Professional Orientation Scale

Abstract

The Professional Orientation Scale (POS) is a component of a larger instrument designed to assess the degree of professional versus bureaucratic adherence among educators, initially developed by R. G. Corwin in 1963 to examine staff conflicts in public schools. Corwin’s original instrument contained 45 items. Subsequent refinement by Kuhlman and Hoy modified this into a 24-item instrument, designated Form B-P, which comprises two distinct subscales: the 15-item Bureaucratic Orientation Scale (BOS) and the 9-item Professional Orientation Scale (POS). The POS specifically targets attitudes reflecting autonomy, adherence to professional standards, and student-centered decision-making, differentiating them from organizational rules and administrative loyalty.

Keywords

professional orientation, bureaucratic orientation, teacher attitudes, staff conflict, educational administration, R. G. Corwin, E. L. Kuhlman, organizational loyalty, teacher training

Authors

R. G. Corwin, E. L. Kuhlman, H. K. Hoy

Purpose

The primary purpose of the original instrument was to analyze the sources and potential for staff conflict within public schools. The refined 24-item scale (Form B-P) was developed specifically to measure the extent to which teachers adhere to either professional norms (emphasizing expertise and autonomy) or bureaucratic expectations (emphasizing rules, loyalty, and standardization).

By quantifying these two potentially conflicting orientations—professionalism versus bureaucracy—the scale provides researchers and administrators with a tool to understand teacher socialization into the complex organizational structure of schools and predict behavioral responses to organizational demands.

Construct

The Professional Orientation Scale (POS) measures the construct of professionalism within an organizational setting. This construct is defined by adherence to a specialized body of knowledge, commitment to professional associations, belief in autonomy from administrative control, and the prioritization of client (student) needs over strict adherence to organizational rules. The POS items contrast sharply with the Bureaucratic Orientation Scale (BOS), which measures constructs such as rule orientation, organizational control, and loyalty to the administration.

The scale effectively addresses the tension inherent in professional organizations, such as schools, where highly trained professionals (teachers) operate within rigid bureaucratic structures. A high POS score indicates a strong commitment to independent professional judgment and expertise, often associated with the concept of professionalism.

Validity

The source documentation does not explicitly provide quantitative data regarding the criterion or construct validity of the Professional Orientation Scale (POS) subscale specifically. However, the development process, which involved refinement from a broader 45-item instrument focused on staff conflict, suggests initial content validity aimed at capturing the defined constructs of professional versus bureaucratic demands in schools.

The subsequent factor analysis of the complementary 15-item BOS, yielding five conceptually distinct factors, indirectly supports the structural integrity of the overall Form B-P instrument, although direct validation evidence for the 9-item POS subscale is required for a complete psychometric assessment.

Reliability

A single reliability estimate is provided for the entire 24-item combined Bureaucratic and Professional Orientation Scale (Form B-P). The overall split-half reliability estimate for the entire instrument was calculated as 0.83, indicating a strong level of internal consistency for the composite measure. This figure suggests the items within the combined scale are measuring a cohesive set of related attitudes.

However, specific reliability estimates (such as Cronbach’s alpha or split-half coefficients) for the individual subscales—the 9-item Professional Orientation Scale and the 15-item Bureaucratic Orientation Scale—are not provided in the original source material. Researchers utilizing the subscales independently should seek further documentation confirming their psychometric soundness.

Factor Analysis

The source content details the factor analysis performed on the 15-item Bureaucratic Orientation Scale (BOS). This analysis resulted in a robust five-factor solution. These factors are hypothesized to represent distinct dimensions of bureaucratic orientation encountered by teachers.

The five identified factors of the BOS are:

• organizational control
• subordination-standardization
• rule orientation
• community orientation
• organizational loyalty

The authors established that a total score derived from the 15 Likert-type items provides a comprehensive index of an individual’s overall bureaucratic orientation. Information regarding the factor structure specifically underlying the 9 items of the Professional Orientation Scale is not documented in the provided source.

Instrument

Test Type: Psychological Scale / Attitude Assessment

Format: Self-report questionnaire using a 5-point Likert-type scale (Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree).

Language Available: English (Original development language)

Population Group: Educational Professionals (Teachers)

Age Group: Adults (Prospective and practicing teachers)

Population Details: The scale was initially administered to a sample of 322 prospective elementary and secondary school teachers. These individuals were drawn from four New Jersey colleges upon the completion of their undergraduate teacher preparation training. A crucial follow-up study was conducted one year later after the sample had completed their first year of teaching, allowing for analysis of socialization effects.

