The Impact of Management Styles on Parent Involvement in (First Grade) High Schools in District 3 of Tehran City

The aim of the present study has been to examine the impact of management styles on parent involvement in (first grade) high schools in district 3 of Tehran in educational year 2014-15. Research methodology has been applied and descriptive-correlational in terms of purpose and method of data collection respectively. In this study, statistical population included vice-principals, counselors and teachers of (first grade) high schools in district 3 of Tehran, out of which a sample size of 150 persons was determined by using Cochran‟s formula and through stratified random sampling. In order to collect data, two researcher-made questionnaires of management style (40 items) and parent involvement (11 items) were used; Cronbach‟s alpha coefficient was adopted to measure the reliability of questionnaires and the obtained coefficient was above 0.7 for both questionnaires. Besides, in order to measure the validity, content-related validity was adopted; for this purpose, the questionnaires were approved of by related experts. The analysis of the data obtained from administering the questionnaires was carried out through SPSS software in two sections of descriptive and inferential statistics (Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, Pearson‟s correlation test, multiple regression). Research findings indicated that management styles (autocratic, benevolent (paternalistic), consultative, and participative) have significant impact on parent involvement in (first grade) high schools in district 3 of Tehran.


Introduction
In the opinion of researchers and scholars of the area of management and organization, the importance of management styles is to the extent that it affects development of the organization, increase of quality of services, success in competition, increase of employees" motivation, job satisfaction, decrease of expenses, waste of resources and diversity of services, and in this regard, it is considered an important factor in human sciences research (Koslowsky et al., 2011, pp. 3-4). Management of the organization alongside planning, organizing and controlling is among the essential and important tasks of the manager, and it plays a fundamental role in running the organization; this importance is to the extent that managers are considered organizational leaders (Robbins, 1998). Therefore, determining the proper management style is necessary for an organization to remain successful; even the best employees need to know how they can participate in achieving organizational goals (Cho & Tseng, 2009, p. 7).In fact, management styles are considered main factors of establishing relations with others. If managers select their management styles based on humane considerations and with respect for needs and requirements of children, teenagers and young people, they can fulfill their needs related to sense of belonging, loving, prestige, honor, status and recognition (Shoghi et al., 2013, p. 22).Management style is a specific behavior of the manager in order to motivate the group for the achievement of certain goals (Nakata & Saylor, 1994, p. 15). Dimensions of management style are as follows. 1. Autocratic management style: this style is strongly task-oriented and poorly relationship-oriented. This leadership style is suitable for individuals who are quite immature and they need to be led autocratically. 2. Benevolent (paternalistic) management style: this style is strongly task-oriented and strongly relationship-oriented. When individuals under leadership are consider rather immature, this leadership style is suitable for them. In this style, they should be convinced and persuaded to achieve organizational goals, and for this purpose, the highest advantage should be taken of relationship orientation and task orientation. 3. Consultative management style: in this style, some of the decisions are delegated to individuals at lower levels. In consultative management style, motivation is based on inner and economic motives and individual desires for gaining new experiences (potential punishment and reward). Relationships are top-down and vice versa (bilateral). Even though the responsibility of revision, control and supervision lies with the senior manager, the opinions of the individuals at lower levels are also sought. Manger"s trust and confidence in subordinates is rather good. 4. Participative management style: it is poorly task-oriented and strongly relationship-oriented, and is suitable for individuals considered rather mature. Participation of employees is the best way of leadership. In this style, decision making occurs throughout the organization. Motivation is provided based on economic rewards but with group participation (punishment and rewards agreed to by both sides). Relationships exist in all horizontal and vertical aspects. The responsibility of revision and control is distributed between supervisors and employees. Besides, management styles can have many impacts on educational organizations including schools, among which we can mention job satisfaction, motivation, conflict, organizational commitment, job attachment of employees, etc. Another factor is parent involvement which today is considered an effective factor in quality and efficiency of schools. Parent involvement refers to the collaboration and engagement of students" parents in how educational services of the school are provided; it is defined through dimensions of parent-manager relationship, parent-teacher relationship and parent participation in improving quality of school services (Afzalkhani & Abdi, 2013, p. 9). In this regard, Şahin (2012), in a study on the relationship between management styles and organizational commitment of teachers, indicated that there is a significant relationship between employees" organizational commitment and participative style, but there is no significant relationship between other styles and organizational commitment. Besides, the findings revealed that whenever managers supported further participation and involvement of employees, their job satisfaction increased and