TITLE:
The Competent School Principal: Personality Traits and Professional Skills
AUTHORS:
Isaac A. Friedman
KEYWORDS:
School Principals, Personality Traits, Professional Competence, Managerial Skills, Self-Efficacy, Facet Theory
JOURNAL NAME:
Psychology,
Vol.11 No.6,
June
3,
2020
ABSTRACT: Purpose:The purpose of the present
research was to study school principals’ perceived sense of professional
self-efficacy, in an attempt to unveil its unique components, and to
substantiate a Traits-Skills conceptualization of a competent school principal. Design: 550 serving school principals filled out a self-report questionnaire,
which contained items describing common school principals’ tasks and routine
assignments. Respondents reported how well they were able to execute each of
those tasks or assignments under restricting circumstances. Facet Theory was
the methodological approach for designing the study and data processing, using
Smallest Space Analysis. Findings: The study provided empirical evidence in
support of the Traits-Skills conceptualization of a competent school principal
comprising 1) Four traits: Intra-personal human ability; Inter-personal
(social) human ability; Strategic intra-organizational (conceptual) ability;
and Inter-organizational (political) strategic ability, and 2) Five
administrative skills: General management; Staff management; School general
leadership; Instructional leadership; External relations. Originality and
Social Implications: The Traits-Skills conceptualization of the competent
principal can be instrumental in bringing about an analytical view of principals’
sense of professional self-efficacy. It can also serve as a guide to selecting
candidates for principal ship positions and to their training.