Principals' perception of their own leadership styles: case of Selangor secondary schools

Abstract

The most important and influential figure in a school is the principal, because he or she is responsible for the smooth running of all actvities in the school. The principal's leadership does have an effect on the school climate (Alageswari, 1980; Rahimah Hj. Ahmad, 1981), its leaming situation and level of professionalism among staff (Mukherjee, 1970), satisfaction among teachers (Thandi, 1972; Noran and Sharifah, 1990) and, not to forget, the academic achievement of students (Eberts and Stone, 1988; Heck et al., 1990; Schmitt, 1990). The principal is also the mediator between school and community or parents (Cohen and Manion, 1981). The attitude of parents towards school is also related to the leadership style of the principal (Sistrunk, 1989). Compared to other teachers in the school, the principal is a senior person with several years of teaching and/or administrative experience behind him or her. This is a promotional post for the teaching profession, and anyone who has climbed up to this position feels exahed and challenged (Rahman b. Abdullah, 1986). The principal has two major roles, i.e., as an instructional leader and as an administrator. Most principals perceive themselves as instructional leaders but spend most of their time on managerial duties (Chance, 1989). Some of the important duties of the principal is to implement educational policies, implement rules and regulations emanating from above, plan his school's activities, strive for a certain standard, supervise both teaching and non-teaching staff, manage student affairs, school finance and accounts, administer the school, and teach a minimum of eight periods a week. Good leadership is esential in organizations because IT shapes the lives and work of personnel in the organization. Leadership may be defined as 'the abilIty to influence a group toward the achievement of goals" (Robbins, 1991). The achievement of goals in an organization depends, inter alia on the leadership style of its leader. Several theories have been proposed to explain leadership such as trait theory, behavioural theory, path-goal theory and leader-member theory. On of the theoritical models under the behaviour theory is the autocratic-<lemocratic continuum model. According to this model, autocratic and democratic behaviors are merely two of many positions along a continuum. At one extreme, the leader makes the decisions, tells his or her subordinates and expects them to carry out that decision. At the other extreme, the leader fully shares is or her decision-making power with subordinates, allowing each member of the group to carry an equal voice. Between these two extremes there exist a number of leadership styles, with the style selected dependent on the characteristics of the leader, the characteristics of members within the group, and the situation. There are different ways of determining a principals' leadership style, viz., by asking teachers, students, parents or the principals themselves, either by using a prepared questionnaire or by interviewing. This study used the principals themselves as respondents to a questionnaire that was designed to measure their their leadership style. The objectives of this paper are (a) to determine leadership style of a group of principals the Selangor Darul Ehsan, and (b) to explain their leadership style in te rms of three demographic variables, viz., academic qualification, gender and ethnicity.