Perception of Community Dissatisfaction and School Organizational Structures

Abstract

This paper examines the effects of school personnel’s perceptions of community dissatisfaction on school structures of normative consensus, upward communication, and exchanges of help. The analysis uses questionnaire data from administrators and teachers in a random sample of 34 junior high and middle schools to compare the explanatory utility of four theoretical perspectives. Perception of community dissatisfaction is found generally to disrupt the three structures. Interpretation of this finding combines explanations based on (a) the principal as buffer of community dissatisfaction directed at teachers, and (b) attitudes within the school as a mirror of attitudes in the community.