OBORAH, MARGARET UBE
PG/MED/06/41665
IMPROVING MANAGEMENT OF SCHOOL ORGANISATIONAL
CLIMATE OF SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN KOGI EAST
Educational Foundations
A RESEARCH PROJECT PRESENTED IN PARTIAL
FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD
OF THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF EDUCATION
(M. ED) IN EDUCATION
Webmaster Digitally Signed by Webmaster’s Name
DN : CN = Webmaster’s name O= University of Nigeria, Nsukka
OU = Innovation Centre
2009
UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA
ii
IMPROVING MANAGEMENT OF SCHOOL ORGANISATIONAL
CLIMATE OF SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN KOGI EAST
BY
OBORAH, MARGARET UBE
PG/MED/06/41665
A RESEARCH PROJECT PRESENTED IN PARTIAL
FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE
AWARD OF THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF EDUCATION
(M. ED) IN EDUCATION
TO
THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATIONS,
UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA, NSUKKA
SUPERVISOR: DR (MRS) C. U. ONWURAH
MAY, 2009
iii
APPROVAL PAGE
This project work has been approved for the Department of Educational
Foundations, University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
By
___________________ ______________
Dr (Mrs) C U Onwurah Internal Examiner
Supervisor
__________________ ________________
Prof G C Unachukwu Prof N Ogbonnaya
External Examiner Head of Department
________________
Prof G C Offorma
Dean of Faculty
iv
CERTIFICATION
It is hereby certified that Oborah, Margaret (Mrs), a postgraduate student
in the Department of Educational Foundations with Registration Number,
PG/M.ED/06/41665, has satisfactorily completed the requirements for
course and research works for the degree of Master in Education in
Educational Administration and Planning. The work embodied in this
project is original and has not been submitted in part or full for any other
degree of this or any other university.
_________________________ ________________________
OBORAH, MARGARET UBE DR (MRS) C U ONWURAH
STUDENT SUPERVISOR
v
DEDICATION
This research work is dedicated to my beloved husband,
Pastor (Dr) J O Oborah.
vi
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The researcher is eternally grateful to the Almighty God for His
infinite mercy, grace, love, favour and divine protection and provision.
My hearty appreciation and thanks go to my supervisor, Dr (Mrs) C U
Onwurah for her immeasurable and valuable guidance and contributions
to the successful completion of the research work. Her tireless prompt
attention, guidance and prayers were instrumental to the timely
completion of this study.
Furthermore, the researcher sincerely appreciates the spiritual,
moral and financial contributions of my husband, Pastor (Dr) J O Oborah.
My special thanks go to my parents, my brothers and sisters and all
members of Odiba family for their prayer supports. I also appreciate
members of Adonai Business Centre, Idah, for the computer typesetting
and other secretarial jobs.
The researcher appreciates the members of Divine Love Assembly,
Idah and Favour Shopping Complex, Idah, for their financial and moral
supports. My thanks further go to Pastor Ojotule Akor, Friday Dikko for
assisting in travels for questionnaire retrieval.
My special thanks and appreciation go to my Education Secretary,
Mr Henry Amodu and the SUBEB management in Lokoja for the
permission to undertake this study. My thanks finally go STTEB and TSC
staff, Lokoja for making available relevant data for this study.
vii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title Page….……………………………….….………………………..i
Approval Page ………………………………………………………..ii
Certification ………………………………..……..………….………..iii
Dedication……………………………………………..…….………….iv
Acknowledgements ……………………………..………..….…………v
Table of Contents...………...………………………..………..…....…...vi
List of Tables ………………..………………………………….…… .ix
Abstract…………………………………………………...…………..…x
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION… …………………………………….1
Background of the Study ......................................................................... 1
Statement of the Problem ...................................................................... 10
Purpose of the Study ............................................................................... 11
Significance of the Study ........................................................................ 11
Scope of the Study ................................................................................... 13
Research Questions ................................................................................. 13
Hypotheses ............................................................................................... 14
CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE ................. 15
Conceptual Framework ......................................................................... 15
Concept of School Organisational Climate .......................................... 15
Types of School Organisational Climate .............................................. 20
Factors Influencing School Organisational Climate ........................... 26
Managing the School Organisational Climate ..................................... 36
Theoretical Framework ......................................................................... 42
Review of Empirical Studies .................................................................. 46
Summary of Review of Related Literature .......................................... 51
CHAPTER III: RESEARCH METHODS ........................................... 53
Design of the Study ................................................................................. 53
viii
Area of the Study .................................................................................... 53
Population for the Study ........................................................................ 54
Sample and Sampling Technique .......................................................... 54
Instrument for Data Collection ............................................................. 55
Validation of Instrument ....................................................................... 55
Reliability of the Instrument ................................................................. 56
Method of Data Collection ..................................................................... 56
Method of Data Analysis ........................................................................ 57
CHAPTER IV: PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF DATA ..... 58
Research Question 1 ............................................................................... 58
Research Question 2 ............................................................................... 60
Research Question 3 ............................................................................... 62
Hypothesis 1 ............................................................................................ 64
Hypothesis 2 ............................................................................................ 65
Hypothesis 3 ............................................................................................ 68
Summary of the Findings of The Study ................................................ 69
CHAPTER V: DISCUSSION, CONCLUSIONS, IMPLICATIONS,
RECOMMENDATIONS, LIMITATIONS AND SUMMARY OF
THE STUDY……………. …………....................................................73
Discussion of the Findings … . …………………………….................76
Conclusions .............................................................................................. 77
Educational Implications of the Findings Of The Study .................... 77
Recommendations of the Study ............................................................. 79
Limitations of the Study ......................................................................... 80
Suggestions for Further Studies ............................................................ 81
Summary of the Study ............................................................................ 82
REFERENCES ....................................................................................... 85
ix
Appendix A : List of Secondary Schools in Kogi East Senatorial zone...91
Appendix B: Table of Sample for the Study……………………………95
Appendix C: Letter to the Respondents…...………..…………………...96
Appendix D: Questionnaire…………... ……………… .…..……….. 97
Appendix E: Computer Printouts for Reliability of the Instrument...…101
Appendix F: Administration and Return of Questionnaire…… …... ..103
x
LISTS OF TABLES
Tables Page
1 Mean and Standard Deviation of the Respondents’
Responses on the Types of School Organisational
Climate in Kogi East Secondary Schools………………. 59
2 Mean and Standard Deviation of the Respondents’
Responses on the Factors that Influence School
Organisational Climate in Kogi East Secondary Schools . 61
3 Mean and Standard Deviation of the Respondents’
Responses on the Administrative Strategies that
Influence School Organisational Climate in
Kogi East Secondary Schools ……………………………63
4 Summary of T Test on the Mean Responses of the
Principals and Teachers on the Types of School
Climate in Secondary Schools in Kogi East ……………..64
5 T’ Test of the Mean Responses of the Principals and
Teachers on the Factors that Influence School
Organisational Climate in Secondary Schools
In Kogi East……………………………………………….66
6 T’ Test of the Mean Responses of the Principals and
Teachers on the Administrative Strategies that Influence
School Organisational Climate in Secondary Schools
In Kogi East……………………………………………….68
xi
Abstract
The major purpose of this study was to evolve administrative strategies
for improving school organisational climate of secondary schools in Kogi
East, Kogi State. Three research questions were answered and three
hypotheses tested at 0.05 level of significance. The population for the
study was 2,231 teaching staff. A random sample of 503 based on
multistage sampling technique was drawn. Structured questionnaire was
used to generate data for the study. This instrument was face-validated by
three experts from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka and was trial-tested
on 25 respondents in Kogi Central. The Cronbach Alpha reliability
technique yielded a total coefficient of 0.85. The instrument was
administered on the sample and 476 copies of the questionnaire were
returned and used for data analysis. Mean and standard deviations were
used for the research questions, while t’test was employed to test the
hypotheses. The major findings were (1) three school organisational
climates existed in secondary schools in Kogi East, including open,
autonomous and controlled school climates, (2) clean and aesthetic school
environments were critical factors influencing school organisational
climate and (3) staff development and the use of rewards and recognitions
were strategies for improving school climate. It was recommended that
principals in the secondary schools should adopt an appropriate blend of
the various school climates to suite the peculiarities of the schools.
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
School organisational climate is an important and all-embracing
characteristic of the school environment that includes the psychological,
social and physical factors. The psychological factors relate to the
feelings, attitudes and values exhibitions of the stakeholders of the school
– administrators (principals), teachers, staff, students, parents,
government agencies and the society. Social factors include the nature of
the interactions, communications and group activities of the stakeholders
and the physical factors are the tangible aspects of the environment such
as the nature of the buildings, classroom conditions, laboratories and
other educational materials. Thus, Tagiuri (1968) identified the following
four components of the school climate: ecology, milieu, social system and
culture. Ecology is the physical and material aspects of the school
environment, milieu is the social dimension in the school, and the social
system relate to the organisational structure of the school. The culture
aspect deals with the values, belief system, norms and ways of thinking.
The concept of school organisational climate has been variously
defined. Hodgetts and Altman (1979) defined organisational climate as a
set of properties of the work environment perceived by individuals who
2
work there and which serve as a major force in influencing their job
behaviour. This means that organisational climate depicts the quality of
the work environment capable of influencing the performance of the
members negatively or positively depending on the status of the climate.
Marshall (2002) viewed school organisational climate as a multi-
dimensional environmental factors that influences many individuals,
including students, parents, school personnel, and the community,
stressing that it is a belief system or culture that underlies the day-to-day
operation of a school. School climate according to him is influenced by
factors such as the number and quality of interactions between adults and
students, students’ and teachers’ perceptions of their school environment,
or the school’s personality. Other factors include, the environmental
factors such as the physical buildings and classrooms, and materials used
for instructions, academic performance, feelings of safety, school size and
feelings of trust and respect for students and teachers.
A positive school climate therefore exist when students and
teachers feel comfortable, wanted, valued, accepted, and secured. In order
to achieve the positive school organisational climate, the principal adopts
the appropriate managerial skills and practices which are not only
applicable to business organisations, but also amenable to effective
management of organisational climate of schools. This is because with a
3
well managed school climate the teaching and learning would be
effective. Also, in such environment, the teachers are satisfied working to
achieve the goals of the school which influence positively the overall
performance of the students. The parents and the society would be happy
that their expenditure on education has been justified and goals of
national development would be achieved when the goals of the schools
are achieved.
In this study, school organisational climate refers to a broad
concept about the way principals, teachers, students and parents
experience and perceive the quality of the school total environment
emanating from their interactions which also influences their behaviour.
The nature of the interactions consists of the academic and social
dimensions. Whereas the academic dimension deals with the schools
administrator’s effectiveness in leadership and administration, the social
dimension deals with the nature of the facilities, the aesthetic appeals and
comfort of the stakeholders.
The concept of organisation, according to Okumbe (1998) consists
of groups of people whose efforts are deliberately coordinated for the
achievement of specific goals. An educational organisation thus refers to
a group of individuals, in a given place, whose efforts are deliberately
coordinated for the purpose of imparting knowledge, skills and attitudes
4
to students or pupils in order to achieve predetermined educational
objectives or goals. In Nigeria, school as an organisation consists of a
group of people working to achieve the goal of preparing the individuals
to be useful members of the society. According to the Federal Republic of
Nigeria (FRN) (2004), education is an instrument for national
development and particularly, the secondary education which is the
education children received after primary education and before the
tertiary stage which has the broad goal of preparing individual for: useful
living within the society and higher education. To achieve these goals, the
teaching and learning environment need to be conducive by improved
management of the school organisational climate. Thus, every
stakeholder in the administration of secondary school ought to brace up to
the demands of improved organisational climate and the school
administrators (principals) of secondary schools have particular
responsibility in this direction.
Improved school organisational climate is a goal to pursue because
teaching and learning need to be constantly moved toward greater
performance. This can be achieved by adopting appropriate management
strategies by the respective school administrators. Wikipedia (2008)
stated that management comprises planning, organising, resourcing,
leading or directing, controlling and organisation of effort for the purpose
5
of accomplishing a goal. Fayol in Wikipedia, identified the following five
management functions – planning, organising, leading, coordinating and
controlling. According to Mgbodile (2007), Planning is a blue print of
well-reasoned and packaged ideas which guide all subsequent operations
leading to the achievement of objectives from first stage to the final
stages of implementation and evaluation. Therefore, planning is an
important management function that leads to the achievement of any
organisational goal. Organizing is making optimum use of the resources
required to enable the successful carrying out of plans, while
leading/motivating involves exhibiting skills in these areas for getting
others to play an effective part in achieving plans. Coordinating involves
interrelating the various parts of the work and ensuring efficient and
effective job performance and controlling is monitoring and checking
progress against plans, which may need modification based on feedback.
A well managed school organisational climate can greatly enhance
the performance of the schools which in turn contribute to the
achievement of the overall goals of education. This management team
work together to create the needed climate that would ensure conducive
teaching and learning environment.
The application of management principles and practices to the
educational settings has spurred a lot of researches in this area.
6
Organisational climate is an area that is receiving a great deal of research
in educational administration with foundational research by Halpin and
Croft (1963). School organisational climate is defined as the morale
existing among the teachers in the school. Halpin and Croft identified six
school climates, including, open, autonomous, controlled, familiar,
paternal, and closed climates. Thus Halpin and Croft conceptualised
school organisational climate on a continuum of open – closed
organisational climate types.
Open climate is used to describe the openness and authenticity of
interaction that exists among the principal, teachers, pupils and parents. It
reflects the principal and teachers' cooperative, supportive and receptive
attitudes to each other’s ideas and their commitment to work. The
principal shows genuine concern for teachers and gives the staff freedom
to carry out their duties in the best way they know. Autonomous climate
is the type of climate that portrays an atmosphere where teachers are
given a good measure of freedom to operate in the school. The principal
models enthusiasm and diligence. Both teachers and pupils are happy.
There is no external threat or influence. Teachers have great desire to
work and pupils are highly motivated to learn. There is close relationship
among the principal, teachers, pupils and parents. Controlled climate is
the situation where hard work is the major characteristic. Although the
7
principal does not model commitment, hard work is over-emphasised to
the extent that little or no time is given to social life.
