Abstract
Purpose. The purpose of this study was to describe the impact of the changing community cultural norms on the role of the secondary school principal. Methodology. This was a descriptive case study. Eleven secondary school principals from two Southwestern Utah school districts were interviewed. The principals were interviewed to assess the impact of changing community cultural norms (i.e., rapid population growth, increased juvenile crime rates, and increased numbers of dysfunctional families) on the principals' roles. The principals' roles included: the figurehead role, leadership role, liaison role, monitor role, disseminator role, entrepreneurial role, spokesman role, disturbance-handling role, resource-allocator role, and the negotiator role. Data related to theoretical propositions in role theory. (1) Schools are open systems which respond to environmental changes vs. schools are closed systems independent of the community. (2) The rapid changes in the community affect the principals' role as determined by changes in the processes and procedures for dealing with parents, students, and teachers vs. no change in processes and procedures. Findings and Conclusions. Eight of the ten "roles" were reported to be noticeably impacted by the changing community cultural norms, by more than half of the eleven principals in the study. Ten of the eleven principals identified the disturbance-handler, resource-allocator, and liaison roles as being noticeably impacted. Nine of the eleven principals identified the monitor role as being noticeably impacted. These roles were impacted regardless of the number of years the principals served in their position, the size of their school, or the level of the school. Recommendations. The following recommendations for further research are submitted for the purpose of expanding upon this study: (1) replicate this study using a questionnaire/survey, sampling the population for generalization to a larger population, and (2) replicate this case study on a more heterogeneous culture.