Blazing New Trails - Connexions

Self-Efficacy and Principal Involvement in Character Education 221
…been found to perceive an inability to control the environment and tend to be less
likely to identify appropriate strategies or modify unsuccessful ones. When confronted
with failure, they rigidly persist in their original course of action. When challenged,
they are more likely to blame others. (p. 574)
It appears to us that no small differences exist between high and low efficacy principals.
An administrator’s responsibilities in complex school environments require the ability
to access skills and knowledge simultaneously and to remain task-focused. This ability,
according to Bandura (1997), is the by-product of a strong sense of self-efficacy. Similarly,
Hoy (1998) purported that self-efficacy is also related to other administrator leadership skills,
such as, communication, leading, and motivating others.
Varied job duties and responsibilities impact principals’ efficacy beliefs. Accordingly,
principals’ efficacy beliefs impact their own actions to no small degree. Self-efficacy beliefs
vary in strength and exhibit consequential differences along a weak to strong continuum.
Bandura (2001) asserted, “Weak efficacy beliefs are easily negated by disconfirming
experiences, whereas people who have a tenacious belief in their capabilities will persevere in
their efforts despite innumerable difficulties and obstacles. They are not easily dissuaded by
adversity” (p. 9).
Implications are replete for building-level principals who daily confront
disappointments, resistance, and challenges from all quarters and levels. In terms of the
relationship between self-assurance and self-efficacy, Bandura (2001) wrote, “A certain
threshold of self-assurance is needed to attempt a course of action, but higher strengths of
self-efficacy will result in the same attempt” (p. 9). The contrast, however, is, Bandura (2001)
noted, “The stronger the sense of personal efficacy, however, the greater the perseverance and
the higher the likelihood that the chosen activity will be performed successfully” (p. 9).
Principal self-efficacy is a promising, but largely unexplored, construct for
understanding principal motivation and behavior” (Tschannen-Moran & Gareis, 2005, p. 3).
Bandura (1997) associated principals’ sense of efficacy with principals’ determination of their
effectiveness at a certain task or tasks in light of their own capabilities and experiences, as
well as the context of work in which the implementation of administrative tasks will occur.
McCormick (2001) delineated how principals’ sense of efficacy is a judgment of their
capabilities to develop a plan of action so that particular school outcomes can be achieved.
Principals’ efficacy is also a more focused understanding of how principals’ self-perceived
capabilities related to group processes and goal achievement. McCormick (2001) noted that
the principal’s success in planning and achieving particular school goals is correlated to the
self-efficacy beliefs that the principal possesses. Administrators’ self-efficacy beliefs also
impact the functional leadership strategies that are developed as well as how skillfully those
strategies are executed (McCormick, 2001).
SELF-EFFICACY AND EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP
A wide range of relationships have been documented in the literature between the role
of self-efficacy beliefs and the components of effective leadership. Paglis and Green (2002)
and Bandura and Wood (1989) have both shown how perceived self-efficacy influenced
analytic strategies, direction-setting, and managers’ subsequent organizational performance.
McCormick (2001) purported, “Successful leadership involves using social influence
processes to organize, direct, and motivate the actions of others. It requires persistent task-