Furthermore, familiar climate depicts a laissez-faire atmosphere.
The principal is concerned about maintaining friendly atmosphere at the
expense of task accomplishment. Thus, a considerable percentage of
teachers are not committed to their primary assignment. Paternal climate
is the type of climate that depicts an atmosphere where the principal is
very hardworking, but has no effect on the staff; to them hard work is not
a popular term. There is a degree of closeness between the principal and
teachers, but the principal's expectation from teachers is rather
impractical. Closed climate represents the 'antithesis of the open climate'.
The main characteristic of this type of climate is lack of commitment on
the part of the staff members. There is no commitment, especially on the
part of the principal and teachers. There is no emphasis on task
accomplishment; rather the principal stresses routine, trivial and
unnecessary paper work to which teachers minimally respond. The
principal is rigid and controlling. There is lack of respect for the
principal. Not only that, the teachers lack respects for and are suspicious
of each other, the school authority and even the pupils.
From the foregoing, the principal and teachers are very important
determinants of the school organisational climate and can contribute
immensely to its improvement. The principal through the exhibition of
8
behaviours that enhance conditionality among the school members can
lead to the creation of conducive atmosphere for enhanced school
organizational climate. The teacher can as well enhance the school
organizational climate through commitment to the duties and
responsibility and the creation of conducive classroom environment for
teaching and learning. In this study, principals are the respective heads of
secondary schools charged with the day-to-day administration of the
school and teachers are staff in the schools whose primary duty is the
impartation of knowledge and skills to the students. Also, Strategies in
this context are the adoption of appropriate administrative and
motivational practices for improving school organisational climate.
In Nongnuang (1988), it was found out that schools with higher
teacher morale were more likely to appear in open tendency climate and
schools with low teacher morale were more likely to appear in the closed
tendency climate. Consequently, the teachers with open organisational
climate exhibited high level of job performance than those of the closed
organisational climate. Also, in Enugu, Agajelu (1991) conducted a study
and found out that there was positive relationship between the
organisational climate type and the students’ academic achievement. It
was found that the students in the open organisational climate performed
better than those of the closed organisation climate academically.
9
In Kogi State, particularly, the Eastern Senatorial Zone, the public
and private secondary schools are in deplorable conditions which
contribute to poor organisational climate. Achimugu (2000) and Idachaba
(2001) have decried the deplorable school environment in Kogi East
secondary schools. Idachaba stressed that with this situation of the
teaching and learning environments of the secondary schools,
performances in the West African Examinations have been very poor. He
further stated that this situation had been responsible for the inability of
students in the zone to win the scholarship award of the Shell
Corporations. He then advised that all stakeholders should be involved in
concerted efforts to revamp the ailing conditions of the schools in the
zone. This is a motivation for this study.
At present, there is low morale among staff and students as well as
poor performance of students in public examinations such as the West
African Examination Council. There is lack of research evidence on
improving management of school organisational climate in secondary
schools in the zone, hence the need for the present study which will be
conducted to provide empirical evidence on the strategies for improving
school organisational climate of secondary schools in Kogi East
Senatorial Zone.
10
Statement of the Problem
Effective teaching and learning take place in atmosphere that is
conducive. This atmosphere depicts a school where the principal and
teachers work as a team member in cooperation and understanding. Also,
students are well behaved and go about their studies with seriousness. In
such school environment appropriate and adequate physical facilities are
provided for the school. This situation describes the school organisational
climate that is desirable in all the educational institutions in Nigeria,
including secondary schools. Although this situation is attainable, it is yet
to be attained in secondary schools in Kogi East.
In Kogi East Senatorial zone, secondary school organisational
climate needs improvements as school performances are unsatisfactory.
The question now is what strategies should be adopted to create the
desired improvements? Unfortunately, there are little or no empirical
studies that identified strategies for improving management of school
organisational climate in Kogi East. This paucity of empirical evidence
necessitated this present study to provide strategies for improving
management of school organisational climate of secondary schools in
Kogi East.
11
Purpose of the Study
The major purpose of the study was to evolve strategies for
improving management of school organisational climate in secondary
schools in Kogi East. Specifically, the study:
1. Identified the types of organisational climate in Kogi East
secondary schools.
2. Determined the factors that influence the schools’
organisational climate in secondary schools in Kogi East.
3. Determined the administrative strategies that can be used to
improve the school’s organisational climate in Kogi East.
Significance of the Study
The findings of the study will be significant to school
administrators of secondary schools in Kogi East, the teachers, students,
the community and government agencies charged with supervisory
functions of secondary schools in Kogi state and other scholars of school
administration. These are the stakeholders of secondary schools that work
together to ensure improvements in secondary schools in Kogi State.
The findings on the types of organisational climate in secondary
schools in Kogi East will benefit the school administrators to ascertain
the organisational climate being practised to adjust accordingly. The
school administrators will use the findings as strategies to be adopted to
12
improve the climate in the school in order to enhance conducive teaching
and learning.
Furthermore, the findings on the preferred leadership behaviours of
principals will enable the school administrators to determine their relative
standings on the acceptable leadership behaviours. This would also assist
the school administrators to evolve the necessary intervention measures
to correct any lapses in the leadership behaviours. The principals will use
the findings on the appropriate leadership behaviours and factors as
strategies to improve the school climate.
The findings of this study will serve as a guide to the teachers in
creating conducive atmosphere for teaching and learning. When this is
done, the students will perform effectively in their studies. Also, students
will benefit from the findings as a stakeholder in creating conducive
learning environment. The students will use the findings to guide them in
exhibiting appropriate and disciplined behaviour that create conducive
school climate which positively influence learning in the school.
The community will use the findings of the study as a means of
improving their involvement in school management, guiding them on
what to do to supplement the efforts of the principals, teachers and
students in creating appropriate school organisational climate for teaching
and learning.
13
Government agencies will use the findings of this study in
identifying the areas that the schools need improvements with regards to
the climate and to advise the school administrators appropriately to
improve the school organisational climate.
The findings of the study would be theoretically significant in
advancing knowledge on the concept and practice of organisational
climate in secondary schools. The findings of the study will enrich the
literature on organisational climate for educational planners and
administrators in Kogi East and the entire state as well as Nigeria in
general. This is achieved when the report is published and disseminated.
Scope of the Study
The scope of this study with regards to the content is on the types
of school climate including open, autonomous, controlled, paternal,
familiar and closed school climates. There are also four types of
leadership behaviour which include aloofness, production emphasis,
thrust and consideration. These are the areas that form the focus of the
present project. The study is geographically delimited in scope to the
secondary schools in Kogi East senatorial zone.
Research Questions
The following research questions were answered in this study:
1. What types of organisational climate exist in Kogi East secondary
schools?
14
2. What factors influence the schools’ organisational climate?
3. What administrative strategies can be used to improve the schools’
organisational climate?
Hypotheses
The following null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of
significance:
1. There is no significant difference between the mean ratings of
principals and teachers with regard to the types of school
organisational climate in Kogi East.
2. There is no significant difference between the mean ratings of
principals and teachers on the factors that influence schools’
organisational climate in secondary schools in Kogi East.
3. There is no significant difference between the mean ratings of
principals and teachers on the administrative strategies that can
be used to improve schools’ organisational climate in Kogi
East.
15
CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
This chapter deals with the review of related literature. Literature is
reviewed under the following subheadings:
1. Conceptual Framework
- Concept of School Organisational Climate
- Types of School Organisational Climate
- Principal’s Leadership Behaviour and School Climate
- Factors Influencing School Organisational Climate
- Managing the School Organisational Climate
2. Theoretical Framework
- The Behavioural Science theories
- Open – Closed Continuum Theory of School Climate
3. Review of Empirical Studies
4. Summary of Review of Related Literature
Conceptual Framework
Concept of School Organisational Climate
The concept of school organisational climate has been variously
defined. According to Eneasator (1997), the concept of organizational
climate emerged from the 1930s and was described as the interaction of a
person and the environment. Therefore, in conceptualizing organizational
climate, it is necessary to think of the person and the organizational
16
environment as complementary parts of the situation. Consequently, the
human behaviour was seen as a function of the whole situation and the
environments. This implies that organizational climate influences the
behaviour of the members of the organization. In relation to the School
organisation, Hoy and Miskel (2001) defined school climate as the set of
internal characteristics that distinguishes one school from another and
influences the behaviour of people. They stated that the school climate is
the end product of the school groups – students, teachers, administrators,
as they work to balance the organisational and individual aspects of a
social system. As such, people experiencing a particular climate share
certain values, social beliefs and social norms.
Furthermore, Owens (2004) defined school climate as the
atmosphere, personality, tone or ethos of the school and credited the
foundational work on the school climate to Halpin and Croft (1963) who
roughly defined school climate as the morale. According to them, school
climate is seen as the personality of the school and gave the analogy that
personality is to the individual what organisational climate is to the
organisation. Therefore, the concept of school organisational climate
describes the environment that distinguishes between the various schools.
Taguiri in Owens (2004) defined school climate as the total
environmental quality within the school organisation which include four
dimensions - ecology (the physical and material components), milieu (the
17
social dimension of people), social system (the patterned relationships in
the organisation); and culture (the belief systems, values, cognitive
structures and meanings).
The current view of school organisational climate given by
Sackney (2007) described school organisational climate as relatively
enduring quality of the internal environment of the school that is
experienced by the members (students, teachers, administrators,
secretaries, consultants and custodians),) influences their behaviour, and
can be described in terms of the values, norms especially concerned with
those institutional patterns and behavioural practices that enhance or
impede students’ achievement. This definition implies that the school
climate is not a temporary situation experienced by the members of the
school but is relatively permanent and it is experienced by all the
stakeholders.
School organisational climate, according to Sackney (2007) consist
of two dimensions – academic and social dimensions. The interactions of
the attributes of these dimensions will result in a positive or negative
school organisational climate, depending on the nature of the interactions.
For instance, the academic climate is the result of how the school uses
rewards and praise, the effectiveness of the teachers and the principal and
the collaborative processes that exist within the school. The social aspect
of the school climate as conceived by Sackney is a result of the
18
appearance, comfort and orderliness of the school facilities, the
opportunities students have for participation in the school programme, the
peer norms that are prevalent and the nature of the administrative staff-
student cohesion and support systems. To this end, Sackney conceived
school organisational climate with the following attributes: an influence
on psychological processes and achievement, alterable, the perceptions
of the participants in the school setting is the basis for change of the
climate, the school climate is established by the principal and school
staff and is capable of change, and school climate can impact on student
achievement, with positive climate impacting positively on the students
academic achievement, and vice versa.
School organisational climate, according to Oyetunji (2006) is the
atmosphere; tone or feeling that prevails in a particular school. It is
brought about by the interaction between the principal and teachers,
among teachers and students. Also, the school as a social system compels
the principal, teachers and students to interrelate at administrative level in
area of planning, decision making, problem solving and control. They
also interact through personnel matters which are part of normal school
routine. This means that the school organisational climate results from the
effects of the interactions of the school members – principal, teachers,
students, administrative staff and other stakeholders.
19
In this present study, school organisational climate is a broad
concept that relates to the way principal, teachers, students and parents
experience and perceive the quality of the school working environment
emanating from their interactions. The nature of the interactions consists
of the academic and social dimensions. Whereas the academic dimension
deals with the schools administrator’s effectiveness in leadership and
administration, the social dimension deals with the nature of the facilities,
the aesthetic appeals and comfort to the members of the school and the
nature of interactions among the school members. The appropriate blend
of these two dimensions can result in positive school organisational
climate capable of effective job performance on the part of the teachers
and good performance of the students.
On the other hand, management of the school organisational
climate could be described as strategies the school administrators employ
to make positive changes in the organisational climate. Such strategies
could include, motivating the teachers and students with a view to
creating a friendly atmosphere for teaching and learning to take place.
Sackney (2007) identified some of the strategies that could enhance
school climate which include opportunities for students’ participation, use
of rewards and praise, high expectation, collegial organisational process
and student-staff cohesion and support, among others.
20
Types of School Organisational Climate
School organisational climate has been classified in several ways
depending on the theoretical framework. For instance, Willower, Eidell
and Hoy (1973) classified school climates into custodial and humanistic
climate. A school with custodial climate would operate from a controlled,
impersonal and order-oriented environment. A humanistic school climate
would operate from an interactive, self-disciplined and open
communicative mode. Hoy and Miskel (2001) wrote that the custodial –
to – humanistic continuum on school climate focus on teacher-student
relationship rather than principal –teacher relationship. It is rightly termed
as pupil-control perspective on school organisational climate. Also, Hoy
and Tarter (1997) classified school climate into healthy and unhealthy
school climate. The healthy school climate is the school that has less
external influence, such as unreasonable parental and community
pressures, while the unhealthy (sick) climate is controlled by external
forces of the parents and the community demands.
Similarly, school climate has been classified according to four
systems developed by Likert (1961). These include System 1 – Exploitive
– Authoritative, System 2 – Benevolent – Authoritative, System 3 –
Consultative and System 4 – Participative. System 1 - exploitive –
authoritative (or punitive-authoritative) depicts a school climate in which
the principal adopts a directive leadership style. System 2 - benevolent-
21
authoritative (or paternalistic-authoritarian) emphasis a one-to-one
relationship between subordinates and leader in the school environment
in which the subordinate is relatively isolated from others in work –
related matters. System 3 - consultative climate is the type of school
climate where the principal employ more of a participative leadership
style in which the leader tends to consult with people individually in the
process of making decisions. System 4 - The participative (or group
interactive) climate shows a school that emphasises team interaction in all
of the critical organisational processes. Hence the school climate types in
this context are arrayed on a continuum from exploitive – authoritative to
participative climates.
Perhaps, the most popular and widely accepted school
organisational climate types, is the one developed by Halpin and Croft
(1963). This climate types are arrayed on a continuum of open – to –
closed and composed of six types of climates. These include, (1) open,
(2) autonomous, (3) controlled, (4) familiar, (5) paternal, and (6) closed.
An open climate is used to describe the openness and authenticity of
interaction that exists among the principal, teachers, students and parents.
