Organizational Orientations of K-12 School Leaders in the Columbia Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists
type: CreativeWork
description: Purpose of the study The purpose of this study was to examine the organizational orientations--structure ,human resource, political, and symbolic --of the K-12 school leaders in the Columbia Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, and the relationship, if any, to their personal variables of age, gender, experience, and their professional variables of grade levels served, educational attainment, enrollment, support, feelings of success, and job satisfaction. Method A self-administered Organizational Orientations survey instrument, based on the multiple orientation framework of Bolman and Deal, was used to gather information about the school leaders. The population surveyed provided 56 usable responses, which were analyzed by descriptive statistics, t test, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and test of correlation coefficient. Sixteen orientation use (patterns) hypotheses were tested at an alpha level of 0.05. Sixteen orientation level (means) hypotheses were tested at an alpha level of 0.01, except for support, feelings of success, and job satisfaction (0.05). Findings from the content analysis--qualitative data--were compared to the findings from the survey data. Results As a group, Adventist school leaders in the Columbia Union Conference rated the human resource orientation highest followed by the structural, symbolic, and political. The findings indicate that high-school configured school leaders were more politically oriented than Grade 8 configured school leaders. School leaders of small schools were more structurally oriented than school leaders of large schools. Structurally oriented school leaders felt more supported by their pastors and school boards than other school leaders. Multi-oriented school leaders felt more supported by their conference personnel. Qualitative findings indicated that school leaders were more symbolically oriented than they reported on the survey. Conclusions School leaders use the human resource orientation more than other orientati…
abstract: Purpose of the study The purpose of this study was to examine the organizational orientations--structure ,human resource, political, and symbolic --of the K-12 school leaders in the Columbia Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, and the relationship, if any, to their personal variables of age, gender, experience, and their professional variables of grade levels served, educational attainment, enrollment, support, feelings of success, and job satisfaction. Method A self-administered Organizational Orientations survey instrument, based on the multiple orientation framework of Bolman and Deal, was used to gather information about the school leaders. The population surveyed provided 56 usable responses, which were analyzed by descriptive statistics, t test, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and test of correlation coefficient. Sixteen orientation use (patterns) hypotheses were tested at an alpha level of 0.05. Sixteen orientation level (means) hypotheses were tested at an alpha level of 0.01, except for support, feelings of success, and job satisfaction (0.05). Findings from the content analysis--qualitative data--were compared to the findings from the survey data. Results As a group, Adventist school leaders in the Columbia Union Conference rated the human resource orientation highest followed by the structural, symbolic, and political. The findings indicate that high-school configured school leaders were more politically oriented than Grade 8 configured school leaders. School leaders of small schools were more structurally oriented than school leaders of large schools. Structurally oriented school leaders felt more supported by their pastors and school boards than other school leaders. Multi-oriented school leaders felt more supported by their conference personnel. Qualitative findings indicated that school leaders were more symbolically oriented than they reported on the survey. Conclusions School leaders use the human resource orientation more than other orientati…
author: Gamblin, Rose Tooley
keywords: Organization, Orientation, School, Leaders, Seventh-day Adventist, Educational Administration and Supervision, School Psychology
date published: 2007-01-01T08:00:00Z
date modified: 2026-07-24T00:52:58Z
provider: Andrews University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Andrews University