ABSTRACT
A Comparison of Management and Leadership Skills Critical to the Principalship
as Perceived by Superintendents in Selected Independent School
Districts in Texas. (December 2005)
Katherine Alia White, B.A., Our Lady of the Lake;
M.Ed., Our Lady of the Lake
Chair of Advisory Committee: Dr. Stephen L. Stark
The purpose of this study was to determine which management and
leadership behaviors selected superintendents perceived as critical to the
position of principal. Differences were examined by gender as well as size of
district. A secondary goal of this research was to raise awareness regarding
gender inequity that exists in educational administration.
The population of the study was all female superintendents in Texas
(N=135) and randomly selected male superintendents (N=301). Data were
disaggregated by gender and size of district. An e-mail was sent to each
superintendent with a web address and an access code. A response rate of 66%
was obtained for a sample size of 290 superintendents.
The survey contained items on management and leadership skills from the
Peterson Managerial Leadership Instrument (PMI) and the Leadership Practices
Inventory (LPI) developed by Kouzes and Posner. Superintendents were asked
to respond to the behaviors based on their envisioned best principal. Descriptive
iv
and inferential statistical analyses were performed for the total group and
subgroups.
Major research findings included:
1. An independent samples t-test on the PMI determined two behaviors
that were significantly different (p< .05) and six behaviors that were
significantly different (p