Hoy and Sabo (1998) stated that an open climate reflects the principal and
teachers cooperative, supportive and receptive attitudes to each other’s
ideas and their commitment to work. The principal shows genuine
concern for teachers; motivates and encourages the staff members (high
22
supportiveness). The principal gives the staff freedom to carry out their
duties the best way they know (nondirectiveness). The principal does not
allow routine duties to disrupt teachers’ instructional responsibilities (low
hindrance). Also, in a school characterised by open climate, teachers are
portrayed as tolerant, helpful and respectful professionals (low
disengagement). They are caring and willing to assist students when need
be. Teachers work hard so that students succeed (high commitment).
They care, respect and help one another as colleagues and even at
personal level (high collegial relations). As a team they work for the
success of students. Both the principal and teachers are accessible and
approachable as they maintain close relationships with students and
parents (Halpin 1966). Hoy and Tarter (1997) found that high supportive
principal behaviour, low directive principal behaviour, high engaged
teacher behaviour are attributes of an open/healthy organisational climate.
The autonomous school climate portrays an atmosphere where
teachers are given a good measure of freedom to operate in the school.
The principal models enthusiasm and diligence. Both the teachers and
students are happy and there is no external threat or influence. Teachers
have great desire to work and students are highly motivated to learn.
There is close relationship among the principal, teachers, students and
parents (Halpin, 1966). This implies that in this type of climate there is
effective management of organizational climate.
23
In controlled school climate, hard work is the major characteristic.
Although the principal does not model commitment, hard work is over-
emphasised to the extent that little or no time is given to social life.
Nonetheless, teachers are committed to their work and spend considerable
time on paper work. Thus, in most cases, there is little time to interact
with one another. Students are also hard working, but are given little time
for participation in extra curricular activities. The principal often employs
a direct approach, keeps distance from teachers, students and parents in
order to avoid familiarity. Parents are not encouraged to visit school with
their children’s problems as the time on such matters could be used on
something worthwhile (Silver, 1983).
The familiar school climate depicts a laisssez-faire atmosphere.
The principal is concerned about maintaining friendly atmosphere at the
expense of task accomplishment. Thus, a considerable percentage of
teachers are not committed to their primary assignment. Some who are
committed resent the way the principal runs the school; they do not share
same views with the principal and their colleagues. As a result, those who
are not committed, form a clique because they are of the same attitude,
they become friends. Most students do not take their studies seriously and
some of them give flimsy excuses to be out of class or absent from
school. Most parents are not involved in their children’s education, they
are not keen to find out what their children do or do not do in school. In
24
other words a careful supervision is needed for this type of climate to be
effective.
Paternal climate depicts an atmosphere where the principal is very
hardworking, but has no effect on the staff; to them hard work is not a
popular term. There is a degree of closeness between the principal and
teacher, but the principal’s expectation from teachers is rather
impractical. All the same, the principal is considerate and energetic, but
the leadership approach is benevolently autocratic. As a result, most
teachers, students and parents prefer to maintain distance from the
principal often, students cannot express their difficulties or problems with
boldness and parents visit the school only when it is absolutely necessary
(Costley and Todd, 1987). The meeting of Parent Teacher Association
(PTA) is one of such occasions.
On the closed school climate, Hoy and Sabo (1998) asserted that it
represents the ‘antithesis of the open climate’. The main characteristic of
this type of climate as identified by Halpin (1966) is lack of commitment
and or unproductive (high disengagement). There is no commitment,
especially on the part of the principal and teachers. There is no emphasis
on task accomplishment; rather the principal stress routine, trivial and
unnecessary paper work to which teachers minimally respond. The
principal is rigid and controlling (high directiveness). The principal is
inconsiderate, unsupportive and unresponsive (low supportiveness).
25
Consequently, most teachers are frustrated and ineffective. Hoy and Sabo
(1998) add that there is lack of respect for the principal. In addition, the
teachers lack respect for and are intolerant and divided, thus there is
social tension in the school. Hoy and Tarter (1997) found that students in
the closed climate do not achieve high academic standard or have positive
attitude towards school and each other due to lack of example to emulate.
However, it is worthy of note that the six school climates by Halpin
(1966) has no universal applications based on the levels of education,
geographical location and culture. Cheng (1985) found that the climate of
secondary school in Hong Kong corresponds to the open and closed
climate but none of the other climate corresponded with the rest four
climate types. Cheng concluded that the designation and characteristics of
organizational climate may be different based on culture and society.
Also, in relation to the higher levels of education, Bolman and Deal
(2003) identified two organizational climates including balanced and
unbalanced climates. The balanced climate is one in which the staff rated
above average in efficiency and effectiveness, concern for staff welfare,
goal attainment and harmonious work environment. The unbalanced
climate scores below average in the criteria used as in the balanced
climate.
Furthermore, in subsequent studies, the six organizational climates
did not fully apply to the school situation. Andrews (1965) stated that the
26
individual subsets of open and closed continuum were mere predictive of
the school’s climate than the overall climate categories. Thomas (1976)
stated that apart from open-closed climate classifications, the middle
classifications are of questionable validity. To this end, Kottkamp,
Mushern and Hoy (1987) reported a revision of the original
Organisational Climate Description Questionnaire (OCDQ) to make it
valid for measuring the climate of secondary schools. The original OCDQ
was developed for use in the elementary school and the results could not
appropriately apply to the secondary school (Shackney, 2007). This led to
the revision of the OCDQ now to be known as OCDQ-Rs (Shackney,
2007). This present study adapts the school climate types by Halpin
(1966) with the modifications thereof. This is to make it amendable to
measuring the organisational climate of secondary schools.
Factors Influencing School Organisational Climate
A number of factors influence school organizational climate which
range from the school plant, interactions and the leadership behaviour of
the school administrators. Owens and Valesky (2007) stated that climate
is generally defined as the characteristics of the total environment in a
school building and these characteristics are composed of four
dimensions in line with the taxonomy of school climate by Taguiri
(1968). These dimensions which could also influence the quality of
school climate are: ecology, milieu, social system and culture.
27
Ecology refers to the physical and material factors in the
organization, for example, the size, age, design, facilities and conditions
of the building or buildings. It also refers to the technology used by
people in the school; desks and chairs, chalkboards, elevators, everything
used to carry out the school activities. Milieu refers to the social
dimension of the school and has to do with everything relating to the
people such as how many people are there and what are they like in terms
of race and ethnicity, salary level of teachers, socioeconomic level of
students. Others include educational levels of teachers, the morale and
motivation of adult and students and level of job satisfaction of the
people, among other factors.
Social system as a factor that determines the quality of school
climate refers to the organizational and administrative structure of the
school. These include how the school is organized, the communication
patterns among the people (who talks to whom about what), what work
groups there are, among others. Culture as a determinant of climate
quality refers to the value, belief systems, norms, and ways of thinking
that are characteristics of the people in the school. It is ‘the way we do
things around here’. In this case, school culture is distinguished from
school climate as culture refers to the behavioural norms, assumptions,
and beliefs of a school, whereas climate refers to perceptions in the
school that reflect those norms, assumptions and beliefs, (Owens and
28
Valesky, 2007). Owens and Valesky stressed that the culture of a school
exerts powerful influence on the development of the climate as it
influences the way the people in the school perceive events and make
sense of those events. Therefore, culture has influences on the attitudes
and feelings of the people.
The two factors that influence school orgainaitional climate include
academic and social related factors (Sackney, 2007). Academic related
factors include, leadership skills, teachers’ skills, collaborative and use of
rewards and praise. The social related factors include administrative –
staff – student cohesion and support structures, peer norms, opportunities
for students to participate, appearance and comfort. It is asserted that the
academic related factors are concerned with how the school uses rewards
and praise, the effectiveness of the teachers and the principal, and the
collaborative processes that exist within the school. The social related
factors is concerned with the appearance, comfort and orderliness of the
school facility, the opportunities students have for participation in the
school programmes, the peer norms that are prevalent and the nature of
the administrative staff-student cohesion and support system. All these
factors interplay to create a positive school climate.
These claims had been severally confirmed by some studies. For
example, Putter, Manghan, Mortimore, Ouston and Smith (1979) stated
that behaviour and academic tended to be better when the school was
29
clean and in good decorative condition. Putter, et al (1979) also found
that schools which gave students tasks of responsibility were associated
with better pupil behaviour, better attendance, less delinquency and
higher achievement. Murphy, Neil, Hallinger and Mitman (1985) stated
that effective schools maintain a safe and orderly environment for
learning. They also maintained that the most important collegial
organizational processes are open communication, shared decision
making, and confrontation of conflict situation, collaborative planning,
and the building of consensus. These assertions and research findings
underscore the importance of academic and social related factors in
determining the quality of the school organisational climate.
More importantly, Owens and Valesky (2007) stated that the
principal and teachers behaviour contributes immensely to the creation of
a conducive school climate. They maintained that the school
administrator has a lot to do to alter the direction of the climate and also
do the teachers. Sackney (2007) asserted that there cannot be a good
school climate with bad teacher, stressing that the effective teacher can
overcome many obstacles in any school. Therefore, considerable efforts
at creating a positive school climate hinge on the principal and the
teachers behaviours. Halpin and Croft (1963) have identified some of the
important principal’s behaviour. These include thrust, consideration,
aloofness and production emphasis. Thrust depicts the behaviour of a
30
principal that set a hardworking example; consideration is the principal
that treat teachers with dignity and has human concern. A principal with
aloofness behaviour maintains social distance such as warm, cold and
friendly dispositions. The production emphasis behaviour tries to get the
teachers to work harder by supervising closely, being directive and
demanding results.
On the other hand, teachers exhibit certain behaviour such as
intimacy, disengagement, espirit and hindrance (Halpin and Croft, 1963).
A teacher with intimacy behaviour shows some degree of social
cohesiveness among other teachers and disengagement shows the teacher
that are involved and committed to achieving the goals of the school.
Espirit behaviour shows the teachers with apparent morale among the
colleagues. Hindrance describes the situation where the teacher sees
rules, paperwork and other administrative encumbrances as impeding
their work.
According to Halpin and Croft (1966), the exhibition of these
behaviours by the principal and teachers were capable of creating certain
climates – school. For example, the school with a closed climate has the
teacher that tends not to be highly engaged in the work, they do not work
well together and their achievement as a group is minimal. The principal
in such a school is seen by the teachers as ineffective in leading them, as
creating a great deal of hindrance to their work, and was not inclined to
31
be concerned about their personal welfare. The behaviour in the open
climate shows the principal as an easy, authentic integration of the
official rule, shows no aloofness and with minimal hindrance.
The views that have been expressed by authors show that there are
various factors influencing school organisational climate. These range
from the physical appearance of the school building, the landscaping and
the facilities. Others include the culture and the social cohesiveness in the
school and that of the teacher and principal’s behaviours.
Principal’s Leadership Behaviour and School Organisational
Climate
Principal’s leadership behaviour is an important factor that
influences school organisational climate. According to Okumbe (1998)
leadership behaviour refers to a particular leadership style that a leader
adopts to motivate the subordinates to achieve the objectives of the
organisation. Oyedeji and Fasasi (2006) wrote that the principal is
regarded as the chief executive of the school, who is responsible for all
that happens in the school. As the chief executive, the principal assigns
duties to those who could perform the duties, though all responsibilities
still reside in the principal as the accounting officer. Babayemi (2006)
views principalship as involving the control of human and material
resources of the school. The position of the principal in the school is so
germane to the extent that the school cannot exist without that position.
32
To this end, the principal is seen as the supervisor, manager, school
climate developer, and change facilitator. It is the important role that
principal performs in school and the behaviour exhibited in the leadership
roles that endeared the principal to be a veritable source of school climate
building. Kelley and Williamson (2006) stated that the leadership
behaviour of the principal affects the school climate and the academic
achievement of the students.
According to Halpin and Croft (1963), the leadership behaviour of
the principal and the teachers’ interactions has a greater influence on the
climate of the school. They identified the leadership behaviour of the
principal include the following: aloofness, production emphasis, thrust,
and consideration. Aloofness is the principal’s leadership behaviour that
refers to the extent to which some of the principal keep social distance
from the staff, give excessive rules and regulations. Some principals are
seen as unfriendly, they do not show human feelings as they relate to the
staff. Silver (1983) stated that this distance is both psychological and
physical; it is psychological because these principals avoid informal
discussions, they do not joke with staff and the staff are aware of the
manners of the principal’s expectations. This is also physical in the sense
that the principal may choose to be reserved or to be open and interact
freely with the staff, they may use their position to assist the staff to
achieve the school goals and they may either choose to use their voice,
33
mannerism and behaviour to show their superiority. Both the
psychological and physical distances have influence on the school
climate.
The principal with production emphasis shows authoritarian and
controlling behaviour that makes such principal rigid. Therefore, the
principal supervises the staff closely, the principal believes strongly that
people work best under tension and pressure. The principal also believes
that when all attention is directed to work, it minimises personal clashes
that sometimes occur among the staff. The principal believes that the
social and psychological needs of teachers are met when they are
dedicated and committed to their work. This type of leadership behaviour
influences how the staff will discharge the responsibilities and it will
ultimately affect the school climate.
Furthermore, the principal with thrust as leadership behaviour,
according to Oyetunji (2006) characterises the principal that is
hardworking, the staff are both intrinsically and extrinsically motivated,
the staff work hard and enjoy their work. The principal with this
behaviour influences the school climate positively, all activities are
focussed and directed to achieving the school goals, both teachers and
students enjoy teaching and learning. Consideration as a leadership
behaviour has to do with the principal that relates and respond to staff and
their needs, having personal interest in things that concern the staff,
34
students and parents if it means sacrificing some time to do this, the
principal shows sympathy when the need arises and celebrates teachers,
students and parents’ achievements. Azzara (2006) asserted that showing
concern for teachers, parents and students is the heart of school leadership
and is capable of influencing the climate positively. The four leadership
behaviours have varying degrees of influences on the school climate; the
principal with aloofness affects the climate negatively as those with
production emphasis, while the principal with thrust and consideration
leadership behaviours affect the school climate positively.
