.
The first form of collective bargaining discussed by Shedd is that of the traditional structure commonly used in labor management in businesses and industries. Shedd asserts that when School Districts use the traditional structure of collective bargaining in negotiations, principals experience a diminishment of their supervisory authority, a result that can limit their overall effectiveness.
Other results of using the traditional structure are said to include: increased centralization of authority in District offices, rigidity, and a tendency for teachers to view themselves as "laborers" which causes them to be decreasingly concerned with their responsibilities regarding the quality of education and student welfare.
A second collective bargaining structure discussed by Shedd (1988) is the modified or adapted structure in which bargaining processes and methods are specifically designed for and aimed at educational policy issues. Whereas the traditional structure was said to limit principals' supervisory authority thereby contributing to decrease in their effectiveness, the modified structure is said t...