Principal Leadership Styles and Secondary School Teachers Job Performance in Edo South Senatorial Zone, Edo State, Nigeria

Abstract

Leadership in any organisation is pivotal to the success or failure of set goals. The principal, being the chief Executive of the secondary school, galvanises the available human and material resources toward the attainment of the school goals. His personal characteristics as well as his work qualities contribute to the attainment or otherwise of group goals of the school. The study aimed at establishing the relationship between principal leadership styles and teachers job performance. The study investigated the relationship between principal leadership styles and teachers’ job performance attitude. The population of the study consisted of the 125 public secondary school principals and 1,523 teachers in Edo South Senatorial Zone, Nigeria. Of the seven Local Government Areas, three were selected for analysis while 175 teachers were sub-set sampled for the study. Three research questions were raised. While one was answered directly, the other two were hypothesised. The research instruments were designed to elicit responses from teachers of the Edo South Senatorial Zone of Nigeria. Self-developed questionnaire were subjected to experts validity while Cronbach’s alpha was used to obtaiin 0.782 coefficient reliability. Descriptive statistics and Pearson moment correlation coefficient were used to analyse data. It was found that secondary school Principals in sampled schools predominantly employed democratic leadership style. It found also that teacher’s involvement in co-curricular activities is not dictated by the leadership style being adopted by their principals in the school which is germane for the physical and emotional development of the human community. Recommendations were made to sustain the team spirit existing in the public secondary schools in the zone.