The earlier scholar simply categorised leadership behaviour into
initiating structure and consideration (Halpin, 1959). Initiating structure
refers to the behaviour in delineating the relationship between the leader
and the members of the group, and in endeavouring to establish well-
defined patterns of organisation, channels of communication and methods
of procedure. Consideration is behaviour indicative of friendship, mutual
trust, respect and warmth in the relationship between the leader and the
members of the group. Other leadership behaviour relate to whether the
principal is concerned with empowering the teachers, supporting the
students and is concerned with professional interests of the teachers and
the students and adequate provision of school resources. To this end,
Jerffrey, Dorma, Barry, Fraser, Carmis and McRobber (1997) identified
the following leadership behaviours in secondary school; empowerment,
35
student support, affiliation, professional interest, mission consensus,
resource adequacy and work pressure.
The Bolman and Deal’s leadership frame is very relevant as
leadership behaviour influencing school organisational climate. Bolman
and Deal (2003) found the following leadership style: structural (the
assembly plant), human resource (the clan), political (the coliseum), and
symbolic (the shrine). The structure frame of leadership emphasises
efficiency and effectiveness and the leader with this behaviour makes
rational decision over the personal and strive to achieve organisational
goal and objectives through coordination and control. The human
resource leadership style is concerned with the individuals and the leader
values camaraderie and harmony within the work environment and strives
to achieve organisational goals through meaningful and satisfying work.
The political emphasises competition and the leader with this behaviour
values practicality and authenticity, and strive to achieve organisational
goals through negotiation and compromises. The symbolic leader’s is
interested in meanings and values the subjective and organisational goals
are achieved through interpretative rituals and ceremonies.
From the foregoing, the principal’s leadership behaviour as
identified by Halpin and Croft (1963) remain very authentic as the
subsequent classifications are merely emphasising on some aspects of the
behaviour and giving them unique names for originality. Therefore, the
36
leadership behaviours of principals range from an unfriendly disposition
to friendly disposition or from production emphasis to human emphasis.
Consequently the open –closed continuum identified by Halpin and Croft
(1963) characterise the school climates.
Managing the School Organisational Climate
Managing the organisational climate of the school hinges much on
the leadership prowess of the principal through the adoption of
appropriate management principles and practices. Bowers (1976), citing
Likert (1961) identified four managerial approaches for managing the
organisational climate. These are System 1- exploitive-authoritative (or
punitive-authoritarian), System 2 – benevolent-authoritative (or
paternalistic-authoritarian), System 3- consultative and System 4- the
participative (or group interactive).
In explaining these organisational climate management approaches,
Owens and Valesky (2007) stated that System 1 – exploitive-
authoritarian is the management approach based on classical management
concepts, a Theory X view of motivation, and directive leadership style.
System 2 – benevolent – authoritarian (or paternalistic – authoritarian, is
the management of organisational climate that emphasis a one-to-one
relationship between subordinate and leader in an environment in which
the subordinate is relatively isolated from others in work related matters.
System 3 – consultative employs more of a participative leadership style
37
in which the leader tends to consult with the people individually in the
process of making decisions. System 4 – the participative (or group
interactive) model of an organisational climate management uses Theory
Y concept of human functioning and also emphasises team interaction in
all of the critical organisational process. The four systems of
organisational climate management approaches underscore the role of the
principal in adopting management principles that relate to either people
orientation or production orientation as identified by Halpin and Croft
(1963).
In the school setting, people are the vital component and the
principal ought to give attention to this category of the organisation.
Azzara (2001) stated that the principal needs to be people oriented,
stressing that the principal needs to remember that teachers, students and
parents are human and as such they have strengths and weaknesses. It is
therefore, the principal’s responsibility to create situations where the
strength of people will be tapped for facilitating the achievement of
school goals. Benton (1995) believes that the principal needs to recognise
human dignity. This implies that teachers should not be perceived as
slaves, but as colleagues in order to create the needed harmony. Benton
believes further that the principal as well as teachers need to balance
individuals concerns in their private lives with demands of their jobs as
the nature of their work require both personal and professional
38
management. The principal in managing the school climate needs to
model and facilitate good relationship among the school community by
recognising the inherent worth of human beings irrespective of status or
positions in the school hierarchy.
The findings of Harris and Lowery (2002) indicate that the
principal who respects and treats every member of the school community
fairly and equally encourages and emphasises behaviour that create
positive school climate. In addition, Heller (2002) affirmed that showing
compassion to staff makes them more willing to put in extra hours when
need be. Heller believes in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs that people
function at high levels when their basic needs are met, stressing that
personal relationships enhance loyalty and mutual support. Thus when
people are treated as human beings as opposed to machines, their
potentials are discovered and utilised to the advantage of the school,
hence the school climate can be effectively managed.
Furthermore, Freiberg and Stein (1999) compared sustaining
school climate to tendering a garden that requires continuous effort to
retain its beauty. Continuous effort implies the involvement of
motivation, evaluation and feedback and staff development. Benton
(1995) stated that the need for security, sense of belonging and
recognition go a long way in determining a worker’s attitudes and level of
performance. Benton opined that the leader that recognises the individual
39
needs, is most of the time satisfied using recognition and support than
with money. This underscores the need for the principal to make use of
praise to motivate staff. Fulton and Maddock (1998) stated that the
principal has great opportunity to use his emotion in a constructive way to
energise teachers, students and parents and maximise motivation, getting
them to be personally engaged in school activities in pursuit of school
goals. Therefore, as a motivator, the principal needs to consistently
acknowledge and praise the performance of teachers, students and
parents. This motivates them towards greater participation and
performance with overall effect on the positive school climate. In
addition, Steffy (1989) pointed out that the purpose of evaluating the
teachers should be to provide them with feedback on their performance
and should not be seen as an end, but rather as a means to an end. This
should be done consistently in order to maintain a positive climate in the
school. Hill (1997) wrote that when evaluation is used well, it builds
confidence and competence in the teachers and they will value it and
performance enhanced. This is capable of enhancing the school
organisational climate.
Another management practice that can ensure effective school
climate is the staff development. Harris (2002) stated that staff
development is critical to student progress and therefore school
improvement, stressing that research findings show that successful
40
schools encourage and facilitate the learning of both teachers and
students. The quality of staff development and learning is pivotal to
maintaining and enhancing the quality of teaching and learning. The staff
development is effective if the teachers are involved in the process
themselves, therefore, Speck and Knipe (2004) maintained that
professional development plan should not be prescribed for teachers
rather, teachers should have input in their professional development
plans. Dufour and Eaker (1998) stated that the purpose of staff
development is to help teachers as individuals and as a team to become
more effective in helping the students achieve the intended results of their
education. In essence, staff development benefits both teachers and the
school because the teachers learn for themselves and this makes them
more effective teachers in class; that is, the passion to learn will spill over
to their students and the students’ enthusiasm will increase. Therefore,
staff development is imperative for the school in order to keep abreast
with the demands of teaching and learning in a rapidly changing world.
Uben (2001) believes that it is the responsibility of the principal to set
conditions that will enable teachers reach their full potentials stressing
that the principal has the responsibility to initiate and support staff
development in schools.
Another way of creating a positive school organisational climate is
by fostering teamwork. George (2003) defined a team as a group of
41
people with complementary skills, who work actively together to achieve
a common purpose for which they hold themselves collectively
accountable. Teamwork occurs when teachers work together for the same
purpose as their skills are well utilised to achieve a common goal.
According to Cohen (2003) when teachers work as a team, they serve
their customers better. In effect, when teachers share ideas with
experiences with regards to teaching, learning and discipline, they are
likely to be more effective and efficient in the classroom. Dufour (2004)
stated that when teachers work collaboratively, it increases internal
motivation, general job satisfaction, work efficiency and professional
commitment. Also, working in team spirit and as a team member
increases teachers’ competence in their job and it boosts the relationship
among teachers. Thus, to a reasonable extent, working as a team enhances
positive school climate. It is assumed that teachers are better able to work
together as a group if they share common goals and if the school setting
encourages it.
From the review of management strategies on managing the school
organisational climate, it is clear that the principal has a number of
strategies to adopt, including the use of motivation, rewards and praise,
professional development of the staff. The principal could create positive
climate by creating friendly and aesthetic physical environment, cordial
42
and collegial relationship and participative decision making approach of
the stakeholders, among others.
Theoretical Framework
There are certain theories that explain how school climate could be
effectively managed which form the basis for this present study. Two of
these theories are identified and used as basis for the present study. They
are Behavioural Science Theories and Open-Closed Continuum School
Climate Theory.
The Behavioural Science Theories
The Behavioural Science Theories were propounded by some
Behavioural Scientist such as Max Weber (1910), Chester Bernard
(1938), Herbert Simon (1947), Abraham Maslow (1954), MacGregor
(I957) and Halpin (1958). These proponents used the behavioural
sciences to explain various motivational strategies that can ensure
productivity in the work environment. For instance, MacGregor theory of
motivation referred to as Theory X and Y is an important theory in the
Behavioural Science Theories. Theory X as propounded by Douglas
McGregor (Owens and Valesky, 2007) rests on four assumptions that the
administrator may hold:
1. the average person inherently dislikes work and will avoid it
whenever possible
43
2. because people dislike work, they must be supervised closely,
directed, coerced, or threatened with punishment in order for
them to put forth adequate effort toward the achievement of
organisational objectives
3. the average worker will shirk responsibility and seek formal
directives from those in charge
4. most workers value job security above other job-related factors
and have little ambition.
On the other hand, Theory Y is based on the assumptions about the
nature of people at work:
1. if it is satisfying to them, employees will view work as natural and
as acceptable as play
2. people at work will exercise initiative, self-direction, and self-
control on the job if they are committed to the objectives of the
organisation
3. the average person, under proper conditions, learns not only to
accept responsibility on the job but also to seek it
4. the average employee values creativity that is, the ability to make
good decisions – and seeks opportunities to be creative at work.
The adoption of Theory X and Y by the school principal in
managing the organisational climate may not be uniform in all the
schools and no one result could be expected. The principal that believes
44
in Theory X would exercise a lot of control on the staff and students in
order to create the needed school climate and those principals that believe
in Theory Y would provide the enabling environment and engender the
participation of the staff and students to create the desired school climate.
However, on the question of which management approaches and
principles produce the effective school climate is not yet fully determined
and research in this area is on going. For instance, Hormer and Sugai
(2002) believed that when all staff members within all school settings
actively teach and consistently recognise and reinforce appropriate
behaviours, the school climate would improve.
In summary, Enyi in Mgbodile(2004) wrote that the major tenets of
these theories include:
1. The best approach to facilitate work and productivity in an
organisation is through an understanding of the worker, his
job content and the work environment.
2. It is not adequate to concentrate either on the work alone as
in the Classical Management Theory or on the Worker, as
in the Human Relations Theory.
3. Integration of the two was considered more helpful in the
realisation of organisational and personal goals.
4. Administrators draw their knowledge and experiences from
the various subjects in the social sciences, incorporating
45
such areas as psychology, philosophy, economics,
anthropology, and sociology for better understanding of the
job performance of the workers.
From these beliefs, the management of any organisation that adopt
the Behavioural Science Theories would give attention to both the work
environment and the worker’s motivation toward effective and efficient
productivity. Consequently, the school administrators are expected to
give emphasis to staff and student welfare in addition to the provision of
conducive environment to achieve academic performance. Therefore, in
relation to the present study, the administrative strategies that would
ensure the conducive school climate should be anchored on the tenets of
the behavioural science theories.
Open – Closed Continuum School Climate Theory
The second theory that is relevant to the present study is Open-
Closed Continuum School Climate by Halpin and Croft (1963). The
Open-Closed Continuum as propounded by Halpin and Croft (1963) and
Kottkamp, Mucher and Hoy (1987) conceptualised school climate as
‘personality’ and it is described along open-to-closed continuum.
Kottkamp, Mucher and Hoy (1987) modified the early study by Halpin
and Croft (1963) for measuring the school climate of the secondary
school as the early study was based on elementary school. The major
beliefs of the theory include:
46
1. School climate is like an individual personality that can vary
from individual to individual. Thus school climate are not the
same for all the schools.
2. There are six types of school climate including open,
autonomous, controlled, familiar, paternal and closed climates.
The two polar are open and closed climates with open more
desirable to achieve academic performance.
3. There are four dimensions of the principal behaviours that could
influence the type of school climate including aloofness,
production emphasis, thrust and consideration. Administrators
with consideration leadership behaviour tend to create
conducive school climate than those of the rest three
behaviours.
The present study would identify the types of school climate and
the principal leadership behaviour that influence the climate in Kogi East
which can influence the administration of the school climate. The basis
for this identification is on the Open-Closed school climate continuum
bearing in mind the major tenets of the theory outlined.
Review of Empirical Studies
A number of related empirical studies have been carried out and
available for review. Nongnuang (1988) conducted a study on
organisational climate of secondary schools of East zone in Thailand. The
47
main purpose of the study was to classify the climates of secondary
schools in the east Thailand and to investigate the leadership behaviour of
school administrator in East Thailand. The design of the study was a
survey design. The Organisational Climate Descriptive Questionnaire
(Halpin and Croft, 1963) and the Leadership Behaviour Descriptive
Questionnaire developed by Halpin and Winer (1966) were used for data
collection. Data was collected from 406 teachers and 29 administrators
from 29 secondary schools randomly selected. Percentage and Analysis
of Variance (ANOVA) were used to analyse the data. The major findings
were (1) 44.83 per cent of the secondary schools had an open climate,
while 55.17 per cent had closed climate and (2) the principals of all 29
schools had leadership behaviour patterns varying from high initiative
structure and high consideration to low initiative structure and low
consideration.
The study by Nonguang and the present study are related in the
areas of identifying the organisational climate of secondary schools.
However, the study was carried out in abroad and also did not cover the
areas of how the climate could be managed effectively. The present study
was carried out in different location (in Kogi East, in Nigeria).
