Leadership style and student performance: evidence from Fosu College of Education, Ghana

Abstract

Leadership styles have been recognised to have immense impact on the performance and growth of subordinates including employees, students and invariably organisational performances. However, in Ghana, students’ academic performances have been declining and unclear leadership styles have been found to be a major contributor. It was, therefore, relevant to examine the effect of leadership styles on student performance in Ghana focusing on Foso College of Education. The study specifically assessed perceived leadership styles at the college. Also, the study examined the effect of transactional and transformational leadership styles on student performance at the college. The study employed the quantitative approach and causal research design due to its research objectives. The stratified sampling technique was employed to solicit for information from studens at the college. Both descriptive and inferential statistical tools such as frequencies, percentages, means, standard deviations and linear regression were employed to analyse data obtained from structured questionnaires. The study found that democratic leadership style was perceived by the students as the most used leadership style by authorities at the college. Also, both transactional and transformational leadership styles were found to have positive significant effect on student performance at the college. The study, therefore, recommended that college authorities should continue to improve upon the democratic leadership style by constantly ensuring students’ representativeness in decision making processes.