Abstract
Research problem. The principal's role gives him/her the authority in the school. It is through the principal that power will be shared with the teachers. The research on empowerment suggests that the empowerment of the principal will be crucial in understanding the empowerment of teachers. The purpose of this study was to determine the perceived empowerment of elementary principals in California and the relationship between the elementary principal's perceived empowerment and how he/she perceives the empowerment of his/her teaching staff. Methodology. In this descriptive and correlational study, 355 elementary principals in California were randomly selected to participate. A Pearson product-moment correlation was used to determine the relationship between the perceived empowerment of elementary principals and the principals' perceptions of the empowerment of their staffs. An analysis of repeated measures (ANOVA) was used to determine the difference between eight dimensions of empowerment: (1) strength; (2) autonomy; (3) centrality; (4) involvement; (5) resources; (6) control; (7) influence; and (8) climate. The effect of the four moderator variables of gender, school size, district size, and principal's experience in the position was analyzed using an analysis of repeated measures of variance. Major findings. Elementary principals in California feel empowered. A relationship does exist between the empowerment of the elementary principal and his/her staff. There was no statistical difference on total empowerment scores for the four moderator variables of gender, district size, school size, and years of experience, but there were differences in which dimensions made elementary principals feel empowered. Conclusions. A relationship does exist between an elementary principal's perceived empowerment and his/her perceived empowerment of his/her staff. Although moderator variables of gender, district size, school size, and years of experience, do not significantly affect the overall empowerment scores, the variables do affect which dimensions make one feel empowered.