An examination of the morale level of the Iowa school superintendent and factors related to morale
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This study was undertaken during the 1988-89 school year to examine the morale level of the Iowa School superintendent and factors related to morale, i.e; the level of decision-making authority accorded superintendents, the job security issues threatening superintendents, and the educational issues providing a challenge to superintendents. Also examined was the relationship between school district size and coverage by a master contract agreement and the previously mentioned variables;This study is a part of a major study conducted by School Administrators of Iowa in the spring of 1989, in which they sought to examine the status and opinions of all Iowa School Administrators. The data from the SAI study relative to the Iowa School Superintendent were turned over to this investigator for use in this study. The data were collected using the survey instrument, The Iowa School Superintendent Status and Opinion Study. Statistical treatment of the data was completed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (Norusis, 1983) computer program. Descriptive statistics were computed to study the relative value of the study variables. Independent T-Tests, Anova, and Pearson correlations were used to examine the relationship between study variables;The results indicated that the morale level of the Iowa School superintendent was high. Master contract coverage and school district size were not related to the level of superintendent morale. Five of nine job security issues were related to lower levels of superintendent morale, namely: (1) poor personal performance evaluation, (2) reorganization of school districts, (3) conflicts with teachers, (4) conflicts with board philosophy, and (5) conflicts with principals;Twelve of forty-four educational issues were related to the level of morale of superintendents. Those related were: (1) staff morale, (2) school community relations, (3) teacher union activities, (4) dismissing incompetent staff, (5) coping with state initiatives, (6) other administrator relations, (7) central office involvement in building level decisions, (8) Phase III teacher incentives, (9) vandalism, (10) use of drugs by pupils, (11) restructuring boundaries, and (12) other employee relations;Reference. Norusis, M. J. (1983). User's Guide SPSS[superscript] x. New York: McGraw-Hill.