LEADERSHIP STYLES OF PRINCIPALS FOR ENHANCING TEACHERS’ PRODUCTIVITY IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN CROSS RIVER STATE, NIGERIA: TEACHERS’ PERCEPTION

Abstract

This paper investigated leadership styles of principals for enhancing teachers’ productivity for effective school administration. The descriptive survey design was adopted for this study. The research questions were formulated in line with the objectives of the study which is to examine and assess the opinion of the respondents (the teachers) on the extent the various leadership styles enhance effective secondary school administration. The population consists of all secondary school teachers in Cross River State. Stratified random sampling technique was used to choose three (3) local government areas out of the 18 local government areas. From each of the sampled local government area, a sample of 50 participants was chosen through simple random sampling technique resulting in a total of 150 respondents. The instrument used for the study was self-structured questionnaire titled ‘’Leadership Styles of Principals for Enhanced Effective School Administration Questionnaire” (LESPEESAQ) which was based on a four-point Likert type scale of very high extent, high extent, low extent and very low extent. Research questions were answered using mean statistics. The study revealed that the democratic leadership style enhances effective school administration to a high extent while autocratic and laissez-faire styles enhance but to a low extent. The study, therefore, concluded that the best leadership style of the principals for enhancing effective administration is democratic leadership style. It was therefore recommended that a democratic leadership style should be adopted often in administration while others can be employed sparingly based on specific areas.