SYSTEMIC VARIABLES IN EFFECTIVE MANAGEMENT TEAMS

The management team has become a popular approach to the operation of school systems. Much has been written to support the management team approach, but little research has been conducted. This study isolates variables of the management team concept and examines the relationships of these management variables to the work environment of the management team as perceived by high school principals.;A questionnaire obtained data about these four variables. Moos Work Environment Scale (WES) was adapted to obtain information about the work climate of the management teams included in the population. The WES measures three dimensions of a work environment--Relationship, Personal Growth, and System Maintenance and Change.;The instruments were sent to 64 Ohio high school principals identified as serving on effective management teams through a prior research effort. Fifty-three responses were considered usable. Correlational relationships among the team management and work climate variables were found by using set-wise multiple regression techniques.;The team management approach was found to have a consistently strong, positive relationship with the Relationship dimension of the WES and with the Personal Growth dimension of the Work Environment. The team management approach had a mild, positive relationship with the System Maintenance and Change dimension. Of the four team management variables, Communication and Trust had the greatest power in explaining the amount of variance of the Work Climate variables.;Four management team variables were isolated--Status Communication, Exchange, and Trust.;Recommendations include replicating this study using a different population; using a random sample of management team members in order to make inferences; employing a qualitative methodology to the research questions involved in this study; conducting further study to isolate other team management variables; and conducting further study relating productivity and effectiveness variables to management team characteristics.