ADVERSE EMPLOYMENT ACTIONS AND PUBLIC SCHOOL ...

number of other incendiary titles. Stevens’ lawsuit for slander and libel was ultimately dismissed
in part because “the jury may have been influenced by the fact that not a single teacher at
Steven’s school testified on her behalf at trial” (p. 5). Stevens’ situation highlights the findings of
Davis’ (1998) and Matthews’ (2002) studies--without staff, parent, and student support created
by strong interpersonal skills, failure is likely. Moreover, Zirkel and Gluckman (1985)
pinpointed Davis’ (1998) and Matthews’ (2002) assertion almost 20 years earlier. In a case
involving the dismissal of a junior high school principal, the superintendent clearly identified the
failure of the principal to establish effective communication skills with staff, students, and
parents. Those stakeholders felt that “they [were] not able to talk with [him] in person or on the
telephone without fear of being embarrassed, intimidated, or of being treated as an inferior
person” (p. 120). The school administrator’s alienation of his school’s stakeholders made him
not only expendable, but rather it made him a target of those that he needed support from the
most.
Davis’ (1998) and Matthews’ (2002) studies are not the only reviews of adverse
employment actions against school administrators. They are, however, unique in their findings as
the study of administrative leadership in schools tends to hone in on effective leadership, but it is
also vital to understand the behaviors that cause school administrators to suffer adverse
employment actions. School administrators “are faced with the unrelenting task of maintaining
structure and order within increasingly hostile, unpredictable, and conflict laden environments”
(Davis, 1997, p. 73). Because the environment is such, it is the people skills that are so vital to
sustained leadership. While Davis (1998) and Matthews (2002) chose to focus on the deficient
behaviors that led school administrators into job insecurity, Sacken (1996) chose to review acts
of misconduct that brought adverse employment actions upon school administrators.
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