thus, their commitment to the organization enhanced as well. Besides, Afzalkhani and Abdi (2013), in a study titled "a Study of the Optimal Ways of Effective Involvement of Parents and People in Schools of District 15 of Tehran", found that from the viewpoint of managers and parents, there is a significant relationship between involvement, and culture, information technology, financial dimensions, education and administrative staff-parents relationship. Since management styles constitute one of the main pillars of any organization, the manager has to possess the best management style for the success of the organization (Amini et al., 2015, p. 8). Any organization can reform its structure, enhance organizational and workforce creativity and promote performance and efficiency through adopting proper management style, and move towards its preset goals (Rezaee et al., 2013, p. 4). Organizations, particularly service and especially educational organizations, should support managers possessing proper management style for the sake of their survival and advancement and even maintaining the status quo, and promote the trend of innovativeness and innovation in the organization through this in order to prevent stagnation and destruction of the organizations, and the achievement of this goal requires managers with proper management style (Brown & Owusu, 2014, pp. 11-12). On the other hand, research into parent involvement and participation adds to the importance of the present study. In the opinion of many researchers, proper involvement of students" parents is the most important factor in the improvement of students" performance in curricula. The main key to the relationship and link between home and school, i.e. the student, should not be forgotten. The manager should know that the basic principle behind strengthening the relationship with parents is based on psychological, emotional and mental bonds. Expressing positive and constructive feelings as well as caring for the fate of the students and fostering positive attitude in parents towards the management and school are effective ways of establishing human relationships (Rezaee et al., 2013, p. 5).In the meantime, the role of management styles in the success of organizations and educational institutes is not unknown to anybody. Therefore, educational organizations in the present age should acquire the best position compared to rivals in the environment for survival and advancement and even maintaining the status quo, and this greatly depends on the management style of these organizations. Any manager may seem to be very successful under certain circumstances, while the same manager may prove to be weak with the change of conditions (Fidler and Chamers, 1984, p. 17). In this regard, Ahmadi and Bazrafshan (2014), in a study titled "a Study of the Relationship between Management Styles and Organizational Health and Job Stress of Employees", found that there is a reverse and significant relationship between relationship-oriented management style and organizational health, and a direct and significant relationship between task-oriented management style and organizational health. Besides, the results indicated that there is a reverse and significant relationship between relationship-oriented management style and job stress, and direct and significant relationship between task-oriented management style and job stress. There is also a reverse and significant relationship between variables of organizational health and job stress. Prediction results indicated the predictive power of task-oriented and relationship-oriented management styles for variables of organizational health and job stress. Besides, Slater (2015), in a study on the role of strategic management in organizations in the success of managers" management styles, found that managers" successful strategic insight adds more value to the long-term outcomes and as a result, they prefer employee participation to short-term outcomes and this institutionalizes participative management style among managers. With respect to the proper management style, most experts have had relative opinions and considered each one of the styles to be appropriate depending on the conditions. Nevertheless, participative management style has been beneficial and helpful in most organizational crises (Bakhshayesh, 2013, pp. 9-10).However, the main concern of the present study has been management styles and parent involvement in high schools. Adopting wrong and improper management styles on the part of school principals can cause major problems for the current affairs of the schools; it is because, on one hand, dealing with internal affairs and relationships with the staff and teachers of the school will change, and on the other hand, students and their parents will be directly affected by management styles. Today, parent involvement or participation is one of the important factors which has prevailed in education and it refers to the methods by means of which parents can offer useful opinions for the administration of the schools and/or provide qualitative and quantitative services for education (Sobhaninezhad & Youzbashi, 2013, p. 14). But if this involvement is weak, the problems and possible contradiction between the school and students will be doubled. Experience of countries successful in education proves this and it has been indicated that parent involvement or participation in offering educational and pedagogical services to schools has always been accompanied by remarkable effectiveness, planning stability and success (Pines et al., 2012, p. 13). According to what presented above and the gap in previous studies on the impact of management studies on parent involvement in schools, the findings of the present study can assist school staff including teachers, principals and students" parents in identifying the impact of management styles of managers as well as its impact on parent involvement, they can make better decision based on the present research findings. Therefore, the researcher intends to find out "to what extent management styles affect parent involvement in (first grade) high schools in district 3 of Tehran".
