The Leadership Behavior of Jamaican High School Principals : Perceptions and Expectations of Teachers and Principals
Problem. This is a study of the leadership behavior of high school principals in Jamaica from the perspective of teachers and the principals themselves. The Ministry of Education in Jamaica concurred with the researcher that valuable insights could be gained from this study which could benefit the development of education in Jamaica. The purpose of this study is to identify the perceptions and expectations relative to Initiating Structure by which principals establish lines of communication and methods of procedure and Consideration by which they establish trust and friendship with their faculties. The transactional model of leadership describes these two dimensions as complementary factors which characterize the performance of the most effective principals. The literature review supports this premise and established the reliability, validity and usefulness of the Leader Behavior Description Questionnaire (LBDQ) for research in leadership behavior. Method. The responses of 16 principals and 195 teachers to the Real and Ideal forms of the LBDQ-XII furnished the data for the test of they hypotheses by the following techniques: Two-way multivariate analysis of variance One-way multivariate analysis of variance made necessary by the presence of significant interaction effect (p< .05) in the two-way analysis t test between all possible pairs of means Results. The null hypotheses have not been upheld with respect to the one-way analysis of variance and the t tests. With reference to the former, the results are as follows: The principals say that they show significantly greater Initiating Structure and Consideration than the teachers acknowledge (p< .001) They say that they should show significantly greater Initiating Structure and Consideration than their teachers think necessary (p< .001) They say also, that their performance is significantly lower than desirable (p< .001) The teachers say that the performance of their principals is significantly lower than expected (p< .01) The quadrant analysis defined by coordinates, provided graphic support for these findings. Conclusion. Teachers and principals, in this study (as in similar studies), indicated that desirable leadership behavior for principals was characterized by high performance on the Initiating Structure and Consideration dimensions measured by the LBDQ. This means that they expect principals (1) to make teachers aware of their expectations, (2) to encourage teachers to use uniform procedures, (3) to try out their ideas among their faculties, (4) to make their attitudes clear to their faculties, (5) to make decisions regarding things to be done, (6) to assign teachers to particular responsibilities, (7) to clarify their own role, (8) to schedule work loads, (9) to request that faculties follow standard regulations, (10) to be friendly and approachable, (11) to do little things that make it pleasant for their faculties, (12) to put suggestions made by faculties into operation, (13) to treat all teachers as equals, (14) to give advanced notice of changes, (15) to interact with their faculties, (16) to facilitate the personal welfare of teachers, (17) to be willing to make changes, (18) to explain their actions, and (19) to act in consultation with their faculties. Inasmuch as the teachers and the principals themselves are not satisfied that the principals are meeting these expectations adequately, it is recommended that the Ministry of Education and the principals adopt policies and develop programs that will facilitate achievement of these expectations at higher levels of efficiency and effectiveness.
Educational Administration and Supervision, Educational Leadership
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