- Email: [email protected]
Singular size distributions in coagulating systems: A perturbative approach
Francis M. Trusty Thomas J. Sergiovanni
Perceived Need Deficiencies of Teachers And Administrators: A Proposal for Restructuring Teacher Roles Based upon Maslow’s theory of human motivation and modeled after Porter’s research in industry, the following study reports on the perceived needs of school teachers and administrators arising from their employment. The authors discover that factors such as age, sex, and professional role are significantly related to the perception of need deficiencies. Their findings suggest to the researchers that teaching and administrative roles ought to be restructured drastically. Mr. Trusty is assistant professor of education at the University of Rochester, while Mr. Sergiovanni is assistant professor of educational administration at the University of Illinois.
Teachers and administrators have different needs which vary according to age, sex, and professional role. The almost universal failure of administrators, board members and citizens to recognize these different needs helps to explain educational rigidity, faculty dropout, and increased teacher militancy. In addition, federal involvement in traditionally local educational matters reflects a growing concern for solving problems created in part by this lack of discrimination. One approach to individualizing the process by which a teacher’s needs are satisfied is through the creation of a separate hierarchy for teachers. Restructuring teacher roles in relation to administrator and board-member roles to involve the teacher in allocating organizational resources is an important first step. Recognizing the educational primacy of the teacher-pupil relationship at each level of the teacher role hierarchy is a second important step. As teachers develop maturity and judgment in allocating resources and develop a wider variety of specialized role-
Downloaded from eaq.sagepub.com at MOUNT ALLISON UNIV on June 25, 2015
169
competencies within a teaching hierarchy, administrators, board members, and citizens will better reward and recognize teacher contributions.
Design and Method This study investigated need-fulfillment deficiencies for teachers and administrators in a school system. Maslow’s theory of human motivation was selected as the conceptual framework.’ Porter’s2 industrial management study provided the point of departure. In his study, Porter analyzed the role of five basic needs. From the lowest order (most prepotent) to highest order (least basic or prepotent) they were security, social, esteem, autonomy, and self-actualization. Questionnaire respondents included first- and second-level supervisors, department level managers, division and plant managers, vice-presidents, presidents, and board chairmen. The study focused on differences in perception between actual and desired need fulfillment for each level of management.3 Porter assumed that the discrepancy between actual and desired need fulfillment was an index of job satisfaction. Our study assumed that the larger the deficiency in need fulfillment, the larger would be the dissatisfaction of respondents. This assumption is consistent with the speculations of Porter and of March and Simon.4 The general hypotheses of the investigation were: ( 1 ) there is no difference in the perceived needs of educators in one age group as compared with educators in other age groups; (2) there is no difference in the perceived needs of educators in one experience group as compared with educators in other experience groups; (3) there is no difference in the perceived needs of male educators as compared with female educators ; and (4) there is no difference in the perceived needs of educators in one professional role as compared with educators in other professional roles.
Questionnaire The questionnaire used in this study was an adaptation of the one developed and used by Porter. The instructions for completing the questionnaire were as follows: On the following page will be listed several characteristics or qualities connected with your school position. For each such characteristic, you a.
will be asked to
answer
the
following questions:
How much of the characteristic is there
school
now
connected with your
position?
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170 b. How much of the characteristic do you think should be connected with your school position? For each of the 13 items, answer questions a and b above by writing a number from 1 to 7 in the corresponding space following each question. Low numbers represent low amounts or low importance, and high numbers represent high amounts or high importance.
The
following items, listed by category,
were
included in the ques-
tionnaire :
Items
Categories
Security I-1
The
feeling
of security in my school position
Social II-1
The opportunity, in my school
position,
to
give help
to other
people II-2
The
opportunity
to
develop
close
friendships
in my school
posi-
tion
Esteem
The feeling of self-esteem a person gets from being in my school position III-2 The prestige of my school position inside the school (that is, the regard received from others in the school) III-3 The prestige of my school position outside of the school (that is, the regard from others not in the school) III-I
Autonomy The authority connected with my school position The opportunity for independent thought and action in my school position IV-3 The opportunity, in my school position, for participation in the setting of goals IV-4 The opportunity, in my school position, for participation in the determination of methods and procedures IV-1 IV-2
Self-Actualization The opportunity for personal growth and development in my school position V-2 The feeling of self-fulfillment a person gets from being in my school position (that is, the feeling of being able to use one’s own unique capabilities, realizing one’s potentialities) V-3 The feeling of worthwhile accomplishment in my school position V-1
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171
Procedures All teachers and administrators in one school district, grades K-12 were asked to participate in the study. Of the 310 educators in the district, 223 completed and returned the questionnaire. Mean scores were computed for each question based on age, years of experience, sex, and professional role. Need deficiencies for each category of respondents on each question were obtained by subtracting the mean response to Part A of an item (&dquo;How much is there now?&dquo;) from the mean response to Part B of the same item (&dquo;How much should there be?&dquo;). Respondents included thirty-two administrators, seventy-three high school teachers, twenty-eight junior high school teachers and ninety elementary teachers. The sample included 119 male respondents and 104 female respondents. Fifty-six per cent of the respondents were over age 34, and 58 per cent of the respondents had less than 13 years of experience.
