| The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the learning organization and principal leadership styles as perceived by public school teachers in Taiwan. Both conceptualizations of Watkins and Marsick's (1993, 1996) the learning organization (structured by the seven action imperatives of continuous learning, dialogue and inquiry, team learning, embedded systems, empowerment, system connection, and providing leadership), as well as Bolman and Deal's (1991, 1997) multiframe of leadership (classified into the structural, human resource, political, and symbolic frames) were identified as two main theoretical frameworks to guide the study.; A total of 201 public junior high school teachers from three major administrative regions (i.e., Fengshang, Chishang, and Gangshang) of Kaohsiung County, Taiwan agreed to participate in this study. The instruments that were adopted to collect empirical data include the Chinese versions of Watkins and Marsick's (1997) Dimensions of the Learning Organization Questionnaire (DLOQ), Bolman and Deal's (1991) Leadership Orientations (Other) (LO) survey, and self-designed Teachers' Demographics Form containing three demographic variables of gender, educational level, and years of teaching experience.; The descriptive statistics including means and standard deviations were used to describe Taiwanese teachers' perceptions of their schools as learning organizations and their principals' leadership styles. The Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient (r) was calculated to investigate the bivariate intercorrelation between teacher's responses on DLOQ and LO (Other) survey. The t-test and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were conducted to determine if there were significant differences in teachers' perceptions of their schools as learning organizations and their principals' leadership styles based on their demographic variables. Finally, the coefficient of determination (r2) was computed to determine to what degree teachers' perceived principals' leadership styles could predict their perceptions of learning organizations.; The results of this study suggested that first of all, teachers' highest perceived level of the action imperative for the learning organization was inquiry and dialogue, whereas embedded system became the lowest. Secondly, teachers considered the structural frame as principals' most frequently used leadership style, followed by the human resource, political, and symbolic frames. Thirdly, teachers' perceived levels of each of the seven action imperatives of the learning organization were positively and significantly related to their perceptions on each of the four frames of multiple leadership. Fourthly, there existed statistically significant differences between teachers' perceived effects on the learning organization and their gender as well as educational level. Fifthly, statistically significant differences were found between teachers' perspectives on the multiframe of principals' leadership and their gender, educational level, and years of teaching experience. Finally, teachers' perceived leadership styles of their principals in terms of the four frames significantly accounted for five to sixty-two percent of the variance on their perceptions of the seven action imperatives of the learning organization. This study concluded by proposing its implications for the educational practice and recommendations for future research. |
