Educational Leadership and Commitment among Primary Education Employees
Keywords:
commitment, leadership, educational manager, primary school, leadership stylesAbstract
Research Question (RQ): is there a correlation between the management models of educational managers and commitment among employees in primary education and is there a difference in how strong the commitment is among primary education employees?
Purpose: In times of fast organisational changes, commitment is losing its value. In addition, many theoreticians neglect it in their research. Although commitment is expressed differently as in the past it remains an important part of an organisation. The purpose of this article is to study the correlation between educational leadership and commitment of employees in primary schools in Slovenia.
Method: With the use of an online questionnaire, we questioned the educational managers and employees in primary schools about the leadership styles and commitment. In order to explain the correlations we analyzed the results.
Results: Research has shown that there is a connection between leadership and commitment of employees in primary schools. We have come to the conclusion that educational managers feel more committed in comparison to other employees in all statements from the questionnaire.
Organization: Good managers are aware that a committed individual will do more for co-workers, managers and the organisation. Therefore, such employees are treated with respect and are cherished and rewarded.
Society: On the basis of higher commitment we can expect more satisfied and successful individuals. These individuals form some sort of society and if an individual is more satisfied in a society, the society also benefits from it.
Originality: This article is original in reawakening the meaning of commitment of employees towards their organisation. Commitment is an important building block in the model of successful leadership. It is true that nowadays commitment is expressed differently as in the past, yet it still remains an important leadership factor not only in managing primary schools but organisations in general.
Limitations / further research: The limitations of our research can be found in the fact that we focused only on public schools and that the (MLQ) questionnaire was of foreign origin. There is a possibility for further research which would include the entire school system in Slovenia. Another possibility is to research the connection with other leadership building blocks. We can also make a comparison with other similar schools abroad.
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