The Impact of Organizational Climate Dimensions on School Performance: A Study of UAE K-12 Private School Managers
Alaa Aljuburi1*, Azam Othman1
1 Kulliyyah of Education, International Islamic University Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
*Corresponding Author: [email protected] Accepted: 15 November 2022 | Published: 1 December 2022
DOI:https://doi.org/10.55057/ijares.2022.4.4.1
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Abstract: This study was aimed to investigate whether the United Arab Emirates (UAE) K-12 school managers are conversant with school organizational climate (SOC) in maintaining school performance (SP), and to explore which school organizational climate (SOC) dimensions is mostly observed by the school managers in upholding the school performance.
This study also investigated the significant relationship between SOC and school performance (SP) and established whether SOC as a whole or any of its dimensions is a significant predictor of school performance based on the perceptions of UAE K-12 private school managers. The questionnaire used was adapted from Jeswani and Dave, and Lasisi. Utilizing the mean scores, correlation matrix and regression analyses, the findings revealed relatively moderate positive awareness of the school managers about SOC. The findings also showed that there is a significant correlation between SOC and SP, and that SOC is also a significant predictor of SP. Nevertheless, of the SOC dimensions, only communication and supervision were discovered as significant predictors of school performance. On the other hand, orientation, decision-making, and reward management proved to be critical dimensions of SOC as they were found wanting in contributing to the prediction of the study’s model. This issue can be resolved by enhancing the approach used in implementing orientation, decision-making and reward management within the context of the UAE K-12 schools. As an implication, UAE government, education policy makers as well as school managers are encouraged to create and sustain SOC as it proved to be a significant predictor of school performance.
Keywords: Organizational climate dimensions, school performance, school managers, k-12, United Arab Emirates
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1. Introduction
The meteoric economic rise of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has been possible because of its abundant hydrocarbon resources, which are estimated to be the seventh largest in the world.
However, since oil and gas reserves are finite resources, the UAE has embarked on an economic diversification journey to reduce its dependence on the hydrocarbon industry. To diversify its economy, the UAE has taken several initiatives and one of such initiatives is to develop a knowledge-based economy within the country (Kamal & Trines, 2018). To develop the UAE as a knowledge-based economy, education is considered as an instrumental hub for the said development. The UAE chooses education as a critical element for economic modernization because by investing the country’s wealth in building adequate education
infrastructure, the country will be able to create generations of trained and educated people who will bring success and prosperity to the nation.
Despite the UAE government’s priority on education for the development of knowledge-based workers in an attempt for economic diversification, a very few studies have been conducted on the UAE education system. School leadership by Alhosani (2018), and school reform by Madden (2019) were among the few recent issues investigated on UAE educational scenario.
However, even though several attempts and reformatory actions have been taken to improve educational infrastructure in the UAE, other educational gaps such as school organizational climate, and school performance and efficiency still need to be filled. Therefore, more studies are required to investigate the impact of school organizational climate and its dimensions on school performance in the context of the UAE private schools. The five domains of this organizational climate include orientation, communication, supervision, decision making, and reward management.
To realize the UAE mission of economic diversification through knowledge-based economy, necessary attention and thorough investigation must be ventured on the UAE education system.
In the process of achieving the said objective, this article aims at examining the impact of organizational climate and its dimensions on the UAE K-12 school performance. Hence, the objectives outlined for this study are as follows:
1) Explore the level of UAE K-12 private school managers’ awareness about the school organizational climate (SOC) dimensions.
2) Determine the relationship between school organizational climate (SOC) and the UAE K-12 private schools’ performance.
3) Check the impact of school organizational climate dimensions on the UAE K-12 private schools’ performance.
4) Find the critical factors and predictors in school organizational climate that contribute most to UAE K-12 private schools’ performance.
2. Literature Review
Brief UAE Profile
The United Arab Emirate (UAE) with approximately a land mass of 83,600 sq km, is situated at the southern part of the Arabian Gulf. It is bordered by the neighbouring countries of Qatar, Sultanate of Oman and Saudi Arabia. UAE is known for a tropical desert climate with slight or no rainfall. It is a combination of seven emirates: Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, Umm al-Quwain, Ajman, Fujairah and Ras al-khaimah and managed by a federal system established on the 2 December 1971. Abu Dhabi occupies the capital position of UAE (Gaad et al., 2006).
