World Applied Programming, Vol (3), Issue (8), August 2013.

314-319
ISSN: 2222-2510
2013 WAP journal. www.tijournals.com

Relationship between Educational Leaders Sources of Power

and Organizational Health in Isfahans Public Universities
Azizollah Arbabisarjou

Sayyed Ali Siadat

Sakineh Abbarin *

Assistant professor, Health

Promotion Research Center, Zahedan
University of Medical Sciences,
Zahedan, Iran.
arbabisarjou2007@gmail.com

Associate Prof., Faculty member,

School of Educational Sciences and
Psychology, University of Isfahan,
Isfahan, Iran.
s.a.siadat@edu.ui.ac.ir

M.A of Educational Administration,

School of Educational Sciences and
Psychology, University of Isfahan,
Isfahan, Iran.

Narges Moayed

Shekoofe-Sadat Rezazadeh

M.A of Educational Administration,

School of Educational Sciences and
Psychology, University of Isfahan,
Isfahan, Iran.

M.A of Curriculum, School of

Educational Sciences and
Psychology, University of Isfahan,
Iran.
rshekoofe@gmail.com

Abstract: The Purpose of this research was to determine relation between educational leaders sources of
power and organizational health among public universities in lsfahan*. Research method was descriptive
correlative and statistical population included all faculty members at University of Isfahan, lsfahan University
of Medical Sciences and Industrial University of Isfahan in 1386-87 academic year who were 1478. Statistical
sample was 172 who were selected randomly. Research instruments were two questionnaires including a selfmade questionnaire for sources of power and Hoy & Fieldman (1987) questionnaire of organizational health.
Collected data were analyzed using regression analysis. Findings showed that Referent source of power are
related on morale, and coercive source of power are related with resources support; Specialization of expertise
source of power are related on resources support, academic emphasis and morale; Legitimate and reward
sources of power are related on resources support, consideration and academic emphasis of organizational
health.
Keywords: Sources of Authority, Organizational Health, Educational Leader, University
I.

INTRODUCTION

The organizational health is a concept that not only it is not applied comprehensively, but also it has not been defined
properly. Miles (1969) is the first theorist that used the concept of organizational health in the educational environment.
He believed that the organizational health depends on the organizations durability and survive in its environment. This
also refers to the organizations compatibility with environment and promotion and development of the organizations
ability for more compatibility (Wayne and Feldman, 1987) [17]. The health organization is a firm that deal with internal
and external destructive forces successfully and wisely, strive to achieve its goals, provide the motivation and interest
toward work among its employees, and promote its effectiveness through it. Therefore, which universities that have
organizational health spend their energies to achieve goals and lead to more reliability among employees and naturally
result in the efficiency of faculties and students? This is an important factor in increasing organizational health in the
universities. The existence of favorable measures and norms of the organizational health leads to the advancement of
organizational environment. This qualitative and quantitative development and advancement can leads to organizational
health and help to selection, absorption and utilization of qualified manpower. The organizational defects and the
managerial weaknesses and strengths and the managers mental and physical abilities can be identified through
recognizing the organizational health conditions. This also leads to prevent from non-wise efforts and also can promote
the scientific and professional methods in the organizations. In order to upgrade and improve the organizations
conditions, it is necessary to recognize the measures and norms of organizational health. In this study, the concept of
educational leader refers to the head of faculty, assistants of faculty, and head of the departments. Educational leaders

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Azizollah Arbabisarjou, et al. World Applied Programming, Vol (3), No (8), August 2013.

can use their power resources to improve the universities climate. One of the most important classifications of power was
presented by French and Raven (French and Bell, 2006) [6]. French and Raven recognized five resources for power [2];
Shetty,1978) [13]. These aspects of power exist in the human relations. It is possible that each power resources exist in
all of the levels. These power resources include:

Legitimate power
Coercive power
Expertise power
Reward power
Referent power

Turingan (2002) [15] in his study that was entitled organizational health of the faculty of nursing and examining the
relationship between faculties organizational health and organizational effectiveness and faculties performance
concluded that there are significant relationships between organizational health and effectiveness and also some of the
organizational health components (including institutional unity, structuring, and academic emphasis) are the effective
components that their average was more than average level and other components such as resources supportiveness,
managers influence, and spirit were which components that their average were less than average. Because focus on the
universities organizational health can paves the grounds of growth, development, and improvement and also can turn the
universities into a place for critical thinking, this study was aimed to examine that are there any relationships between the
educational leaders resources of authority and the organizational health of public universities in the city of Isfahan. With
regard to this question, the main purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between educational leaders
resources of power and the organizational health of public universities in the city of Isfahan. Based on the resources of
power from French and Ravens viewpoint, the present study searched to answer the following questions.

Is there any relationship between educational leaders reference power and the organizational health of public
universities in the city of Isfahan?
Is there any relationship between educational leaders expertise power and the organizational health of public
universities in the city of Isfahan?
Are there any relationship between educational leaders legitimate and the organizational health of public
universities in the city of Isfahan?
Is there any relationship between educational leaders reward authority and the organizational health of public
universities in the city of Isfahan?
Is there any relationship between educational leaders coercive power and the organizational health of public
universities in the city of Isfahan?

II.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This study was a correlation research. The statistical population of this study included all of the faculty members in the
public universities of Isfahan city in 2011. University of Isfahan had 462 faculty members, Isfahan University of Medical
Sciences had 645 faculty members; Industrial University of Isfahan had about 371 faculty members. In total, they had
1478 faculty members. A sample of 172 faculty members was selected based on the primary sampling and its variance in
the SPSS software.
In order to examine and confirm reliability of the questionnaire, Cronbachs Alpha coefficient has been used. This
coefficient calculated. This value was .84 for our questionnaire that confirms reliability of the questionnaire. In order to
examine and confirm validity of the questionnaire, the questionnaire has been corrected and modified by faculty
members.

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Azizollah Arbabisarjou, et al. World Applied Programming, Vol (3), No (8), August 2013.

III.

FINDINGS

The first question of study indicates that is there any relationship between educational leaders reference authority and
the organizational health of public universities in the city of Isfahan? The results of this question have been indicated in
the table 1.
Table 1. The results of regression analysis and net and gross weights of educational
leaders referent power on the components of organizational health
Resources
resources supportiveness
Institutional unity
Managers influence
Consideration
Structuring
academic emphasis
spirit

Standard
deviation
0.58
0.041
0.082
0.07
0.07
0.041
0.024

Regression
coefficient
-0.11
-0.06
-0.10
-0.14
0.05
0.10
0.45

t-value
1.23
0.72
1.03
1.49
0.57
1.25
4.91

Coefficient of
determination
0.10
0.10
0.10
0.10
0.10
0.10
0.18

Sig
0.22
0.47
0.31
0.14
0.57
0.21
0.001

As the results of this table indicate, only there is significant relationship between spirit and the referent authority among
five components. These results indicate that the educational leaders referent authority has relationship with spirit among
all of the components of organizational health. The coefficient of determination shows that 0.18 of variance of sprit is
explained by educational leaders reference power.
The second question of this study indicates that is there any relationship between educational leaders expertise power
and the organizational health of public universities in the city of Isfahan? The results of this question have been indicated
in the table 2.
Table 2. The results of regression analysis and net and gross weights of educational
leaders expertise authority on the components of organizational health
Resources

Standard deviation

Resources supportiveness
Institutional unity
Managers influence
Consideration
Structuring
Academic emphasis
Spirit

0.21
0.11
0.20
0.16
0.18
0.11
0.06

Regression
coefficient
0.21
0.12
0.03
0.05
0.01
0.19
0.19

t-value
2.41
1.48
0.32
0.46
0.11
2.21
2

Coefficient of
determination
0.13
0.09
0.09
0.09
0.09
0.13
0.13

Sig.
0.02
0.14
0.75
0.65
0.92
0.03
0.04

As the results of this table indicate, there are significant relationships among resources supportiveness, scientific
emphasis, and spirit with educational leaders expertise power. These results indicate that the educational leaders
expertise power has significant relationships with resources supportiveness, scientific emphasis, and spirit. The
coefficient of determination shows that 0.13 of variance of resources supportiveness, scientific emphasis, and spirit is
explained by educational leaders expertise power.
The third question of this study indicates that is there any relationship between educational leaders legal power and the
organizational health of public universities in the city of Isfahan? The results of this question have been indicated in the
table 3.

