INFLUENCE OF MANAGEMENT STYLES OF PRINCIPALS ON TEACHERS’ OBLIGATION TO WORK IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN KADUNA STATE, NIGERIA

INFLUENCE OF MANAGEMENT STYLES OF PRINCIPALS ON TEACHERS’ OBLIGATION TO WORK IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS  IN KADUNA STATE, NIGERIA  

ABSTRACT

This study assessed the influence of Leadership Styles of Principals on Teachers’ Commitment to Work in Secondary Schools in Kaduna State, Nigeria. For the purpose of this research, six research objectives were set to examine the influence of autocratic, democratic, transformational, transactional, situational and visionary leadership styles of principals on teachers’ commitment to work in secondary schools in Kaduna State. The research questions and research hypotheses were also set based on the raised objectives of the study.  Descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study and data were collected using researcher’s constructed questionnaire which was validated by experts in Educational Administration and Planning. The population of the study involved 10,634 teachers, 529 principals and 229 Ministry of Education officials. Using purposive sampling technique, 4 Education Zones were selected in which more than 10% was used to arrive at 367 teachers, 55 principals and 45 Ministry of Education officials as samples for the study. From the pilot study test, the reliability coefficient was obtained at 0.78 using Cronbach’s Alpha Statistical Technique. The data collected were presented by the use of frequency counts and percentages. The formulated hypotheses of the study were tested using Analysis of Variance at0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed among others that autocratic leadership approach of many principals through use of personal authority and dictatorial approach in decision making affected teachers’ commitments to work in secondary schools in Kaduna State. Also, undemocratic leadership style of many principals through poor involvement of teachers, students and community in decision making and low sharing of responsibilities affected teachers’ commitments to work in secondary schools in Kaduna State. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that autocratic leadership style should not be prioritized by principals. They should not to use dictatorial approach in decision making process in secondary schools in Kaduna State and democratic leadership style should be prioritized by principals through sharing of managerial responsibilities among staff and involvement of all stakeholders in decision making in order to boost their participation in developmental activities in secondary schools in Kaduna State.

CHAPTER ONE  INTRODUCTION 

1.1        Background to the Study

Educational institutions are significant places where next generations are assembled for training, learning enquiries. And are social systems where continuous teaching and learning are taking place. Such educational institutions always need qualitative planning and administration. In ensuring effectiveness of such educational environments, devoted and educated leaders are required who can handle a heavy weight of responsibility for their institution. In a school system, some principals find it difficult to appropriately adopt leadership style in controlling the affairs toward achieving educational objectives. It is imperative to school principals to ensure that school resources are well managed through proper selection and application of relevant leadership styles. In schools, proper adoption of leadership styles motivates teachers and learners to work passionately toward realization of educational objectives (Northouse,

2000).

Indeed, leadership is the solution to myriad problems of any organization, educational or any other enterprise. Leadership is a great imperative in educational management, because, it significantly influences all school programmes towards the accomplishment of school objectives and attainment of educational goals. Ezeuwa (2005) observed leadership style of a principal as the act of adopting best alternative in influencing teachers’ behaviour so that to endeavour keenly and enthusiastically towards the achievement of education goals. In the same vein, Ukeje (1999) stressed that leadership styles in school reflect the alternative selection of influencing teachers to work keenly with passion towards the achievement of the corporate goals. In this regard, schools need effectual leadership style to give planned results and bring job satisfaction to the teachers. School principals are believed to possess ability to influencing their teachers, parents and other stakeholders to make sure their schools successfully attain its pre-intended objectives by making sure that teachers do well in their responsibilities and learners perform well in their academic as anticipated.