According to Gaad et al. (2006), a new economic condition was established in the UAE because of the crude oil and its commercial production breakthrough in the region. Crude oil discovery allows UAE government to enjoy good economic condition and meaningful investment for the development of the nation. Over the past 30 years, the country has been experiencing typical modernism due to an economy driven by oil and gas and lately, tourism (Gaad et al., 2006).
UAE population has been clearly affected by the swift development recently experienced by the country. The influx of expatriates settling in the country places it among the heterogenous society in the world.
Education System in the UAE
Education system in the UAE could be categorized into three parts: public schools including private ones; higher educational institutions, and the newly introduced charter school. In public schools, Arabic curriculum is adopted while in private schools, 15 different curricula are embraced. 90% of the student population in private schools are taught using curricula from the USA, United Kingdom, India, and the UAE Ministry of Education. Some schools prefer other curricular such as International Baccalaureate (IB), Canadian, French, Japanese and German (Gallagher, 2019). The UAE government offers free education for her nationals both at the primary and secondary levels. This free education is made compulsory for Emirati boys and girls (Gallagher, 2019).
Education has been at the top of priorities in the UAE education plan 2017-2021. To establish this priority, the UAE government allocated Dh10.2 billion for higher education, both in the public and private education systems, and this amount represents 20.5% of the Federal budget between the period of 2017 and 2021 (Zaatari, 2017). Similarly, the UAE plans to take graduation rate of upper secondary level to 98% from the existing rate of 96.7%. The UAE government also plans to move forward in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), and to be among the to 20 OECD countries (Kamal & Trines, 2018). After China, UAE occupies the second position in the world with the highest number of international schools. As of January 2018, 624 international schools have been established in the UAE with the enrolment of 627,800 students in those schools (Kamal & Trines, 2018).
Over 90% of students studying at the international schools would like to graduate overseas.
This would increase the number of outbound student mobility in the tertiary institutions in the future years. The inbound student mobility to the UAE is also growing significantly. The number of international students pursuing various degrees in the UAE increased from 48,653 in 2011 to 77,463 in 2016 (Kamal & Trines, 2018). A good example of inbound student mobility is the American University of Sharja, which is a famous UAE institution with 84% of international students.
School Organizational Climate
The concept of organizational climate could be traced back to Kurt Lewin in the 1930s with the proclamation of the term psychological climate. The precise terminology of organizational climate was later announced by Tagiuri and Litwin in their further explanation of behaviour.
Hence, Tangiuri and Litwin in 1968 defined organizational climate as the quality of the internal environment and organizational characteristics of an organization that influence the behaviour of employees and the quality of service obtained by the customers. On the other hand, organizational climate in the context of school refers to the study of perceptions of different individuals on various aspects of the learning environment in an organization (Owens &
Valesky, 2015).
Generally, organizational climate could be classified into two major types; open climate and closed climate (Halpin & Croft, 1962). School organizational climate differs based on the relationship between principals and teachers. If the climate between teachers and principals is open in the sense that they enjoy working with one another, then that climate would be channelled to students. But if the school organizational climate is closed where teachers cannot relate freely with the principal, then the psychological suffering of the teachers would be extended to the students as well (Mousena & Raptis, 2020). According to Miskel and Hoy (2005), employees with an open climate share trust and companionship that cannot be seen among employees in a closed organizational climate. It could be simply said that organizational
performance is hugely influenced by organizational climate and the leadership behaviour demonstrated withing the organization.
Dimensions of School Organizational Climate
Considering the dimensions of organizational climate, Jeswani and Dave (2012) suggested that measuring organizational climate in relation to the factors associated with it should be based on five domains; orientation, communication, supervision, decision-making and reward management. This paper, therefore, considers these five domains in examining the impact of organizational climate on school performance in the context of UAE K-12 schools. The said dimension of organizational climate is discussed in the next section of this paper.
Orientation
One of the most crucial factors associated with organizational climate in a school or organization is the type of orientation influencing people in that organization. Orientation defines the overall mood of the organization and is based on outcomes. Orientation is categorized majorly into people-orientated, rule-oriented, innovation-oriented, and goal- oriented. But when it comes to school performance and academic achievements of students, goal orientation is the most suitable type to be used due to its wide adoption in the education spectrum. Usán et al. (2019) concur that when a learning environment focuses on goals orientation, then this orientation would lead to greater willingness, persistence and commitment in school activities, academic enjoyment, intrinsic motivation to execute tasks, greater utilization of coping strategies, and more psychological, physical and emotional well- being in the academic lives of students.