The data were treated by analysis of variance5 to determine whether differences among educators within need categories were significant ( p .05). The F-ratio6 was used to test each hypothesis related to age, years of experience, sex, and professional role. Hypotheses were confirmed where (P < .05) and rejected where (P > .05). mean
=
Findings Treatment of the data related to the first three hypotheses revealed that Hypothesis 1 relating to age was rejected, Hypothesis 2 relating to years of experience was confirmed, and Hypothesis 3 relating to sex was rejeoted. The analysis revealed that respondents do have different needs and these are significantly associated with age and sex. Educators differed significantly on the feeling of self-esteem they received from being in their school position and the authority connected with that position. The need deficiency of educators in different age groups also varied significantly. (P .001) in relation to the prestige their school position had outside of school. Experience was not significantly associated with need deficiencies. However, respondent need deficiencies were significantly different on specific items such as the opportunity respondents had in their school position to give help to other people and the authority connected with their school position. Educator need deficiencies also differed signifi=
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172
cantly (P = .O1 ) on the opportunity for participating in setting goals and ( P .001) the prestige their school position had outside of school. Sex of respondents was significantly associated with need deficiencies. The needs of men and women differed significantly on such items as the prestige of their school position outside of school, the opportunity for independent thought and action in their school position, and the feeling of worthwhile accomplishment they achieved. The largest difference (P > .001) was on the opportunity to develop close friendships in their school position. For each item, men expressed greater need =
deficiencies. TABLE 1
Need Deficiencies of Educators Reported as Mean Scoresa by Need Items and Professional Role of Respondent
Category
1£9
For
H4/B =
.593, F
=
3.02, (P>.001):
Hypothesis
4
(there is
no
difference in the per-
614
respondents in one professional role as compared with respondents in other as computed professional roles) is rejected in Table 1. The difference is significant (P>.001 by using an F-ratio where the degrees of freedom equal 39 and 614. Low mean scores represent small need deficiencies. High mean scores represent larger ceived needs of
a
need deficiencies.
Table 1, using
mean
scores,
presents the need deficiencies for each
by professional role. An analysis of these data indicate that thesis 4 is rejected. Professional role is significantly associated (P > with need deficiencies. item
Downloaded from eaq.sagepub.com at MOUNT ALLISON UNIV on June 25, 2015
Hypo.001 )
173
The need deficiencies of administrators and of teachers at different levels vary significantly on the opportunity for personal growth and development in their school position ( V-1 ) and the feeling of self-fulfillment they get from being in their school position (V-2). They also differ significantly (P .01) on the prestige of their school position inside the school (111-2) and the opportunity to participate in determining methods and procedures ( IV-4 ) . Finally they differ significantly (P~ .001) on the feeling of self. esteem they get from being in their school position ( III-1 ) , the prestige of their position outside of school ( III-3 ), the authority connected with their position (it-1), the opportunity they had for independent thought and action (IV-2), and for participating in the setting of goals (IV-3). =
Discussion The need deficiencies of educators in this study varied according and professional role. Accordingly, educators value differently opportunities for achieving economic security, developing social relations, increasing one’s self-esteem, having autonomy or becoming self-actualized. to age, sex,
Need Deficiencies
by Age
of young educators (age 20-24) with esteem conconcern older educators (age 45 and over) have for with the trasts and self-actualization. esteem, autonomy, Specifically, older educators with the of less concerned prestige their position. Of all responappear 25 and 34 report the largest need deof dents, those between the ages ficiencies for all items in the categories of esteem, autonomy, and selfactualization. Although need deficiencies of educators in the 35-44 age group are only slightly less than in the 25-34 age group, the rank order of some items is considerably different. For example, while some educators want to achieve greater feelings of self-esteem from their school position, this is ranked tenth by 35-44-year-old respondents. The smallest deficiency on eight of the thirteen items is for educators in the 20-24 age group. In general, this group perceived more congruency between actual and desired need fulfillment for security, social, autonomy, and selfactualization items than did other age groups. Significant differences among respondents in different age groups have to do with feelings of self-esteem, prestige of position outside of school, and the authority connected with one’s school position. The
concern
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174
Overall, need deficiencies tend to be smallest in the 20-24 age group, to be greatest in the 25-35 age group, to taper off in the 35-44 age group, and to be moderate in the 45-and-over age group. This observation is consistent with Herzberg’s7 extensive review of job satisfaction research. He concludes that workers between 20-30 years of age more dissatisfied with their jobs than younger or older workers. Morse8 further confirms this phenomenon by concluding that job satisfaction for white-collar workers tends to be high early in service and late in service, with lowest satisfaction occurring at the intermediate point where level of aspiration is considerably higher than achievement.