Theoretically, there are many kinds of leadership styles, the selection and application of each depend on the nature of organizational behaviour. Charlton (2000) remarked that adoption of appropriate leadership by the principal has a helpful influence on teachers’ commitments and job satisfaction in school organization. Also,Hannagan (2006) opined that there are many kinds of leadership styles in organizational management such as autocratic leadership style, democratic leadership style, transformational leadership style, transactional leadership styles, situational leadership style and laissez-fair leadership styles. Aida and Bahareh (2014) asserted that autocratic leadership style of principal is centered on the boss who holds all authority and responsibility to make decisions without respecting the subordinates. At a time, this kind of leadership style forces the subordinates to tirelessly work so as to promptly implement organizational policy toward the achievement of the set objectives. A principal can use this leadership style to mobilize staff in accordance with policy guidelines and individual differences. McGregor (1966) observed that human beings have been created in natural dislike of work and responsibility; they must be enforced to work toward the attainment of the set goals. Although, autocratic principals call for decision making process, but prioritize their opinions to be final conclusion. Objectives are sometime achieved, but this style of leadership may create a climate of fear, where there is little or no more implementation of public opinions accordingly.

A democratic principal enables participation of many stakeholders in school decision making process. Ahmad and Yekta (2010) stated that democratic leadership style of a principal consists of sharing the decision–making process with school members by promoting the interests of the subordinates and practicing social equality. The application of democratic leadership in secondary school management is paramount important when principals ensure that everyone by virtue of his human status, takes a part in the group’s decisions. Even though, leadership still requires guidance and control, a principal as the chief executive officer in school should heartily involve staff, students, parents and other stakeholders into general school activities in order to have unanimous agreement in school’s control.

Unlike other leadership styles, transformational leadership style has to do with ability of a principal to initiate positive change in school organizations through the application of logical strategies. In the view of Ali, Sidow and Guleid (2013), transformational principals motivate teachers to do more than they originally intended and often even more than they thought possible in the school. They set more challenging expectations and typically achieve higher performance. Statistically, transformational leadership tends to have more committed and satisfied followers. This is mainly so because transformational leaders empower followers. In the school system, a principal uses transformational leadership style to motivate teaching and non-teaching staff to work through high levels of school communication to meet educational goals. Thus, principals enhance staff productivity, skills and efficiency through chains communication and high visibility within the school environment. Indeed, Amin, Shah and Tatlah (2013) examined that transformational leadership style requires the involvement of school community relationship to meet desired goals.

It is imperative to note that transactional leadership style involves an exchange process, whereby followers get immediate and tangible rewards for carrying out the leader’s orders. This commensurate with the view of Antony (2007) who stressed that transactional leadership behavior include: clarifying what is expected of followers’ performance; explaining how to meet such expectations and allocating rewards that are contingent on meeting objectives. Principals using the transactional leadership style receive certain tasks to perform and provide rewards or punishments to team members based on performance results. In this style, principal, teaching and non-teaching staff and other school community set predetermined goals together, while employees agree to follow the direction and leadership of the principal to accomplish those goals. Also, a principal possesses power to review results and train or correct the staff; when they fail to meet goals, and receive rewards, such as bonuses, when they accomplish goals.

In situational leadership style, principals place more or less emphasis on the task, and more or less emphasis on the empowerment with the people they are leading, depending on what is needed to get the job done successfully. The situational leadership model suggests that there is no ―one size fits all‖ approach to leadership in school. Rather depending on the situation, varying levels of ―leadership‖ and ―management‖ are necessary. In the school system, Ajayi and Ayodele (2002) remarked that school principal must first identify their most important tasks or priorities of managerial activities, then consider the readiness level of teachers by analyzing their ability and willingness depending on the existing situation, level of variables and apply the most appropriate leadership style to fit the given situation.

Principals with visionary leadership style give more emphasis on recognizing the methods, steps and processes of influencing teachers to achieve educational objective with special consideration to school vision and mission. Halpin and Winer (1999)hypothesized that most great and successful principal have the aspects of vision in them, those who are highly visionary are the ones considered to be exhibiting visionary leadership, so outstanding school principal will always transform their visions into realities. Visionary leadership style allows school administrators to influence teachers’ attitude with reflection of school vision toward the achievement of educational goals and

objectives.

