LEADERSHIP STYLES AND ACHIEVEMENT OF ORGANIZATIONAL GOALS AMONG PRIMARY SCHOOLS HEAD TEACHERS

LEADERSHIP STYLES AND ACHIEVEMENT OF ORGANIZATIONAL GOALS AMONG PRIMARY SCHOOLS HEAD TEACHERS

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1         Background to the Study

          Every group of people in any human endeavour with a specific goal to achieve has some person(s) as its head who is skilled in the art of leadership. Many leadership theories have revealed that there are at least two fundamental and distinct categories of leadership behaviours, one is concerned with people and interpersonal relations, and the other is concerned with production and tasks achievement including dimensions of leadership from different leadership styles.  Leadership style is a leader's style of providing direction, implementing plans, and motivating people. There are many different leadership styles proposed by various authors, that can be exhibited by leaders in the political, business, educational or other fields. Studies on leadership style are conducted in the military field, expressing an approach that stresses a holistic view of leadership, including how a leader’s physical presence determines how others perceive that leader. The factors of physical presence are military bearing, physical fitness, confidence, and resilience Headquarters, Department of the Army (2006). The leader’s intellectual capacity helps to conceptualize solutions and acquire knowledge to do the job. A leader’s conceptual abilities apply agility, judgment, innovation, interpersonal tact, and domain knowledge. Domain knowledge encompasses tactical and technical knowledge as well as cultural and geopolitical awareness. Daniel Goleman (2000) in his article "Leadership that Gets Results” talks about six styles of leadership. 

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There are various forms of leadership styles it is as follows: (i) Autocratic: The authoritarian leadership style keeps the main emphasis on the distinction of the authoritarian leader and their followers; these types of leaders make sure to only create a distinct professional relationship. Direct supervision is what they believe to be key in maintaining a successful environment and followership. (ii) Democratic: the democratic leadership style consists of the leader sharing the decision-making abilities with group members by promoting the interests of the group members and by practicing social equality.  The boundaries of democratic participation tend to be circumscribed by the organization or the group needs and the instrumental value of people's attributes (skills, attitudes, etc.). The democratic style encompasses the notion that everyone, by virtue of their human status, should play a part in the group's decisions. And (iii). Laissez-Faire: The laissez-faire leadership style is where all the rights and power to make decisions is fully given to the worker or teachers in the school. This was first described by Lewin, Lippitt, and White in 1939, along with the autocratic leadership and the democratic leadership styles (Foster, D.E. 2002).

          Leadership is defined as the process of influencing others to facilitate the attainment of organizational relevant goal (ChanfungLan, 2009). Leadership also is the process  which includes influencing the task objectives with strategies to achieve the goal, influencing the group maintenance and also to influence the culture of an organization to understand and agree about what is necessary to be done, what to do and the process in facilitating individual and collective efforts to accomplish shared objectives. According to Peter (2007) leadership is a process whereby an individual influence a group of other individuals to achieve a common goal. 

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These definitions suggest several key components to the phenomenon of leadership. Some of the components are: Leadership is a process, Leadership involves influencing others.  Leadership happens within the concept of a group, Leadership involves goal attainment and Goal are shared in leaders and their followers.

          Hence, leadership is the process of influencing, others to follow instruction to achieve the goal. The goal will be brought together in a group of leaders and followers, that means every act done by leaders affect followers which will also affect pupils academic performance. To determine leadership as an act shows that leadership is not in character with just a few, certain people are blessed with it at birth. Leadership is a transactional event that occurs between leaders and their followers. Viewing leader as a process means that leaders influence and are influenced by their followers either positively or negatively. It emphasizes that leadership is two-way. Which are the interactive event between leaders and followers and also show a linear way in which the leader only affects the followers. Determination of leadership as a process that makes it available to everyone, on just a select few are born with it more importantly. It means that leadership is not limited to only the people in the group that have a formal position of authority.  However, the pupil’s academic attainment is an important parameter in measuring success in pupils. Observation and Reports have shown that success or high academic performance has become a herculean task to accomplish by pupils in recent times. Ezeuw (2005) states that leadership is the key to the progress and also leadership is the key to the progress and survival of any organization whether it is enterprise or institution. It is the act of influencing people so that they strive willingly and enthusiastically towards the accomplishment of organizational goals. Leadership is essential in all organization. He further, states that the success of an organization largely depends on the quality of its leaders. It is admitted fact that deficiency in dedicated leadership prevails all over the world.

