Date of Award
12-2000
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Teaching, Learning, and Leadership
First Advisor
Dr. David Cowden
Second Advisor
Dr. Charles Warfield
Third Advisor
Dr. Larry Schlack
Abstract
The concepts of culture and climate have been investigated in the corporate world and have been found to relate to increased job satisfaction and commitment. Schools can also benefit from such findings. In the school setting there are a number of studies that have been conducted relating school culture and climate to student achievement, but few have investigated the relationship of school climate and culture to job commitment and satisfaction.
Organizational culture, employee job satisfaction, an d employee commitment are all variables that must be measured in order to investigate how culture affects the organization. In this study, teachers’ perceptions of the school culture, job satisfaction, and job commitment are investigated using the Organizational Culture Inventory (Cooke & Lafferty, 1983) and the Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (Porter, Steers, Mowday, & Boulian, 1974). Eleven rural school districts in the Midwest were selected according to similar demographics (total population, total number of teachers, and number of elementary schools). Each of the elementary schools had between 300 and 450 students— kindergarten through fifth grade. A total of 118 first- and second-grade teachers were asked to participate in the study. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Two conceptional hypotheses were addressed:
1. There is a difference in the school culture perceptions of employees that are satisfied with their jobs and employees that are not satisfied with their jobs.
2. There is a difference in the school culture perceptions of employees that are committed to their jobs and employees that are not committed to their jobs.
A total of 58 surveys were return ed out of 118 surveys mailed, for a completion rate of 49%.
The findings supported three of the six operational hypotheses. Those who were not satisfied with their jobs were more likely to perceive the culture of the organization as Aggressive/Defensive than those who were satisfied with their job. Secondly, those who were committed to their job viewed the organizational cultural style as more Constructive than those who were not committed or somewhat committed to their jobs. Finally, those somewhat committed viewed the organizational cultural style as more Aggressive/Defensive than those committed to their jobs.
Access Setting
Dissertation-Open Access
Recommended Citation
Bahamonde-Gunnell, Mayda, "Teachers’ Perceptions of School Culture in Relation to Job Satisfaction and Commitment" (2000). Dissertations. 1453.
https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/dissertations/1453