| High rates of teacher attrition and teacher shortages have educational administrators looking for ways to cultivate the satisfaction and loyalty of quality teachers (Darling-Hammond, 2001; Hardy, 1999; Ingersoll, 1997). Research has shown that incremental gains in student achievement scores based on quality teacher-based practices ranged from 22 to 45 percentile points (Marzano, 2000, p. 63). For this reason, it is vital that teachers remain motivated and committed to their jobs for the success of students (Bransford, Brown, and Cocking, 2000; Ormrod, 1999).; One approach for enhancing the satisfaction and loyalty of teachers is to treat them as a vital “internal customer” group (Peltier and Westfall, 2001; Hartley, 1999; Woods, Bagley, and Glatter 1998; Stokes, 1996). This study considered how educational administrators could apply the paradigm of relationship marketing for measuring important relationship antecedents and then developing strategies that improve staff satisfaction, loyalty, and potentially retention.; Approximately 855 elementary teachers and support staff in a Midwestern school district were surveyed about their working relationship with their school administrator, along with ratings of satisfaction and indicators of loyalty. Confirmatory factor and regression analyses showed five antecedents significantly (p < .001) contributing to satisfaction (R2 of .87), and subsequent loyalty (R2 of .92). These enabling factors included communication, trust, commitment, cooperation, and shared values, which had reliability scores ranging from .79 to .93, and effect sizes ranging from .31 to .50. With a response rate of 65%, a margin of error of .041, and a power of .91, these effect sizes can be considered moderate to large (Black and Wiliam, 1998; Cohen, 1988).; A systematic program by educational administrators for measuring and then implement strategies for enhancing these enabling factors with staff would most likely result in increasing teacher satisfaction and loyalty toward administrators, which in-turn should result in contributing to employee retention. During and immediately following this study, there was a substantial decrease between forecast and actual teacher attrition. |
