Educational Innovation affects Leadership and Interpersonal Relations in an Experimental School in Northern Greece
Abstract
Even though the educational system in Greece is exceedingly centralized, the
pioneering institution of “Experimental Schools” sheds a ray of light. The
innovative and researching acts are systematically conducted in experimental
schools with the aim to acquire, communicate and disperse knowledge. Based
on previous research findings regarding experimental units’ hypotheses was
developed towards the argument that innovation is directly correlated with (i)
leadership (ii) communication, (iii) interpersonal relationships among teaching
staff, contributing to a more effective transfer of knowledge and educational
effectiveness. Within this framework, the aim of the present study is to
investigate the association between the innovation and the leadership style as
well as the interpersonal staff relations of the educational unit, the motivation,
the work satisfaction and the communication in an experimental school unit.
The primary quantitative study was conducted, using a structured
questionnaire, in an experimental primary school in Northern Greece. Data
acquired were processed using SPSS v20 and AMOS v17 statistical software. In
the first stage the process of descriptive statistics and crosstabs analysis was
implemented, and in following stages, factor analysis and Structural Equation
Modeling was conducted. Results indicated that innovation is strongly interassociated
with motivation. Additionally, innovation is positively associated
with job satisfaction, interpersonal relations, leadership and communication
inside and outside the educational unit. The way the leadership is imposed is
changing using innovation procedures and becomes more participative
involving the whole educational staff in the process. The research outcomes
indicated that through innovation an educational unit obtains openness to the
community, resulting in interpersonal relations reinforcement and in transfer of
knowledge. All in all, innovation affects the relations and the way people work
in an educational unit to the better and it may be alleged that innovation
positively alters the profile of the organization.
Keywords
Kaynakça
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