LEADERSHIP STYLES OF PRINCIPALS AND SCHOOL ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE
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LEADERSHIP STYLES OF PRINCIPALS AND SCHOOL ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE
CHAPITRE ONE
INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Educational leaders play a vital role in making teaching and learning more effective and providing students with a quality education.
Most educational professionals regard administrators as the driving force and primary source of organisational development and student academic growth (Yukl, 2011).
A leadership style is a leader’s method of offering instructions, carrying out plans, and motivating others. Leaders in the educational, governmental, business, and other spheres can demonstrate a variety of leadership styles.
Leadership, specifically effective leadership, is just as important in Nigerian organisations as it is everywhere else. Nigerian schools, like those throughout the world, strive for excellence in order to be globally competitive.
However, the situation in Nigeria is extremely complex, with many organisations trapped in the centre of a web of authoritarian hierarchies and traditional leadership techniques, as well as bureaucratic hierarchies combined with modern leadership approaches (Ajibade, 2000).
The role of school leadership in connection to student academic success has received much attention. In this scenario, excellent leadership styles demonstrated by school leaders are regarded as the most significant tools for achieving and deciding the excellence and success of a school’s performance,
particularly in academic and co-curricular activities. Best services and strategic management conducted by the highest authority in the school administration’s hierarchical level, particularly the principle, would directly lead kids into the appropriate road of academic and nonacademic brilliance.
Nowadays, the job of school leadership emphasises transformative and instructional leadership. This is because the principal’s impact on student learning ultimately determines effectiveness.
The majority of research findings in the literature strongly suggest that the principal is the most significant individual in providing leadership for improved instruction and curricula (Akerele, 2007).
To improve high-academic excellence in educational performance, it is critical to address effective leadership styles used by school authorities, since they play the most crucial influence in determining students’ academic excellence.
An successful leadership course can be extremely beneficial in developing leadership skills among individuals within an organisation.
Leadership and performance have an indirect and direct relationship, demonstrating the need of developing leaders through leadership development programmes (Akinwumiju & Olaniyan, 2006).
Organisations invest extensively in Human Resource Development interventions to update people’ skills in order to achieve job performance, job happiness, and job involvement.
These abilities can be influenced by offering technical/non-technical training and coaching (Akinyemi, 2003). Leadership is now extensively recognised and validated through study.
Leadership development can be provided through experience learning, vicarious learning, and transformational learning, and it is provided so that leaders can inspire and motivate others.
In today’s economic world, developing leadership styles is becoming an increasingly crucial and strategic need for organisations.
Some developmental activities can be completed alongside regular employment responsibilities, while others necessitate a temporary vacation from one’s regular job (Yukl, 2011).
Some existing employment may require you to establish new projects or start new ones while serving as a department representative on cross-functional teams.
Training sessions can help organisational managers enhance their communication abilities, listening skills, motivate others, support others, and communicate information (Bidwell, 2001).
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Much of the current research on school leadership holds that leadership has no direct impact on student progress. Leadership, according to Kruger, Witziers, and Sleegers (2007).
No longer has a direct influence on academic outcomes, but rather has an indirect influence on instructional organisation and culture.It is critical to investigate the extent to which school leaders and leadership styles influence student success.
The examination of literature will include current data on the direct effects of school leadership on student performance as well as the indirect effects that school leaders may have on student achievement.
Weaknesses in school leadership styles are not a new subject in school leadership studies. Fullan (2001) revealed that there are flaws in school leadership. There are principals that are unable to successfully administrate the school, resulting in the school’s inability to function.
One of the primary flaws is the principal’s bureaucratic leadership style, which leaves them unsure of their job as leaders responsible for generating teachers’ commitment to the school.
Teachers sometimes blamed their principals for the delay in salary and allowance payments. The idea is that principals may not have submitted their vouchers to the government in a timely manner. Some of them may have believed that several principals’ leadership styles were at stake (Bolarinwa, 2002).
Many of them appear to believe that their principals did not support them in submitting vouchers to the government for payment of their wages and allowances. As a result, many instructors thought that their principals’ leadership methods were problematic and left much to be desired.
Similarly, Evan (2008) expresses concern that many school principals continue to run their schools using the traditional management style.
They use an autocratic leadership style with formal procedures, ignoring teachers’ psychological needs, suppressing teachers’ creativity, overemphasising academic achievement, and ignoring their roles as leaders who must generate quality human capital for educational development.
Some of the barriers that prohibit leadership from having an impact on student performance are as follows: First and foremost, some leaders do not recognise the importance of motivating employees to accomplish what they need to do in order for the organization’s goals and objectives to be met.
Because of the current situation in Nigeria, where the supply of labour exceeds the need, some companies do not believe in effective worker incentive to create high performance.
They maintain that even if workers are not appropriately motivated, they cannot leave the workplace because there are no jobs available (Goldring & Sharon, 2003).
Furthermore, a lack of training has been linked to poor performance of both teachers and principals in terms of intrinsic factors such as welfare and cumbersome management techniques, because workers who are not trained or updated face the risk of stress, burnout, or being lax in their job.
PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
The study’s goal is to investigate the impact of school leadership styles on student academic performance. The following are the study’s objectives:
To investigate the impact of a school’s leadership style on students’ academic success.
To investigate the relationship between school leaders’ decision-making processes and students’ academic success.
To investigate the association between democratic school leadership style and student academic performance.
To investigate the relationship between students’ academic success and the performance of the principal.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The following issues are raised based on the study’s goal to provide a guide and solution to the research problems:
What influence does the leadership style of the school have on students’ academic performance?
How successful is the relationship between school leaders’ decision-making process and students’ academic performance?
Is there a link between democratic leadership and student well-being?
What is the relationship between student academic performance and principal performance?
RESEARCH HYPOTHESES
These hypotheses will be tested in the study as part of this research project.
Ho1: Principals’ school leadership styles have little effect on students’ academic success.
Ho2: There is no statistically significant association between democratic school leadership style and student academic achievement.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The study’s findings will assist leaders in developing practical policies that are in the best interests of the schools.
At the corporate level, the study is likely to be eye-opening and highly beneficial to executives’ expertise. The evaluation of employee performance not only improves the organization’s technique or efficiency, but it also projects a positive picture of the organisation to the general public.
The findings of this study will also assist in identifying flaws within the teacher training policy and in reducing general neurosis that reduces strain for successful performance between school administration and instructors.
Again, the research will enlighten students on the coexistence of leaders and workers in an organisation, preparing them for a better work environment.
SCOPE OF THE STUDY
The study investigates the impact of school leadership styles on student academic achievement in five chosen secondary schools in Somolu Local Government Area, Lagos.
The study is restricted to the specified Secondary Schools. The study aims to investigate characteristics such as principal leadership styles, responsibility, teacher performance, and so on.
DEDFINITION OF TERMS
School: A school is any institution that provides teaching in a specific discipline.
A student is someone who is enrolled in a university or other institution of higher learning.
Academic Performance: the amount to which a student, instructor, or institution has met their educational objectives.
The principal is the school’s most senior instructor, leader, and manager.
A teacher, often known as a schoolteacher, is someone who educates pupils (children) and students (adults).
Education is the process of receiving or imparting systematic instruction, particularly at a school or university, i.e. “a new system of public education.”
The person who leads or directs a group, organisation, or country is known as a leader.
The act of guiding a group of people or an organisation is known as leadership.
Participative leadership is a leadership style in which the leader incorporates subordinates in goal planning, problem solving, team building, etc., but retains final decision making authority.
Transnational: The act of giving power to complete specific tasks and reward or punish the team’s performance is referred to as the transnational leader.
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