appear
Need Deficiencies
Although
the
by Experience hypothesis that years of experience would not make a confirmed, some trends are evident. For example, edu-
difference was cators with little experience tend to have greater esteem needs. Educators with five to twelve years of experience have greater need deficiencies in all categories than do other respondents, but their greatest need deficiencies are related to autonomy, self-esteem, and prestige. Respondents with more years of experience (13-24 years) tend either to achieve more or to expect less. With the exception of the opportunity to develop close friendships in their school position, and the opportunity for independent thought and action in their school position, the 25-andover experience group shows lower need deficiencies than any age group. Finally, the expressed need for prestige appears to diminish with increasing years of experience. Need Deficiencies
by
Sex
The hypothesis related to sex of respondents ( H3 ) was rejected. Only with regard to security do women have need deficiencies greater than men. Men’s needs relate strongly to feelings of self-esteem, prestige of position, and worthwhile accomplishments. Women’s needs relate strongly to feelings of self-esteem, participating in goal setting, and feelings of self-fulfillment. Generally speaking, women appear more satisfied with their professional role than men. Further, they appear more satisfied with the opportunity their job provides for meeting social, esteem, autonomy, and self-actualization needs. Men appear more satisfied with the feeling of security their job provides. Possibly the difference between men and women in social, esteem. autonomy, and self-actualization need deficiencies is related to the greater concern men have with their status in society and success and how this is affected by their position.
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175
Need Deficiencies
by Professional Role
Professional role appears to be the variable most significantly associated with need deficiencies of educators. Assuming that need deficiencies are an index of dissatisfaction, it appears that the role of juniorsenior-high-school teacher affords less opportunity for satisfaction than other professional roles. Elementary teachers by oomparison have consistently smaller need deficiencies for all items but one. Administrators in general report a high level of satisfaction with the exception of opportunity to develop close friendships in their school position. However, the areas in which administrators sense the most dissatisfaction are opportunity for independent thought and action, the feeling of self-fulfillment gained from their position, and feeling of worthwhile accomplishment.
On all esteem,
autonomy, and
two
of the three self-actualization
items, elementary junior-high senior-high teachers, and administrators differ
significantly (P varies from .05 to .001) in need deficiencies. It job of administrator permits greater opportunities for incumbents to experience need fulfillment at all need levels. The job appears that the
of teacher appears not to offer a similar consistent opportunity. However, it appears that the administrators and elementary-school teachers in this study are either more satisfied or less dissatisfied in their jobs than secondary and junior-high-school teachers. This raises other important questions. How is need fulfillment related to expectations and opportunity? How do the needs of educators compare with the needs of persons in other professional roles or occupations ? While satisfactory answers are not yet available, a review of Porter’s9 studies and of March and Simon’s’O theory of adaptive motivated behavior will serve to place the results of this study in perspective. Porter’s research concentrated on the perceived deficiencies in need fulfillment as a function of job level. His research reports higher needfulfillment deficiencies for higher-order needs (self-actualization, autonomy) than for lower-order needs (security, s~acial ) . Further, his studies also suggest that the largest deficiencies at all job levels are in the highest order need areas, autonomy, and self-actualization. Teachers’ need deficiencies differ from executives’ need deficiencies in Porter’s findings. Teachers, for example, have greater need deficiencies in the esteem area. School administrators, however, are similar to the executives in Porter’s study. Porter’s research tends to confirm Argyris’ il theory of the dilemma between the needs individuals have for psychological success and selfesteem and the division of labor demands of formal organizations. Argyris hypothesizes that the probability of experiencing a sense of self-
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176
esteem, autonomy, and self-actualization will be greater for those at the top of the hierarchical structure and will be less for those lower in hier-
archy. One interpretation of the present study is that school administrators have greater opportunities for need fulfillment than do secondary and junior-high teachers. Elementary teachers, however, compare very favorably with administrators.
Conclusion Largest need deficiencies for all educators, categorized by professional role, have to do with esteem, autonomy, and self-actualization. Administrators are less satisfied with their opportunities for self-actualization than are teachers. On the other hand, administrators report greater satisfaction in esteem category items than do teachers. The lack of selfesteem received from their school position represents the largest source of dissatisfaction for high school and elementary teachers. Teaching as an occupation appears to have more potential for providing need fulfillment for women. A further interpretation strongly indicates that women teachers are more satisfied with their jobs. Lower need deficiencies are consistently reported by women for all need categories with the exception of security. This satistaction tendency for women, in part, explains the congruence of actual and desired need fulfillment of elementary school teachers. March and Simon’s 12 model of adaptive motivated behavior may suggest a further explanation for this phenomenon. They hypothesize that satisfaction is a function of expected value of reward and level of aspiration. Essentially, the lower the satisfaction of a given individual, the more the search for alternative oourses of action. This search leads to a higher expected value of reward. The incongruency between level of aspiration and the present state of affairs leads to increased job dissatisfaction. It is possible that the level of job aspiration for men exceeds that of women. This may in part account for greater dissatisfaction among men teachers. Several alternatives appear available to men teachers with high need deficiencies. They may: (1) move from teaching into administration where opportunity for psychological success and personal aspiration fulfillment is greater, ( 2 ) leave teaching for the more diverse rewards of business or industry, (3) remain in the classroom, lower their aspirations, and accept what rewards are available, or (4) remain in the
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177
classroom and become militant in their efforts to gain control of the reward granting machinery. In the opinion of the authors, teachers who lower their aspiration levels serve as major deterrents to the creativity and growth of students and to educational innovations. Further, teachers who militantly seek to change the environment do, in fact, aid administrators in their constant efforts to increase resources and find creative talent.
