Abstract
Purpose. The purpose of this study was to identify the strategies high school principals use to empower assistant principals by obtaining responses to questions related to whether assistant principals feel empowered, whether principals and assistant principals differ in their perceptions regarding empowering assistant principals, whether they differ in their perceptions of the extent of the empowerment, and whether principals differ in their perceptions of the effectiveness of their assistant principals. Methodology. Principals of public high schools in San Bernardino County, California, whose schools included a principal and at least one assistant principal, were invited to participate in this study. Principals also rated the effectiveness of their assistant principals. Thirty-two high school principals and twenty-eight assistant principals completed a thirty-four-item survey, each principal and assistant principal responding to the same items. Findings. Statistically significant differences were found between the responses of high school principals and assistant principals on two individual survey items, each representing an empowering strategy, and on two categories of empowering strategies. Assistant principals recorded statistically higher scores than principals for both categories of empowering strategies. Conclusions and recommendations. An important limitation to survey research is the absence of a means to verify that survey responses correspond to reality. For instance, without verification, it is not possible to know whether principals who asserted that they encouraged risk taking among assistant principals, in fact, acted in ways that supported risk taking. Observations of principals on the job, anecdotal records, and videotapes of principals interacting with assistant principals and teachers may provide a more reliable basis to determine whether principals encourage risk taking. Real-time observations of principals at work may yield more reliable performance measures.