PRINCIPALS’ DEMOCRATIC AND AUTOCRATIC LEADERSHIP STYLES AS CORRELATES OF ADMINISTRATIVE PERFORMANCE IN PUBLIC SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN RIVERS STATE

Abstract

The study investigated principals’ democratic and autocratic leadership styles as correlates of administrative performance in public senior secondary schools in Rivers State. Two research questions and two hypotheses guided the study. The study adopted correlational research design. The population was made up of the 258 public senior secondary schools and 8,452 teachers in these schools. Stratified random sampling technique was used to draw a sample of 40 senior secondary schools and 588 teachers who participated in the study. The instruments used for data collection were self-designed questionnaires titled, “Principals’ Democratic and Autocratic Leadership Styles Questionnaire (PDALSQ) and Administrative Performance Questionnaire (APQ)”. The PDALSQ and APQ were validated and reliability index of 0.87 and 0.851 were established using Cronbach alpha. Pearson Product Moment was used to answer the research questions while the hypotheses were tested with ratio 0.05 alpha level. It was found among others that: democratic and autocratic styles have a strong positive relation with administrative performance in public senior secondary schools in Rivers State. It was concluded that principals’ leadership styles such as democratic and autocratic leadership styles significantly influence administrative performance of public senior secondary schools in Rivers State. The study recommended among others that the application of democratic and autocratic leadership styles should be based on the level of cooperation and work situation.