Multiple perspectives of role definition of small school principals and their influence on effective instructional management

The research design measured perceptions of the principal's administrative role held by principals, school board members, superintendents, and teachers in small secondary high schools in the State of Wisconsin. Actual role behaviors, ideal role expectations, and instructional management behaviors, of the principal, were evaluated to determine the presence and degree of significance in variations in perceptions existing between surveyed groups.;The study evaluated the level of perceptual diversity found between principals' administrative activities evaluated across role across forty administrative roles. Actual role behaviors and ideal role expectations were evaluated using the "Principal's Administrative Role Inventory".;Principals' levels of instructional management behavior were measured across seventy-one administrative tasks catagorized within eleven instructional management behavior divisions. Instructional management behaviors were evaluated using the "Principal Instructional Management Rating Scale".;Variations in principals, superintendents, school board members, and teachers perceptions of the principal's actual role behaviors and ideal role expectations were compared to variations in perceptions of the principal's level of instructional management effectiveness within the same respondent groups. Significant differences in perceptions of actual role behaviors, role expectation, and level of instructional management effectiveness were evaluated to identify source, degree of interaction, and implications concerning role dissensus and role definition.