1.2        Statement of the Problem

Many principals are facing problems of selecting and applying suitable leadership style in secondary schools management in Kaduna State. This led to regular practicing autocratic leadership style by several secondary schools administrators in the state. Empirical reviews and experiences established that no single leadership style can be suitable to the entire challenges of school management. At a time, leader (principal) may opt in using autocratic principles, sometime democratic or situational approach. A problem normally arises on when, how and which one of the leadership style should be selected and where to appropriately apply in school administration. Belias and Koustelios (2014) maintained that choosing the right leadership style at the right time in the right situation is a key element of principal effectiveness in school administration. Failure of some school principals to suitably choose and apply a leadership style into managerial aspect has commonly turned many secondary schools in the State to be centres for indiscipline and conflicts among teachers and management, students and management, among teachers themselves, school and community and other misconduct acts.

Inability of some principals to rightly select and appropriately adopt a leadership style has negatively opened a door for poor interpersonal relationship, rumour mongering in decision making, communication gaps and poor school-community relationship. It was observed that it’s not right to have only one dress to wear everywhere. Of course, many will agree that having only one set of clothes is ridiculous. Likewise, having only one leadership style by the principal affects the smooth running of school organization.

To determine the kind of leadership style that affects teachers’ commitment has remained a myriad problem to many secondary schools’ principals in Kaduna State. Many principals of public secondary schools of the state have found it difficult to realize the influence of best leadership style like transformational or transactional in boosting their staff morale through regular mentoring, professional guidance and counseling and modern supervisory activities. Yet, many principals lacked administrative exposure to motivate their staff through control of reward and incentive of transactional leadership style. It was observed that school organizations with managerial problems would find it difficult to decide which of the leadership styles is the best and more suitable to adopt by the principal, and which one to affect teachers’ commitments on services delivery. Witziers and Sleegers (2007) postulated that ―leadership in school is no longer proposed as having a direct influence on learning outcomes, but as having an indirect influence on instructional organization and

culture‖.

Inappropriate adoption of suitable leadership style or inadequate idea of its influence in staff performance by some principals in the state has lead to regular teachers’ absenteeism, redundancy teachers’ truancy without concrete reason, poor updating of school records, students’ malpractices, and even illicit affairs in some coreeducation schools which in turn affects general academic performance of secondary schools in Kaduna State. By looking at these problems the study attempts to find out the influence of democratic leadership style, autocratic leadership style, transformational leadership style, transactional leadership style, situational leadership style and or visionary leadership style on teachers’ commitment to work with the view to filling the existing gap through an empirical investigation and systematic survey within the Kaduna State of Nigeria.

1.3        Objectives of the Study

The study was set to achieve the following objectives:

• determine the influence of autocratic leadership style of principals on teachers’

commitment to work in secondary schools in Kaduna State;

• examine the influence of democratic leadership style of principals on teachers’ commitment to work in secondary schools in Kaduna State;
• find out the influence of transformational leadership style of principals on teachers’ commitment to work in secondary schools in Kaduna State;
• assess the influence of transactional leadership style of principals on teachers’ commitment to work in secondary schools in Kaduna State;
• examine the influence of situational leadership style of principals on teachers’ commitment to work in secondary schools in Kaduna State; and
• evaluate the influence of visionary leadership style of principals on teachers’ commitment to work in secondary schools in Kaduna State.

 

1.4        Research Questions

The following research questions were asked to guide the study:

• What is the influence of autocratic leadership style of principals on teachers’ commitment to work in secondary schools in Kaduna State?
• In what way does democratic leadership style of principals influence teachers’ commitment to work in secondary schools in Kaduna State?
• How does the transformational leadership style of principals influence teachers’ commitment to work in secondary schools in Kaduna State?
• What is the influence of transactional leadership style of principals on teachers’

commitment to work in secondary schools in Kaduna State? and

• In what way situational leadership style of principals influence teachers’ commitment to work in secondary schools in Kaduna State?
• What is the influence of visionary leadership style of principals on teachers’ commitment to work in secondary schools in Kaduna State?