Proposal for Restructuring Teacher Roles Increased opportunities for professional advancement must be provided if teachers are to experience more need fulfillment at higher levels of the Maslow hierarchy. A reorganization of the internal role structure of teaching would provide needed opportunities for professional advance-
A
This would necessitate a re-examination of the role of the teacher and the role expectations held by administrators for teachers. The establishment of separate hierarchies for teachers and administrators would permit such reorganization. As administrators by comparison become less familiar with the task and content of teaching and subsequently become more involved in the administrative process, they are less a super teacher and more a professional administrator. It seems likely that under such a system, the professional teacher would tend to assume more responsibility for the content and methodology of his profession and for the behavior and evaluation of his peers. Figure I represents a proposal for restructuring teacher roles. It should not be considered merely an overt attempt to relabel teachers. Rather, the purpose of the proposal is to redefine the working relationship within the ranks of teaching and to reallocate professional responsibilities among teachers. The proposal is based on the premise that as teachers increase in professional competence and maturity they should, and need to, be given more responsibility for their professional behavior and more opportunity for personal and professional growth. A new teacher entering the profession, under the proposed plan, would function as an intern, being exposed to a variety of insight producing experiences while benefiting from cooperative working relationships with teachers at the fellow and associate level. The intern would be chosen on the basis of a strong formal preparation program and high promise for successful teaching. Individual responsibility for instruction combined with continued opportunities for joint teaching would characterize the fellow level. Fellows would assume increasing responsibility for guiding the learning of
ment.
Downloaded from eaq.sagepub.com at MOUNT ALLISON UNIV on June 25, 2015
178
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students both in and out of the classroom, and cooperatively developing their own skills while working with teachers at other levels. Fellow teachers would constitute the nucleus of an emerging professional teaching core.
The associate level would represent, for many, fulfillment of professional aspirations. The associate would share with scholars and colleagues responsibility for the professional growth of interns and fellows. Movement from the fellow to associate level would be based on mature professional competence and demonstrated successful teaching. The associate would share fully in collaborative management efforts and would assume full responsibility for his professional behavior. The associate could move to either of two levels: scholar or colleague. The positions would be considered equal in rank and pay but would provide a different emphasis in terms of professional responsibility. The scholar would be characterized as one who identifies strongly with his professional specialty and with outside reference groups that exist to promote this specialty. At the same time, he would be a master teacher and student of his area of competence. His responsibilities would include joint teaching with fellows and interns, working with exceptional students, and research and development. The colleague, on the other hand, would possess strength in organizational and human skills. He would serve as a oonsultant to other teachers and would be responsibly involved in selection, orientation, and assessment programs. He would have a strong voice in curriculum development, policy formation, and in allocating resources and would maintain close ties with the school administration, the school board, and the local community. This proposal for increasing the hierarchical structure of teaching provides opportunities for movement within the ranks of teaching, while at the same time it increases the opportunity for growth at any given level. Associates, for example, assume responsibilities traditionally reserved for staff and administrative roles. Scholars are provided with the opportunity and autonomy to develop personal and professional competencies traditionally reserved for the collegiate oommunity. Colleagues function as expert teachers and, at the same time, help other teachers administer their own professional behavior. This is a privilege long en. joyed by the established professions.
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180
NOTES 1. A. H.
Maslow, Motivation and Personality (New York: Harper
&
Brothers,
1954). 2.
Lyman Porter, "Job Attitudes in Need Fulfillment
as
a
in Management: I. Perceived Deficiencies Function of Job Level," Journal ofApplied
Psychology, XLVI (December, 1963), 375-384. 3. Ibid. 4. James G. March and Herbert A. Simon, Organizations (New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1958), pp. 83-111. 5. For reference to this technique see Allen L. Edwards, Experimental Design in Psychological Research ( New York: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston, 1963), pp. 117-118. 6. For reference to this technique see E. F. Lindquist, Design and Analysis ofExperiments in Psychology and Education (New York: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1953), pp. 39-40. 7. Frederick Herzberg et. al., Job Attitudes (Pittsburgh: Psychological Services of Pittsburgh, 1957). 8. Nancy C. Morse, Satisfactions in the White-Collar Job (Ann Arbor: Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan,
9.
1953).
Porter, op. cit. see also his "Job Attitudes in Management: II. Perceived Importance of Needs as a Function of Job Level," Journal ofApplied Psy-
chology, XLVII (April, 1963), pp. 141-148. 10. March and Simon, op. cit. 11. Chris Argyris, Integrating the Individual and the York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1964). 12. March and Simon, op. cit.