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Azizollah Arbabisarjou, et al. World Applied Programming, Vol (3), No (8), August 2013.

Table 3. The results of regression analysis and net and gross weights of educational
leaders legitimate power on the components of organizational health
Resources

Standard deviation

Resources supportiveness
Institutional unity
Managers influence
Consideration
Structuring
Academic emphasis
Spirit

0.15
0.074
0.15
0.12
0.13
0.073
0.043

Regression
coefficient
0.21
0.07
0.11
0.22
0.05
0.17
0.11

t-value
2.57
0.91
1.15
2.43
0.53
2.18
1.20

Coefficient of
determination
0.23
0.11
0.11
0.23
0.11
0.23
0.11

Sig.
0.011
0.37
0.25
0.02
0.60
0.03
0.23

As the results of this table indicate, there are significant relationships among resources supportiveness, scientific
emphasis, and consideration with educational leaders legitimate power. These results indicated that the educational
leaders legitimate power had relationships with resources supportiveness, scientific emphasis, and consideration. The
coefficient of determination showed that 0.23 of variance of resources supportiveness, scientific emphasis, and
consideration is explained by educational leaders legitimate power.
The fourth question of this study indicated that is there any relationship between educational leaders reward power and
the organizational health of public universities in the city of Isfahan? The results of this question have been indicated in
the table 4.
Table 4. The results of regression analysis and net and gross weights of educational
leaders reward power on the components of organizational health
Resources

Standard deviation

Resources supportiveness
Institutional unity
Managers influence
Consideration
Structuring
Academic emphasis
Spirit

0.17
0.08
0.16
0.13
0.14
0.08
0.05

Regression
coefficient
0.25
0.03
0.07
0.22
0.10
0.17
0.09

t-value
2.87
0.31
0.70
2.26
1.06
2.00
0.93

Coefficient of
determination
0.15
0.08
0.08
0.15
0.08
0.15
0.08

Sig.
0.005
0.76
0.48
0.03
0.29
0.04
0.36

As the results of this table indicate, there were significant relationships among resources supportiveness, scientific
emphasis, and consideration with educational leaders reward power. These results indicate that the educational leaders
reward authority has significant relationships with resources supportiveness, scientific emphasis, and consideration. The
coefficient of determination showed that 0.15 of variance of resources supportiveness, scientific emphasis, and
consideration is explained by educational leaders reward power.
The fifth question of this study indicates that is there any relationship between educational leaders coercive power and
the organizational health of public universities in the city of Isfahan? The results of this question have been indicated in
the table 5.
As the results of this table indicated, there was a significant relationship between resources supportiveness with
educational leaders coercive power. These results indicate that the educational leaders coercion authority has
relationship with resources supportiveness. The coefficient of determination shows that 0.25 of variance of resources
supportiveness is explained by educational leaders coercive power.

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Azizollah Arbabisarjou, et al. World Applied Programming, Vol (3), No (8), August 2013.