Communication
According to Mousena and Raptis (2020), communication is a vital mechanism to establish human relationship. Communication involves not only transmitting meaning but also interpreting that meaning. Communications seems to be effective only when the message sent by the sender is understood by the recipient in a manner intended by the sender. It is known to be one of the principal factors in developing a sustainable school organizational climate.
Communication in a school system occurs among various parties such as teachers, parents, colleagues, and even other agencies from outside the school (Mousena & Raptis, 2020). Since communication takes place daily among numerous parties associated with the school organization, effective communication is essential in developing a positive organizational climate. Communication style of a school principal determines the extent of effectiveness of the school and the school performance.
Supervision
In a school setting, supervision establishes a positive relationship between the principal and teachers as they work together to achieve organizational goals. Since supervision has been designed to promote a good positive learning environment in which the objective of delivering learning in the most efficient way can be achieved, the absence of supervision can create a lot of chaos which can eventually lead to a negative school climate (Oghuvbu, 1999). This implies that lack of supervision may result to insufficient preparation by the teachers and a negative attitude of students towards the school. Some of the problems that may occur due to the absence of supervision include inadequate classroom preparation by the students, school discipline problem, and low morale and lack of cooperation among teachers (Oghuvbu, 1999). According to Kalule and Bouchamma (2014), instructional supervision offers teachers an opportunity of setting goals, collaborating, understanding of students’ learning styles and improving themselves on their various teaching subjects. Similarly, Alimi and Akinfolarin (2012) found
that instructional supervision has a significant impact on academic performance of high school students.
Decision-making
Decision-making refers to the process of assessing possible alternatives or options (Malakooti, 2012). Wild (1983) defines decision-making as a process of realizing the objectives. As school is a community that involves several stakeholders such as students, teachers, parents, and principals. Thus, if the principal choses to decide on his own without involving the remaining stakeholders, then the decision taken by him alone may not be favorable to everyone (Hughes
& Pickeral, 2013). This indicates that the decision taken by the principal without consulting anyone could be tagged as an autocratic one. Therefore, an exemplary school principal would not single-handedly make decisions on affairs that affect the whole school community. A successful school organizational climate requires the substantial engagement of all the stakeholders involved in the school community. Barth (1990) believes that when teachers are involved in the decision-making process, they feel more responsible in carrying out and sustaining the changes needed for quality practice.
Reward management
Herzberg in 1957 defined reward as an extrinsic factor that provides employees with a stimulus to be efficient and active in performing their job duties. As per the reward management, Armstrong (2010) defined reward management as “the strategies, policies and processes required to ensure that the value of people and the contribution they make to achieving organization, departmental and team goals is recognized and rewarded.” In other words, reward management refers to the process of rewarding and compensating employees for the fulfillment of their job responsibilities according to the best of their abilities. Banjoko (2006) stated that compensation includes both financial and non-financial rewards employees receive in exchange for the labor and service they render in an organization. This compensation might be direct or indirect. Direct compensation involves salaries, wages, and bonuses, while indirect compensation includes retirement plan, insurance plans, and sick leave.
School Performance
According to Wallin (2003), effective school performance should include three things;
classroom management, teachers’ teaching technique and the learning environment. All these three dimensions are directly correlated with the school’s organizational climate. Classroom management involves a proper record-keeping system, a set of guidelines for expected students’ behaviour and an adequate supply of required learning materials. Teaching technique contains a teaching structure of providing instruction through interactive sessions with students, conducting classes in both small and large groups, and guiding the learning process through corrective and positive reinforcements. Learning atmosphere should enable students to receive proper guidance from the teachers, participate in individualized learning activities, and collaborate with one another in various projects.
As mentioned earlier that school performance is positively associated with organizational climate, in the UAE, school performance is based on six performance standards namely:
students’ achievement, students’ personal and social development, quality of teaching, curriculum, support and care received by students and leadership and management. Both public and private schools go through annual inspection in Dubai which is conducted by Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA), while at every 16 to 18 months, Abu Dhabi Department of Education and Knowledge (ADEK) conducts another inspection on schools.
