Leadership Styles, Public Relation Skills and School-Community Collaboration: A Quantitative Analysis of the Perception of Stakeholders

Abstract

ABSTRACT This analysis examined the collaboration between schools and host communities using the leadership styles of principals and public relations skills as independent variables. As noted, and reported in the literature, the research was motivated by the conflicting links and alienative partnerships between schools and communities. The research followed a quantitative approach with an emphasis on the descriptive survey architecture. The study targeted a population of 667 school administrators; however, data was obtained from 583 secondary school managers who participated voluntarily. A questionnaire was used for data acquisition, with a Cronbach’s reliability index of .84. Key findings showed that the adoption of leadership styles generally and particularly in terms of the bureaucratic, coaching, democratic, servant-oriented and visionary styles was high; the autocratic, laissez-faire, transactional and transformational styles were adopted to a low degree, whereas the strategic leadership style was adopted averagely; the extent of principals’ public relations skills, as well as school-community collaboration (SCC) was low; the degree of SCC did not depend significantly on the leadership styles adopted, but on the public relations expertise of principals. Based on these results, important theoretical and policy implications for effective practices in educational management are discussed.