Table 5. The results of regression analysis and net and gross weights of educational
leaders coercive authority on the components of organizational health
Resources

Standard deviation

Resources supportiveness
Institutional unity
Managers influence
Consideration
Structuring
Academic emphasis
Spirit

0.32
0.15
0.30
0.24
0.27
0.15
0.09

Regression
coefficient
0.30
0.09
0.09
0.06
0.05
0.12
0.40

IV.

t-value
3.60
1.18
1.02
0.61
0.60
1.57
1.23

Coefficient of
determination
0.25
0.10
0.10
0.10
0.10
0.10
0.10

Sig.
0.001
0.24
0.31
0.54
0.55
0.12
0.07

CONCLUSION

The universities managers not only should have scientific capability, but also they should have high intelligence in the
management level so that the faculty members can educate their students without any concern. Indeed, the health climate
leads to more effective performance and also peace of mind among individuals. In order to this, the present study was
aimed to examine the relationship between the components of organizational health and the resources of power in the
universities. The findings indicate that if the educational leaders authority be based on the excellence mankind
characteristics and the educational leaders have high levels of personality popularity and other organizational members
love them, it is possible to improve the individuals spirit and then the participation, friendship, belonging, and friendly
relations will be increased and developed in the organizations. Therefore, type of the educational leaders personality and
their personality traits have significant effects on the organizational health and this especially leads to the increase in
work spirit and participation among faculty members. Based on this, which individuals should selected as educational
leaders in the universities that have health personality and can manage the university without any prejudice. Braynion
(2004) [5] believes that the managers personality health is one of the most important measures that should be considered
for selecting manager. Because personality health and having excellence mankind characteristics leads that the managers
promote these characteristics among organizational members and hereby partnership, friendship, participation, belonging
sense, and cooperation will be increased among organizational members. In the studies that have been done by Ghanbari
and Kohanchani (1998) [7], Kachoeian (2009) [11], and Taheri (2002) [14], spirit has been presented as a most important
factor in organizational health. These studies also confirm the effects of spirit on the organizational health. If the
authority of educational leaders is determined based on the rules and predetermined frames, it will be possible to increase
effective communications among members, friendship interactions, more scientific suggestions by members, members
welfare level, providing more educational facilities and equipment in university, high measures of scientific
performance, and students efforts to success. Therefore, using legal authority not only influences faculty members and
employees, but also has positive effects on the students and increases their efforts to success. The results of the studies
that have been done by Hadian (2000) [8], Verhost (2004), Brinion (2004) indicate that there are significant correlations
between educational leaders resources of authority and organizational health. Additionally, if the educational leaders
authority be based on the appropriate reward and rewarding members result in high performance, it is possible to
increase more friendly relationships with each other, respect, presenting better and more rational suggestions, increasing
welfare sense among members, providing more educational facilities and equipment, measuring scientific performance
through higher criterions, and high levels of motivations for success by students. Verhost (2004) believes that the use of
reward authority in the necessary conditions can increase work motivation and leads to more effectiveness in the
organizations. Batman (1999) believes that if the leader uses the coercion authority not only cannot have good
effectiveness, but also this damages the organizational health. Therefore, the use of coercion authority can be minatory
for organization. [4], Ghanbari and Kohanchani (1998) [7], Hadian, (2000) [8], Hoseyni (2003) [10], Abdi (2007) [1],
and Hersey and Blanchard (1996) [9] presented the use of coercion authority as the final resource of authority in their
studies.

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Azizollah Arbabisarjou, et al. World Applied Programming, Vol (3), No (8), August 2013.

* Isfahan is located on the main north-south and east-west routes crossing Iran, and was once one of the largest cities in
the world. It flourished from 1050 to 1722, particularly in the 16th century under the Safavid dynasty, when it became
the capital of Persia for the second time in its history. Even today, the city retains much of its past glory. It is famous for
its Islamic architecture, with many beautiful boulevards, covered bridges, palaces, mosques, and minarets. This led to the
Persian proverb Esfahn nesf-e jahn ast (Isfahan is half of the world). Numerous universities have established in it
and the University of Isfahan, the Isfahan University of Medical Sciences and Industrial University of Isfahan are the
largest and oldest public universities (Rajaeepour et al., 2011) [12].
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors would like to express their special thanks of gratitude to Jahantigh, Mozhgan , the manager of Clinical Skills
Lab affiliated to Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, Iran for her technical support and consulting.

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