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Organization (New
Perceived Need Deficiencies of Teachers And Administrators: A Proposal for Restructuring Teacher Roles Based upon Maslow’s theory of human motivation and modeled after Porter’s research in industry, the following study reports on the perceived needs of school teachers and administrators arising from their employment. The authors discover that factors such as age, sex, and professional role are significantly related to the perception of need deficiencies. Their findings suggest to the researchers that teaching and administrative roles ought to be restructured drastically. Mr. Trusty is assistant professor of education at the University of Rochester, while Mr. Sergiovanni is assistant professor of educational administration at the University of Illinois.
Teachers and administrators have different needs which vary according to age, sex, and professional role. The almost universal failure of administrators, board members and citizens to recognize these different needs helps to explain educational rigidity, faculty dropout, and increased teacher militancy. In addition, federal involvement in traditionally local educational matters reflects a growing concern for solving problems created in part by this lack of discrimination. One approach to individualizing the process by which a teacher’s needs are satisfied is through the creation of a separate hierarchy for teachers. Restructuring teacher roles in relation to administrator and board-member roles to involve the teacher in allocating organizational resources is an important first step. Recognizing the educational primacy of the teacher-pupil relationship at each level of the teacher role hierarchy is a second important step. As teachers develop maturity and judgment in allocating resources and develop a wider variety of specialized role-
Downloaded from eaq.sagepub.com at MOUNT ALLISON UNIV on June 25, 2015
169
competencies within a teaching hierarchy, administrators, board members, and citizens will better reward and recognize teacher contributions.
Design and Method This study investigated need-fulfillment deficiencies for teachers and administrators in a school system. Maslow’s theory of human motivation was selected as the conceptual framework.’ Porter’s2 industrial management study provided the point of departure. In his study, Porter analyzed the role of five basic needs. From the lowest order (most prepotent) to highest order (least basic or prepotent) they were security, social, esteem, autonomy, and self-actualization. Questionnaire respondents included first- and second-level supervisors, department level managers, division and plant managers, vice-presidents, presidents, and board chairmen. The study focused on differences in perception between actual and desired need fulfillment for each level of management.3 Porter assumed that the discrepancy between actual and desired need fulfillment was an index of job satisfaction. Our study assumed that the larger the deficiency in need fulfillment, the larger would be the dissatisfaction of respondents. This assumption is consistent with the speculations of Porter and of March and Simon.4 The general hypotheses of the investigation were: ( 1 ) there is no difference in the perceived needs of educators in one age group as compared with educators in other age groups; (2) there is no difference in the perceived needs of educators in one experience group as compared with educators in other experience groups; (3) there is no difference in the perceived needs of male educators as compared with female educators ; and (4) there is no difference in the perceived needs of educators in one professional role as compared with educators in other professional roles.
Questionnaire The questionnaire used in this study was an adaptation of the one developed and used by Porter. The instructions for completing the questionnaire were as follows: On the following page will be listed several characteristics or qualities connected with your school position. For each such characteristic, you a.
will be asked to
answer
the
following questions:
How much of the characteristic is there
school
now
connected with your
position?
Downloaded from eaq.sagepub.com at MOUNT ALLISON UNIV on June 25, 2015
170 b. How much of the characteristic do you think should be connected with your school position? For each of the 13 items, answer questions a and b above by writing a number from 1 to 7 in the corresponding space following each question. Low numbers represent low amounts or low importance, and high numbers represent high amounts or high importance.
The
following items, listed by category,
were
included in the ques-
tionnaire :
Items
Categories
Security I-1
The
feeling
of security in my school position
Social II-1
The opportunity, in my school
position,
to
give help
to other
people II-2
The
opportunity
to
develop
close
friendships
in my school
posi-
tion
Esteem
The feeling of self-esteem a person gets from being in my school position III-2 The prestige of my school position inside the school (that is, the regard received from others in the school) III-3 The prestige of my school position outside of the school (that is, the regard from others not in the school) III-I
Autonomy The authority connected with my school position The opportunity for independent thought and action in my school position IV-3 The opportunity, in my school position, for participation in the setting of goals IV-4 The opportunity, in my school position, for participation in the determination of methods and procedures IV-1 IV-2
Self-Actualization The opportunity for personal growth and development in my school position V-2 The feeling of self-fulfillment a person gets from being in my school position (that is, the feeling of being able to use one’s own unique capabilities, realizing one’s potentialities) V-3 The feeling of worthwhile accomplishment in my school position V-1
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171
Procedures All teachers and administrators in one school district, grades K-12 were asked to participate in the study. Of the 310 educators in the district, 223 completed and returned the questionnaire. Mean scores were computed for each question based on age, years of experience, sex, and professional role. Need deficiencies for each category of respondents on each question were obtained by subtracting the mean response to Part A of an item (&dquo;How much is there now?&dquo;) from the mean response to Part B of the same item (&dquo;How much should there be?&dquo;). Respondents included thirty-two administrators, seventy-three high school teachers, twenty-eight junior high school teachers and ninety elementary teachers. The sample included 119 male respondents and 104 female respondents. Fifty-six per cent of the respondents were over age 34, and 58 per cent of the respondents had less than 13 years of experience.
