Investigation of the reasons of ethical dilemmas encountered by high school administrators

The present research aims to question the reasons for the ethical dilemmas experienced by high school administrators. The study was based on a mixed-method design. 114 school administrators participated in the research. They were first asked to fill out the "Ethical Dilemmas Scale at Schools". Later, 43 participants (12 principals and 31 vice-principals) agreed to take part in the structured interviews. SPSS and content analysis were employed for the analysis of quantitative and qualitative data respectively. The quantitative findings showed no significant difference among the administrators of high schools depending on their gender, position, professional field, and school type. Yet, the school administrators of 11 to 15 years of experience made a significant difference in having ethical dilemmas compared to the others. The qualitative data demonstrated that school principals defined ethical dilemmas under three categories while vice-principals defined them under six categories. The qualitative data also indicated that the ethical dilemmas experienced by school principals occurred in 14 different categories, and 17 categories for vice-principals. These ethical dilemmas stemmed from 16 reasons for principals, and 19 reasons for vice-principals. Key Words: Ethics, Professional Ethics, Managerial Ethics, Ethical Dilemma, Ethical Decisio