Abstract
While one teacher exhibits job satisfaction within a certain work environment, another teacher exhibits dissatisfaction within that same work environment. There must be an explanation for this dilemma. Purposes of the study: (1) To examine whether work-related value systems of teachers could have a direct relationship to how they feel about their work environments; (2) To examine whether a teacher's perception of a principal's leadership behavior could have a direct relationship to how a teacher feels about the work environment; (3) To examine whether a match between how a teacher wants to be treated and how that teacher perceives he is being treated could have a direct relationship to how that teacher feels about the work environment; (4) To examine whether certain combinations of selected predictor variables interact in a manner to allow a basis for predicting teacher morale. One hundred forty-four teachers enrolled in eudcation graduate studies at the college and university levels gave responses on the Work Values Questionnaire, the Leader Behavior Description Questionnaire, and the Purdue Teacher Opinionaire to provide the data needed for this study. Conclusions derived from the study: (1) The higher the individual score earned on Sociocentricity, the stronger the probability of the score earned on Morale being high. (2) Although the trend for Existentialism is in the same direction as that for Sociocentricity, the relationship between Morale and Existentialism is not as strong as that which exists between Morale and Sociocentricity. (3) The higher the individual score earned on Egocentricity, the stronger the probability of the score earned on Morale being low. (4) Although the trend for the work-related value systems Manipulation, Conformity, and Tribalism is in the same direction as that for Egocentricity, the relationship between Morale and these work-related value systems is not as strong as that which exists between Morale and Egocentricity. (5) The higher the score earned by a principal for the leader dimension Consideration, the stronger the relationship between Morale and this dimension. (6) The higher the score earned by a principal for the leader dimension Initiating Structure, the stronger the relationship between Morale and this dimension. (7) The relationship between Morale and Consideration is stronger than the relationship between Morale and Initiating Structure. (8) The probability of earning a high score on Morale is stronger in instances of compatibility between leader behavior and work value systems. (9) The combination of independent variables in this study that demonstrated the strongest power in predicting Morale was Consideration and Sociocentricity.