Investigation of Interpersonal Management Training for Educational Administrators

Abstract Interpersonal skills have been shown to be foundational for effective leadership in many settings. The need for those skills among educational administrators was examined in three stages. First, the interpersonal skill level of 170 educational administration graduate students was evaluated in four categories (attending, empathy, respect, concreteness). Students' skill levels approximated those of the general population. Second, 14 school administrators received 50 hours of interpersonal skill and group management training. Pre-, post-, and postpost-training assessments showed marked improvement and sustained effects on all four skill categories. However, methodological considerations limits the generalizability of the results. The third phase employed a pre-post treatment (n = 10) and control-group (n = 12) design with blind raters. Significant gains were found for the treatment group on three of the four skills evaluated, after only 12 hours of training. Implications for interpersonal skills training for educational leaders are addressed.