According to the above question and by using the previously conducted studies, the following research questions are formulated.
Main hypothesis: to what extent do management styles affect parent involvement in (first grade) high schools in district 3 of Tehran?

Sub-hypotheses:
1. To what extent do autocratic management styles affect parent involvement in (first 3. To what extent do consultative management styles affect parent involvement in (first grade) high schools in district 3 of Tehran?
4. To what extent do participative management styles affect parent involvement in (first grade) high schools in district 3 of Tehran?
Finally, the conceptual model of the study is presented in figure 1.

Methodology
Research methodology has been applied and descriptive-correlational in terms of purpose and method of data collection respectively. In this study, the statistical population included vice-principals, counselors and teachers of (first grade) high schools in district 3 of Tehran city in educational year 2014-15 amounting to 345 persons out of which a sample size of 150 persons was determined by using Cochran"s formula and stratified random sampling method. In order to collect data, two researcher-made questionnaires of management style (40 items) and parent involvement (11 items) have been employed and the related indices are presented in table 1. In order to measure the validity, content-related validity was used; for this purpose, the questionnaires were approved of by the related experts. Besides, in order to measure the reliability of the questionnaires, Cronbach"s alpha coefficient was used, and the obtained coefficients for each one of the questionnaires were 0.86 and 0.87 respectively. In addition, as it is seen, the value of this coefficient was above 0.7 for both questionnaires which indicates the reliability of the research instrument. In these questionnaires, 5-point Likert scale was adopted in order to answer the questions. The questionnaires were distributed among a group Parent involvement of vice-principals, counselors and teachers of (first grade) high schools in district 3 of Tehran and the analysis was carried out after receiving the questionnaires through using descriptive and inferential (Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, Pearson"s correlation test, multiple regression) statistics.

Findings
In order to examine the normality of data distribution, Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was adopted based on which it is concluded that the collected data for the questionnaires follow normal distribution.

Testing Research Hypotheses
In this section, research hypotheses are tested via Pearson"s correlation test.
Correlation tests subject: there is a significant relationship between management styles (autocratic, benevolent, consultative and participative), and parent involvement in schools.
For this purpose, the results of Pearson"s correlation coefficient significance test are presented in table 2. According to table 2, since the significance level is below 0.05, it is concluded at the confidence level of 95% that the relationship between management styles and parent involvement in schools under study is significant. However, the important point is that, given the Pearson"s correlation coefficients, participative management style has had a stronger relationship with parent involvement in schools under study; it is because Pearson"s correlation coefficient for it is equal to 0.580. In other words, given the answers provided by the sample size, if participative management style is adopted in high schools in district 3 of Tehran, parent involvement is more likely to increase. Besides, given the lowest correlation coefficient that is 0.214 for the relationship between autocratic management style and parent involvement, if autocratic management style is adopted in high schools in district 3 of Tehran, parent involvement is least likely to increase.
In this section, in addition to correlation, regression analysis has been used in order to examine the impact of variables on each other. At this stage, research question is answered by using simple linear regression analysis.
For this purpose, the results of regression analysis for the research questions are presented in table 3.  3 indicate that management styles have significant impact on parent involvement. It is because the calculated significance level is below 0.05 and t statistics are all above 1.96. As it is seen, even though the regression coefficients are different from correlation coefficients, the results of the regression analysis are not in contradiction with results of correlation test. Accordingly, participative management style has had the strongest impact and autocratic management style has had the weakest impact on parent involvement.
According to the above findings, all the research questions are answered. Of course, it should be considered that according to t coefficients and regression coefficients, the impact of autocratic management style on parent involvement is weaker (t coefficient= 2.71 and regression coefficient= 0.17); while the impact of participative management style on parent involvement is much stringer ( t coefficient= 8.82 and regression coefficient= 0.68).
It is to be mentioned that regression line equation is as follows based on the data obtained from regression analysis: Y= 1.44 + 0.17X 1 + 0.32X 2 + 0.29X 3 + 0.68X 4 Besides, F-test and regression tables related to testing research hypotheses are presented as follows.

