Heads of public senior high school leadership styles and teachers’ commitment in the Western North Region

Abstract

This study investigated the relationship between leadership styles of heads' and teachers' commitment. The ‘Full Range Leadership Theory (FRLT)’ by Avolio and Bass (1991) and ‘Organizational Commitment’ guided the study. The study employed sequential explanatory mixed design by collecting both quantitative and qualitative data. The were collected by an adapted version of Bass and Avolio (1995) Multi-factor Leadership Questionnaire, Meyer and Allen's (1991) Organizational Commitment Questionnaire to gather quantitative data and semi-structured interview guide was used to gather qualitative data. A stratified random sampling, simple random sampling techniques, census frame sampling technique and maximal variation strategy were used to select 288 headteachers and their teachers from public senior high school in the Western North Region. The quantitative data were analyzed by using both descriptive (mean, and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (Pearson’s Products Moment Correlation and Independent Samples T-Test) and the qualitative were analyzed using theme and content analysis. The data were coded and inputted into Version 20 of Statistics Product for Service Solutions (SPSS). Bass and Avolio’s (1995) Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) and Meyer and Allen’s (1991) Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ) scored higher Cronbach’s Alpha Coefficient reliability of 0.75 and 0.78 respectively. The study results show that even though headteacher practiced a blend of transformational, transactional and laissez-faire leadership styles, the transformational leadership style was mostly practiced, followed by the transformational leadership style and laissez-faire leadership style. It was also revealed that there was a moderate and statistically significant positive relationship between heads' leadership styles and teacher’s commitment. Further revealed that there was a moderate and statistically significant positive relationship between transactional leadership styles and a moderate and statistically significant positive relationship between laissez-faire leadership styles and teachers’ commitment. Again, it was revealed that teachers rated highest on normative commitment followed by continuance commitment and affective commitment respectively. Moreso, it revealed that there is no statistically significant difference between male and female heads of school leadership styles as well as male and female teachers' commitment. The study recommended that the Ghana Education Service should organize regular training workshops and in-service training programmes to equip the heads of public senior high schools in the region to have knowledge, skills and attitude appropriate to employ leadership styles, especially transformational and transactional leadership styles to improve teacher commitment.