THE RELATIONSHIP OF ABSENTEEISM OF INSTRUCTORS WITH SUPERVISOR'S LEADERSHIP STYLE AND JOB SATISFACTION IN A LARGE METROPOLITAN VOCATIONAL, TECHNICAL, AND ADULT SCHOOL IN WISCONSIN
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to determine if first-line teacher supervisors in a vocational, technical, and adult school setting contribute to absenteeism among those they supervise in view of their level of job satisfaction or their leadership style. The subjects consisted of 40 first-line day school teacher supervisors and 445 full-time day school supervisees. The supervisors had both the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire-Short Form and the Least Preferred Coworker Scale administered to them. Teacher attendance records were examined to determine the average absence of frequency and the number of teachers with absences of duration. No significant relationships were determined at the .05 level for Spearman rho correlations of either general satisfaction scores of the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire or Least Preferred Coworker Scale scores and the average absence of frequency and the number of teachers with absences of duration. Of the selected associated variables tested for significance with Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire scores and the Least Preferred Coworker Scale scores, only one, the number of full-time teachers supervised, was significant at the .05 level in its relationship to teacher supervisor leadership style. The remaining variables of the supervisor age, years on the present supervisory job, and the number of years at the given institution showed no significance in their relationship to either supervisor job satisfaction or supervisory leadership style. An attempt to determine if any significant relationship existed between Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire scores and Least Preferred Coworker Scale scores did not yield a significant relationship at the .05 level. The Student's t-test was used to determine if any significant differences existed between Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire scores and Least Preferred Coworker Scale scores for male and female supervisors, regional and comprehensive campus supervisors, and supervisors of job-specific and non-job-specific academic disciplines. None of these differences was significant at the .05 level. This study leaves no reason to believe that supervisors observed here contribute to the absenteeism of the teachers they supervise in view of either their job satisfaction or their supervisory leadership style. It does observe, however, a relationship between leadership style and the number of full-time teachers supervised.
This paper has been withdrawn.