Abstract
The purpose of this study was to gather information about the leadership orientations of California Asian-American K-12 public school principals and to compare those results with the general group of non-Asian principals. Descriptive and ex post facto research were used in this study. The Leadership Orientation Survey instrument designed by Lee Bolman and Terrence Deal was sent to 154 Asian-American principals with 124 responses for a 80.5% return rate. Statistical tests used were ANOVA, Chi-square, and Correlation coefficient. Major findings of this study were in the significant difference among Asian-American principals in the (1) females using the Human Resource Orientation more often than males; and (2) foreign-born using the Structural Orientation more often than U.S.A.-born. In addition, when comparing the sample of California Asian-American elementary and secondary principals with Ron Mead's and Robert Peasley's general population of principals, there were significant differences in (3) the smaller number of Asian-Americans who used a primary leadership orientation, and (4) a larger number of Asian-American principals who used multiple leader orientations. Recommendations from this study include: replication with the survey instrument filled out by (1) a colleague of each participant; (2) all Asian-American principals nationwide; or (3) other levels of Asian-American administrators. Another study might include (4) a larger sample of African-American or Hispanic principals with which to compare the Asian-Americans. Also, since Bolman and Deal substantiated in their research that there is a strong relationship between the use of multiple orientations and leader effectiveness, this study shows that perhaps due to their bi-culturalism, Asian-American principals use multiple orientations and may work as effective leaders based on that usage.