Furthermore, Cheng (1985) conducted a study on the
organisational climate in Hong Kong Aided Secondary Schools. The
major purpose of the study was to identify the types of organisational
48
climate and the relationship between leadership behaviour and the school
climate. The design of the study was a descriptive survey design. The
Organisational Climate Descriptive Questionnaire and the Leader
Behaviour Descriptive Questionnaire (Halpin, 1966) was used to generate
data from 627 teachers. Data collected was analysed by T’test and
Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The major findings were (1) the
organisational climate identified did not follow the open-to-closed
continuum types as identified by Halpin and Croft (1963). It was also
found that there were significant effects of initiating structure leadership
style on the school. Positive relationship was established between
leadership style and the types of organisational climate. It was concluded
that school organisational climate vary from culture to culture and that
Theory X is unfavourable to use as a basis for managing a school.
The study by Cheng is similar to the present study in the areas of
types of school climate and influence of leadership behaviour on the
school climate. It however did not extensively deal with the management
of the school climate which form a focus of the present study. The study
was carried out in a different location (China) from the present study
which was carried out in Kogi East of Nigeria.
Furthermore, Alike (1995) conducted a study on the influence of
school organisational climate on teachers’ attitude to work in Awka
Education Zone of Anambra State. The major purpose of the study was to
49
identify the types of organisational climate prevalent in schools in Awka
Education Zone of Anambra State and to determine whether it influenced
teachers’ attitudes to work. The study adopted survey design. The
population for the study consisted of sixty secondary schools in Awka
Education Zone and the subjects for the study consisted of two thousand,
one hundred and thirty teachers (2,130) from twenty randomly selected
schools in the zone were involved in the study. Descriptive statistics
(mean and standard deviations), T’test and ANOVA were statistical tools
employed for the data analysis. It was revealed that the organisational
climate of most of the schools were relatively closed and scores obtained
revealed a controlled structure, The analysis of the data also showed that
teachers’ sex, qualification and years of teaching experience did not
influence the attitude to work. Also it was revealed that teachers in
schools with open climate showed positive attitude to work while those
with closed organisational climate showed negative attitude to work. The
study relate to this present study in the area of types of organisational
climate in the schools, it focus on teacher’s attitude to work. However, in
addition, the present study focuses on the strategies for effective
management of organisational climate and focus on the influence of
leadership behaviour on the management of school climate. The location
was in Kogi East which is different from Awka.
50
Another study carried out was by Shegede (1996) on the impact of
leadership behaviour of principals on organisational climate of secondary
schools in Ondo State of Nigeria. The major purpose of the study was to
investigate and identify the leadership styles prevalent in the schools.
Survey design was used for the study. Questionnaire was administered on
500 secondary school teachers in fifty secondary schools. The study made
use of mean, standard deviations and t’test to analyse the data generated.
It was found that the organisational climate of most schools was
relatively closed. The study revealed a positive relationship between
leadership styles and the type of organisational climate. The study by
Shegede and the present study are related in the areas of identifying the
school climate types and the influence of leadership behaviour. However,
the present study covered a wider scope including the management of the
school climate and was carried out in Kogi East, a location quite different
from Ondo state.
A study was conducted by Onwuachi (1997) on school climate and
teachers job satisfaction in Enugu Education Zone of Enugu State. The
major purpose of the study was to find out to what extent the school
climate affected the satisfaction of teachers in their job. Survey design
was employed for the study. A population of 225 teachers randomly
selected from a total population of 3,684 secondary school teachers in
Enugu Education Zone. The statistical tools used for the study were
51
mean, standard deviations and t’test. The study revealed that the teachers
were satisfied with the administrative leadership style of the principals of
secondary schools in Enugu Education Zone which is related to the
present study. However, teachers were not satisfied with the insufficient
availability of infrastructural facilities in the schools. The study focussed
mainly on the effect of school climate on teachers’ job satisfaction. The
present study is broader in scope including the strategies for managing
organisational climate of schools, factors that influence school
organisational climate in addition to identifying the climate types and was
carried out in Kogi East.
Summary of Review of Related Literature
The concept of organisational climate is broad including the total
environment of the school ranging from the physical, social and
psychological environments. The school organisational climate is a
relatively enduring quality of the internal environment of the school that
is experienced by the members and stakeholders, influences the
behaviours of the members and can be described in terms of the values,
and norms which can enhance or impede the performance of the school.
The types of school organisational climate are on the continuum of open-
to-closed climate.
Authors consulted identified factors that influence organisational
climate to include: the nature of the environment, teachers’ and the
52
principal’s leadership behaviours. These behaviours include low initiating
structure, high initiating structure, thrust, aloofness, production emphasis
and consideration.
On the management of school climate, authors identified the
adoption of Theory X and Y and other motivational strategies. Staff
development and the promotion of team spirit are equally effective
strategies for managing the organisational climate of the school.
From the empirical studies, various authors dealt in part on the
identification of the school organisational climates and the influence of
leadership behaviours. However, none of the studies dealt extensively on
areas of factors that influence school organisational climate and the
strategies for improving the school organisational climate. None of the
studies was carried out in Kogi East. The lack of factors influencing
school organisational climate and strategies for improving school
organisational climate in Kogi East in the previous studies are the gaps
that will be filled in the present study.
53
CHAPTER III
RESEARCH METHODS
This chapter describes the procedures for carrying out the study. It
will be discussed under the following headings: design of the study, area
of the study, population for the study, sample and sampling technique,
instrument for data collection, validation of the instrument, reliability of
the instrument, method of data collection and method of data analysis.
Design of the Study
The design of the study was a descriptive survey design. According
to Nworgu (2006), descriptive survey design is employed in a study to
collect data based on the opinions of the representative sample of the
population or sometimes from the entire population. Therefore
descriptive survey design is appropriate for this study as opinions of the
subjects would be sought.
Area of the Study
The study was carried out in the Eastern senatorial zone of Kogi
state (Kogi East). The zone covers 9 local government areas of the state
including, Ankpa, Bassa, Dekina, Idah, Ibaji, Igalamela/Odolu, Ofu,
Omala and Olamaboro. The choice of this zone is motivated by its size;
being the most populous in the state with more secondary schools than
the other two zones of the state.
54
Population for the Study
The population for the study was 2231 teaching staff comprising
142 principals and 2089 teachers drawn from 142 secondary schools in
Kogi East (see appendix A for the list of Secondary schools in Kogi
East). These are managed by the State Teaching Service Commission
(TSC) and Science, Technology and Technical Education Board
(STTEB). This information was obtained as at July 2008, from the two
bodies.
Sample and Sampling Technique
The sample for the study was 503 teaching staff comprising 85
principals and 418 teachers drawn from 142 secondary schools in Kogi
East using multi-stage sampling technique. The sample size was
determined by adapting the recommendations of Nwana in Nwagu (2005)
that sample sizes for specific population could be at least 40% for a
population of few hundreds, 20% for many hundreds, 10% for few
thousands and at most 5% for several thousands. Therefore, sample sizes
of 60% and 20% for the principals and teachers respectively are
considered appropriate for this study. Using random sampling technique
by balloting system, 60% of the principals (142) were selected on
proportionate basis from the schools in each of the nine Local
Government Areas (LGAs), while 20% of the teachers (2089) from the
schools will be taken. To ensure that the sample will be true
55
representation of the population, the procedure for selection of the sample
would be done by stratifying the population into LGAs, and the
designation of the subjects – principal and teachers. The sample sizes
from the computations were 85 and 418 for the principals and teachers
respectively. Therefore, the total sample for the study was 503 (see
appendix B).
Instrument for Data Collection
The instrument has two sections (A and B). Section A deals with
demographic information and section B is a structured questionnaire
comprising three sections (1-3) with 37 items. Section one will elicit
information on the types of school organisational climate; section 2 will
elicit information about the factors that influence school organisational
climate and section 3 elicits information on the principal’s management
strategies for improving school organisational climate. A four-point
rating scale of ‘Strongly Agree’, ‘Agree’, ‘Disagree’ and ‘Strongly
Disagree’ with assigned values of 4, 3, 2, and 1 respectively is used (see
appendix C and D).
Validation of Instrument
The instrument for the study was face-validated by three experts
from the Department of Educational Foundations, Faculty of Education,
University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Two experts from Educational
56
Administration and Planning and one from Educational Measurement and
Evaluation were used.
Reliability of the Instrument
Cronbach Alpha reliability technique was used to determine the
internal consistency of the instrument (sections 1 - 3). The reliability of
the instrument was determined using data collected from a trial test of the
instrument administered on 10 and 15 principals and teachers respectively
drawn from Kogi Central to ensure that a different but similar sample as
the population was used. The entire clusters together yielded a coefficient
of internal stability of 0.85. The coefficient for each section includes:
Section 1 (0.55), Section 2 (0.84) and Section 3 (0.70) (see appendix E).
These measures are considered high enough for the instrument to be
reliable to elicit data for the study.
Method of Data Collection
The questionnaire was administered personally and with the help of
five trained research assistants. The administration of the questionnaire
on the sample was by personal visit and with reasonable time given for
completion and immediate retrieval. On the whole, 476 copies of
questionnaire were duly completed and found usable for data analysis.
This rate of questionnaire returned 95% (see appendix F).
57
Method of Data Analysis
Research questions 1-3 were answered using mean and standard
deviations. Hypotheses 1-3 were tested by the use of t-test. Numerical
values of 4, 3, 2 and 1 were assigned to the scale of strongly agree, agree,
disagree and strongly disagree respectively. The three null hypotheses
were tested using t-test at 0.05 level of significance. The criterion mean is
2.50 for the research questions.
58
CHAPTER IV
PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF DATA
This chapter deals with the presentation and analysis of data
generated for the study. The data were presented to answer the research
questions and the testing of the hypotheses formulated for the study as
follows:
Research Question 1
What types of organisational climate exist in Kogi East secondary
schools?
59
Table 1
Mean and Standard Deviation of the Respondents’ Responses on the
Types of School Organisational Climate in Kogi East Secondary Schools
S/No Items Mean SD Grand
Mean
Decision
1 Open Climate
The principal motivates and encourages the
staff members
3.54
0.53 3.46 A Climate
2 The principal gives the staff freedom to
carry out their duties the best way they
know
3.38
0.64
3 Autonomous Climate The principal sets example by working
hard
3.42
0.74 3.35 A Climate
4 The principal encourages interpersonal
relationships among teachers, students and
parents
3.27
0.74
5 Controlled Climate The principal emphasis hard work and no
time is given for social life
2.76
0.87 2.76 A Climate
6 The principal supervises the teachers very
strictly 3.26
0.64
7 Parents are not encouraged to visit school
with their children’s problems 2.27
0.91
8 Familiar Climate The principal emphasis social relationship
and gives little time for the official tasks
1.83
0.82 2.09 Not a
Climate
9 Informal groupings are rampart with some
resenting to the way the principal runs the
school
2.12
0.92
10 Most students do not take their studies very
seriously 2.31
0.99
11 Paternal Climate The principal is very hard working and
does almost all the works alone
2.17
1.04 2.02 Not a
Climate
12 The principal maintains only official
relationship with the teachers and students 2.05
0.74
13 Teachers are not committed to hard work 1.83
0.84
14 Closed Climate The principal does not give freedom to the
teachers to operate in the school
1.92
0.75 1.81 Not a
Climate
15 Teachers are intolerant and unsupportive to
themselves and students 1.72
0.73
16 There is no friendly social relationship
among the principal, teachers, students and
parents
1.80 0.81
N = 476
60
Table 1 revealed that open climate recorded a high grand mean of
3.46, autonomous climate had grand mean of 3.35 and controlled climate
was 2.76. With these grand means, the criterion mean of 2.50 has been
exceeded which indicated that in Kogi East secondary schools, open,
autonomous and controlled school organisations climates existed. On the
other hand, familiar climate recorded the grand mean of 2.09, paternal
climate had 2.02 and controlled climate had 1.81. These grand means are
less that the criterion mean of 2.50, which showed that familiar, paternal
and controlled school organisational climates did not exist in Kogi East
secondary schools.
Research Question 2
What factors influence the schools’ organisational climate?
61
Table 2
Mean and Standard Deviation of the Respondents’ Responses on the
Factors that influence School Organisational Climate in Kogi East
Secondary Schools
S/No
.
Statements Mean SD Decision
1 Clean school physical environment
contributes positively to school climate 3.63
0.56 A Factor
2 Good aesthetic school environment enhances
school climate 3.28
0.62 A Factor
3 Cooperation among staff members enhances
school climate 3.33
0.80 A Factor
4 Parents’ supportive behaviour promotes
positive school climate 3.53
0.59 A Factor
5 Students’ disciplined behaviour enhances
school climate 3.41
0.62 A Factor
6 Principal’s administrative competence
influence positively the school climate 3.39
0.65 A Factor
7 Teachers’ teaching competence enhances
school climate 3.40
0.70 A Factor
8 Effective monitoring by the governing
bodies promotes good school climate 3.40
0.69 A Factor
9 Magnificent school building enhances school
climate 3.02
0.82 A Factor
10
Aloofness
The principal’s leadership behaviour that
maintains social distance from staff and
strict adherence boost conducive school
climate for teaching and learning
2.12
0.84 Not a
Factor
11
Production Emphasis
The principal’s leadership behaviour that
directs all efforts to work and little to the
staff welfare enhance improved school
climate
2.22
1.00 Not a
Factor
12
Thrust
The leadership behaviour in which the
principal gives example and motivates
teachers to be committed to hard work
enhances school climate
3.47
0.64 A Factor
13
Consideration
The behaviour in which the principal
maintains a positive social relationship with
the teachers leads to improved school
climate
3.39
0.65 A Factor
N = 476
62
Table 2 showed that out of 13 identified factors; only two were not
factors that could influence school organisational climate in Kogi East
secondary schools. The factors that influence school organisational
climate include: clean school environment with a high mean of 3.63,
good aesthetic school environment with a mean of 3.28, cooperation
among staff members recording a mean of 3.33, parents’ supportive
behaviour with a mean of 3.53 and students’ disciplined behaviour with
the mean of 3.41. Other factors, included, principal’s administrative
competence with a mean of 3.39, teachers’ teaching competence with a
mean of 3.40, effective monitoring by governing bodies with a mean of
3.40 and magnificent school building scoring a mean of 3.02. The
remaining factors were principal’s thrust leadership behaviour recording a
mean of 3.47 and principal’s consideration leadership behaviour with a
mean of 3.39. The two factors that did not influence school organisational
climate were principal’s aloofness leadership behaviour recording a mean
of 2.12 and principal’s production emphasis behaviour scoring a mean of
2.22.
