Women superintendents' perception of managerial/leadership competencies : a national survey

Abstract

This study was to determine women superintendents' perceptions of the established leadership skills and Performance Areas presented in the AASA Guidelines for the Preparation of School Administrators (1982). None of the previous studies assessed the perceptions of non-dominant groups in establishing the validity of these Areas and skills for superintendents. This study fills this gap by assessing the perceptions of women superintendents in K-12 public school districts who were also members of American Association of School Administrators (AASA). From a population of 320, 214 or 67%, of the women superintendents responded to the lengthy survey instrument. An analysis of the data led to the following conclusions: (1) Women superintendents rated the skills in the eight Performance Areas to be indicators of effectiveness. Skills that are rated highest include: human relations, leadership, and interpersonal communications skills; effective school/community public relations; sound financial planning and cash flow management; and cost-effective techniques and sound program budgeting. (2) Women ranked the Performance Areas: 1-Finance, 2-Learning Environment, 3-Support, 4-Research, 5-Evaluation, 6-Operations, 7-Instruction, 8-Curriculum, unlike the ranking in previous men's studies (Sclafani, 1987). The men ranked Learning Environment first, Curriculum or Finance as second, Instruction or Curriculum as third and Research last. Kendall's tau analysis found no correlation between the previous male's rankings of the eight Performance Areas overall and the women rankings in this study. There was a high magnitude of agreement between the men and women on the skills in the areas of Instruction, Finance, and Research. (3) Multivariate Analysis of Variance, the Wilks Lambda, showed no significant differences between the women's ratings of the Performance Area skills according to eight of the nine demographic variables. There were significant differences in the women's rating of the Areas according to the size of the district, especially in Curriculum and Finance. (4) Content Analysis of the written responses from the superintendents showed a need for continued preparation in Finance/School Business and the Politics of Education. Also emphasized was the importance of leadership, human relations, and interpersonal communication skills to the job.