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1 – 7 of 7Sungmin Park, Alan B. Henkin and Robert Egley
To investigate relationships between teamwork, trust and teacher team commitment.
Abstract
Purpose
To investigate relationships between teamwork, trust and teacher team commitment.
Design/methodology/approach
Research has confirmed the value‐added effects of organizational commitment in terms of job performance, organizational effectiveness, and employee retention. This study focused on teacher teams as the unit of analysis, and posited associations between teamwork, viewed as team skills, trust and teacher team commitment. Data were derived from responses of elementary school teachers to an instrument including established measures of teamwork component skills, affective‐ and cognition‐based trust, and team commitment.
Findings
Teamwork was found to be a significant predictor of teacher team commitment. Respondents showing higher levels of teamwork skills perceived higher levels of team commitment. Results, while not entirely confirmatory, suggested the importance of trust in the commitment equation.
Research limitations/implications
This research was limited by the study sample of elementary schools. Future research should test initially confirmed associations in different school contexts with substantially dissimilar teacher demographics, and include consideration of dispositional antecedents that may impact teacher perceptions.
Practical implications
School leaders concerned with teacher commitment and related implications for teacher retention should consider strategies to strengthen performance‐enhancing teamwork and support satisfying teaming processes.
Originality/value
This study provides an initial understanding of teacher teamwork and affects on commitment in the context of teams viewed as building blocks of organization in locally‐managed schools.
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Melinda J. Moye, Alan B. Henkin and Robert J. Egley
To investigate relationships between teacher empowerment and interpersonal level trust in the principal.
Abstract
Purpose
To investigate relationships between teacher empowerment and interpersonal level trust in the principal.
Design/methodology/approach
Trust is a fundamental element in well‐functioning organizations. Studies of empowerment, a motivational construct, have suggested that empowering employees is a key factor in managerial and organizational effectiveness. An instrument was constructed to measure perceived teacher empowerment and level of interpersonal trust in the principal. Established measures of psychological empowerment and affect‐and cognition‐based trust were adapted for use in the study. Elementary school teachers in an urban school district in the USA completed the survey instrument.
Findings
Teachers who perceived that they were empowered in their work environments had higher levels of interpersonal trust in their principals. Teachers who found their work personally meaningful, and who reported significant autonomy and substantial influence in their work environments had higher levels of interpersonal trust in principals.
Research limitations/implications
This investigation was delimited by the study sample. Research on the empowerment‐trust relationships should be extended to include middle and high schools, and schools in different regions with a broader range of demographics.
Practical implications
Principals should consider suggested strategies that can strengthen teachers’ perceptions of empowerment, reinforce trustworthy behaviors, and support beliefs in the honesty, integrity, and reliability of supervisors.
Originality/value
The study compliments the limited base of data‐driven research in education and the non‐profit sector that focuses on significant intervening variables associated with trust in organizations.
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In the past few years, academics, practitioners and policy‐makers have wrestled with the problem of defining youth gangs and differentiating them from other youth groupings. This…
Abstract
In the past few years, academics, practitioners and policy‐makers have wrestled with the problem of defining youth gangs and differentiating them from other youth groupings. This is partly because different contributors to the debate have been interested in gangs for different reasons, but also because the form that gangs take is often determined by local factors, which make producing a single generic definition difficult, if not impossible.
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The purpose of this paper is to contribute to extant literature by linking principal empowering leadership to teachers’ innovative work behavior. By doing so, the author attempts…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to contribute to extant literature by linking principal empowering leadership to teachers’ innovative work behavior. By doing so, the author attempts to provide a more nuanced understanding of this relationship by examining a moderated mediation model which encompasses exploration as a mediator and role conflict as a moderator.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from 201 public teachers. In order to examine the present hypotheses bootstrapping analysis, Sobel test and SPSS macro were used.
Findings
The results demonstrated that teacher exploration mediates the relationship between empowering leadership and innovative work behavior and, further, that this indirect effect is contingent on role conflict.