Research Question 3
What administrative strategies can be used to improve the schools’
organisational climate?
63
Table 3
Mean and Standard Deviation of the Respondents’ Responses on the
Administrative strategies that influence School Organisational Climate in
Kogi East Secondary Schools
N = 476
Table 3 showed that all the 8 identified strategies were found to be
administrative strategies the principal could use to improve school
organisational climate, having scored more than the criterion mean of
2.50. These administrative strategies included staff development (3.56),
S/No Items Mean SD Decision
1 Principal encourages staff
development
3.56
1.36 A Strategy
2 He involves students in decision
making process
2.95
0.72 A Strategy
3 Principal promotes staff welfare 3.38
0.65 A Strategy
4
The effort by the principal to foster
team spirit among the staff
members could lead to enhanced
school organisational climate
3.45
0.63 A Strategy
5
Provision of appropriate and
adequate teaching and learning
facilities leads to effective
management of school climate
3.45
0.68 A Strategy
6
Effective implementation of staff
promotion scheme leads to
conductive school climate
3.40
0.69 A Strategy
7
Effective use of rewards and
recognition by the principal
enhances the school climate
3.46
0.67 A Strategy
8
The principal uses stringent
measures to control staff and
students which leads to effective
school climate
2.56 1.04 A Strategy
64
students’ involvement in decision making (2.95), promotion of staff
welfare (3.38) and fostering of team spirit (3.45). Other strategies
included provision of appropriate and adequate teaching and learning
facilities (3.45), effective implementation of staff promotion scheme
(3.40), effective use of rewards and recognition (3.46) and stringent
control measures on staff and students (2.56).
Hypothesis 1
There is no significant difference between the mean ratings of
principals and teachers with regard to the types of school organisational
climate in Kogi East.
Table 4
Summary of t-test on the Mean Responses of the Principals and Teachers
on the Types of School Climate in Secondary Schools in Kogi East
Response
Categories on
the types of
school climate
Categories of Respondents
df t tab t cal Decision Principals Teachers
N Mean SD N Mean SD
Open Climate 80 7.15 0.66 396 6.30 1.04 474 ±1.96 7.00 Reject
Autonomous
Climate
80 7.45 0.81 396 6.18 1.17 474 ±1.96 9.27 Reject
Controlled
Climate
80 7.40 1.57 396 8.88 1.74 474 ±1.96 -7.03 Not
Rejected
Familiar
Climate
80 6.10 1.71 396 7.95 2.29 474 ±1.96 -6.85 Not
Rejected
Paternal
Climate
80 5.20 1.44 396 7.58 2.36 474 ±1.96 -8.66 Not
Rejected
Closed
Climate
80 4.00 1.33 396 5.66 1.70 474 ±1.96 -6.25 Not
Rejected
65
N = Number of Respondents
SD = Standard Deviation
Df = Degree of Freedom
T tab = Table t Value at 0.05 level of significance
T cal = Calculated t value
Table 4 showed that there were significant differences in the
opinions of principals and teachers on the two out of the six school
organisational climates. These included open climate with t cal of 7.00
and autonomous which recorded a t’ cal of 9.27. The remaining four
school climates showed no significant differences in the mean ratings of
the principal and teachers. These school climates were controlled climate
which recorded a t cal of -7.03, familiar climate scoring a t cal of -6.85,
paternal climate with t cal of -8.06 and closed climate with t cal of -6.25.
Hypothesis 2
There is no significant difference between the mean ratings of
principals and teachers on the factors that influence schools’
organisational climate in secondary schools in Kogi East.
66
Table 5
t-test of the Mean Responses of the Principals and Teachers on the
Factors that Influence School Organisational Climate in Secondary
Schools in Kogi East
S/No. Statements Categories of Respondents
tcal Decision
Principals
(N = 80)
Teachers
(N = 396)
Mean SD Mean SD
1 Clean school physical environment
contributes positively to school climate
3.70 0.46 3.62 0.58 1.21 Not
Rejected
2 Good aesthetic school environment enhances
school climate
3.45 0.59 3.24 0.62 2.74 Reject
3 Cooperation among staff members enhances
school climate
3.70 0.56 3.25 0.82 4.66 Reject
4 Parents’ supportive behaviour promotes
positive school climate
3.90 0.49 3.49 0.61 2.65 Reject
5 Students’ disciplined behaviour enhances
school climate
3.90 0.30 3.31 0.63 8.13 Reject
6 Principal’s administrative competence
influence positively the school climate
3.65 0.48 3.33 0.67 4.04 Reject
7 Teachers’ teaching competence enhances
school climate
3.65 0.48 3.34 0.72 3.61 Reject
8 Effective monitoring by the governing bodies
promotes good school climate
3.60 0.59 3.35 0.71 2.94 Reject
9 Magnificent school building enhances school
climate
2.95 0.87 3.03 0.81 -0.80 Reject
10
Aloofness
The principal’s leadership behaviour that
maintains social distance from staff and strict
adherence boost conducive school climate for
teaching and learning
1.85 0.80 2.17 0.84 -3.14 Not
Rejected
11
Production Emphasis
The principal’s leadership behaviour that
directs all efforts to work and little to the staff
welfare enhance improved school climate
1.75 0.89 2.31 0.99 -4.70 Not
Rejected
12
Thrust
The leadership behaviour in which the
principal gives example and motivates
teachers to be committed to hard work
enhances school climate
3.70 0.46 3.42 0.67 3.52 Reject
13
Consideration
The behaviour in which the principal
maintains a positive social relationship with
the teachers leads to improved school climate
3.55 0.50 3.35 0.67 2.48 Reject
SD = Standard Deviation, T-cal = calculated value of t.
67
Table 5 showed that there were significant differences in the
opinions of the principals and teachers on 10 out of 13 identified factors
that influence school organisational climate with the given table of ±1.96 at
474 degree of freedom at 0.05 level of significance. The ten factors
include, good aesthetic school environment with a t-cal of 2.74,
cooperation among staff members recording a calculated ‘t’ of 4.66,
parents’ supportive behaviour recording a t-cal of 2.65, students’
disciplined behaviour with obtained ‘t’ of 8.13 and principal’s
administrative competence with a calculated ‘t’ of 4.04. Other factors
included, teachers’ teaching competence with a ‘t’ calculated as 3.61,
effective monitoring by governing bodies with a t-cal of 2.94,
magnificent school building scoring a calculated ‘t’ of -0.80. The
remaining factors were principal’s thrust leadership behaviour recording a
calculated‘t’ of 3.52 and principal’s consideration leadership behaviour
with a t-cal of 2.48. The three factors on which no significant differences
were recorded included, good clean environment with a calculated ‘t’ of
1.21, principal’s aloofness leadership behaviour recording a calculated ‘t’
of -3.14 and principal’s production emphasis behaviour scoring a ‘t’ of -
4.70.
68
Hypothesis 3
There is no significant difference between the mean ratings of
principals and teachers on the administrative strategies that can be used to
improve schools’ organisational climate in Kogi East.
Table 6
t-test of the Mean Responses of the Principals and Teachers on the
administrative strategies for improving School Organisational Climate in
Secondary Schools in Kogi East
S/No Items Categories of Respondents T-cal Decision
Principals
(N= 80)
Teachers
(N = 396)
Mean SD Mean SD
1 Principal encourages staff
development
3.75 0.44 3.45 0.62 4.04 Reject
2 He involves students in
decision making process
3.25 0.70 2.89 0.71 4.16 Reject
3 Principal promotes staff
welfare
3.80 0.40 3.29 0.66 6.66 Reject
4
The effort by the principal to
foster team spirit among the
staff members could lead to
enhanced school organisational
climate
3.60 0.49 3.41 0.65 2.41 Reject
5
Provision of appropriate and
adequate teaching and learning
facilities leads to effective
management of school climate
3.75 0.44 3.39 0.71 4.33 Reject
6
Effective implementation of
staff promotion scheme leads
to conductive school climate
3.40 0.74 3.40 0.68 -0.06 Reject
7
Effective use of rewards and
recognition by the principal
enhances the school climate
3.70 0.46 3.41 0.70 3.51 Reject
8
The principal uses stringent
measures to control staff and
students which leads to
effective school climate
2.25 0.95 2.62 1.04 -2.99 Not
Rejected
69
Table 6 showed that out of 8 identified administrative strategies for
improving school organisational climate in secondary schools in Kogi
East, 7 strategies recorded significant differences in the mean ratings of
the principals and the teachers with the given t’tab of ±1.96 at 0.05 at 474
degree of freedom. These administrative strategies with the respective
calculated‘t’ values, included staff development (4.04), students’
involvement in decision making (4.16), promotion of staff welfare (6.66)
and fostering of team spirit (2.41). Other strategies included provision of
appropriate and adequate teaching and learning facilities (4.33), and
effective implementation of staff promotion scheme (-0.06), effective use
of rewards and recognition (3.51). The only one strategy that showed no
significant difference in the mean ratings of the principals and teachers
was stringent control measures on staff and students (-2.99).
Summary of the Findings of the Study
The following findings were made based on the analysis of data
presented in the tables for the research questions and the hypotheses.
In Kogi East, there were three types of school organisational
climates as follows: open climate, autonomous climate and controlled
climate. The school organisational climates that did not exist in the
secondary schools in Kogi East were: familiar climate, paternal climate
and closed climate.
70
The factors that influenced school organisational climate in
secondary school in Kogi East were: clean school environment, good
aesthetic school environment, cooperation among staff members and
parents’ supportive behaviour. Others included students’ disciplined
behaviour, principal’s administrative competence, teachers’ teaching
competence, effective monitoring by governing bodies, magnificent
school building, principal’s thrust leadership behaviour and principal’s
consideration leadership behaviour. The two factors that did not influence
school organisational climate were: principal’s aloofness leadership
behaviour and principal’s production emphasis behaviour.
The administrative strategies that could improve school
organisational climate in the secondary schools in Kogi East were: staff
development, students’ involvement in decision making, promotion of
staff welfare, fostering of team spirit, provision of appropriate and
adequate teaching and learning facilities, effective implementation of
staff promotion scheme, effective use of rewards and recognition and
stringent control measures on staff and students
The analysis of data that tested hypothesis one revealed significant
differences in the mean rating of principals and teachers on open climate
and autonomous Climate. There were no significant differences between
the mean ratings of the principals and teachers on the four types of school
71
organisational climates including; controlled climate, familiar climate,
paternal climate and closed climate.
Furthermore, there were significant differences in the mean rating
of principals and teachers on the following factors that could influence
school organisational climate in secondary schools in Kogi East: good
aesthetic school environment, cooperation among staff members, parents’
supportive behaviour, students’ disciplined behaviour, principal’s
administrative competence, teachers’ teaching competence, effective
monitoring by governing bodies, magnificent school building, principal’s
thrust leadership behaviour and principal’s consideration leadership
behaviour. No significant differences between the mean ratings of the
principals and teachers were observed on the following three factors:
clean environment, principal’s aloofness leadership behaviour and
principal’s production emphasis behaviour.
It was revealed that there were significant differences in the mean
rating of principals and teachers on the following administrative
strategies that could improve school organisational climate in secondary
schools in Kogi East. These included: staff development, students’
involvement in decision making, promotion of staff welfare, fostering of
team spirit, provision of appropriate and adequate teaching and learning
facilities and effective implementation of staff promotion scheme,
effective use of rewards and recognition. On the other hand, there was no
72
significant difference on one of the administrative strategies that could
improve school organisational climate - Stringent control measures on
staff and students.
73
CHAPTER V
DISCUSSION, CONCLUSIONS, IMPLICATIONS,
RECOMMENDATIONS, LIMITATIONS AND
SUMMARY OF THE STUDY
This chapter deals with the discussions of the findings,
conclusions, implications of the findings, recommendations, limitations
of the study, suggestions for further research and summary of the study.
The discussions of the findings were presented according to the findings
of the study derived from the research questions and the related
hypotheses.
Types of School Organisational Climate Existing in Secondary
Schools in Kogi East
This study revealed that open, autonomous and controlled climates
existed in the schools in Kogi East. It was found out that familiar,
paternal and closed school organisational climates did not exist in the
secondary schools. It was further revealed that out of the 3 school
organisational climates that existed, the opinions of the principals and
teachers did not differ significantly on one – the controlled climate.
Although their opinions differed significantly on open and autonomous
school climates in favour of the principals, it was observed that it was a
mere emphasis which the principals placed more than the teachers on the
climate types. Both the principals and teachers agreed that the climates
existed in the schools. These findings did not totally agree with the
74
postulations by Halpin and Croft (1963) that six school organisational
climates existed in schools, including, open, autonomous, controlled,
familiar, paternal and closed climates. However, the findings are
consistent with that of Cheng (1985) that the school organisational
climates of secondary schools were not the same in Hong Kong as
postulated by Halpin and Croft (1963) and concluded that the designation
and characteristics of school organisational climates may be different
based on culture, society and the educational levels. This was also
corroborated by Kottkamp, Mushern and Hoy (1987) and as a result
revised the instrument developed by Halpin and Croft to be used in
secondary schools which was known as Organisational Climate
Description Questionnaire-Revised. Therefore, the lack of agreement of
school organisational climate with the earlier postulations by Halpin and
Croft (1963) observed in Kogi East might be due to cultural and societal
differences and the level of the educational institution. The level of
educational system studied in Kogi East was the secondary school instead
of primary school level that was involved in Halpin and Croft.
Factors Influencing School Organisational Climate
The present study showed that eleven out 13 identified factors,
positively influenced school organisational climate. These included: clean
school environment, good aesthetic school environment, cooperation
among staff members and parents’ supportive behaviours. Others
75
included, students’ disciplined behaviour, principal’s administrative
competence, effective monitoring by governing bodies, magnificent
school building, thrust leadership behaviour and principal’s consideration
leadership behaviours. The two factors that did not positively influenced
school organisational climate in secondary schools in Kogi East were
principal’s aloofness leadership behaviours and production emphasis
leadership behaviours. It was revealed further that the opinions of
principals and teachers did not differ significantly on the clean school
environment, principal’s production emphasis and aloofness leadership
behaviours. There were significant differences of opinions on the rest ten
factors, but these differences only revealed the emphasis each group of
respondents placed on the factors.
