Leadership styles of head teachers and its influence on staff performance in Senior High Schools in the Mfantseman Municipality

Abstract

The general low academic performance in Senior High schools have been attributed to teachers’ inability to perform their functions well and head teachers’ lack of good leadership among others (Osei, 2006; Akyeampong, 2010; Oduro, Dachi & Fertig, 2008). The study sought to find out how leadership styles of Head teachers in Senior high schools in the Mfantseman municipality influence teacher performance. The instrument used was the questionnaire and responses were indicated on a five point Likert scale ranging from very strongly agree (5) to strongly disagree (1). A total of 141 members of teaching staff from the four Government Senior High schools in the Mfantseman municipality were the respondents. The responses were tabulated and the data were put into frequencies, percentages, rank ordering and analysed. Pearson correlation analysis was employed to examine relationships between staff performance and the various leadership styles. The study established that teachers believe that for a head teacher to perform his function very well he/she needs to have further training in educational administration among others. The study established that the dominant leadership style exhibited by head teachers as seen by teachers is the delegating style followed closely by the democratic style. The study also found a significant and positive relationship between teacher performance and both the delegating and autocratic leadership styles of head teachers. The study recommends that authorities should ensure that those being appointed as head teachers have training in educational administration among others. Leadership training should be conducted for head teachers so as to learn how to combine all the various leadership styles for maximum performance.