Test Methodology: The scale uses 24 items in total (Form B-P), which are scored on a 5-point scale. Items 1, 3, 5, 9, 11, 13, 17, 19, and 21 are reverse scored to mitigate response bias. The instrument yields two primary scores: one for Professional Orientation (9 items) and one for Bureaucratic Orientation (15 items).

Keywords

Likert scale, professional norms, organizational behavior, teacher socialization, educational psychology, reliability, factor structure, New Jersey teachers

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Not provided in source.

Affiliation Email addresses: Not provided in source.

Correspondence Address: Not provided in source.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The original development work by R. G. Corwin was supported by the U.S. Office of Education, Dept. of Health Education and Welfare, under Contract No. 1934. The original instrument development year was 1963. The modified and published 24-item Form B-P was documented in 1974 by Kuhlman and Hoy. Information regarding current permissions, licensing fees, and proprietary rights is not available in the source material.

The original PDF detailing the instrument development can be located via the reference: Corwin, R. G. (1963). The development of an instrument for examining staff conflicts in the public schools. U.S. Office of Education, Dept. of Health Education and Welfare, Contract No. 1934.

Reference’s

Corwin, R. G. (1963). The development of an instrument for examining staff conflicts in the public schools. U.S. Office of Education, Dept. of Health Education and Welfare, Contract No. 1934.

Corwin, R. G. (1970). Militant professionalism. New York: Appleton.

Kuhlman, E. L., and Hoy, H. K. (1974). The socialization of professionals into bureaucracies. Journal of Educational Administration 2:18–27.

Items of the Professional Orientation Scale

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way. Note that these 24 items constitute Form B-P, which contains both the 9-item Professional Orientation Scale and the 15-item Bureaucratic Orientation Scale.

Form B-P

1. Teachers should subscribe to and diligently read the standard professional journals.
2. Rules stating when the teachers should arrive and depart from the building should be strictly enforced.
3. Unless he/she is satisfied that it is best for the student, a teacher should not do what he/she is told to do.
4. Personnel who openly criticize the administration should be encouraged to go elsewhere.
5. Teachers should be active members of at least one professional teaching association and should attend most confer- ences and meetings of the association.
6. Teachers should be obedient, respectful and loyal to the principal.
7. Teachers should be completely familiar with the written descriptions of the rules, procedures, manuals and other standard operating procedures for running the class.
8. The criterion of a good school should be one that serves the needs of the local community.
9. A teacher should consistently practice her ideas of the best educational practices even though the administration prefers other views.
10. There should be definite rules specifying the topics that are not appropriate for discussion in a classroom.
11. It should be permissible for the teacher to violate a rule if he/she is sure that the best interests of the students will be served in doing so.
12. Teachers should not publicly advocate a position on the place of religion in the school which differs greatly from the majority of the community.
13. A good teacher should not do anything that he/she believes may jeopardize the interests of the students regardless of who tells him or what the rule states.
14. In case of a dispute in the community over whether a controversial textbook or controversial speaker should be permitted in the school, the teacher should look primarily to the judgment of the administration for guidance.
15. A good teacher should put the interests of his/her school above everything else.
16. Teachers should not attempt to discuss any controversial issue (such as abolishing the House Un-American Activi- ties Committee) which may jeopardize the school’s public relations.
17. Schools should hire no one to teach unless he/she holds at least a four-year bachelor’s degree.
18. Teachers of the same subject throughout the system should follow the same kind of lesson plan.
19. The ultimate authority over the major educational decisions should be exercised by professional teachers.
20. Teachers should take into account the opinions of their community in guiding what they say in class and in their choice of teaching materials.
21. It should be permissible to hire teachers trained at nonaccredited colleges.
22. When a controversy arises about the interpretation of school rules, a teacher should not “stick her neck out” by tak- ing a definite position.
23. The school should have a manual of rules and regulations which are actually followed.
24. Teachers should not allow themselves to be influenced by other teachers whose opinions and thinking are different than the administration’s.

Scoring: The instrument uses a 5-point Likert scale (SA = Strongly Agree; A = Agree; U = Undecided; D = Disagree; SD = Strongly Disagree). Items 1, 3, 5, 9, 11, 13, 17, 19, and 21 are reverse scored.