EVALUATION OF LEADERSHIP STYLES OF PRINCIPALS OF SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN ZONKWA EDUCATION ZONE, KADUNA STATE

ABSTRACT

 

The study entitled the Evaluation of Prevailing Leadership Styles in Zonkwa Education Zone Secondary Schools, Kaduna State has six objectives some of which are the assessment of the autocratic, transformational and situational leadership styles. Six research questions were asked in line with the objectives. Six null hypotheses were postulated some of which are that there is no significant difference in the opinions of respondents on the evaluation of the prevailing visionary leadership style in secondary schools in Zonkwa Education Zone and that there is no significant difference in the opinions of respondents on the prevailing charismatic leadership style in secondary schools in Zonkwa Education Zone, Kaduna State. For effective evaluation of the leadership styles of principals in the secondary schools, the researcher designed a structured questionnaire with related components for each of the identified leadership styles of Democratic, Autocratic, Transaction, Charismatic, Situational and Visionary attributes of principals. The questionnaire was validated through face validity and then pilot tested. The tested questionnaire was then administered to 200 respondents made up of 160 teachers, 35 principals, 5 Zonal Education Directors within the Zonkwa educational zone selected through a stratified random sampling procedure. The data collected were analyzed with the Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS), IBM version 20. Statistical procedures adopted in the analysis of the data included simple frequencies and percentages, means and standard deviation and one way analysis of variance (ANOVA). Tests were conducted at the 0.05 probability level of significance. The research questionnaire was drawn based on likert scale of strongly agree, agree, undecided, disagree and strongly disagree. The bio-data was taken care of and the descriptive analysis was done to discuss as it affects the study. The null hypotheses were tested using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) at 0.05 significant level and all the six hypotheses were retained. From the findings some recommendations were made that principals should be encouraged through school inspectors to always alternate their leadership styles based on the prevailing circumstance and that the principals. There should also as much as possible discourage their use of autocratic leadership style in secondary schools of Kaduna State.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

A leadership style is a leader‘s style of providing direction, implementing plans and motivating people. There are many leadership styles that can be exhibited by leaders in organizations such as the school system. In schools the headteachers are either principals or headmasters/headmistress. In secondary schools, the headteachers are the principals and the leadership styles employed by them will determine how successful they will be in achieving the schools objectives.

The level of competence, honesty, intelligence, inspiration, broad mindedness and efficiency will be determined by the type of leadership style employed by the principal in running the school either successfully or otherwise. Most of the time a blend of the different leadership styles will make the principal or leaders of other organizations more effective.

Psychologist Kurt Lewin developed his leadership style framework in the 1930s and it provided the foundation of many of the approaches that followed afterwards. Lewin argued that there are three major leadership styles. According to him, these styles are Autocratic, Democratic and the Laissez-faire. In autocratic leadership style, the principal makes decisions without consulting their team members in this case the teachers, even if their input would be useful. In democratic leadership style, the principal makes the final decisions but they include the teachers in the decision-making process.

Also in laissez-faire leadership style, the principal give the teachers a lot of freedom in how they do their work, and how they set their deadlines they provide support with resources and advice if needed otherwise they don‘t get involved. This can be damaging. The late 1970 the visionary leadership theories was developed formally. A principal who employs the visionary develops effective communication which has positive effect on their teachers outcome resulting in their having high trust in their principals and high commitment to the overall school performance.

Other leadership styles evolved over time and Flamholtz and Rolandles leadership style Matrix was published in 2007. The matrix shows the best leadership style to use based on four

• More leadership styles emerged such as transitional, charismatic, situational, manipulative and contingency.

1.2 Statement of the problem

Many principal in ability to allow for different leadership styles at different times in the management of their schools constitute the major problem the school system is facing. In fact there are many styles which cannot describe precisely which ought to have been used by school heads. In many instances one discovered that principals do not motivate their staff when they are supposed to do so. Also many teachers fail to go for training to overcome their weaknesses as the principals show favouritism by not nominating them for such and in some schools the principals allow for laziness in teachers with the renitent effect of teachers showing non- challant attitudes to their work.

Some principals are just too rigid and abhor teamwork and they are such that you cannot give those pieces of advice because as principals they feel that they know everything and are just too arrogant to work or allow for the decision – making process to be participative. Some of these problems lead to many negative outcomes, one of which is mass failure in school examinations. Also some leaders are very lazy as they leave what would have been handled by them to their vice principals and senior teachers. In many cases they hardly look through the lesson plans critically but merely appended their signatures on lesson plans without having time to make corrections. Many of the principals just peep through the windows of the classrooms instead of sitting with teachers in class to observe the teaching and class management. Some of the principals are so bias that they hardly see anything good in some of their staff due to biasness

1.3. Objectives of the Study

The following objectives were formulated to

1. examine the extent to which democratic leadership style is practiced by principals of secondary schools in Zonkwa Education Zone, Kaduna State.
2. assess the extent to which autocratic leadership style is practiced by principals of secondary schools in Zonkwa Education Zone, Kaduna State.
3. ascertain the extent to which transactional leadership style is practiced by principals of secondary schools in Zonkwa Education Zone, Kaduna State.
4. assess the extent to which charismatic leadership style is practiced by principals of secondary schools in Zonkwa Education Zone, Kaduna State.
5. examine the extent to which situational leadership style practiced by principals of secondary schools in Zonkwa Educaton Zone, Kaduna State.
6. determine the extent to which visionary leadership style is practiced by principals of secondary schools in Zonkwa Education Zone, Kaduna State.

