WORK ENGAGEMENT AMONG SCHOOL DIRECTORS AND ITS IMPACT ON TEACHERS' BEHAVIOR AT WORK

The purpose of this paper is to analyze engagement at work among public primary school directors and to investigate the impact of school heads' management style on teachers' behavior at work, in a developing country. Results are based on a representative sample of around 1,000 public primary schools in Madagascar. These surveys gather extremely rare information on several aspects of the staff’s behavior at work and on the tasks performed as part of their workflow. Two-levels models are used to analyze engagement at work among school directors, and to evaluate the impact of school director's management style on teachers' engagement at work. Findings indicate that many aspects of the pedagogical process are poorly managed and that far too many administrators neglect tasks deemed essential for student learning. To illustrate, only 15 percent of school directors execute all of the tasks deemed essential to their role. Although every school leader is different, successful or engaged school leaders share key characteristics. In this regards, the results clearly show that principals who are highly committed to their work are more likely to hold a permanent contract, to be satisfied overall with their job, and, to a lesser extent, to work in schools with good physical conditions. The results also show that school heads who combine teaching with management duties execute significantly less essential tasks than their counterparts. As far as teachers' conscientiousness is concerned, school leaders do matter. All else remaining the same, it is found that principal’s management style has a significant and positive impact on teachers’ behavior at work and a central role to play in developing effective schools. The empirical evidence shown in this paper is suggestive and potentially useful for policy makers in designing policies and initiating interventions to improve the management of pedagogical processes. The results are also likely to enrich the discussion of promising approaches for improving educational outcomes, both in Madagascar and in many other low-income countries.