Successful Elementary School Principals’ Time Management Strategies

Abstract

Background. The importance of time management is well documented and it is common to observe the new beginners often experience time management problems in their administrative positions (Lyons, 1993; Beeson and Mattews, 1991; Beckman, 2005). However, it should be noted that time management is not only a necessity for beginners, but also it is one of the essential skills for senior school principals. Purpose. The purpose of this study is to shed a light to new school administrators about time management strategies.In addition, it might contribute to those who experience time management problems. Three questions were addressed in this study: First, how do successful school principals perceive time management? Second, which strategies those successful school principals employ? Third, what do those successful school principals spend their time on? Method. This is a qualitative study. The participants were purposefully selected (Patton, 1990; Yıldırım and Şimşek, 2005), with the criterion-based sampling methodology. Firstly, successful school principals, determined based on the superintendents' reports, were asked to be a volunteer for an interview to be conducted with them. The schools where those school principals work are known to be successful in sports, arts, or academic studies. A total of 35 male and 4 female school principals participated in the study. The data were gathered through interviews. For those who could not allocate their time, the questions were sent and the answers were gathered via email. All data were digitally stored and coded. School principals were named as OM1, OM2, OM3. Once the coding was done, themes were emerged and subcategories were formed under each theme. In addition, in order to observe the importance of each category within itself, frequency tables were also calculated. School principals indicated more than one strategy for each case. Therefore, the total number in frequency tables can be more than the sum of the numbers of the participants. Findings and Conclusion. Nearly half of the successful school principals indicated they experienced problems in time management. One eighth of the participants directly said they experienced time management issues. One third of them, on the other hand, mentioned that they had to spend most of their time at school to finish their work. Successful school principals use more than one strategy in time management. Those strategies are grouped in two categories: Direct and Facilitative Strategies. Direct strategies start with planning and followed by division of labor, delegation of authority, completing the job on-time, following up the assigned work, listing according to their importance, setting up effective communication channels, keeping notes, assessing the plans, delegating work load, delegating and following the coordination. The facilitative strategies are getting support from teachers, being ready for unanticipated events, varying the job, doing things right, valuing one's job, doing the important things by themselves, not considering the job as a burden, working in determined and disciplined manner, creating “we” in the school, distilling people, using political language, and being a team with the vice principal. The other finding in this study shows that school principals devote most of their time to bureaucratic work.One of the school principals said that as they spend extra time at school, their family life gets affected; therefore, they needed to balance it. In the literature, some suggestions are made on describing how to balance family and work. Zigler (2007) and Blackburn and Womack (2007) advised school principals to pay attention to balance their school and home with a good planning, although the expectations from them are quite high. In addition to the strategies they use, school principals can use electronic organizers, calendars, and other administrative software. Effective time management will definitely make school principals' lives more balanced, happier, more successful, and stress free. How effective time management would be reflected upon their leadership behaviors and performances could be explored in depth. Although international academia had published extensively on this matter, national studies are scare. This study is limited to understanding successful school principals' time management strategies from a qualitative paradigm. More research is needed from qualitative and quantitative paradigms.

Keywords

• school principal , time management , elementary school , time management strategies

Başarılı İlköğretim Okulu Müdürlerinin Zaman Yönetimi Stratejileri

Öz

Bu araştırmanın amacı başarılı ilköğretim okulu müdürlerinin zamanlarını nasıl yönettiklerine yönelik görüşlerini belirlemektir.Araştırmaya ölçüt örnekleme yöntemi ile seçilen 4 kadın 35 erkek olmak üzere toplam 39 okul müdürü katılmıştır. Araştırmaya katılan okul müdürleriyle görüşmeler yapılmış, ulaşılamayan bazı okul yöneticilerinden e-posta yoluyla veriler toplanmıştır. Toplanan veriler içeriklerine göre analiz edilmiştir. Araştırmanın sonunda okul müdürlerinin yarısından biraz fazlası zaman yönetimini başarılı olarak yaptıklarını belirtirken, araştırmaya katılan başarılı okul müdürlerinden yaklaşık sekizde biri zamanı yönetemediklerini, zamanını yönettiklerini düşünenlerin de aslında zaman yönetmede çok etkili olmadıkları, akşamları ve hafta sonlarını işi eve taşıdıkları görülmüştür. Başarılı okul müdürlerinin zaman yönetimi için doğrudan ve dolaylı stratejiler kullandığı görülmüştür. Başarılı okul yöneticilerinin zaman yönetimine ilişkin ilk beş stratejisinin planlama, iş bölümü, işleri zamanında yapmak, yetki devri ve öncelikleri belirlemek olduğu görülmektedir

Anahtar Kelimeler

• okul müdürü , zaman yönetimi , ilköğretim okulu , zaman yönetimi stratejileri

Kaynakça

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