@article { author = {torkzadeh, jafar and Najafi, Zahra}, title = {Validation Leadership Worldview Scale for Public Schools Principals}, journal = {School Administration}, volume = {7}, number = {3}, pages = {269-253}, year = {2019}, publisher = {University of Kurdistan With the Co-operation of The Iranian Educational Administration Association}, issn = {2538-4724}, eissn = {2538-4732}, doi = {10.34785/J010.1398.398}, abstract = {The success of schools might not be limited to only one factor; having said that, school leadership must be reviewed and considered so as to have elite schools. These leaders should benefit from the worldview appropriate to environmental conditions and requirements. This worldview, along with creating cognitive meanings and paths, high ability to influence and wide vision, can establish the required commitment and passion among employees to fully utilize their potential and attempts to realize the fundamental organizational optimality (Jafari, 2012). In fact, a leader's worldview is an inseparable part of his personality. This include cognitive and affective hypotheses which are based on a definition of truth and people manage their lives according to them (Madden, 2014). In this regard, Wexler (2006) classifies worldviews in four different categories: entrepreneurial (leaders who manage their organizations by establishing and controlling a competition. This type of leadership is on the operational and functional level of the organization and is known as opportunistic leadership), network (leaders who manage their organizations by technology, innovation and initiatives. This type of leadership considers flexibility to changes, prioritizing knowledge, and fame and popularity of members as important factors to realize the optimality of the organization and is known as knowledge leadership), communitarian (leaders who manage their organizations by emphasizing group competition, flexibility, conversation and cultural values. This type of leadership considers common values of the group and social cooperation and communication as important factors to realize the optimality of the organization and is known as participatory leadership), and regulatory (leaders who manage their organizations by hierarchical system and controlling and observing legal contracts. This type of leadership regards maintaining the current condition and stability and loyalty of people to the system as important factors to realize the optimality of the organization and is known as bureaucratic leadership). Wexler (2006) believes that worldview is created based on what we understand and feel from the world and the surrounding environment. Worldviews can be identified by investigating frameworks, patterns, behaviors, values, and cultures of these worldviews and according to the situation and fundamental optimality of the organization, worldviews can be chosen and utilized. Therefore, identifying the type of worldviews of managers' leadership and their selection based on this framework is one of the first steps and has the potential to understand the effectiveness of leadership in different situations, organizations, and cultures especially in the long term and should be taken into account by the educational managers and authorities. In this regard, a systematic, comprehensive and valid tool is needed to continuously assess the worldview of managers' leadership style which is available in educational systems and other organizations; it is also to be noted that in this regard, Torkzade and Jafari (2012) codified the criteria of leadership worldview for the first time based on the Wexler's leadership framework (2006), the validity and reliability of which was assessed among the faculties professors and staff. The mentioned scale consisted of 62 items using Likert scale which was classified into 5 categories: 5 (strongly agree), 4 (agree), 3 (no idea), 2 (disagree), 1 (strongly disagree). In this study, it was attempted to codify and validate the summarized form due to the length of the scale and hence time-consuming process of answering the items which led to disinclination of respondents. Accordingly, the main purpose of this study was to validate leadership worldview scale for public schools principals. This scale is a short form of leadership worldview scale (Torkzadeh and Jafari, 2012) and consists of 30 items with a Likert spectrum which is developed in accordance with the Wexler Leadership worldview framework (2006), and includes four subscales: entrepreneurial, network, social and regulatory leadership worldview. Furthermore, each of these four types of leadership worldviews has dimensions including the type of rationality, creativity, patterns of time, change, ethics and leadership style. The statistical population included all primary and secondary school teachers in Shiraz which 369 people were selected by random-stratified sampling method and Cochran’s formula. In order to measure the validity of the questionnaire, two methods of cluster analysis and the first order and second order confirmatory factor analysis were used and Cronbach's alpha method was used to measure its reliability. The results of the item analysis indicated that each subscale had a significant correlation with the type of leadership worldview. The result of the first and second order confirmatory factor showed that each subscale had a high degree of validity for explaining the type of leadership worldview. Also, based on the Cronbach's alpha, the reliability of the scale and the corresponding subscales is desirable. Overall, results approved the applicability of the present scale in the subject area.                                   The results of First order confirmatory factor analysis also showed that in entrepreneurial worldview, the highest coefficient was related to ethical principles subscale (0.70) and the lowest was related to time patterns subscale (0.45), in network worldview, the highest coefficient was related to creativity subscale (0.89) and the lowest was related to change subscale (0.63), in communitarian worldview, the highest coefficient was related to leadership style subscale (0.86) and the lowest was related to creativity subscale (0.49), and in regulatory worldview, the highest coefficient was related to rationality subscale (0.73) and the lowest was related to creativity subscale (0.32). All the scale items had a positive significant effect on the type of leadership (p < 0.0001). Also, the results of second order confirmatory factor analysis revealed that entrepreneurial worldview (loading factor 0.99), network worldview (loading factor 0.99), communitarian worldview (loading factor 0.99), and regulatory worldview (loading factor 0.80) explain the leadership worldview scale. Moreover, according to Cronbach Alpha, scale and subscale reliability for entrepreneurial, network, communitarian  and regulatory worldview was 0.73, 0.87, 0.87, 0.70, respectively. Generally, the result of the assessments of first and second order confirmatory factor analysis showed that the codified factors in the mentioned scale perfectly show the type of related leadership worldview and different types of leadership worldviews (entrepreneurial, network, communitarian and regulatory) have a high ability to explain the leadership worldviews. Furthermore, the results showed an optimal level of validity and reliability of the scale. This scale can now be used by managers, researchers and those involved in educational systems to evaluate the type of leadership worldview of managers and researchers can use this scale based on their type of research.}, keywords = {Worldview,Leadership,Public Schools,Validation}, url = {https://jsa.uok.ac.ir/article_61266.html}, eprint = {https://jsa.uok.ac.ir/article_61266_c7e47c54a064d6b1d093ae730e4d743f.pdf} }