School performance during this inspection is rated on six scales: outstanding, very good, good,
acceptable, weak, and very weak. Outstanding indicates that the quality of school performance substantially exceeds the UAE government’s expectation. Very good implies that the performance exceeds the government’s expectation. Good means meeting or satisfying the expectation of UAE government and it is considered the least acceptable performance scale expected from any school. Acceptable signifies that the performance meets the bare minimum level of quality required for school operation in the UAE. Weak indicates that the quality of performance is below the expectation of the government, and very weak means that the school performance is significantly below the expectation of the UAE government. Schools are ranked based on the said scales, and the results are published for the public view.
Organizational Climate and School Performance
A plethora of studies have revealed a positive relationship between school organizational climate and school performance. When there is a positive school organizational climate, students attain higher academic performance and become more engaged in the school activities.
For instance, A meta-analysis of 78 published research articles conducted by Berkowitz et al.
(2017) indicated that a positive school organizational climate resulted in the decrease of poor academic performance of students. Similarly, literatures revealed that a safe learning environment is essential for positive school climate and a positive school climate without violence promotes high level of school performance (Benbenishty et al., 2016; Berkowitz et al., 2017).
In the same vein, the extant literatures also indicated that a good school climate influences school performance which includes students’ academic outcome, their positive behaviour, their commitment to school activities as well as their adaptation to school environment (Berkowitz et al., 2017; Bosworth et al., 2011; Brault et al., 2014; Cohen et al., 2009).
The Present Study
This study explores UAE K-12 school managers’ awareness of school organizational climate (SOC) and the relationship between school organizational climate and school performance (SP). This exploration would confirm the previous findings that have established the significant correlation between SOC and SP. As stated in the literature review, SOC is a significant predictor of school performance. The present study also aims to investigate whether this prediction exists as well in the context of UAE K-12 private schools.
The individual and combined prediction of school organizational climate dimensions as well as the model of school performance are being proposed in the context of UAE K-12 private schools, future studies could also examine the framework on the UAE K-12 public schools.
Figure 1: Conceptual Framework
This study proposed the following hypotheses:
H1: There is a significant relationship between school organizational climate and the UAE K-12 private schools’ performance.
H2: School organizational climate is a significant predictor of the UAE K-12 private schools’ performance.
3. Methodology
The population in this study is the school managers in UAE K-12 private schools. They are from Abu Dhabi and Dubai regions. The sample size was 294 school managers in forty-nine (49) UAE K-12 private schools. The data was gathered cross-sectionally through a questionnaire survey based on a 5-Point Likert Scale of (1) strongly disagree, (2) disagree, (neutral), (4) agree, and (5) strongly agree. The instrument on organizational climate was adapted from Jeswani and Dave (2012), and Lasisi (2016) and reports of the UAE educational inspectorates on school performance. The reliability and validity of the instrument have been previously tested and reported by the researchers from whom it was adapted. The final scales for organizational climate are 30 items. They are orientation (6 items), communication (6 items), supervision (6 items), decision making (6 items), and reward management (6 items) (Table 2).
To evaluate the internal consistency and reliability of the study’s instrument, the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 25 was employed to calculate the Cronbach’ alpha. As indicated in Table 3, the results revealed that the internal consistency of all the dimensions ranged between 0.91 and 0.97. Additionally, inferential statistics was adopted to assess the parameters and characteristics of the study’s sample based on the provided knowledge of the sample’s characteristics and empirical findings from previous studies. This kind of analysis is utilized in determining the possibility of the existing patters, correlations, and impacts among categories or collectives of a certain population based on its sample of research (Blaikie, 2003). In this study, inferential statistical technique was used to examine the study’s hypotheses through regression and Pearson correlation analyses. It was also engaged in generating the necessary descriptive results such as mean scores and standard deviations of the involved variables and items.
Orientation Communication
Supervision
Decision-making
Reward management
School Organizational
Climate
School Performance
4. Findings and Analysis
Demographic Data
The demographic information from 293 UAE K-12 school managers who completed the survey is depicted in Table 1.
