Work role expectations of public school principals and their judgments concerning the results of their work

The purpose of the research was to examine the work role expectations of principals in the public school setting and the relationship between those role expectations and the results of the principals' work. This research was based on the theory, concepts, and relationships postulated in the Miller-Carey Model of Work Role Expectations.;A review of the research (Avant, 1989) has established two differing characterizations of the principalship which appeared to reflect prescriptive and descriptive expectations based on the research methodology used. With the use of the Miller-Carey Model of Work Role Expectations instrument in a prestudy, two distinctly different patterns of role attributes (traits and behaviors) were assigned to the principal's job definition as instructional leader or school manager.;A total of 200 elementary and secondary public school principals in nine Georgia school systems participated in the study. They provided the data used to examine four hypotheses and an exploratory question related to their work role expectations, their judgments concerning their work results, and their attitudes toward the profession.;Findings of this research suggested that (1) practicing principals assigned role attributes differentially to the two definitions of instructional leader and school manager, (2) the differing work role expectations of principals affected their work results differently, (3) the discrepancy of work role expectations (dissonance) of principals had an effect on their work results, (4) principals with enhancing dissonance seemed to experience the highest sense of fulfillment, and (5) a positive attitude toward the profession was associated with positive results received from work.;Information gained from the findings have important implications for the principals whose belief structure may have an impact on their motivation and job satisfaction; the school organization officials whose hiring and retaining interests include factors which contribute to high quality school principals; and the education profession which is responsible for establishing and maintaining standards for the training and certifying of school administrators. Implications for change and recommendations for further research were discussed.