A study on how principals’ leadership styles differ based on demographical varialbles

Abstract

The principal’s leadership style has a remarkable effect on the effectiveness of school. The purpose of this study was to examine how principals’ leadership styles differ based on the demographic variables in secondary schools in Paddiruppu Zone. The objectives of the study were: To compare the leadership styles of principals in the secondary schools based on demographic variables such as gender, education qualification and years of experience. The study adopted quantitative research method. The target sample population comprised of 34 secondary school principals. Two instruments were used to gather the relevant data. One is Demographic Variable Measurement and second one is the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire Form 5X developed by Bass & Avolio (2004). It was used to classify the leadership styles of principals such as transformational, transactional and laissez-faire leadership style. The data was collected from the relevant principals directly as primary data which was then condensed and summarized before being analyzed using percentages, means, standard deviations and independent sample ttest’ and ‘one way ANOVA’ statistical techniques. For this analysis, SPSS statistical package was used effectively. The results revealed that the principals’ leadership styles did not expose any significant differences based on the demographic variables like gender, education qualification and experience.