This article reports the results of research designed to assess whether specified attributes of the principalship influence the decision making of men and women, as prospective job applicants, differently. The results indicate that both men and women are likely to make their job choice decisions based on salary. The results have practical implications for organizational recruiters.

The purpose of this study was to investigate principal selection decisions made by teachers ( N = 169) serving on school councils. Analysis involved a between-within split-plot factorial design. The dependent variable was teacher rating of a principal candidate. The between-groups factors were teacher-dominant work value and school level. The within-groups factors were principal-dominant work value and principal job attributes. Teachers preferred candidates with whom they shared a dominant work value. Elementary and middle school teachers preferred candidates oriented toward instructional leadership. High school teachers preferred candidates oriented toward management. Findings suggest teachers participating in principal selection decisions may need training in personnel selection practices.

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to use a recent feminist conceptual framework (Tallerico, 2000a) to frame an investigation of whether emphasizing the major roles of the job and district size in recruitment messages for a hypothetical superintendent’s position influenced participant job attraction ratings. Research Methods: This study used a 2 × 3 × 3 analysis of variance (ANOVA) design with each cell containing equal numbers of men and women. The independent variables were gender (male, female), selected major roles associated with the superintendency (instructional leadership, managerial leadership, political leadership), and district size (1,500 students, 3,000 students, and 12,000 students). The dependent variable consisted of an additive composite score of participant responses to three items representing a measure of job attraction. Sampling Procedure and Data Collection: Seventy-six percent of the randomly selected sample of 360 public school principals in Alabama (male = 180, female = 180) completed a consent form, a demographic data form, and rated one of nine recruitment messages for a hypothetical superintendent’s position. Major Finding: ANOVA procedure using a composite rating of three items as the dependent variable revealed that the roles accounted for 14% of the variance in participant attraction for the position with both men and women rating position announcements emphasizing the instructional leadership role significantly more positively than position announcements emphasizing either the managerial leadership role or the political leadership role. Analyses of variance on the single item related to job attractiveness revealed a main effect for superintendent roles and a two-way interaction between superintendent roles and district size. The least positive ratings for both men and women were messages emphasizing the management role in districts with 3,000 students enrolled and the political role in districts with 12,000 students enrolled. Implications and Conclusion: The contents of the recruitment messages influenced participant ratings to a significant degree. From a practical standpoint, the findings encourage careful consideration of the language used in recruitment messages and support the utility of the framework to inform future studies.

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School reformers maintain that teacher service on school councils contributes to improved school decision making. There is, however, little empirical evidence that teachers are attracted to serving on school councils. In this study, randomly selected teachers (N = 318) from a reform state rated validated job descriptions for school council vacancies. Teachers with greater numbers of dependent children and prior school council experience rated school council positions more negatively than did teachers with fewer dependent children and no experience on school councils. Regression analysis revealed number of dependent children and school council experience explained 6.8% of the variance in teacher rating of a school council position. Results have implications for teacher attraction to school councils.