          Hence, difference countries have different leadership styles on the bases of their cultural associations. A major concern of all modern organizations is goal attainment. There is, therefore, information growing interest to determine which of those styles is capable of ensuring organization goal attainment and employee job satisfaction. In Etim Ekpo Local Government Area, teachers appear to be less satisfied with their jobs as evidenced by occasional truancy, indiscipline and drifting away from the teaching profession. The important features in all these are that the leaders are expected to produce results by harnessing the resources at his/ her disposal toward achieving the set goal. These goals could be increased production, greater efficiency of the staff and qualified productions among others.  Consequently, such titles as managers, directors, principal, Headmasters, and head teachers have come to be associated with leadership.  It becomes necessary to find out leadership styles and achievement of organizational goals among Primary Schools Headteacher in Etim Ekpo Local Government Area.

1.2         Statement of the Problem

          Over the years, the mantle of school leadership has been falling on people who have little or no knowledge of the different leadership approaches and cannot influence teachers for better job satisfaction  or moral Martindale (2011). They do not know that their leadership style had a serious bearing on the teachers attitude to work. Headteachers leadership style have both negative and a positive influence on the teacher’s motivation.

          In recent time most of the primary schools are led by inexperienced head teachers who exhibit good leadership styles that will bring out teachers productivity and effectiveness. This occurred as a result of proliferation which gave rise to a situation where head teachers were appointed seeming on “man-know-man basis”  (Nwakpa, 2008). Additionally, some primary schools nowadays have been suffering in the hand of head teacher’s whose administration is a matter of trial and error and so lead as they like.

          Consequently, they run the schools they head. There are strong indications that the head teacher’s leadership styles can have a bearing on an organization either positively or negatively. It is on this premise that this study is conducted to investigate Leadership Styles and Achievement of Organizational Goals among Primary Schools Head Teacher in Etim Ekpo Local Government Area.

1.3     Purpose of the Study

          The main purpose of this study is to examine leadership styles and achievement of Organizational Goals among Primary Schools Headteachers in Etim Ekpo Local Government  Area.  Specifically, this study intended to;

i. Examine the influence  of Autocratic Leadership styles and Achievement of Organizational Goals among Primary Schools Headteachers in Etim Ekpo Local Government  Area.

ii. Examine the influence of Democratic Leadership styles and Achievement of Organizational Goals among Primary Schoo0ls Headteachers in Etim Ekpo Local Government  Area.

1.4 Significance of study

i. Through this study, teachers will change their attitude toward their pupils.

ii. The administration in schools will take cognizance of how to enhance pupils with high academic achievement in primary schools.

iii. The government should improve the working condition of teachers so that they can be motivated for and satisfied with the job.

iv. The surrounding communities among others will understand the effects of leadership styles on teacher’s organizational goal among public primary schools in the study area.

v. This study will serve as an index for further research work.

1.5 Research questions

The study sought to answer the following research questions:

i.       Does head teachers autocratic leadership styles influence the achievement of primary school teachers?

ii.          Does head teachers democratic leadership styles influence the achievement of primary school teachers?

1.6 Research Hypotheses                                       

The following hypotheses were postulated namely;

i. There is no significant influence between Autocratic leadership styles and achievement of Organizational Goals among Primary Schools Headteachers in Etim Ekpo Local Government Area.

ii. There is no sign the influence between Democratic leadership styles and achievement of Organizational Goals among Primary Schools Headteachers in Etim Ekpo Local Government Area.

1.7 Limitation of the study

          In writing a research study like this, the researcher was faced with some challenges at the course of conducting this study. The major factors that limited the scope of this study to Etim Ekpo Local Government Area were:-

1. The time frame for the research

2. Financial constraint exerts pressure on the study as the researcher scarcely had enough financial resources to enable her to expand the scope of the study.

3. Researcher’s academic work-load among others.

1.8 Delimitation of the study.

          This study focuses on leadership styles and achievement of Organizational Goals among Primary Schools Headteachers in Etim Ekpo Local Government Area.

1.9 Operational Definition of Terms

          For the sake of this study, the following terms are defined operationally to the context of the terms:

Leadership Style:  is a leader's style of providing direction, implementing plans, and motivating people.

 Leadership: is defined as the process of influencing others to facilitate      the attainment of organization relevant goals.

Autocratic leadership styles: This is a type of leadership in which the leader is domineering and rules through the use of force and uses his legal power to enforce rigid discipline.

Democratic leadership style: This demonstrates respect for every person in the group and leadership responsibilities are shared.

Laissez-faire leadership style: A laissez-faire, literally translation in French is “let them as they which”: The leader here uses little or none of his power thereby giving a sublimate a high degree of independent or “ free reign.