Educational Innovation affects Leadership and Interpersonal Relations in an Experimental School in Northern Greece

Abstract

Even though the educational system in Greece is exceedingly centralized, the
 pioneering institution of “Experimental Schools” sheds a ray of light. The
 innovative and researching acts are systematically conducted in experimental
 schools with the aim to acquire, communicate and disperse knowledge. Based
 on previous research findings regarding experimental units’ hypotheses was
 developed towards the argument that innovation is directly correlated with (i)
 leadership (ii) communication, (iii) interpersonal relationships among teaching
 staff, contributing to a more effective transfer of knowledge and educational
 effectiveness. Within this framework, the aim of the present study is to
 investigate the association between the innovation and the leadership style as
 well as the interpersonal staff relations of the educational unit, the motivation,
 the work satisfaction and the communication in an experimental school unit.
 The primary quantitative study was conducted, using a structured
 questionnaire, in an experimental primary school in Northern Greece. Data
 acquired were processed using SPSS v20 and AMOS v17 statistical software. In
 the first stage the process of descriptive statistics and crosstabs analysis was
 implemented, and in following stages, factor analysis and Structural Equation
 Modeling was conducted. Results indicated that innovation is strongly interassociated
 with motivation. Additionally, innovation is positively associated
 with job satisfaction, interpersonal relations, leadership and communication
 inside and outside the educational unit. The way the leadership is imposed is
 changing using innovation procedures and becomes more participative
 involving the whole educational staff in the process. The research outcomes
 indicated that through innovation an educational unit obtains openness to the
 community, resulting in interpersonal relations reinforcement and in transfer of
 knowledge. All in all, innovation affects the relations and the way people work
 in an educational unit to the better and it may be alleged that innovation
 positively alters the profile of the organization.