Date of Award

2008

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

PhD Higher Education Leadership, Management, Policy

Department

Education Leadership, Management and Policy

Advisor

Anthony Colella

Committee Member

James M. Caulfield

Committee Member

Josephine N. Moffett

Committee Member

Edward Price

Keywords

School superintendents, Job satisfaction, New York

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the overall job satisfaction, the level of intrinsic job satisfaction, and the level of extrinsic job satisfaction of public school superintendents in Nassau and Suffolk Counties (Long Island) in New York. Also, the study investigated the school board relationships of public school superintendents in Nassau and Suffolk Counties (Long Island) in New York. The population of this study included all 125 public school superintendents of both Nassau and Suffolk Counties for the year 2007/2008. Despite many daunting challenges, the superintendents in Nassau and Suffolk Counties (Long Island) in New York were greatly satisfied with overall, intrinsic, and extrinsic factors of job satisfaction. The study indicated that the demographic variables such as age, gender, salary level, years of experience levels of education and district size did not have any significant impact by itself on the job satisfaction of the superintendents. The overall job satisfaction of superintendents with a doctorate and working in a larger size district combined contributed to slightly higher level of job satisfaction. However, neither of these two factors alone accounted for a significant proportion of variance in general satisfaction. There were no significant differences in the satisfaction factors between Nassau and Suffolk Counties public school superintendents. There were no statistically significant differences in the satisfaction factors of Nassau and Suffolk superintendents in New York and Hunterdon and Somerset superintendents in New Jersey. The study revealed significantly higher satisfaction scores for the Long Island superintendents compared to affluent (DFG I&J) New Jersey districts. The study concluded that Long Island superintendents maintained very positive working relationships with school boards, highly satisfied with their leadership and ethical conduct, and enjoyed overwhelming community support. The Long Island superintendents expressed significantly higher level of positive relationships with their school boards in comparison to the national study as reported in The State of the American School Superintendency, A Mid-Decade Study by American Association of School Administrators (2007).

Download

Share

COinS