The data were treated by analysis of variance5 to determine whether differences among educators within need categories were significant ( p .05). The F-ratio6 was used to test each hypothesis related to age, years of experience, sex, and professional role. Hypotheses were confirmed where (P < .05) and rejected where (P > .05). mean
=
Findings Treatment of the data related to the first three hypotheses revealed that Hypothesis 1 relating to age was rejected, Hypothesis 2 relating to years of experience was confirmed, and Hypothesis 3 relating to sex was rejeoted. The analysis revealed that respondents do have different needs and these are significantly associated with age and sex. Educators differed significantly on the feeling of self-esteem they received from being in their school position and the authority connected with that position. The need deficiency of educators in different age groups also varied significantly. (P .001) in relation to the prestige their school position had outside of school. Experience was not significantly associated with need deficiencies. However, respondent need deficiencies were significantly different on specific items such as the opportunity respondents had in their school position to give help to other people and the authority connected with their school position. Educator need deficiencies also differed signifi=
Downloaded from eaq.sagepub.com at MOUNT ALLISON UNIV on June 25, 2015
172
cantly (P = .O1 ) on the opportunity for participating in setting goals and ( P .001) the prestige their school position had outside of school. Sex of respondents was significantly associated with need deficiencies. The needs of men and women differed significantly on such items as the prestige of their school position outside of school, the opportunity for independent thought and action in their school position, and the feeling of worthwhile accomplishment they achieved. The largest difference (P > .001) was on the opportunity to develop close friendships in their school position. For each item, men expressed greater need =
deficiencies. TABLE 1
Need Deficiencies of Educators Reported as Mean Scoresa by Need Items and Professional Role of Respondent
Category
1£9
For
H4/B =
.593, F
=
3.02, (P>.001):
Hypothesis
4
(there is
no
difference in the per-
614
respondents in one professional role as compared with respondents in other as computed professional roles) is rejected in Table 1. The difference is significant (P>.001 by using an F-ratio where the degrees of freedom equal 39 and 614. Low mean scores represent small need deficiencies. High mean scores represent larger ceived needs of
a
need deficiencies.
Table 1, using
mean
scores,
presents the need deficiencies for each
by professional role. An analysis of these data indicate that thesis 4 is rejected. Professional role is significantly associated (P > with need deficiencies. item
Downloaded from eaq.sagepub.com at MOUNT ALLISON UNIV on June 25, 2015
Hypo.001 )
173
The need deficiencies of administrators and of teachers at different levels vary significantly on the opportunity for personal growth and development in their school position ( V-1 ) and the feeling of self-fulfillment they get from being in their school position (V-2). They also differ significantly (P .01) on the prestige of their school position inside the school (111-2) and the opportunity to participate in determining methods and procedures ( IV-4 ) . Finally they differ significantly (P~ .001) on the feeling of self. esteem they get from being in their school position ( III-1 ) , the prestige of their position outside of school ( III-3 ), the authority connected with their position (it-1), the opportunity they had for independent thought and action (IV-2), and for participating in the setting of goals (IV-3). =
Discussion The need deficiencies of educators in this study varied according and professional role. Accordingly, educators value differently opportunities for achieving economic security, developing social relations, increasing one’s self-esteem, having autonomy or becoming self-actualized. to age, sex,
Need Deficiencies
by Age
of young educators (age 20-24) with esteem conconcern older educators (age 45 and over) have for with the trasts and self-actualization. esteem, autonomy, Specifically, older educators with the of less concerned prestige their position. Of all responappear 25 and 34 report the largest need deof dents, those between the ages ficiencies for all items in the categories of esteem, autonomy, and selfactualization. Although need deficiencies of educators in the 35-44 age group are only slightly less than in the 25-34 age group, the rank order of some items is considerably different. For example, while some educators want to achieve greater feelings of self-esteem from their school position, this is ranked tenth by 35-44-year-old respondents. The smallest deficiency on eight of the thirteen items is for educators in the 20-24 age group. In general, this group perceived more congruency between actual and desired need fulfillment for security, social, autonomy, and selfactualization items than did other age groups. Significant differences among respondents in different age groups have to do with feelings of self-esteem, prestige of position outside of school, and the authority connected with one’s school position. The
concern
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Overall, need deficiencies tend to be smallest in the 20-24 age group, to be greatest in the 25-35 age group, to taper off in the 35-44 age group, and to be moderate in the 45-and-over age group. This observation is consistent with Herzberg’s7 extensive review of job satisfaction research. He concludes that workers between 20-30 years of age more dissatisfied with their jobs than younger or older workers. Morse8 further confirms this phenomenon by concluding that job satisfaction for white-collar workers tends to be high early in service and late in service, with lowest satisfaction occurring at the intermediate point where level of aspiration is considerably higher than achievement.
