A study of the relationship between role multiplicity, role conflict, and alienation among public school principals

Purpose: It has been suggested by Frank Johnson and others that feelings of alienation might be the result of role multiplicity and role conflict. The principalship is often described as a collection of roles that may be in conflict. This study investigated relationships between: 1. the principal's perception of role multiplicity, 2. the principal's perception of role conflict, 3. the principal's feeling of alienation, and 4. the principal's feelings of powerlessness, normlessness, and social isolation (three of the variants of alienation as defined by Seeman), with controls for race, social class identification, social participation, age, religion, sex, and job satisfaction (variables found in previous studies to be associated with alienation or one of its variants). Hypotheses: On the basis of Johnson's description of the alienated man and others descriptions of the principalship the following hypotheses were formulated: H(l) There is a positive quadratic relationship between the degree of the public school principal's perception of role multiplicity and the intensity of his feelings of alienation. H(2) There is a cubic relationship between the degree of the public school principal's perception of role multiplicity and his perception of role conflict. H(3) The interaction of a public school principal's perception of role multiplicity with his perception of role conflict has a positive quadratic relationship to his feeling of alienation. Instruments: The following instruments were selected to measure: Alienation: Middleton Alienation Scale, 2. Powerlessness, Normlessness, Social Isolation: subscales of the Dean Alienation Scale, 3. Role Conflict: Rizzo, House, Lirtzman Role Conflict Scale, 4. Race, Social Class Identification, Religion, Sex, Age: information checklist, 5. Social Participation: Chapin Social Participation Scale, 6. Job Satisfaction: Karpik Job Satisfaction Scale, 7. Role Multiplicity: Original instrument developed as a part of this study. Methods and Procedures: Multiple regression equations were generated to test the hypotheses with proper controls. A random sample of 100 public school principals from the Houston Area was selected. Seventy-six percent of the sample responded. The data were analyzed with the aid of a computer. Findings: For this sample, powerlessness was found to be strongly related to normlessness and moderately related to social isolation. No significant relationship was found between normlessness and social isolation. H(l) and H(2) were not supported by statistically significant findings. H(3) received some support by a finding of significance at .05 for the quadratic relationship between the interaction of role multiplicity and role conflict and powerlessness. This finding could be an indication that feelings of powerlessness for principals who perceive different levels of role multiplicity rise at different rates, peak at different points, and decline at different rates. Relationships between control variables and the variants of alienation were analyzed for suggestions of further research. Significant relationships were found between race and alienation, powerlessness, or normlessness. It was found that Black principals had higher mean alienation, powerlessness, and normlessness scores than Caucasian or Chicano principals. Significant inverse relationships were also found between job satisfaction and alienation, powerlessness, or role conflict. Again, further research was recommended. The contributions of this study to the literature on educational administration may be summarized as follows: 1. It was found that principals perceiving different levels of role multiplicity are likely to experience role conflict and powerlessness differently. 2. It is suggested that Black principals are likely to have more intense feelings of alienation than Caucasian or Chicano principals. 3. It is suggested that a principal's job satisfaction is inversely related to his feelings of alienation, powerlessness, and role conflict. 4. It was concluded that alienation can be defined as an umbrella concept including at least powerlessness, normlessness, and social isolation as subconcepts. Further investigations may begin with a more clearly defined concept.