Perceptions of students and tutors on the impact of leadership style on student performance in the Asanta nursing and midwifery college, Ghana

Abstract

The study sought to examine the leadership style of the principal of the Asanta Nursing and Midwifery College and its key functional elements. The study assessed the students’ and tutors’ perception of the principal’s leadership style and the relationship between the perceived leadership style and the students’ academic performance. A descriptive survey research design was adopted to execute the study. The sample for the study was 250 respondents comprising 50 tutors and 200 students who were students of the College. These participants were selected using the purposive and random sampling method respectively. Questionnaire was the primary tool used for the data collection. Data analysis was conducted using frequency, percentages, Chi-Square, and multiple logistics regression. The study established the fact that both tutors and students perceived, to a greater extent, that the leadership style of the principal has an impact on students’ performance. Transformational leadership style was the outstanding perceived leadership style of the principal with 33.2%, and probability of 0.93 followed by instructional leadership style with 28.8%. A positive relationship was found between students’ academic performance and the leadership style adopted by the principal of the college. It was also found that there was no relationship between sex and performance of the students. It was recommended that while the principal should continue using the transformative leadership style, it was necessary to blend with other positive styles in order to make the performance of students even much better.