0.5 Roberts, k., & Sampson, p. (october 2011). a study of principal

NCPEA Education Leadership Review is a nationally refereed journal published two times a year, in Winter (April), and Fall (October) by the National Council of Professors ofEducational Administration. Editor: Kenneth Lane, Southeastern Louisiana University; Assistant Editor: Gerard Babo, Seton Hall University; Founding Editor: Theodore Creighton, Virginia Tech.

Introduction

Leadership is an important ingredient in life and education. Competent leadership helps schools through periods of academic distress and comes in a variety of styles depending on the circumstance. Mills (2005), defined leadership as “a process by which one person influences the thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors of others (p. 11)…is the ability to get other people to do something significant that they might not otherwise do (p.12).”

Researchers found leadership style related to job performance, employee wellbeing related to consideration, and that transformational leadership has a positive effect on employees’ performance (Kuoppala et al., 2008 and Halldorsson, 2007). Barnett (2003) found teachers seem to be more motivated by the principal’s care and concern.

In this age of accountability and high-stakes testing, principals are feeling pressure. The question that guided this study was, “because of the pressures to make certain the school succeeds, does the principal use a leadership style that may inadvertently have a positive or negative effect on their respective school?” To answer this question, the Ohio State University LBDQ-12 was used to determine the leadership style.

Review of the literature

Hersey and Blanchard (1977) stated that “the successful organization has one major attribute that sets it apart from unsuccessful organizations: dynamic and effective leadership.” (p. 83). This definition, in essence, is the art of inspiring others. Manske, Jr. (1987), concluded that the leader has a vision and can see what is needed which inspires others.

A review of literature on leadership styles for transactional and transformational leadership showed it was first identified by Burns (1978) and further clarified by Bass (1985). Transformational leadership behaviors include idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individual consideration (Bono&Judge, 2004). Whereas, transactional leadership behaviors include contingent reward, management by exception-active, management by exception-passive, and laissez-faire (Bono&Judge, 2004).

Rad and Yarmohammadian (2006) listed different leadership styles as autocratic, beureaucractic, laissez-faire, charismatic, democratic, participative, situational, transactional, and transformational. Other researchers identified traits of leadership as self-confidence, adjustment, sociability, integrity, ambition, dominance, self-esteem, ambition, dominance, and originality (Bass, 1990). The trait theory of leadership style lost its focus and received criticism (Conger&Karungo, 1988). However, Judge, Bono, Ilies, and Gerhardt (2002) supported the trait theory through their meta-analysis of literature.