Bibliographic Details
| Title: |
Rural Values and School District Personnel Practices: An Exploration of Person-Organization Fit Theory. |
| Language: |
English |
| Authors: |
Little, Paula, Miller, Stephen K. |
| Peer Reviewed: |
N |
| Page Count: |
45 |
| Publication Date: |
2001 |
| Document Type: |
Reports - Research
Speeches/Meeting Papers |
| Descriptors: |
Administrator Attitudes, Community Attitudes, Elementary Secondary Education, Employer Attitudes, Equal Opportunities (Jobs), Resistance to Change, Rural Schools, School Surveys, Social Bias, Sociocultural Patterns, Superintendents, Teacher Qualifications, Teacher Selection, Values |
| Geographic Terms: |
Kentucky |
| Abstract: |
Rural school districts where ethnocentrism, traditionalism, primary group preference, and social conservatism form the dominant value system could be contributing to their own ineffectiveness through their patterns of personnel selection. This study investigated the influence of rural values on components of personnel selection and the tacit filters of "fit" in recruitment efforts in Kentucky school districts. Surveys completed by 176 Kentucky school district superintendents and 178 principals indicate that decisionmakers with higher levels of rural values were more likely to rely upon "matching" or fit factors when making hiring decisions. Objective factors, such as references, grade point average, leadership activities, and honors or awards, did not play a significant role in influencing the hiring decisions of administrators with rural values. Decisionmakers with rural values did not perceive the importance of having minority faculty representation in proportion to the student population, even though they strongly agreed that students relate better to teachers with similar value systems. Decisionmakers with rural values perceived "fit" as a prerequisite to employment, and applicant background was a key element in determining that fit. Therefore, local candidates seemed to be among the few applicants who could meet the stringent "similar background" test. The perception that values matched, more than the actual matching of values, influenced the employment decision. (Contains 38 references.) (TD) |
| Entry Date: |
2002 |
| Accession Number: |
ED462222 |
| Database: |
ERIC |
