Principals’ leadership styles and teachers’ job performance: Evidence from Edo State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study investigated the relationship between principals’ leadership styles and secondary school teachers’ job performance in Edo Central Senatorial District, Nigeria. A correlational design was adopted for the study. Two adapted questionnaires titled “Principals’ Leadership Style Questionnaire” (PLESQUE) and “Teachers’ Job Performance Questionnaire” (TEJOPAQ) were administered to teachers and principals drawn from a population of 397 senior secondary school teachers and 69 principals in the Senatorial District respectively. The Cronbach alphas for the three sub-scales in PLESQUE were .710, .883 and .848 for democratic, autocratic and laissez-faire leadership styles respectively, while the Cronbach alpha for TEJOPAQ was .882 for teachers’ job performance. Percentages, multiple regression and Pearson product-moment correlation were used to test the hypotheses at the .05 level of significance. Results showed that democratic, autocratic and laissez-faire leadership styles jointly contributed about 68.3% variations in the job performance of teachers, while democratic and laissez-faire leadership styles had the most prominent positive influence on teachers’ job performance in the area of study. It was recommended, amongst other things, that the use of a democratic leadership style should be encouraged among the principals of senior secondary schools in the district.