Staff Conflict, Organizational Bureaucracy, and Teacher Satisfaction.

This study was to isolate factors in conflict which teachers experience in their work and to determine their relationship to organizational bureaucracy, satisfaction, and central life interests. A stratified random sampling was used for the main position of the study. The school districts were stratified into five groups on the basis of the number of teachers employed. A proportional number of districts were randomly selected from each group. One hundred sixty teachers were randomly selected from each of the five groups totaling 800. The data were collected through a mail procedure. A total of 642 usable questionnaires were returned. Instrumentation included the Conflict Assessment Questionnaire (CAQ) and the School Organization Inventory (SOI). Item content on the questionnaire concerned administrative, student, and staff relations; decision sharing; personal non-material opportunities; work conditions; material inducements; and school priorities. The SOI measured three dimensions of bureaucracy: hierarchy of authority, rules and regulations, and impersonalization. Findings support the assertion that factors in the organization that are external to the individual determine the perceived level of bureaucracy. Because the other research variables were not predictors of bureaucracy, the conclusion that the SOI is a legitimate independent measure of the school structure seems appropriate. The lack of findings related to the central life interest variable can be explained by a poor measuring instrument. Further research is recommended. A 9-item bibliography is included. (MJM)