Table 1: Demographics of Respondents
Managers’ Age Managers’ Curriculum Managers’ Qualification
Age Freq Percent Curriculum Freq Percent Qual Freq Percent
25-35 22 7.5 MOE 6 2.0 Ph.D. 57 19.5
36-40 82 28.0 American 70 23.9 Masters 140 47.8
41-45 98 33.4 British 161 54.9 Bachelor 87 29.7
46-55 89 30.4 IB 6 2.0 Diploma 9 3.1
56+ 2 .7 Others 50 17.1 Total 293 100.0
Total 293 100.0 Total 293 100.0
Managers’ Occupation Managers’ Gender Managers’ Region Principal 49 16.7
VP 44 15.0 Male 112 38.2 AbuDhabi 118 40.3
HOD 200 68.3 Female 181 61.8 Dubai 175 59.7
Total 293 100.0 Total 293 100.0 Total 293 100.0
The respondents who completed the survey questionnaire were UAE K-12 private school managers holding different positions in the school. 16.7% (n=49) of the respondents were school principals, 15.0% (n=44) were vice principals while the remaining 68.8% (n=200) were heads of department for various core subjects. In terms of age, majority of the respondents (n=98, 33.4) were within the age range of 41-45, followed by age range 46-55 (n=89, 30.4), 36-40 (n=82, 28.0), 25-35, (n=22, 7.5) while only 0.7 (n=2) were within the range of 56 years and above. The demographic also reveals that the school managers were on different academic qualifications. Hierarchically, 19.5% (n=57) of the school managers held Doctorate degree, 47.8% (n=140) attained Masters’ degree, and 29.7% (n=87) and 3.1% (n=9) of them were with Bachelor and Diploma degrees respectively. Regarding gender, 38.2% (n=112) of the participants were male and 61.8% (n=181) of them were female. Considering the region of work, 59.7% (n=175) of the respondents were working in Dubai while 40.3% (n=118) chose AbuDhabi as their region of work. In terms of the school’s curriculum, 54.9% (n=161) of the participants adopt British curriculum, 23.9% (n=70) embrace American curriculum, 2.0%
(n=6) and 2.0% (n=6) go for MOE curriculum and International Baccalaureate (IB) curriculum accordingly. The remaining 17.1% (n=50) of the school managers employ other types of curricula.
Managers’ Awareness of Organizational Climate Dimensions
Descriptive analysis was employed to determine the level of the UAE K-12 private school managers’ awareness of school organizational climate (SOC) and its dimensions (orientation, communication, supervision, decision-making and reward management. Generally, school organizational climate (SOC) has an overall mean score of 3.73. As shown in Table 2 below, orientation (dimension 1) has a mean score of 3.78 (on a 5-point scale). Communication
(dimension 2) has a mean score of 3.86, supervision (dimension 3) with a mean score of 3.77, followed by decision-making (dimension 4) with a total mean score of 3.62, while reward management (dimension 5) also has a mean score of 3.62. The overall mean score of SOC as well as its dimensions’ mean scores relatively indicate that UAE K-12 private school managers had moderate awareness about the existence of school organizational climate (SOC) and its dimensions within their workplace since all the means are closer to 4.
Table 2: Results of Descriptive Statistics of Items’ Mean and SD (DV: School Performance) Items
No Organizational Climate Dimensions Mean SD
Orientation 3.78 .786
1 The relationships among staff are good. 3.76 .789
2 Abundance of training opportunities. 3.81 .748
3 Socially, my work deserves its prestige. 3.79 .768
4 In general, the deadlines are adequately met. 3.78 .794
5 Old-fashioned and obsolete procedures are my department’s culture. 3.74 .857
6 The working atmosphere is impersonal. 3.81 .760
Communication 3.86 .757
7 The goals of my work are clearly defined. 3.94 .751
8 My work is adequately defined. 3.97 .694
9 Nonresponsive to demands is my superior’s weaknesses. 3.97 .721
10 My organization sufficiently takes advantage of new communication technologies. 3.53 .945 11 Communication on future direction takes bottom-up direction. 3.79 .722 12 Communication on new ideas is encouraged across the organization. 3.94 .712
Supervision 3.77 .736
13 Other staff encourage me in solving problems. 3.82 .706
14 I am given necessary help and means in settling my heavy workload. 3.79 .751
15 My bosses watch me closely. 3.73 .780
16 My work is adequately supervised. 3.72 .764
17 My work is supervised based on available plans. 3.79 .713
Table 2: Continued Items
No Organizational Climate Dimensions Mean SD
Supervision 3.77 .736
18 Excessive supervision makes the staff difficult to perform excellently. 3.79 .704
Decision making 3.62 .678
19 The superiors listen to my suggestions. 3.67 .704
20 The administrators are good listeners to their employees. 3.69 .700
21 Every decision is made by the top management. 3.69 .693
22 Employees frequently receive contradictory orders. 3.70 .681
23 The job is organized along authoritarian lines. 3.48 .649
24 In general, the reasons for the decisions made are adequately explained. 3.49 .644
Reward management 3.62 .800
25 Innovative contributions are usually appreciated by my superiors. 3.72 .761
26 My superiors congratulate me when I perform well. 3.65 .796
27 Job improvement ideas are highly valued by my superiors. 3.25 .930
28 In my job I think I give more than what I receive. 3.69 .770
29 My efforts receive deserving recognition. 3.71 .782
30 My work is adequately valued by superiors. 3.72 .761
Relationship between School Organizational Climate, Its Dimensions and School Performance
Pearson correlation was run to investigate the relationship between school organizational climate and school performance. The correlation matrix in Table 3 reveals that the relationship between school organizational climate and school performance was statistically significant and positively correlated. (r= 0.40, n=293, p < 0.01). This also implies that a moderate relationship exists between overall organizational climate and school performance.
