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PREDICTIVE ABILITY OF VARIABLES RELATED TO THE ASPECTS OF SCHOOL PRINCIPALS' MANAGEMENT
Abstract
The authors of this research paper believe that school principals play an irreplaceable role in raising the school efficiency. Their role is rather neglected in the Croatian academic debates on improving the quality of school system. This research intends to enhance the scientific level of their position as irreplaceable factors in a school system. The research aims to identify and illustrate the dominant model of Croatian school principals' leadership and management carried out in 3 Slavonian counties. Furthermore, the aim is to identify which predictor variables anticipate these functions, i.e. what are the reasons for principals choosing the specific module. The sample consists of 94 school principals from both rural and urban schools. For the purpose of this research, a questionnaire composed in 3 parts with 60 statements was constructed. It includes two scales; one studying the prevalence of the traditional management models and the other studying the prevalence of the modern management models. Their reliability is satisfactory being $\alpha$=0,784 for the traditional and $\alpha$=0,833 for the modern scale. Descriptive analysis was used to identify the main characteristics of principals' leadership and management while factor analysis was used to extract 4 components of the traditional and 4 components of the contemporary management: bureaucratization, one-sided relations with employees, meeting the external demands, objectifying employees, distributive and transformational leadership, adaptability and work autonomy. In the final phase, the robust regression was used to study the predictive value of independent variables on the resulting components of the traditional and modern management. The obtained results point out that the traditional model of management is less dominant. The impact of the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports has statistically significant predictive value (pextless0,001) on two traditional management aspects. Engaging school employees in deciding about school aims has statistical significance (pextless0,001) being a predictor of transformational and distributive leadership. The principals' work experience is a predictor of work autonomy (pextless0,001), while a school size predicts bureaucratization (pextless0,05). The type of communication has negative predictive ability in terms of several traditional management aspects (pextless0,05 and pextless0,01) and positive predictive ability regarding two modern management aspects (both at pextless0,001). Due to the substantial impact the aforementioned Ministry has on schools working principles, the authors suggest the decentralization measures aimed at dispersing the mentioned impact which will result in more autonomy for principals and eventually enable the development and realization of more effective educational management. In addition, it is crucial to engage employees in decision making regarding school working and development policies, modify the patterns of communication and implement specialized assistance for principals in large schools.
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