International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume III, Issue X, October 2019 | ISSN 2454–6186

Principals’ Leadership Styles and Administrative Effectiveness in Public Senior Secondary Schools in Rivers State

Wagbara, Chinyere Dorathy (Ph.D.)¹, Ukaigwep. C. (Ph.D.)²

^1,2Department of Educational Management, University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria

Abstract: – The study investigated the relationship between principals’ leadership styles and administrative effectiveness in public senior secondary schools in Rivers State. Six research questions were answered while six hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The study adopted a correlation research design. The population was made up of 8,452 teachers in 258 public senior secondary schools in Rivers State. Stratified random sampling technique was used to draw a sample of 40 senior secondary schools and 588 teachers who participated in the study. The instruments used for data collection were “Principals’ Leadership Styles Scale (PLSS) and Administrative Effectiveness Scale (APQ)”. The PLSS and AES were validated with reliability indices of 0.81 and 0.80 established using Cronbach alpha. Pearson Product Moment was used to answer the research questions while the hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. It was found among others that: democratic, autocratic, transactional and transformational leadership styles have a strong positive relation with administrative effectiveness in public senior secondary schools in Rivers State. It was also found that laissez-faire leadership style had low relationship with administrative effectiveness among public senior secondary schools in Rivers State. It was concluded that principals’ leadership styles such as democratic, autocratic, transactional and transformational leadership styles significantly influence administrative performance of public senior secondary schools in Rivers State. It was recommended among others that principals should properly use the combinations of democratic, autocratic, transactional and transformational leadership styles since they are significant in the achievement of administrative effectiveness in secondary schools in Rivers State.

Keywords: Principals, Leadership Styles and Administrative Effectiveness

I. INTRODUCTION

Secondary education is that important educational level which assists the nation in the realization of its laudable educational and national objective. It is thus, a catalyst for the achievement of economic and national development. Secondary schools like any other formal organization is established on bureaucratic administrative structures headed by a leader usually called, the principal. Secondary education is an important level of education which helps to prepare the individual for useful living within the society and for higher education. (Federal Republic of Nigeria, 2014).