THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION OF PRIMARY

SCHOOL LEADER AND SCHOOL CLIMATE

CHAPTER 1
1.1
Literature Review
1.1.1 School climate
The development of a nation is dependent not only on economic
development, but also the development of a good education system that
available in the country. In a smaller scope, school is the foundation that played a
key role in the development of the educational system in any country in the
world. Malaysia in achieving Vision 2020, education has become the major
contributor to the development of the social and economic. In Malaysia, the
concept of effective schools was introduced by the Ministry of Education in 1995
in Effective School Seminar organized by Aminudin Baki Institution. Peter
Mortimore (1995) from the University of London in the study has listed some of
the characteristics of effective schools. The effective school climate is one of the
characteristic of an effective school.
A schools climate is its atmosphere for learning. It includes the feelings
people have about the school and whether it is a place where learning can occur.
A positive climate makes a school a place where both staff and students want to
spend a substantial portion of their time; it is a good place to be (Howard, Howell,
and Brainard, 1987). Murphy and Loukas (2007), has defined school climate, as
well known as organizational health as the culture, atmosphere, resources and
social network of a school. A peaceful and cozy school plays a significant in
teaching and learning process. According to Moss (1979), school climate

includes three dimensions. It is the connection among members of the

organization, maintenance and personal development of a member. Howard
(1974) defines school climate as a social state that may affect the culture of that
school.
The types of school climate adapted depend on the behavior of the
community of the organization.
1.1.2 The Importance of School Climate
In previous research, school climate was believed to play an important
role in this community to meet everybody in the organization. Hoy and Sabo
(1998) found that school climate is pivotal part of effective school. A healthy
climate will form a good connection between the members in the whole
community that will bring all members together in a shared commitment. A happy
school can be labeled as a school which functions as focused societies where
unique values are important, and behavior growth is in line with the academic
accomplishment.
According to Abd Rahman and Nahlawi (1995), an effective school climate
can produce a healthy connection between the students despite of their diverse
socio-economic status. A healthy school climate not only significant for the
student growth, but for teachers as well.
In todays Global Economic Growth, some organizations are truly handling
their own very well. They effectiveness of the organizational climate can meet the
customer satisfaction, maintain employee productivity, and innovate to gain a
competitive edge. In order to maintain the company reputation, they are putting a
positive organizational climate in a negative economic one. Even though,

creating a positive organizational climate is not a new idea, but it has become a
corporate imperative now. An organization with a very good climate can affect the
members motivation; even can affect the productivity of an organization.
A research reported entitled Creating a Positive Organizational Climate in
a Negative Economic One Improving Organizational Climate to Transform
Performance (Atkinson and Freccette, 2009) stated that a great leaders had a
big impact on their organization performance.From the paper they stated sixth
dimension of the

way to improve the workforce in order to increase the

organizations quality. Obviously,leaders must increase and makes the members

to be clear of company goals and leaders at the same time need to encourage
employees to adopt a commitment to the goals. The productivity of the
organization can be increase by encourage the to work in team. Each of the
members should playing their roles and must be responsible to themselves,
organization and others.
The research on the climate and students achievement had been
conducting by some of the researcher. However, the result was contrast which
showed that there is no relationship between both of these variables. James
Colemans classic national study of American Public Schools (1966) was also
discouraging because he a found: Only a small part of (student achievement) is
the result of school factors, in contrast to family background differences between
communities. It was supported by research conducted by Wayne and Hoy
(2014) which stated that organization and school climate had little to do with

school achievement; achievement primarily in the hands of teachers in the

classroom.
In 2003, Hoy, Smith and Sweetland (2003) had developed an instrument,
The Organizational Climate Index (OCI) to understanding the relationship of
teachers commitment to school climate. It is important source efforts to improve
schools. In OCI it stated of four dimensions of school climate which are Collegial
Leadership, Professional Teacher Behaviour, Achievement Press and Institutional
Vulnerability. It can be summarized from the Figure 1.1 below:

Figure 1.1: Dimensions of Organizational Climate Index

Again, Hoy and Miskel (2013) were stated some of the strategies that can
be taking by the leaders in order to improve their school quality. A leader routinely
should check the organizational climate of their school by checking the data.