Conclusion
All the efforts made in the process of conducting a research work are actually directed towards achieving desired results and proposing suggestions for further research. It is because the aim of conducting a study is to find solution to the existing problems and it is researcher"s concern and prompts him/her to begin the research. Sometimes, these problems which may apparently seem insignificant waste a lot of energy and funds in the society and reduce the efficiency and effectiveness and hinder achievement of intended and valuable results. It is through research that these problems can be predicted and their solutions can be provided and necessary measures can be taken in order to finally increase efficiency and positive results.
Therefore, this study, given the importance of the subject, has examined the impact of management styles on parent involvement in (first grade) high schools in district 3 of Tehran; now based on the existing research questions, the following conclusions are made.
The first finding indicated that management styles have an impact on the parent involvement in high schools in district 3 of Tehran. In fact, the management style adopted by managers has a direct and significant impact on involvement or noninvolvement of parents in school affairs. Thus, a special attention must be paid to management style in schools under study and this important characteristic of managers should be monitored and controlled to neutralize possible negative impact of improper leadership styles.
In the present study, management styles included autocratic, benevolent, consultative and participative and the impact of each one of them on parent involvement was examined. Previous studies mostly adopted these management styles in examining related subjects, among which are the studies conducted by Ahmadi et al. (2014), Khameneh (2012) and Brown & Owusu (2014). Based on this finding, it is concluded that parent involvement is one of the important factors affected by management styles and if proper management style is adopted, educational and pedagogical services to schools will always be accompanied by remarkable effectiveness, planning stability and success. Thus it is essential that school staff including teachers, principals and students" parents assist in identifying the impact of managers" management styles as well as its impact on parent involvement and subsequently make better decisions.
According to results related to the first finding, managers who adopt the best management style understand well that parents can play a major role in the lives of their children, particularly in development and enhancement of their skills, level of education and career success in future; so managers call for parents" more involvement in schools. This involvement or participation causes the parents to learn how and through what activities they can have a beneficial impact on their children. In fact, it is concluded that if the adopted management style is totally appropriate and managers adapt their style to conditions of different individuals, parents will have more motivation for involvement. The second finding indicates that autocratic management style has an impact on parent involvement in high schools in district 3 of Tehran. In fact, it is concluded that managers who mostly adopt this management style in solving school problems, face less participation on the part of parents. In other words, parents have less willingness to involve and participate in affairs of schools in which managers adopt nondemocratic style. This has also been confirmed in previous studies. It means that parent involvement is less in schools with autocratic and authoritative managers. Such individuals have the following characteristics according to the theoretical literature. They force individuals, give orders, want to correct things at any cost, only present their own ideas, make quick judgements, talk first, set deadline, are dependent on their position and status, cause fear, determine what is necessary and what is not. The results of previous studies have confirmed that schools with managers possessing above characteristics provide less opportunity for active parent involvement.
The results related to second finding indicate that in schools where decision making happens without seeking the opinions of teachers and the staff, and decision making solely happens individually and by the principal, the manager highly interferes in the work of teachers and the staff and tells them what to do, the manager meddles in the affairs of subordinates based on his/her own judgment, the manager does not explain the reason behind organizational decisions to others, and the manager harshly deals with the staff members who fail to do their tasks, parent involvement is at its minimum level and in fact, parents withdraw from pursuing school affairs because of the conditions they notice in the school.
The third finding indicated that benevolent (paternalistic) management style has an impact on parent involvement in high schools in district 3 of Tehran. In other words, paternalistic management style has a significant and rather strong impact on parent involvement in high schools in district 3 of Tehran. It is concluded that in schools where managers have confidence and trust in their subordinates, and their relationship with other school members is along with sympathy and benevolence, parent involvement will increase. Of course, this involvement is not at its maximum but it can be said that it is much higher compared to autocratic management style, and works better and encourages more parents to get involved in school affairs. because good relationship with students is the most important factor in increasing parent involvement in school programs and benevolent managers have always acknowledged this and encouraged school members to have a good relationship with students. Benevolent managers are the main key to the relationship and link between home and school, i.e. the student is considered important and he/she is emphasized. In the opinion of these managers, school members should know that the fundamental principle behind strengthening the relationship with parents is based on psychological, emotional and mental bonds. Expressing positive and constructive feelings as well as caring for the fate of the students and fostering positive attitude in parents towards the management and school are effective ways of establishing human relationships which will be followed by higher parent involvement. The forth finding indicates that consultative management style has an impact on parent involvement in high schools in district 3 of Tehran. In other words, the results suggest that there is a significant but weak relationship between consultative management style and parent involvement in schools under study. Accurate interpretation of this finding reveals that in schools where only a limited number of decisions are delegated to the individuals at lower levels, motivation is more based on financial and economic motives (potential punishment and reward), relationships are solely top-down and vice versa (bilateral), a proper relationship will not be established between managers and other school members. This weak relationship inhibits parents from involvement, because they lose their willingness to participate in this community by seeing the weak relationship between school members and they prefer to monitor what their children do outside school.