 

1.5        Research Hypotheses

In line with research objectives, the following null hypotheses were formulated:

• There is no significant difference in the opinions of teachers, principals and Ministry of Education officials on the influence of autocratic leadership style of principals on teachers’ commitment to work in secondary schools in Kaduna

State;

• There is no significant difference in the opinions of stakeholders on the influence of democratic leadership style of principals on teachers’ commitment to work in secondary schools in Kaduna State;
• There is no significant difference in the opinions of stakeholders on the influence of transformational leadership style of principals on teachers’ commitment to work in secondary schools in Kaduna State;
• There is no significant difference in the opinions of stakeholders on the influence of transactional leadership style of principals on teachers’ commitment to work in

secondary schools in Kaduna State;

• There is no significant difference in the opinions of stakeholders on the influence of situational leadership style of principals on teachers’ commitment to work in secondary schools in Kaduna State; and
• There is no significant difference in the opinions of stakeholders on the influence of visionary leadership style of principals on teachers’ commitment to work in secondary schools in Kaduna State.

 

 

1.6        Basic Assumptions

The research was based on the following basic assumptions:

• The principals using autocratic leadership style influence teachers to work under pressure in school organization;
• Democratization of leadership by the principals enhances stability and teachers’ commitments in secondary school organization;
• Transformational leadership style of principal motivates teachers to work in school organization;
• Teachers are always ready to work once rewards and incentives are granted by the transactional principals in school administration;
• Situational principals are always dynamic leaders in their school administration;

and

• The visionary principals mobilize teachers to ensure the attainment of school visions and purposes.

 

1.7       Significance of the Study

The study assesses the influence of leadership styles on teachers’ commitment to work in secondary schools in Kaduna State. This study is significant to the extent that its scope encompassed many aspects of schools management and administrators themselves. The outcomes of the study will directly benefit school principals, supervisors (Ministry of Education officials), teachers, students and even the community of where the school is located. Specifically, the study will benefit schools’ principals by elucidating the influence of various leadership styles on effective management of school organization. This will enable them to select the best among these leadership styles for their best managerial services. The study will also be of great benefit to the school principals as well as the supervisors by retracing the effect of each theory and the appropriate method of adopting them in motivating staff to work hard towards the achievement of desired educational objectives.

By shading light on the influence of leadership style of principals on mobilizing teaching and non-teaching staff to work in school as a social system, school inspectors (Ministry of Education Officials) will find it easy to select the best leadership which will harmonize interpersonal relationship and cordial school-community relationship, which in turn would encourage full participation of many stakeholders in decision making process. The findings of the study will provide Kaduna State Ministry of Education with adequate information about nature of leadership styles being used by many school principals and their influence  to the teachers’ commitments to work or otherwise for proper assessment and evaluation in secondary school organizations.

The benefits of parents from the findings of the study shall not be overemphasized.  It is through the research findings that principals’ attitude in relation to leadership styles would be translated by the parents, with a view to improving the social interaction between the two parties based on the guidelines of National Policy on Education. The outcome will further elucidate the strength and weakness of each of the leadership styles discussed for clear understanding and decision making by the school administrators in secondary schools in Kaduna State.  Moreover, the outcomes of the study will surface a way for further research work into different styles of principals’ leaderships in schools organization, since the study is additional document for further academic research and references.

 

 

 

 

 

1.8        Scope of the Study

The study covered all public secondary schools teachers, principals and inspectors of the twelve Education Zones of 23 Local Governments in Kaduna State. It was also limited to identifying the most illustrious six leadership styles of organizational management, as well as their influence to teachers’ commitments to service delivery in secondary schools with particular reference to Kaduna State, Nigeria. This restriction became necessary to reduce difficulties in term of physical and financial expenses. These categories of respondents were stakeholders who were responsible for human resources management in secondary schools in Kaduna State.

INFLUENCE OF MANAGEMENT STYLES OF PRINCIPALS ON TEACHERS’ OBLIGATION TO WORK IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS  IN KADUNA STATE, NIGERIA  

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