The present findings were consistent with the assertions of Taguiri
(1968) and Sackney (2007). Taguiri (1968) identified physical, materials
and social factors that positively influenced school organisational climate.
Sackney (2007) identified leadership skills of principals, teachers’ skills
and collaborative efforts of school’s stakeholders are necessary factors
that influenced school organisational climate. The consensus of the
principals and teachers on aloofness and production emphasis as factors
that did not positively influence school organisational climate affirms the
general belief that workers are very important for the achievement of
76
organisational goals and their welfare should be of paramount
importance.
Administrative Strategies for Managing School
Organisational Climate
Findings revealed that the eight identified strategies were all found
to be useful for improving school organisational climates. These
included: staff development, students’ involvement in decision making,
promotion of staff welfare, fostering team spirit and provision of
appropriate and adequate teaching and learning facilities. Others were
effective implementation of staff promotion scheme, effective use of
rewards and recognition and stringent control measures on staff and
students. Furthermore, no significant difference of opinion was observed
on the use of stringent control measures on staff and students between the
principals and teachers, but significant differences of opinions were
observed on the rest seven strategies. However, these differences merely
revealed differences in emphasis and not a rejection of the strategies.
The findings of the present study were consistent with the findings
of Harris (2002) that staff development, quality of facilities are critical to
improving school organisational climate. The findings also corroborate
with George (2004) that team spirit among staff members improves
school organisational climate.
77
Conclusions
Based on the findings and the discussions, it was concluded that
secondary schools in Kogi East adopted three types of school
organisational climates – open, autonomous and controlled climates. The
factors that positively influenced the climates included the following:
clean school environment, good aesthetic school environment,
cooperation among staff members, parents’ supportive behaviour,
students’ disciplined behaviour and principal’s administrative
competence. Others included, teachers’ teaching competence, effective
monitoring by governing bodies, magnificent school building, principal’s
thrust leadership behaviour and principal’s consideration leadership
behaviour.
The administrative strategies for improving school organisational
climate included the following: staff development, students’ involvement
in decision making, promotion of staff welfare, fostering of team spirit,
provision of appropriate and adequate teaching and learning facilities,
effective implementation of staff promotion scheme and effective use of
rewards and recognition.
Educational Implications of the Findings of the Study
Based on the findings and discussions, certain educational
implications were derived. The findings on the types of school
organisational climates implied that the principals could adopt a blend of
78
the different types of school organisational climate that could achieve the
desired goals rather than sticking to only one type. In doing this,
situational factors and the established culture of the school should be
taken into consideration by carefully observing, studying and analysing
the peculiarities of the school in question.
The findings on the factors influencing school organisational
climate implied that secondary schools administrators (principals) have
the responsibility of maintaining a clean school environment and ensuring
aesthetically appealing school environment. This further implied that the
school landscaping and beautifications when appropriately and
adequately maintained would enhance positive school climate and
subsequently conducive teaching and learning environment.
Furthermore, the results of the administrative strategies for
improving school organisational climate implied that the principals and
teachers need to be adequately trained and constantly retrained to gain
relevant competence in the use of the strategies. This in turn would
produce the desired results of improved school organisational climate.
It is pertinent to state also that the findings of the administrative
strategies implied that all stakeholders in secondary schools in Kogi East
have respective roles to play in improving the school organisational
climate. The stakeholders include government, community, parents,
principals, teachers and students. These stakeholders need to be kept
79
abreast of their respective roles in improving school organisational
climate.
Recommendations of the Study
The following recommendations were made based on the findings,
discussions, conclusions and implications of the study:
1. Principals in Kogi East secondary schools should adopt an
appropriate blend of the characteristics of the various types of
the school climates in improving school climate. For instance,
the principal should not give absolute freedom to the teachers
without some measure of strict supervision. This is a blend of
both the open and the closed school organisational climate.
2. Principals should source for funds from government,
community, parents and other stakeholders to embark on school
environmental face-lift in school building and landscaping to
ensure clean and appealing school physical environment which
are critical for improving school organisational climate.
3. The principal through the special funds sourced should provide
appropriate teaching and learning facilities.
4. Principals should regularly attend workshops, seminars and
conferences in order to improve skills in adopting appropriate
administrative strategies for improving school organisational
climate.
80
5. Deliberate efforts should be made for the creation of conducive
and collegial atmosphere by all the stakeholders of secondary
schools in Kogi East in order to improve on the existing school
climate. To achieve this, regular joint fora should be organised
where all the stakeholders would interact and engage in
discussions for improving school organisational climate and
performance.
6. Educational institutions charged with the responsibility of
training and retraining school administrators should enrich the
curriculum and instructional facilities to ensure adequate and
appropriate coverage of learning experiences in school
organisational climate.
Limitations of the Study
The following limitations may affect the generalisation of the
findings of this study,
1. The researcher made use of only a Senatorial Zone in Kogi
State out of the three zones. Considering the slight variations in
culture and environmental factors, the findings may not
adequately be used to generalise on the entire Kogi State.
2. The descriptive survey design employed for the study permitted
the use of questionnaire for data collection. Therefore the data
collection relied mainly on the ability and the knowledge of the
81
respondents to supply the required data. The use of other
instruments such as interview, observation and checklist may
improve the quality of data generated thereby improving
generalisation of the findings.
3. The researcher considered that the best respondents for the
study were the principals and teachers, leaving out the students
and other government agencies. The inclusion of these other
stakeholders may improve the quality of the data generation and
generalisation.
Suggestions for Further Studies
Based on the findings and limitations of this study, the following
suggestions were made for further studies:
1. This study should be replicated in other two senatorial zones of
Kogi State.
2. A study on the relationship between school organisational climate
and students’ academic performance should be carried out in
secondary schools in Kogi East.
3. A correlational study between the principals’ leadership behaviour
and school climate should be carried out in Kogi East secondary
Schools.
82
Summary of the Study
The study sought to evolve administrative strategies for improving
management of school organisational climate in secondary schools in
Kogi East, Kogi State. To guide the study, three research questions were
posed and three hypotheses formulated and tested at 0.05 level of
significance.
To further guide the study, literature was consulted. From the
literature, the concept of school organisational climate was seen as the
total environment of the school ranging from the physical, social and
psychological environments that influence the behaviour of the members
of the school. Also, from the literature, there were gaps in factors that
influence school climate and strategies for improving school climate.
Based on the literature and the research questions, structured
questionnaire was constructed consisting of 37 items bordering on the
types of school organisational climate, factors influencing the school
climate and administrative strategies for improving school organisational
climate. The questionnaire was face-validated by three experts from the
University of Nigeria, Nsukka. The instrument was then trial-tested on a
sample of 25 in Kogi Central Senatorial Zone for reliability. Cronbach
Alpha reliability technique was used to determine the internal consistency
of the instrument and this yielded a total coefficient of 0.85 which was
considered adequate for the data collection.
83
A sample 503 (consisting of 85 principals and 418 teachers) was
drawn from the population of 2, 231 (142 and 2089 principals and
teachers respectively). The copies of questionnaire were administered on
the respondents personally and by the help of five trained research
assistants. A total of 476 copies of the questionnaire were duly completed
and useful for data analysis. This consisted of 80 principals and 396
teachers.
Data generated was presented in tables showing the mean and
standard deviations of the responses for answering the research questions.
Data for testing the hypotheses were presented depicting the mean,
standard deviations, t’cal and t’tab and the hypotheses tested at 0.05 level
of significance. Based on the data analysis, the following findings were
made:
1. Three school organisational climates existed in Kogi East secondary
school, including open, autonomous and controlled school climates.
2. Eleven factors that influenced school organisational climate were
identified: clean school environment, good aesthetic school
environment, cooperation among staff members and parents’
supportive behaviours. Others included, students’ disciplined
behaviour, principal’s administrative competence, effective
monitoring by governing bodies, magnificent school building, thrust
84
leadership between and principal’s consideration leadership
behaviours.
3. Eight administrative strategies that could improve school
organisational climates were identified as follows: staff
development, students’ involvement in decision making, promotion
of staff welfare, fostering team spirit and provision of appropriate
and adequate teaching and learning facilities. Others were effective
implementation of staff promotion scheme, effective use of rewards
and recognition and stringent control measures on staff and students.
85
References
Achimugu, L. (2000). The agonies of Nigerian teachers. PortHarcourt.
Bernan Press Limited.
Agajelu, N. A. (1991). Organsiational climate and the performance of
students in secondary schools in Enugu Urban. Unpublished M.Ed.
Thesis, Department of Educational Foundations, University of
Nigeria, Nsukka.
Alike, G. U. (1995). The influence of school organisational climate on
teachers’ attitude to work in Awka Educational Zone of Anambra
State. Unpublished M. Ed. Thesis, Department of Educational
Foundations, University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
Andrews, J. H. (1965). School organisational climate: some validity
studies. Canadian Education and Research Digest. 5, 317 – 334.
Azzara, J. R. (2006). The heart of leadership. Educational
Adminsitration, 58(4), 62-64.
Babayemi, B. A. (2006). Principalship. In J. B. Babalola, A. O., O. S
Ayeni, S.O. Adedeji, A. A. Suleiman & M. O. Arijewuyo (Eds.).
Educational management: thoughts and practice. Ibadan. Codat
Publishers, 242 – 261.
Benton. D. A. (1995). Applied human relations: an organisational
approach (6th
ed.). New Jersey. Prentice Hall.
Bolman, L. G. & Deal, T. E. (2003). Reframing organisations (3rd
ed.).
San Francisco. Jossy-Bass.
Bowers, B. G. (1976). Systems of organisation: management of the
human resources. Michigan. University of Michigan Press.
Cheng, Y. C. (1985). Organisational climate in Hong Kong aided
secondary schools. CUHK Educational Journal, 3(21995), 37 – 51.
Cohen, P.S. (2003). Value leadership: the 7 principles that drive
corporate value in any economy. San Francisco. Jossy-Bass.
Costley, D. L. & Todd, R. (1987). Human relations in organisations (3rd
ed). St. Paul. West Publishing.
86
Dufour, R. & Eaker, R. (1998). Professional learning communities at
work: best practices for enhancing students achievement. Indiana.
National Educational Service.
Eneasator, G. O. (1997). Organisational climate and teacher productivity.
In A. N. Ndu, L. O. Ocho & B. S. Okeke (eds.). Dynamics of
educational administration and management – the Nigerian
perspective, 299 – 307.
Enyi, D. (2003). Theories in educational administration. In T. O.
Mgbodile (ed.). Fundamentals in educational administration and
planning. Nsukka. Magnet Business Enterprises.
Federal Republic of Nigeria (2004). National policy on education
(revised edition). Lagos. NERC.
Freiberg, J & Stein, T. A. (1999). Measuring, improving and sustaining
healthy learning environments. In H. S. Freiberg (ed.). School
climate: measuring, improving and sustaining healthy learning
environment. Longdon. Palmer Press, 11 – 29.
Fulton, R. N. & Maddock, R. C. (1998). Motivation, emotions and
leadership: the side of management. Londaon. Quorum Books.
George, J. M. (2003). Affect regulation in groups and teams. In R. G.
Lord, R. J. Klimoski & R. Kanfer (eds.). Emotions in work place:
understanding the structure and role of emotions in organisational
behaviou, 183 – 217.
Halpin, A.W. (1959). The leadership behavior of school superintendents.
Chicago. Midwest Administration Center, The University of
Chicago.
Halpin, A. W. (1966). Theory and research in administration. New York.
Macmillan Books.
Halpin, A. W. & Croft, D. (1963). The organisational climate of schools.
Chicago. University of Chicago.
Harris, A. (2002). School improvement: what is in it for schools? London.
Rouledge Palmer.
87
Harris, S. L. & Lowery, S. (2002). A View from the classroom.
Educational leadership, 59 (8), 64 – 65.
Heller, D. A. (2002). The Power of Gentleness. Educational Leadership,
59(8): 76-79.
Hill, J. (1997). Managing performance: good, feedback, coaching and
recognition. England. Glover Publishing Limited.
Hodgetts, R. M. & Altman, S. (1979). Organisational behaviour.
London. W. B. Saunders Company.
Horner, R. & Sugai, G. (2002). School-wide behaviour support. An
emerging initiative. Journal of Postive Behavioural Support, 7, 67
– 80.
Hoy, W. K. & Miskel, C. G. (2001). Educational administration: theory,
research and practice (6th ed.). New York. McGraw-Hill.
Hoy, W. K. & Sabo, D. J. (1998). Quality middle school: open and
healthy. California. Corwin Press Inc.
Hoy, W. K. & Tarter, C. J. (1997). The road to open and healthy
schools: a Handbook for change, middle and secondary school
editon. California. Corwin Press Inc.
Idachaba, F. S. (2001). Keynote Address Delivered at the First Igala
Education summit held at the Prince Abubakar Audu University,
Anyigba, 27-28 December 2001. Retrieved on november 21,
2007from http://www.attah.net/igala1/edusumit2.htm.
Jeffry, P. D., Barry, J. F. & Cambell J. M. (1997). Relationship between
school-based and classroom-level environments in secondary
schools. Journal of Educational Administration, 35(1), 74 – 91.
Kelley, R. & Williamson, R. (2006). The relationship between servant
leadership behaviour of high school principal, school climate and
students achievement. Retrieved on June 20, 2008 from
http://www.principalspartnership.com/sept06feature.doc.
Kottkamp, R. B., Mulhern, J. A. & Hoy, W. K. (1987). Secondary school
climate: a revision of the OCDQ, Educational Administration
Quarterly, 23(3), 31 – 48.
88
Likert, R. (1961). New patterns of management. New York. Mcgraw-Hill
Books Co.
Mashall, J (2002). Effective school climate. Journal of Innovation and
Quality Management in Higher Education, 12 (2), 18 – 19.
Mgbodile, O. (2007). The dynamics of educational planning. Nsukka.
