CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background to the Study
The success of any organization is highly rated upon the head, boss or the manager of such an enterprise, like business, school or any organization. The leadership impact is desirable in an organization to aid easy and maximum success. Leadership is an instruction used in an organization for behavior modification. It determines the goals of an organization and means of accomplishing them. Therefore, leadership in an organization has been seen as motivator whereby one person who is the head motivates others towards the achievement of specific goals of the organizations.
However, fellowship is the essence of leadership, in other words it is the willingness of the people to follow that makes a person a leader. Moreover, people follow those perceived to be providing means of achieving their own desires, wants and needs. In this case, we can see that leadership and motivation are closely interconnected. Motivation enables us appreciate better what people want and why they act as they do. In secondary school administration, the success of any school to achieve its stated goals or objectives depends on the ability of the chief administrator otherwise known as the principal and his leadership style.
Effective leadership role provided by the principal will lead to the achievement of the schools goals and objectives. Education among other concern is an instrument for effecting national development with the formulation of national policy on education. To achieve the stated aims and objectives of the national policy, all stakeholders in the educational sector have different roles to play. At the grass root level, the management of available resources rest solely upon the schools principals inclusive in principals’ roles is the provision of effective administrative skills which cannot be separated from their leadership styles. The principals’ leadership style in secondary schools is a pointer of the level of productivity of teachers or their job performance. With the close review of the setbacks being experienced in some secondary schools, pressure groups are agitating for effective leadership styles. It is glaring that some principals in Yaba Local Government area of Lagos have not considered their styles of leadership as the determinants of teachers’ job performance level. Hence, some principals seem to find it difficult to effectively administer their schools (Gronn, 2000, Adeyemi 2004). Every school principal is in a unique position as the manager or administrator of the resources in their schools.
The school administrator is a leader of the staff and the students of the school. He is expected to be knowledgeable in the area of administration. He should be able to address difficult issues or problems at different point in time. The leadership style of the principal is demonstrated in his abilities which make him to be recognized as leader of a group. Many people strongly believe even when there is an educational plan, good school programme, adequate staff and facilities, what is more important is good administrative leadership style to coordinate all these for the progress and success of the school. In case, where the leadership style of the principal is ineffective, even the best school programme, the most adequate resources and the most motivational staff and students will be rendered futile. Therefore, the importance of good leadership style in an organization cannot be overemphasized. The key for an effective leader is the ability to lead effectively, coordinate a complex situation and show concern through prudent management of human and material resources available. According to Koontz (2008) “If all school principals can’t rely upon all the subordinates to contribute towards group goal accomplishment with zeal and confidence, there would be no need to develop the act of leadership”. There is always the need to boost the moral of teachers, which will even make them to serve to their maximum capability. Therefore, among the administrative functions of the principal is to persuade teachers and use his leadership style to coordinate all activities to ensure they contribute willingly to organizational goals. It’s worth knowing that the improvement of any educational institution depends on quality of its teachers. The main objectives of any educational system are to promote teaching and learning process. Teachers are therefore expected to be committed to facilitate the teaching process.
To ensure the possibility, principals too must provide conducive atmosphere for their teachers. The type of leadership style being operated in the school will make staff in schools to be inspired, zealous and co-operate to work harmoniously with the principal. Educational objectives can only be achieved with the full co-operation of the school community. Effective administrative leadership involves the understanding of the behavior of members to be led in any organization or institution of learning. The issues of teachers’ performance in the classroom, based on principals leadership style is a concern of this project. In addition to being influenced by motivation, productivity is affected by workers ability and a number of situational and environmental factors. The objectives of the school will not be achieved if there is no harmony in the school between teachers’ performance and principal’s leadership style. Several researchers have defined leadership style in different contexts, in view of the foregoing, (Chandan, 2007) defines leadership style as the ingredient of personality embodied in leaders that causes subordinates to follow them. Okumbe, (2008) on the other hand defines leadership styles as particular behaviours applied by a leader to motivate subordinates to achieve the objectives of the organization. It refers to the underlying needs of the leader that motivate his behavior (Siskin, 2004; Okeniyi, 2005).
It is the manifestation of the dominant pattern of behaviour of a leader (Olaniyan, 2009; Okurumeh, 2012). It is also a process through which principal influences a teacher or a group of others in the attainment of educational goals (Akinwumiju and Olaniyan, 2006; Adeyemi, 2006). Therefore, the Leadership style of a principal depends on the leaders behaviors. This behavior is the main foundation for choosing efficient leadership style (Douglas, 2006). Scholar has proposed path goal theory to explain leadership. According to (House, 2008) in the path goal theory, a leader does the following: clarifies and sets goals together with the subordinates and properly communicates to them. Besides, delegates duties to subordinates according to their abilities, skills, knowledge and experience. The leader further helps the subordinates to find the best path for achieving the desired goals. Defines positions and task roles by removing barriers to performance and promotes group cohesiveness and team effort.
The leader finally increases personal opportunities for improved work performance by reducing stress, making external controls and people’s expectations clearer (House, 2008). In supporting this theory, (Ajayi and Ayodele, 2011) the behaviour of the leader is acceptable to the subordinates only if they continue to see the leader as a source of personal opportunities to improve performance and satisfaction. But, some leaders seem to find it difficult to effectively administer their schools (Gronn, 2012). Therefore, it is imperative that they learn and understand the importance of the styles that enhance positive performance in the schools. As such, leadership style occupies an important position in school administration as the principal who controls schools’ resources resulted in positive achievement of educational goals (Adeyemi, 2004). Basically, such achievements in secondary schools are dependent on three identifiable leadership styles namely; autocratic, democratic and laissez-faire (Lunenberg &Ornstein, 2009).It is no doubt that there is mounting pressure by styles of leadership among principals of secondary schools in Education District IV of Lagos State. It seems however that many principals have not considered their styles of leadership as determinants of teachers’ performance in their schools. Teachers’ performance could be described in various ways. (Robert and Tim, 2009) as the act of accomplishing or executing a given tasks. On the other hand (Obilade, 2009) defined teachers performance as the duties performed by a teacher at a particular period in the school system in achieving educational goals whereas, (Akinyemi 2003; Okeniyi, 2005) defined it as the ability of teachers to combine relevant inputs for the enhancement of teaching and learning processes. However, (Meindl, 2008) argued that teachers’ performance is determined by the workers level of participation in the day to day running of the organization. Supporting this argument, (Adepoju, 2007) asserted that variables of teachers’ performance such as effective teaching, lesson note preparation, effective use of scheme of work, effective supervision, monitoring of students’ work and disciplinary ability are virtues which teachers should uphold effectively in the school system.