Practical implications
Based on the present findings, in order to enhance innovation, schools need to promote both empowering leadership style and their teachers’ exploration. Moreover, principals should refrain from providing conflicting orders and expectations from their teachers because such conditions will eliminate the positive effect of their empowering behaviors on teachers’ exploration and innovative work behavior.
Originality/value
This is the first study that develops and tests a moderated mediation model regarding the relationship between principal empowering leadership and teacher innovative behavior.
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The purpose of this paper is to offer a theoretical contribution to explicate the various factors and aspects that influence Senge's five disciplines and their outcomes.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to offer a theoretical contribution to explicate the various factors and aspects that influence Senge's five disciplines and their outcomes.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper develops a conceptual framework for the analysis of antecedents and outcomes of Senge's five disciplines, and offers moderators to explain the prospect associations, employing a multi‐level analysis to explore issues, from the individual level (personal mastery) through the collective level (team learning, mental model) up to the organizational level (shared vision, systems thinking). Based on this theoretical framework, the paper offers a set of propositions in the shape of a causal model that links the constructs of the model together.
Findings
The development of the model manifests wide areas of relevance to the learning organization and points out significant interdependences and interactions among the various constructs associated with Senge's five disciplines of the learning organization.
Practical implications
The paper proposes a causal model that links variables in the learning organization that would be instrumental for organizations to achieve competitive advantage. For academia, it offers a further avenue for research, introducing a number of opportunities to test this model.
Originality/value
The paper provides significant added value both for academics and executives interested in the analysis of the complexity of Senge's five disciplines.
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The purpose of this paper is to offer an application of a system model for Senge's five disciplines in higher education (HE) institutions.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to offer an application of a system model for Senge's five disciplines in higher education (HE) institutions.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper utilizes a conceptual framework for the analysis of antecedents and outcomes of Senge's five disciplines, focusing on specific factors unique to the HE sector.
Findings
The explication of the model manifests its relevance and applicability for the HE sector: it represent how universities operate as learning organizations and posits the anticipated interactions among specific constructs associated with Senge's five disciplines within the HE sector.
Practical implications
The paper manifests a causal model that links variables in the learning organization, a perspective that would be instrumental for HE institutions to achieve competitive advantage.
Originality/value
The paper provides added value both for academics and executives interested in the analysis of the complexity of Senge's five disciplines for HE institutions.
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The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the literature on student trust and to examine the relationship between student trust, behavior, and academic outcomes in high…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the literature on student trust and to examine the relationship between student trust, behavior, and academic outcomes in high school. It asks, first, does trust have a positive effect on high school outcomes? Second, does trust influence student behavior, exerting an indirect effect on schooling outcomes? Third, are school size and student socioeconomic status (SES) antecedents of trust?
Design/methodology/approach
A nationally representative sample of students attending public high schools in the USA (n=10,585) is drawn from the Educational Longitudinal Study. Structural equation modeling is used to examine the relationship between student trust, behavior and high school outcomes, controlling for SES, school size and prior achievement. Multiple measures of academic achievement are considered.
Findings
There is a significant relationship between student trust, behavior and high school outcomes. Students who trust have fewer behavioral incidents and better academic outcomes with results suggesting that trust functions through behavior. This is true regardless of SES, school size or prior achievement.
Practical implications
School leaders cannot change parental income or education, but can build trust. Developing and attending to student trust may not only mean that students are better behaved but, more importantly, are more successful academically.
Social implications
In spite of decades of policy and legislation intended to improve schools, closing the achievement gap has proven elusive. One reason may be the relentless focus on physical artifacts of schooling, such as school organization, curriculum, testing and accountability, and a concomitant lack of attention to sociocognitive factors key to learning. Schools are social systems, and high levels of learning are unlikely to occur without a nurturing environment that includes trust.
Originality/value
This research makes a valuable contribution by focussing on student trust in high schools and by illuminating the relationship between trust, behavior, and academic outcomes. Results suggest that trust impacts a broad range of high school outcomes but functions indirectly through behavior.
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