Ephrata Press
Murphy, J., Neil, M., Halligner, B. & Mitman, A. (1985). School
effectiveness: a conceptual framework. The Educational Forum,
23(3), 31 – 48.
Nongnuang, L. (1988). A study of organisational climate of secondary
schools of East Zone Thailand. Retrieved on September, 2007,
from http://www.education.nic.in/cd50years/g/z/91/oz910705.htm.
Nwagu, E. K. N. (2005). Method of research. In D. N. Ezeh (ed.). What to
write and how to write – a step-by-step guide to educational
research proposal and report. Enugu. Pearls & Gold.
Nworgu, B. G. (2006). Educational research: basic issues and
methodology (second and enlarged edition). Nsukka. University
Trust Publishers
Okumbe, J. A. (1998). Educational management: theory and practice.
Nairobi. Nairobi University Press.
Onwuachi, M. (1997). School climate and Teachers’ Job Satisfaction. A
Case Study of Enugu Educational Zone. Unpublished M. Ed.
Thesis, Department of Educational Foundations, University of
Nigeria, Nsukka.
Owens, R. G. (2004). Organisational behaviour in education: adaptive
leadership and school reform (8th
ed.). Boston. Allyn & Bacon.
Owens, R. G. & Valesky, T. C. (2007). Organisational behaviour in
education: adaptive leadership and school reform (9th ed.). Boston.
Allyn & Bacon.
89
Oyedeji, N.B. and Fasasi, Y.A. (2006). Dynamics of administrative
leadership, In J.B. Babalola, A.O. Ayeni, S.O. Adedeji, A.A.
Suleiman and M.O. Arikewuyo (Eds), Educational Management: Thoughts and Practice, Ibadan: Codat Publications, 175-186.
Oyetunji, C. O. (2006). The Relationship between Leadership Style and
School Climate in Botswana Secondary Schools. Unpublished Phd
Thesis, Department of Education Management. University of South
Africa, Pretoria.
Sackney, L (2007). Enhancing school learning climate: theory, research
and practice. Retrieved on September 27, 2007, from
http://saskschoolboards.ca/research/school_improvement/180.htm
Silver, P. (1983). Educational administration: theoretical perspective on
practice and research. Cambrdge. Harper & Row.
Shegede, L. O. (1996). Impact of Leadership behaviour of Principals on
Organisational Climate of Secondary Schools in Ondo State of
Nigeria. Unpublished M. Ed. Thesis, Department of Educational
Foundations, University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
Speck, M. & Knipe, C. (2004). Why can’t we get it right? Professional
development in our schools. California. Corwin Press Inc.
Steffy, B. E. (1989). Career stages of classroom teachers. Pennyslvania.
Technomic Publishing Co Inco.
Taguiri, R. (1968). The concept of organisational climate: exploration of
a concept. Boston. Harward University.
Thomas, A. R. (1976). The Organisational Climate of Schools. Inferential
review of education, 4, 441 – 463.
Thompson, M. D. (2004). Organisational Climate Perception and Job
Element Satisfaction: A Multi-frame Application in Higher
Education Setting. Retrieved on October 26, 2007, from
http://www.sunzi1.lib.hk/lkjo/view/33/00293.pdf.
Ubbem, G. C., Hughes, L. W. & Norris, C. J. (2001). The principal:
creative leadership for excellent schools (4th ed.). Boston. Allyn &
Bacon.
90
Wikipedia (2008). Management: Definition and much more from
answers.com. Retrieved on June 19, 2008, from
http://www.answers/com/topic/management.
Willower, D. J., Eidell, T. L. & Hoy, W. K. (1973). The school and pupil
control ideology. Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania University
Press.
91
Appendix A
List of Secondary Schools in Kogi East Senatorial Zone
S/No Name of School Total
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
IDAH
G S S IDAH
H R C Idah
I S C C Idah
G S S IDAH
O M G S Idah
D M C Idah
ST KIZITO SEM. Idah
S P C Idah
G T C Idah
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
DEKINA
A G S Abeji
C S S Okuro-Olafia
G S S Egume
C S S Egume
O L S Anyigba
C S S Anyigba
C S S Agbada II
C S S Emewe Efopa
C S S Adoji
O C H S Emewe Opada
C S S Ajowoni
M H S Anyigba
C S C C Anyigba
C S S Iyale
CMML (Special) School, Iyale
G S S Ologba
G S S Odu
G D S S Dekina
G S S Olowa
C S S Olowa
C S S Ajiolo
C S S Ajekalaga
B C SS Abocho
C S S Araga-Salifu
C S S Agada
Girls Sec Sch Ochaja
I E M C Ogbaloto
92
37
38
39
40
41
O C S S Aloko
G G S S Ojofu
CMML Sec Sch Ogbogodo
OBSS Ochaja
GSS Dekina
32
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
ANKPA LGA
YMC Sec Sch Ankpa
G S S S Enabo
E C S S Ofugo
C G S Occhi-Ofago
C S S Inye
C K C Awo-Akpali
C A I S Ojoku
C S S Ogodo
C S S Ojoku
A D C G S Ankpa
C A I S Ankpa
C S S Okenyi
G D S S Ikanekpo
C S S Emakutu
O C S S Okaba
U E C S S Ankpa
E C S S Enjema
U C S S E Odobio
A C S S Awo
M I S S Ojobe
I C S S Ikah
G G S S S Okaba
St. Charles Ankpa
23
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
OMALA LGA
Iyaji C S S Abejukolo
G D S S Abejukolo
C S S Olla
G S S Ogodu
I C S S Agbenema
C S S Ibado-Akpacha
B C S S Bagana
A C S S Agojoja-Oda
C S S Bagaji-Odo
Ife C S S Abejukolo
G S S Abejukolo
G S S S Abejukolo
12
IBAJI
93
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
C S S Odeke
G S S Onyedega
G D S S Ejule-Ojebe
C S S Enweli
C S S Iyano
C S S Odomomoh
C S S Affa
C S S Uchuchu
C S S Unale
F A M C Echeno
C S S Nwajala
11
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
98
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
OLAMABORO LGA
C H S Ofante-Ogugu
O C G S Okpo
O C S S Ogugu
E C S S Emonyoku
I C C Ikeje
A C C Etutukpe
E C C Ogbofe-Ogugu
E C C S Emagaba
C S S Adeh
E S S Emomoka
A C C Elokpo
O C G S Okpo
G S S Okpo
I C G S Imane
C H S Etutekpe
A C S S Adum-Ogugu
E C S S Adupi-Ogugu
G S S S Imane
C S S Igah
19
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
IGALAMELA/ODOLU
C S S Oforachi
C S S Ajaka
G S S Akpanya
O D S S Odolu
G S S Okenya
C S S Ogbogba
C S S Ugwaka/Olla
A D S S Avrugo
C S S Akpanya
G S S S Ajaka
C S S Egabada
94
118
C S S Ogbogbo
12
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
BASSA LGA
G S S Emi-Guni
G S S Mozum
B N C S S Adum-Woiwo
B N A G S Gboloko
C S S Akakana
C S S Effin
C S S Koji
C S S Kpanche
C S S Odenyi
G S S S Oguma
10
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
OFU LGA
G S S Alloma
C S S Onicha-Igo
C S S Ugwolawo
C S S Ejule
G S S Itobe
E C S S Ofabo
C S S Ochadamu
C S S Umomi
C S S Aloji
G G M S Ogbonicha
C S S Agojeju
C S S Ofolipa
C S S Obagu
C S S Ofakaga
14
Total 142
95
APPENDIX B
TABLE OF SAMPLE FOR THE STUDY
S/N LGAs No of Schools No of Teachers Sample No of Principals Sample
1 Idah 9 201 40 9 5
2 Dekina 32 505 101 32 19
3 Ankpa 23 448 90 23 14
4 Omala 12 131 26 12 7
5 Ibaji 11 80 16 11 7
6 Olamaboro 19 305 61 19 11
7 Igalamela/Odolu 12 168 34 12 7
8 Bassa 10 70 14 10 6
9 Ofu 14 181 36 14 8
Total 142 2089 418 142 85
Total Sample 503
96
Appendix C
Letter to the Respondents
Department of Educational Foundation
Faculty of Education
University of Nigeria
Nsukka
August 8, 2008
______________________________
______________________________
______________________________
Dear Sir/Madam
REQUEST FOR COMPLETION OF QUESTIONNAIRE
I am a postgraduate student of the above named university carrying
out a research on the effective management of school organisational
climate. I therefore request you to complete the enclosed questionnaire.
The information generated would be used for academic purpose and your
responses would be treated with the strictest confidence.
I should be glad to receive your cooperation and your honest
responses to the questionnaire items.
Thanks.
Yours sincerely
M U Oborah
PG/MED/06/41665
97
Appendix D
Questionnaire
SCHOOL ORGANISATIONAL CLIMATE MANAGEMENT
QUESTIONNAIRE (SOCMQ)
(A) DEMOGRAPHIC INFORMATION
Name of School _____________________________________
Location of the School ________________________________
LGA ______________________________________________
Designation of Staff: (1) Principal (2) Teaching Staff
(B) (1) TYPES OF SCHOOL ORGANISATIONAL CLIMATE
What is the extent of your agreement to the following
statements on the type of your school organisational climate?
S/No Items Strongly
Agree
Agree Disagree Strongly
Disagree
1
Open Climate
The principal motivates and
encourages the staff members
2
The principal gives the staff freedom
to carry out their duties the best way
they know
3 Autonomous Climate The principal sets example by
working hard
4
The principal encourages
interpersonal relationships among
teachers, students and parents
5 Controlled Climate The principal emphasis hard work
and no time is given for social life
6 The principal supervises the teachers
very strictly
7 Parents are not encouraged to visit
school with their children’s problems
98
8
Familiar Climate The principal emphasis social
relationship and gives little time for
the official tasks
9
Informal groupings are rampart with
some resenting to the way the
principal runs the school
10 Most students do not take their
studies very seriously
11 Paternal Climate The principal is very hard working
and does almost all the works alone
12
The principal maintains only official
relationship with the teachers and
students
13 Teachers are not committed to hard
work
14
Closed Climate The principal does not give freedom
to the teachers to operate in the
school
15
Teachers are intolerant and
unsupportive to themselves and
students
16
There is no friendly social
relationship among the principal,
teachers, students and parents
(2) FACTORS INFLUENCING SCHOOL ORGANISATIONAL
CLIMATE
Do you agree to the following statements on the factors that
influence school organisational climate?
S/No. Statements Strongly
Agree
Agree Disagree Strongly
Disagree
17
Clean school physical environment
contributes positively to school
climate
18 Good aesthetic school environment
enhances school climate
19 Cooperation among staff members
99
enhances school climate
20 Parents’ supportive behaviour
promotes positive school climate
21 Students’ disciplined behaviour
enhances school climate
22
Principal’s administrative
competence influence positively
the school climate
23 Teachers’ teaching competence
enhances school climate
24
Effective monitoring by the
governing bodies promotes good
school climate
25 Magnificent school building
enhances school climate
26
Aloofness
The principal’s leadership
behaviour that maintains social
distance from staff and strict
adherence boost conducive school
climate for teaching and learning
27
Production Emphasis
The principal’s leadership
behaviour that directs all efforts to
work and little to the staff welfare
enhance improved school climate
28
Thrust
The leadership behaviour in which
the principal gives example and
motivates teachers to be committed
to hard work enhances school
climate
29
Consideration
The behaviour in which the
principal maintains a positive
social relationship with the
teachers leads to improved school
climate
100
(3) PRINCIPAL’S MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES FOR
SCHOOL ORGANISATIONAL CLIMATE
S/No Items Strongly
agree
Agree Disagree Strongly
disagree
30 Principal encourages staff
development
31 He involves students in decision
making process
32 Principal promotes staff welfare
33
The effort by the principal to foster
team spirit among the staff
members could lead to enhanced
school organisational climate
34
Provision of appropriate and
adequate teaching and learning
facilities leads to effective
management of school climate
35
Effective implementation of staff
promotion scheme leads to
conductive school climate
36
Effective use of rewards and
recognition by the principal
enhances the school climate
37
The principal uses stringent
measures to control staff and
students which leads to effective
school climate
Thank your for your cooperation.
101
Appendix E
Computer Printouts for Reliability of the Instrument
****** Method 1 (space saver) will be used for this analysis ******
R E L I A B I L I T Y A N A L Y S I S - S C A L E (A L P H
A)
Reliability Coefficients - ALL SECTIONS
****** Method 1 (space saver) will be used for this analysis ******
R E L I A B I L I T Y A N A L Y S I S - S C A L E (A L P H
A)
Reliability Coefficients
N of Cases = 25.0 N of Items = 37
Alpha = .8520
Reliability Coefficients - FOR SECTION 1
****** Method 1 (space saver) will be used for this analysis ******
R E L I A B I L I T Y A N A L Y S I S - S C A L E (A L P H
A)
Reliability Coefficients
N of Cases = 25.0 N of Items = 16
Alpha = .5548
Reliability Coefficients - FOR SECTION 2
****** Method 1 (space saver) will be used for this analysis ******
102
R E L I A B I L I T Y A N A L Y S I S - S C A L E (A L P H
A)
Reliability Coefficients
N of Cases = 25.0 N of Items = 9
Alpha = .8420
Reliability Coefficients - FOR SECTION 3
****** Method 1 (space saver) will be used for this analysis ******
R E L I A B I L I T Y A N A L Y S I S - S C A L E (A L P H
A)
Reliability Coefficients
N of Cases = 25.0 N of Items = 12
Alpha = .7025
103
Appendix F
Administration and Return of Questionnaire
S/N LGAs
Copies of Questionnaire Administered
Teachers Principals
No Administered
No Returned
% No Administered
No Returned
%
1 Idah 40 40 10 5 5 6
2 Dekina 101 94 22 19 18 21
3 Ankpa 90 86 20 14 14 17
4 Omala 26 25 6 7 7 8
5 Ibaji 16 15 4 7 7 8
6 Olamaboro 61 60 14 11 10 12
7 Igalamela/Odolu 34 32 8 7 7 8
8 Bassa 14 12 3 6 5 6
9 Ofu 36 32 8 8 7 8
Total 418 396 95 85 80 94