Educational Organization Managers’ Team Role Orientations

The authors present the results of the empirical study on educational organization managers’ orientation to team roles. There is a certain disproportion in educational organization managers’ orientations to team roles (greater orientation to such roles as “implementer” and “team worker” and less orientation to such team roles as “coordinator”, “completer-finisher”, “monitor-evaluator”, “resource investigator”, “shaper” and “plant”). Factor analysis found three bipolar factors (“initiation”, “formation”, and “search”), which reflected educational organization managers’ orientation to the main team roles. This shows the possibility of a certain “compression” and balance of team roles (the possibility of educational organization managers’ simultaneous performance of several same-pole roles, and the impossibility of their simultaneous performance of several opposite-poles roles). Cluster analysis allowed dividing educational organization managers into four groups (types) according to their orientations to team roles (“organizing”, “shaping”, “researching”, and “initiating”). Educational organization managers who belong to “organizational” and “formative” groups use traditional management styles, while managers from “research” and “initiative” groups prefer innovative management styles. Based on the quantitative distribution, it was found that almost every second educational organization manager used innovative management styles in their work according to their orientation to team roles, which suggests that managers have certain potential for development. The obtained findings can be helpful in optimizing teamwork in educational organizations, as well as can be used by organizational psychologists.