The Impact of Elementary Principals’ Preferred Leadership Frame on Teachers’ Perception of Their Principal’s Transformational Leadership Behaviors

Elliott, Lori

The Impact of Elementary Principals’ Preferred Leadership Frame on Teachers’ Perception of Their Principal’s Transformational Leadership Behaviors

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The purpose of this study focused on identifying a principal’s preferred leadership frame and the impact, if any, on teachers’ perception of their behavior as a leader, and considered whether or not gender played a role. This study was driven by the theoretical framework of Bolman and Deal’s (2008) leadership framework and transformational leadership, specifically focusing on Kent’s (2004) five transformational leadership behaviors: empowering the we; visualizing greatness; communicating for meaning; managing one’s self, and care and recognition. Research implies leaders who utilize multi-frame thinking and demonstrate transformational leadership have greater impact on the success of the organization (Bass, 1985; Bass & Aviolo, 1994; Bolman & Deal, 2008; Kousez & Posner, 1995, 2012; Bogler, 2001; Griffith, 2004; Kent, 2004; Leithwood & Janzi, 2005, 2006; Fullan, 2010) The findings of this study support the idea multi-frame principals do have an impact on teachers’ perception of overall effectiveness, specifically with a focus on symbolic thinking. If elementary principals become knowledgeable of their leadership frame preference and model transformational behaviors that resemble that preference, the principal and teachers demonstrate a symbiotic relationship to the pathway of the educational organization’s success.

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