Table 3: Correlation Matrix and Cronbach’s Alpha
No Variable/Factors 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
1 SchoolPerformance
2 Org. Climate (OC) 0.40** 0.97
3 Orientation 0.32** 0.80** 0.97
4 Communication 0.44** 0.85** 0.70** 0.91
5 Supervision 0.38** 0.86** 0.70** 0.70** 0.97
6 Decision making 0.15* 0.68** 0.33** 0.43** 0.54** 0.92
7 Reward manag. 0.29** 0.80** 0.50** 0.63** 0.60** 0.50** 0.92 Note. **Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
* Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed) Cronbach’s alpha values are indicated in diagonal
Table 3 also indicates significant and positive results for the relationship between school performance and dimensions of school organizational climate. School performance has the highest relationship with communication (r= 0.44, p < 0.001). The correlation matrix also revealed that communication, followed by supervision, orientation, and reward management, all have relatively moderate relationships with school performance, while decision making has the lowest relationship (r=0.15, p < 0.01). Additionally, all the dimensions of organizational climate are highly correlated with one another, except for decision making which attained low score but still significant (r= 0.33, p < 0.001, r= 0.43, p < 0.001)) in its relationship with orientation and communication. Thus, supervision and reward management are highly and significantly correlated with each other.
Impact of School Organizational Climate on School Performance
Regression analyses were adopted to check the impact of organizational climate and its dimensions on school performance. They were also employed to determine whether organizational climate can predict school performance and the critical factors or dimensions of organizational climate based on the perspectives of UAE K-12 private school managers. Table
4 indicated that the results of the simple regression analysis showed that school organizational climate, in general, explained 16.0% of the variance in school performance (R2 =0.16, F(293)=54.99, P<0.001). It was discovered that school organizational climate significantly predicted school performance (β = 0.66, p<0.001). Based on these findings, it could also be established that school organizational climate is an antecedent of performance in the United Arab Emirates K-12 private schools.
Table 4: Simple Linear Regression Analyses Results Coefficientsa
Model
Unstandardized Coefficients
Standardized
Coefficients t Sig.
β Std. Error Beta
1 (Constant) 1.65 0.33 4.89 .000
OC 0.66 0.09 0.39** 7.41 .000
Model Summary
1
R2 0.16
Adjusted R2 0.16
F
54.99**
N 293 Note. Dependent Variable: School Performance; **p<0.001
Table 5 illustrates multiple regression results for the impact of organizational climate dimensions on school performance. It shows that 21.9% of the variance in school performance was explained by the five dimensions of organizational climate (R2=0.21, F(293)=16.12, p<0.001). It was detected that only communication and supervision significantly predicted school performance (β=0.51, p<0.001), (β=0.27, p<0.05). The remaining three dimensions (decision-making, orientation, and reward management) were not significant predictors of school performance (β= -0.18, p>0.05), (β= -0.02, p>0.05), (β= -0.01, p>0.05).
Table 5: General Multiple Regression Analyses Results Coefficientsa
Model
Unstandardized Coefficients
Standardized
Coefficients t Sig.