appear
Need Deficiencies
Although
the
by Experience hypothesis that years of experience would not make a confirmed, some trends are evident. For example, edu-
difference was cators with little experience tend to have greater esteem needs. Educators with five to twelve years of experience have greater need deficiencies in all categories than do other respondents, but their greatest need deficiencies are related to autonomy, self-esteem, and prestige. Respondents with more years of experience (13-24 years) tend either to achieve more or to expect less. With the exception of the opportunity to develop close friendships in their school position, and the opportunity for independent thought and action in their school position, the 25-andover experience group shows lower need deficiencies than any age group. Finally, the expressed need for prestige appears to diminish with increasing years of experience. Need Deficiencies
by
Sex
The hypothesis related to sex of respondents ( H3 ) was rejected. Only with regard to security do women have need deficiencies greater than men. Men’s needs relate strongly to feelings of self-esteem, prestige of position, and worthwhile accomplishments. Women’s needs relate strongly to feelings of self-esteem, participating in goal setting, and feelings of self-fulfillment. Generally speaking, women appear more satisfied with their professional role than men. Further, they appear more satisfied with the opportunity their job provides for meeting social, esteem, autonomy, and self-actualization needs. Men appear more satisfied with the feeling of security their job provides. Possibly the difference between men and women in social, esteem. autonomy, and self-actualization need deficiencies is related to the greater concern men have with their status in society and success and how this is affected by their position.
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Need Deficiencies
by Professional Role
Professional role appears to be the variable most significantly associated with need deficiencies of educators. Assuming that need deficiencies are an index of dissatisfaction, it appears that the role of juniorsenior-high-school teacher affords less opportunity for satisfaction than other professional roles. Elementary teachers by oomparison have consistently smaller need deficiencies for all items but one. Administrators in general report a high level of satisfaction with the exception of opportunity to develop close friendships in their school position. However, the areas in which administrators sense the most dissatisfaction are opportunity for independent thought and action, the feeling of self-fulfillment gained from their position, and feeling of worthwhile accomplishment.
On all esteem,
autonomy, and
two
of the three self-actualization
items, elementary junior-high senior-high teachers, and administrators differ
significantly (P varies from .05 to .001) in need deficiencies. It job of administrator permits greater opportunities for incumbents to experience need fulfillment at all need levels. The job appears that the
of teacher appears not to offer a similar consistent opportunity. However, it appears that the administrators and elementary-school teachers in this study are either more satisfied or less dissatisfied in their jobs than secondary and junior-high-school teachers. This raises other important questions. How is need fulfillment related to expectations and opportunity? How do the needs of educators compare with the needs of persons in other professional roles or occupations ? While satisfactory answers are not yet available, a review of Porter’s9 studies and of March and Simon’s’O theory of adaptive motivated behavior will serve to place the results of this study in perspective. Porter’s research concentrated on the perceived deficiencies in need fulfillment as a function of job level. His research reports higher needfulfillment deficiencies for higher-order needs (self-actualization, autonomy) than for lower-order needs (security, s~acial ) . Further, his studies also suggest that the largest deficiencies at all job levels are in the highest order need areas, autonomy, and self-actualization. Teachers’ need deficiencies differ from executives’ need deficiencies in Porter’s findings. Teachers, for example, have greater need deficiencies in the esteem area. School administrators, however, are similar to the executives in Porter’s study. Porter’s research tends to confirm Argyris’ il theory of the dilemma between the needs individuals have for psychological success and selfesteem and the division of labor demands of formal organizations. Argyris hypothesizes that the probability of experiencing a sense of self-
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esteem, autonomy, and self-actualization will be greater for those at the top of the hierarchical structure and will be less for those lower in hier-
archy. One interpretation of the present study is that school administrators have greater opportunities for need fulfillment than do secondary and junior-high teachers. Elementary teachers, however, compare very favorably with administrators.
Conclusion Largest need deficiencies for all educators, categorized by professional role, have to do with esteem, autonomy, and self-actualization. Administrators are less satisfied with their opportunities for self-actualization than are teachers. On the other hand, administrators report greater satisfaction in esteem category items than do teachers. The lack of selfesteem received from their school position represents the largest source of dissatisfaction for high school and elementary teachers. Teaching as an occupation appears to have more potential for providing need fulfillment for women. A further interpretation strongly indicates that women teachers are more satisfied with their jobs. Lower need deficiencies are consistently reported by women for all need categories with the exception of security. This satistaction tendency for women, in part, explains the congruence of actual and desired need fulfillment of elementary school teachers. March and Simon’s 12 model of adaptive motivated behavior may suggest a further explanation for this phenomenon. They hypothesize that satisfaction is a function of expected value of reward and level of aspiration. Essentially, the lower the satisfaction of a given individual, the more the search for alternative oourses of action. This search leads to a higher expected value of reward. The incongruency between level of aspiration and the present state of affairs leads to increased job dissatisfaction. It is possible that the level of job aspiration for men exceeds that of women. This may in part account for greater dissatisfaction among men teachers. Several alternatives appear available to men teachers with high need deficiencies. They may: (1) move from teaching into administration where opportunity for psychological success and personal aspiration fulfillment is greater, ( 2 ) leave teaching for the more diverse rewards of business or industry, (3) remain in the classroom, lower their aspirations, and accept what rewards are available, or (4) remain in the
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classroom and become militant in their efforts to gain control of the reward granting machinery. In the opinion of the authors, teachers who lower their aspiration levels serve as major deterrents to the creativity and growth of students and to educational innovations. Further, teachers who militantly seek to change the environment do, in fact, aid administrators in their constant efforts to increase resources and find creative talent.
