PERCEIVED COMMUNICATION BEHAVIOR AND ADMINISTRATIVE EFFECTIVENESS AMONG SECONDARY SCHOOL PRINCIPALS IN CONNECTICUT

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between principal effectiveness and administrator communication behavior. Strong principal leadership was identified in the literature as a key element necessary for the development of an effective school. Strong principals had the ability to communicate and relate to the various components of the school-community. It was also found that principals generally were proficient in directive communications, but were inadequate in the affective domain of communication.; The study population and sample of 183 principals and 1830 teachers in Connecticut secondary schools completed two survey instruments, the Audit of Principal Effectiveness (APE) and the Audit of Administrator Communication (AAC). A Principal's Basic Data Questionnaire was used to gather demographic information about the principals.; Scores from the APE were used to determine the effective and ineffective principal groups. Two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) at the .05 level of significance was used to analyze (1) differences in selected communication behaviors between effective and ineffective principals based on teacher perceptions and self-perceptions and (2) differences between teacher perceptions and self-perceptions of selected communication behaviors among the effective and ineffective secondary school principals. The Scheffe multiple comparison of means procedure was used as a post hoc evaluation of the ANOVA results.; Communication behavior was found to be a significant factor in determining the relative effectiveness of secondary school principals. All principals communicated information, gave directions and explained decisions to teachers better than they were able to understand and accept the feelings, thoughts, and values of their teachers.; Effective principals perceived their own communication behavior in a manner very similar to their teachers' perceptions of the principal's communication behavior. Ineffective principals rated themselves significantly better communicators than their teachers rated them. Effective principals rated themselves and were rated by their teachers to be significantly better in all of the communication behaviors measured. Age and years of experience as a principal were not significant factors in determining the relative effectiveness of the secondary school principals.