Trust is pivotal in successful teamwork so both leader and teacher should build
trust and foster authenticity in behavior. Use a variety of perspectives and
measures of school climate as it is a multiple perspectives enrich analysis. By
build a climate of openness, health, and citizenship it can enhances both the
academic achievement and social emotional development of students. Next, both
school leader and teacher should focus on academic emphasis but not at the
expense of healthy interpersonal relationships so that both social and task needs
of schools should be met.
Moreover, Hoy and Miskel (2013) in their writing encourage school leader
and teachers to use both the climate and culture measures as part of a
systematic professional development program since climate and culture are
complementary yet different views of schools. The school leader also should
encourage teachers to use data and evidence in their decision making. They can
also use the data from the school climate instruments to evaluate themselves
and school. In this situation, the critical analysis and reflection can improve
school performance. Then, they should set professional goals based on data
assessment and then monitor the progress. Use negative data positively: Seize
shortcomings as learning opportunities. The leader can enlist the teachers in the
development of school improvement plans and as the leader doing so; the
teachers should be full partners because ultimately only teachers themselves can
improve instruction.
As the conclusion,to enhance performance the organization need to
increase employee motivation. In order to increase employee motivation,the

organization need to improve the climate and to improve the climate, the
organization need to change the managers day by day behaviors in the work
team(Atkinson, 2009). Leaders should playing their roles in motivated and control
the climate in their organization in order to produce a healthy and harmonius
environment for the organization good. To grow the organization we have to first
grow the leaders (Maxwell, 2013).

1.1.3 Concept of Communication

Communication is very important in our daily life. There is a lot of
communication types that stated by

1.1.4

Effective Communication

1.1.5 Effective Communication Of School Leader And School Climate

In any organization, leader is the main person who is going to play the
main role on drawing the future of the organization. However, the adapted of the
leadership style and the concept of a leader is different among all of them. The
features of a successful leader always are big issues in any organizations.
School is a very important organization which is also best known as a social
In any school principal give a big impact towards teacher (Hoy & Hoy,
2003; Smith & Piele, 2006),
There have a lot of factor that supportive the school climate such as
achievement motivation, collaborative decision making, equity and fair, general
school climate ,order and discipline ,parent involvement, school-community

relations, dedication to student learning, staff expectations ,leadership ,school

building, sharing of resources, caring and sensitivity, student interpersonal
relations, student-teacher relations (Haynes, Emmons, Ben-Avie, & Comer,
1996). School climate was believed to have a strong connection with the effective
communication of leader.
1.2

Background of Study

1.3

Problem Statement
Leaders play a big role in any organization. In each school, the leaders
give a big effect on teachers, students, parents and other communities. There are
a lot of research that has been conducted by the researchers on
leader(principal) and school climate, however theres only few research
conducted on the relationship between both effective communication of leader
and school climate. Thus the researchers in this study will identify the
relationship on effective communication of the school leader in primary school
and the school climate.

1.4

Research Objective and Research Question

This study will attempt to examine relationship between effective communication
of primary school leader and school climate. The particular objective of this
research is:
1) To identify the communications behaviors of leader (principal) of primary
school in the district of Klang.
2) To examine the school climate of primary school in the district of Klang.

3) To examine the relationship between effective communication of primary

school leader and school climate in the district of Klang ?

Research question for the proposed study have been expressed as follows:
1) What are the communication behaviors of leader(principal) as perceived
by the teachers
2) What is the climate of schools as perceived by the teachers?
3) Is there relationship between principal communication behaviors and
school climate as perceived by the teachers (male/female)?

1.5

Significance of Study
This study focused on the relationship between effective communication of
primary school principals and school climate, specifically the influence that these
principals have on the existing social system in their school. This existing will
make them play their role as a leader and influence the people surround them
(students, teachers, parents and other community) .The research is intended to
help new principals better adapt to the climate of a building. Many principals
experience considerable difficulty during their service because they are burden
with a lot of responsibilities required of the position. Consequently, they are often
insensitive to, and/or unaware of, the way they communicate which can give
impact to the climate that surrounds them. Such ignorance could prove
detrimental to teacher morale, student achievement, and even a principals

career. This research will heighten the awareness of principals consideration of

the effective communication and school climate and provide practical strategies
and suggestions for principals to apply as they adjust to, or manipulate, the
existing climate of a school.