β Std. Error Beta
1 (Constant) 1.87 0.34 5.40 .000
OCC 0.51 0.11 0.36** 4.56 .000
OCS 0.27 0.10 0.21** 2.59 .010
OCDM -0.18 0.10 -0.11** -1.81 .071
OCO -0.02 0.09 -0.02** -0.27 .784
OCRM -0.01 0.09 -0.00** -0.01 .989
Model Summary
R2 Adjusted R2 F N
1 0.21 0.20 16.12** 293 Note. Dependent Variable: School Performance; **p<0.001
According to the results in Table 5 above, only communication and supervision out of the dimensions of organizational climate are statistically significant. Hierarchically, communication is more significant than supervision. Hence, it could be established that communication and supervision are the only important components of organizational climate that contributed to school performance. Other three dimensions (decision-making, orientation, and reward management) are not significant predictors of the model. In other words, the three dimensions are the most critical components.
Finally, Table 6 indicates all the hypotheses supported by the correlation and regression analyses. It implies that the hypotheses of the study are statistically significant.
Table 6: Hypotheses Presentation
Hypotheses Results Conclusion
H1: There is a significant correlation between school organizational climate and the UAE K-12 private schools’ performance.
Yes: (r= 0.40, p < 0.01) Significant
Supported
H2: School organizational climate is a significant predictor of the UAE K-12 private schools’
performance
Yes. Significant (R2 =0.16, p<0.001) (β = 0.66, p<0.001).
Supported
5. Discussion
This study focused on the awareness of UAE K-12 private school managers towards school organizational climate (SOC). It also examined the relationship between school organizational climate, its dimensions and school performance. While the study verified the critical components in school organizational climate that contribute mostly to UAE K-12 private school performance. The impact of school organizational climate and its dimensions on school performance was as well investigated in this study.
Firstly, the descriptive results indicated that the UAE K-12 private school managers have moderate awareness about the school organizational climate (SOC) and its dimensions (orientation, communication, supervision, decision-making and reward management). This implies that SOC awareness exists and is being observed by the managers in the context of the UAE K-12 private schools. However, further studies need to be conducted to ascertain whether different findings could be generated in the context of the UAE K-12 public schools.
Secondly, the findings showed that there is a positive significant correlation between overall school organizational climate (SOC) and school performance (SP). The correlation in this study is acceptable and consistent with the findings of Berkowitz et al. (2017) and Benbenishty et al.
(2016) which revealed a strong relationship between a positive school climate without violence and high level of school performance. With regards to SOC dimensions, the findings also indicated that communication, supervision, orientation, and reward management were moderately correlated with school performance except for decision-making which has the lowest relationship with SP. Similarly, the findings also signified that all SOC dimensions are correlated with one another, although decision-making generated low correlation with
orientation and communication but still significant. The highest correlation exists between supervision and reward management.
Finally, the findings revealed that in general, school organizational climate (SOC) is a significant predictor of school performance. This buttresses the findings of previous literatures such as Berkowitz et al. (2017), Brault et al. (2014), Bosworth et al. (2011) and Cohen et al (2009) which established that school organizational climate is a significant determinant of school performance. It also showed that communication and supervision are the main determinants of school organizational climate and school performance, while decision-making, orientation and reward management are the most critical dimensions. This implies that some dimensions seem to be significant while others appear to be insignificant.
This study recommends the need for the UAE government and other education policy makers to look after the organizational climate in both public and private schools to enhance the output (performance) of educational sector in the UAE. School managers are also urged to augment
their level of school organizational climate to sustain and improve their schools’ performance.
6. Conclusion
This study reached a conclusion that dimensions of school organizational climate (SOC) are helpful in measuring the UAE K-12 private school managers’ awareness of SOC. The findings of the study established that organizational climate, and its dimensions are positively and significantly correlated with school performance. It also indicated that organizational climate is a significant predictor of school performance. Furthermore, of the dimensions of SOC, only communication and supervision are significant factors while decision-making, orientation and reward management are critical components of the model. However, this study was limited to a multi-dimensional predictor (school organizational climate) only. With regards to sample, it was limited to the UAE K-12 private schools. Thus, future studies could extend further on variables like quality assurance initiatives (QAI), strategic leadership practices (SLP), teachers’
organizational commitment (TOC) and other variables that may influence the school performance. Future research should also consider K-12 public schools as samples and investigate whether there would be consistency or variance in the findings. Consequently, this study contributes to the growing body of knowledge in investigating the predictors of school performance. It also echoes to the ears of UAE government and other education policy makers the need for sustainable organizational climate in the schools. Additionally, school managers (principals, vice principals and HODs) can make use of the findings to maintain and improve on the school organizational climate.
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