Proposal for Restructuring Teacher Roles Increased opportunities for professional advancement must be provided if teachers are to experience more need fulfillment at higher levels of the Maslow hierarchy. A reorganization of the internal role structure of teaching would provide needed opportunities for professional advance-
A
This would necessitate a re-examination of the role of the teacher and the role expectations held by administrators for teachers. The establishment of separate hierarchies for teachers and administrators would permit such reorganization. As administrators by comparison become less familiar with the task and content of teaching and subsequently become more involved in the administrative process, they are less a super teacher and more a professional administrator. It seems likely that under such a system, the professional teacher would tend to assume more responsibility for the content and methodology of his profession and for the behavior and evaluation of his peers. Figure I represents a proposal for restructuring teacher roles. It should not be considered merely an overt attempt to relabel teachers. Rather, the purpose of the proposal is to redefine the working relationship within the ranks of teaching and to reallocate professional responsibilities among teachers. The proposal is based on the premise that as teachers increase in professional competence and maturity they should, and need to, be given more responsibility for their professional behavior and more opportunity for personal and professional growth. A new teacher entering the profession, under the proposed plan, would function as an intern, being exposed to a variety of insight producing experiences while benefiting from cooperative working relationships with teachers at the fellow and associate level. The intern would be chosen on the basis of a strong formal preparation program and high promise for successful teaching. Individual responsibility for instruction combined with continued opportunities for joint teaching would characterize the fellow level. Fellows would assume increasing responsibility for guiding the learning of
ment.
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students both in and out of the classroom, and cooperatively developing their own skills while working with teachers at other levels. Fellow teachers would constitute the nucleus of an emerging professional teaching core.
The associate level would represent, for many, fulfillment of professional aspirations. The associate would share with scholars and colleagues responsibility for the professional growth of interns and fellows. Movement from the fellow to associate level would be based on mature professional competence and demonstrated successful teaching. The associate would share fully in collaborative management efforts and would assume full responsibility for his professional behavior. The associate could move to either of two levels: scholar or colleague. The positions would be considered equal in rank and pay but would provide a different emphasis in terms of professional responsibility. The scholar would be characterized as one who identifies strongly with his professional specialty and with outside reference groups that exist to promote this specialty. At the same time, he would be a master teacher and student of his area of competence. His responsibilities would include joint teaching with fellows and interns, working with exceptional students, and research and development. The colleague, on the other hand, would possess strength in organizational and human skills. He would serve as a oonsultant to other teachers and would be responsibly involved in selection, orientation, and assessment programs. He would have a strong voice in curriculum development, policy formation, and in allocating resources and would maintain close ties with the school administration, the school board, and the local community. This proposal for increasing the hierarchical structure of teaching provides opportunities for movement within the ranks of teaching, while at the same time it increases the opportunity for growth at any given level. Associates, for example, assume responsibilities traditionally reserved for staff and administrative roles. Scholars are provided with the opportunity and autonomy to develop personal and professional competencies traditionally reserved for the collegiate oommunity. Colleagues function as expert teachers and, at the same time, help other teachers administer their own professional behavior. This is a privilege long en. joyed by the established professions.
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NOTES 1. A. H.
Maslow, Motivation and Personality (New York: Harper
&
Brothers,
1954). 2.
Lyman Porter, "Job Attitudes in Need Fulfillment
as
a
in Management: I. Perceived Deficiencies Function of Job Level," Journal ofApplied
Psychology, XLVI (December, 1963), 375-384. 3. Ibid. 4. James G. March and Herbert A. Simon, Organizations (New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1958), pp. 83-111. 5. For reference to this technique see Allen L. Edwards, Experimental Design in Psychological Research ( New York: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston, 1963), pp. 117-118. 6. For reference to this technique see E. F. Lindquist, Design and Analysis ofExperiments in Psychology and Education (New York: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1953), pp. 39-40. 7. Frederick Herzberg et. al., Job Attitudes (Pittsburgh: Psychological Services of Pittsburgh, 1957). 8. Nancy C. Morse, Satisfactions in the White-Collar Job (Ann Arbor: Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan,
9.
1953).
Porter, op. cit. see also his "Job Attitudes in Management: II. Perceived Importance of Needs as a Function of Job Level," Journal ofApplied Psy-
chology, XLVII (April, 1963), pp. 141-148. 10. March and Simon, op. cit. 11. Chris Argyris, Integrating the Individual and the York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1964). 12. March and Simon, op. cit.
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Organization (New