Educational Innovation affects Leadership and Interpersonal Relations in an Experimental School in Northern Greece
Volume 5 Issue 1
Spyros AVDIMIOTIS Eleni PAPADOPOULOU
Pages: 61-69 Download Count : 1900 View Count: 2284 DOI Number 10.24331/ijere.659214 Facebook Twitter Share on Google+
Abstract:
Even though the educational system in Greece is exceedingly centralized, the pioneering institution of “Experimental Schools” sheds a ray of light. The innovative and researching acts are systematically conducted in experimental schools with the aim to acquire, communicate and disperse knowledge. Based on previous research findings regarding experimental units’ hypotheses was developed towards the argument that innovation is directly correlated with (i) leadership (ii) communication, (iii) interpersonal relationships among teaching staff, contributing to a more effective transfer of knowledge and educational effectiveness. Within this framework, the aim of the present study is to investigate the association between the innovation and the leadership style as well as the interpersonal staff relations of the educational unit, the motivation, the work satisfaction and the communication in an experimental school unit. The primary quantitative study was conducted, using a structured questionnaire, in an experimental primary school in Northern Greece. Data acquired were processed using SPSS v20 and AMOS v17 statistical software. In the first stage the process of descriptive statistics and crosstabs analysis was implemented, and in following stages, factor analysis and Structural Equation Modeling was conducted. Results indicated that innovation is strongly interassociated with motivation. Additionally, innovation is positively associated with job satisfaction, interpersonal relations, leadership and communication inside and outside the educational unit. The way the leadership is imposed is changing using innovation procedures and becomes more participative involving the whole educational staff in the process. The research outcomes indicated that through innovation an educational unit obtains openness to the community, resulting in interpersonal relations reinforcement and in transfer of knowledge. All in all, innovation affects the relations and the way people work in an educational unit to the better and it may be alleged that innovation positively alters the profile of the organization.
Keywords
- Innovation
- motivation
- job satisfaction