Money and leadership: A study of superintendent contracts and the authoritarian or empowering leadership styles and actions of superintendents

The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine whether a relationship exists between superintendents' contractual language and their styles and actions in terms of authoritarian or empowering leadership. Indiana's public school superintendents' styles and actions in terms of authoritarian or empowering leadership were determined by the use of a survey. The quantitative data obtained from the surveys were compared to the contractual incentives of salary, vehicle allowance, and retirement contribution to determine if a relationship exists. Analyses were performed to determine if contracts hold any predictive powers of leadership. The goal was to determine if the large monetary incentives were actually related to how superintendents performed their duties. Because of the public nature of Indiana school superintendents and the availability of their contracts, 100% of Indiana's school superintendent contracts were collected. The survey was distributed to all superintendents in order to produce similar results. Variables studied included contracted salary, vehicle allowance, retirement contributions, and self-reported leadership qualities. Public superintendents in the state of Indiana were chosen due to their roles and responsibilities as the top decision makers in public schools, and the availability of their respective contracts. With respect to the findings, this study demonstrated inferential significance in two of the six inferential sub questions. Multiple regression analysis indicated the linear combination of salary and auto allowance did predict a significant proportion of variance in both action and style and action in terms of authoritarian or empowering leadership. That significance provided the framework to explore the data through a different lens. An independent samples t test indicated the existence of an auto allowance had an impact on action and style and action in terms of authoritarian or empowering leadership. In all the various tests utilized to analyze this data, auto allowance consistently proved to be the most significant predictor of and had the most significant relationship with leadership style, leadership action, and leadership style and action in terms of authoritarian or empowering leadership.