1.4 Research Questions

These research questions were asked

1. To what extent is democratic leadership style practiced by principals of secondary schools in Zonkwa Education Zone, Kaduna State?
2. What is the extent to which autocratic leadership style is practiced by principals of secondary schools in Zonkwa Education Zone, Kaduna State?
3. To what extent is transactional leadership style practiced by principals of secondary schools in Zonkwa Education Zone, Kaduna State?
4. What is the extent to which charismatic leadership style is practiced by principals of secondary schools in Zonkwa Education Zone, Kaduna State?
5. To what extent is situational leadership style practiced by principals of secondary schools in Zonkwa Education Zone, Kaduna State?
6. What is the extent to which visionary leadership style is practiced by principals of secondary schools in Zonkwa Education Zone, Kaduna State?

1.5 Research Hypotheses

The following null hypotheses were postulated

1. There is no significant difference in the opinions of Respondents on the ways by which prevailing democratic leadership style affect the principals in secondary schools in Zonkwa Zone, Kaduna State.
2. There is no significant difference in the opinions of Respondents on the ways by which prevailing autocratic leadership style affect the principals in secondary schools in Zonkwa Zone, Kaduna State.
3. There is no significant difference in the opinions of Respondents on the ways by which prevailing transactional leadership style affect the principals in secondary schools in Zonkwa Zone, Kaduna State.
4. There is no significant difference in the opinions of Respondents on the ways by which prevailing charismatic leadership style affect the principals in secondary schools in Zonkwa Zone, Kaduna State.
5. There is no significant difference in the opinions of Respondents on the ways by which prevailing situational leadership style affect the principals in secondary schools in Zonkwa Zone, Kaduna State.
6. There is no significant difference in the opinions of Respondents on the ways by which prevailing visionary leadership style affect the principals in secondary schools in Zonkwa Zone, Kaduna State.

1.6         Basic Assumption

The following were the basic assumption

1. it is assumed that the extent to which the principals practice democratic leadership style the higher the achievement of school goals.
2. The more the principals practice autocratic leadership style in the schools the less the teachers are involved in decision making process of the schools.
3. Whenever the principals practice transactional leadership style there will be effective organization, supervision and group performance in the schools
4. Any time the principals focus of the practice of charismatic leadership style there will be team work, cohesiveness and commitment by the teachers.
5. It is assumed that whenever the principals practice situational leadership style they will be able to effectively manage the prevailing circumstance at hand in the schools.
6. The more the principals practice visionary leadership style the more the teacher develop personal skills that will lead to effective teaching and learning in schools.

1.7 Significance of the Study

The study evaluated the principals leadership styles in Secondary Schools in Zonkwa Educational Zone, Kaduna State. The study is significant in some ways. The study is expected to come-out with findings that will lead to a better understanding of leadership styles which will in turn lead to better achievement of school goals in secondary schools whether private or public.

The findings of this study will be useful not only to school principals but also to teachers who are also most important component of school administration. The finding of the study will assist administrators and educational planners in the quest for the best leadership styles in schools.

It also hoped that this research work will contribute to the existing knowledge by bringing new ideas and challenges to educational leadership and administration by analyzing and evaluating the various leadership styles in secondary schools, the study is expected to help principals realize their worth as the chief executives of educational institutions whose leadership roles can build or destroy the institution and thereby hinder them from achieving the school goals.

1.8         Scope of the Study

Although it would have been useful to include more schools to attain a broader understanding of the relationship between leadership styles and school performance in secondary schools in Kaduna State, in this study it was not possible due to inadequate resources. Consequently, only public secondary schools in Zonkwa Zone were sampled and no private secondary school was included in the study. The study covered the principals, teachers and the Zonal Directors responses on the evaluation of leadership styles used by the principals of the zone in Kaduna State. Knowing-fully-well that the leadership style the principal uses can lead to achievement of the school goals or not.

The population of the research is limited to the stakeholders (principals, Teachers and Zonkwa Zonal directors) out of 551 stakeholders 165 were selected from rural and urban secondary schools 35 principals and 5 zonal directors.

The leadership styles evaluated included democratic, autocratic, transactional, charismatic, situational and visionary. The study is therefore limited to Zonkwa Educational zone, Kaduna public secondary school.

 

 

 

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