The study aimed to determine the management philosophies of primary school principals. Stratification method of sampling was used in the study. The study sample consisted of 33 school principals and 132 teachers serving at primary education schools in Isparta in the academic year 2008-2009. The "Manager Philosophy Scale" developed by Tanriogen and Cermik (2002) was used in order to survey the views of class and subject teachers teaching in fourth and higher grades as well as principals of the primary schools. In the data analysis, the scores were evaluated as frequencies (f), percentages (%) and means (X). T-test was used to determine differences between group opinions and ANOVA and Tukey-test were used to determine the sources of the differences. In the study, it was found that the school principals were closer to the theory-Y in their management philosophies, that both teachers and school principals reasoned in a way closer to the theory Y, that their ideas did not very depending on the number of years they have worked with the principal but that they did vary depending on the subject taught by and gender of the teacher.