Teachers’ skill flexibility: Examining the impact of principals’ skills and teachers’ participation in decision making during educational reform
International Journal of Educational Management
ISSN: 0951-354X
Article publication date: 4 February 2019
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine a model linking school principals’ strategic, interpersonal skills and teachers’ participation in decision making (PDM) to predict teachers’ skill flexibility (SF) during the implementation of educational reform.
Design/methodology/approach
From 113 randomly selected elementary schools in Israel that had undergone a reform called “New Horizon,” 1,482 teachers participated in the study. Data were analyzed through the multilevel structural equation modeling.
Findings
Results showed that only principals’ strategic skills lead to teachers’ PDM, which in turn predicts teachers’ SF. Furthermore, based on the upper echelon theory (Hambrick and Mason, 1984), principals’ strategic skills promoted teachers’ SF through teachers’ PDM.
Research limitations/implications
This research enables expanding the theoretical upper echelon model, both in the context of leaders’ skills and in their relation to change outcomes.
Practical implications
Using of strategic skills will help principals influence teachers to participate in decision making, adapt to the reform and promote their ability to use skills according to changing needs.
Originality/value
The results of this research emphasize the strategic role of school principals as the leaders of organizational change and promoters of its outcomes.
Keywords
Citation
Da’as, R. (2019), "Teachers’ skill flexibility: Examining the impact of principals’ skills and teachers’ participation in decision making during educational reform", International Journal of Educational Management, Vol. 33 No. 2, pp. 287-299. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEM-12-2017-0382
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited