ABSTRACT
Effective schools are products of good management exercised by school principals in coordination and cooperation with various stakeholders in education such as teachers, supervisors, instructional consultants, parents, governmental organizations, non- governmental organizations, civic groups and most of all, the students. The principals being the key figures in the schools are well-equipped with both managerial skills and competencies. Through these, empowerment among them is achieved and implemented. Under the Department of Education in the Philippine Educational System, decentralization is the main basis in the implementation of R.A. 9155 known as “Governance of Basic Act of 2001 “to govern principals’ empowerment. It aims to widen decision-making while increasing responsibility and accountability.
Excellent exercise of this principal’s empowerment leads to attainment of management effectiveness, and thereby successful fulfilment of the whole school environment, most specifically for the students. This can be due to the application of different management theories and models. This contention has been affirmed in the previous studies experimented, developed and validated by some educational experts.
Equally important function of the school principals is the management of financial resources which involves all the financial aspects of the school. It involves the MOOE, PTA funds and other funds donated to the school through Adopt a School Program. In this regard, the TEA (Transparency, Ethics and Accountability) governance among principals is very vital.
However, despite of the advantages and benefits derived from the application of the different theories and models to principals in the effective practice of their empowerment, there are instances where problems and obstacles are encountered and on the other side, strengths and weaknesses.
The study assessed the empowerment practices of Secondary school principals considering management theories and models such as Lewin’s autocratic and Laissez-faire styles, Vroom-Yetton, Jago decision model leadership style, Fayol’s principles of management, Mc Gregor’s theory X and theory Y, transformational leadership and path- goal theory result- oriented. It likewise determined the extent of evidence of principals’ empowerment practices in the management functions such as organizing, staffing, comptrolling and budgeting and covered strengths and weaknesses of principals in carrying out the empowerment roles.
The descriptive method of research was applied in the study with the use of a researcher -constructed questionnaire as the main data gathering instrument. To substantiate the obtained data, unstructured interview, focus-group discussion and documentary materials were also utilized. A total of 583 respondents comprised of 383 teachers and 200 principals from secondary schools in CALABARZON. Random sampling was utilized in selecting the respondents. The statistical tools used to treat data in the study were frequency, weighted mean, ranking and t- test.
Results from the study revealed that majority of the teachers and principals themselves very strongly agreed that their empowerment practices were guided by Vroom-Yetton-Jago decion model and transformational leadership theory, strongly agreed on Fayol’s principles of management, path-goal theory result-oriented and Mc Gregors’ theory Y. On the other hand, respondents moderately agreed their practices were empowered through application of Lewin’s autocratic style, Lewin’s laissez-faire style and Mc Gregor’s theory X.
Hypothesis testing revealed there was significant difference between the assessments of the two groups of respondents on their agreement on their empowering practices considering Lewin’s autocratic and lassez-faire styles, Vroom-Yetton Jago decision model, Fayol’s principles of management, Mc Gregor’s theory X and Y, transformational leadership and path goal theory result- oriented.
Principal empowerment practices were assessed as very highly evident in the management functions of organizing, staffing and directing while moderately evident in the management functions of planning and comptrolling and budgeting.
Highest among the principals’ strengths in carrying out empowerment roles were the principals’ traits of being friendly and approachable while lowest rated was the principals’ trait of making personal sacrifices for the good of others.
Top weaknesses of the principals in carrying out empowerment roles were on reprimanding the subordinates in front of others and favoritism while lowest rated was the principals’ lack of charismatic behavior.
Based from the findings and conclusions of the study, the researcher proposed an empowerment training guide which when properly implemented will ensure the effective management of empowered school principals.