More accurate results related to the above finding reveal that in a school with a consultative principal, relationships are not established well, school members" official responsibilities are not clear, the role of reward is overemphasized in such a way that it influences other factors affecting students, direct supervision of the manager in affairs slows down the process of carrying out duties, manager"s behavior towards other school members is not efficient and helpful and the manager seeks close supervision and too much discipline and makes use of consultation and information inspection too much and eventually, the manager gives priority to close implementation of administrative circulars on the part of school members over all other affairs.
Because of the above conditions, there won"t be an appropriate image of school and the relationship between its members presented to the environment outside school and the parents won"t have any willingness to participate in an organization having problem in establishing proper relationship between its members.
The fifth finding indicates that participative management style has an impact on parent involvement in high schools in district 3 of Tehran. In other words, the impact of participative management style on parent involvement in schools under study has been significant and direct, and given the extent of impact, it can be said that in schools where managers adopt participative management style, parent involvement is more probable than any other condition. In other words, adopting participative management style accompanied by higher employee commitment, their job satisfaction and efficiency, and more importantly, employee participation in decision making, motivates parents to participate and get involved in school affairs like other school members.
Confirming this findings leads to the conclusion that employee participation is one of the techniques of management which can, in different situations, result in higher job satisfaction and efficacy. Thus participation is considered a tool for enhancing efficiency which, particularly in schools, makes use of both elements of employees and parents for improving the conditions. In fact, participative management is a comprehensive approach for attracting individual and group participation of employees and parents for solving school problems and ongoing improvement in all aspects. Therefore, participative management is a permanent mutual and close relationship between senior manager, and employees and parents in schools, which followed by participation of right individuals at the right time and for the right task. By adopting this management style, employee participation in tasks related to themselves will be a voluntary and conscious participation which is considered a kind of mental and emotional involvement in group activities and assists in achieving general goals of the school.  Bakhshayesh (2013) indicates that the research results are consistent. In the above studies, it has been mentioned that honoring humane values and seeking assistance of individuals who are somehow in connection to the organization will convey a positive image to the environment outside of the organization. It is mentioned in theoretical literature that if participative management is successfully adopted in organizations, it will bring about benefits and outcomes including improvement of human relationships between management and employees, employees" enhanced motivation, innovation and creativity, reduced cost of service delivery, decreased administrative operations and problems due to bureaucracy, increase of sense of organizational belonging in employees and alignment of employees" goals with organizational goals, quicker response to plans, determination of strategies and solutions, increased commitment and responsibility in implementing decisions, more innovation and better use of opportunities and sense of honor and dignity in employees.
All the benefits mentioned above will bring about more motivation and willingness in the area of school administration for more active involvement of parents in school affaires, and this effective involvement will lead to peace, higher productivity and increased equality and democracy as well as employees" dignity, and at the same time, it will be to the benefit of managers, employees as well as students" parents.
The following suggestions are proposed based on research findings: 1) Managers shall always exhibit their respect and honesty through adopting proper management style and treating well with the parents in order to cause them to get more involved.
2) It is suggested that managers properly supervise the performance of subordinates and give them the right to make decision as well as authority in work.
3) School principals shall promote activities such as group works in the presence of parents and appreciate such activities in order to increase parent involvement. 4) They shall reward those teachers who have had better relationship with students" parents. 5) Other factors affecting parent involvement such as personality characteristics of managers, organizational structure of schools, organizational culture etc. shall be examined.
6) This study can be conducted in schools located in other districts of Tehran and the results can be compared to the present results in order to attain more comprehensive results.