Leadership Practices and Performance of Selected Public High Schools in Kiambu County, Kenya.

Abstract

Organization Performance is a crucial indicator on the effectiveness of the set practices in place towards the achievement of the overall objectives of any institution. Leadership which is an aspect of Human Resource Managerial function plays a key role to Organizations performance. The level of skills organization leaders possess plays a major role in strategy implementation and overall performance of an organization. This research focused on assessing leadership practices nin nrelation nto nperformance nof selected public high schools in Kiambu County. Leadership practices entailing performance targets, rewards, training, and teamwork, were examined on their role in Performance of selected public high schools in Kiambu County. The research study presented both a theoretical and empirical review. The theories under review in this study were; the Resource-based view, Human capital, Universalistic theory and Elton Mayo management theory. A descriptive research design was adopted in this study. Due to the limitation of time and cost implication thirteen public high schools were purposively selected each school being selected from the thirteen sub-counties of Kiambu County. Respondents in the study were randomly selected. A sample of the nrespondents nwas drawn using stratified random sampling technique. The sub-counties within Kiambu County provided a diverse set of both Urban and Rural set up. The respondents comprised of four school principals, seventeen Heads of departments and seventy-six teachers. Data was collected in the selected public high schools through the use of Questionnaires. Validity and reliability nof nthe nquestionnaires nwas nestablished nthrough npiloting of the questionnaires. nData collected was nanalyzed nquantitatively. The relationship between variables was tested in the study nby nuse nof nregression nanalysis. nThe nStudy established that nthere exists na nrelationship nbetween Leadership practices and performance. Performance targets, rewards, training and teamwork are leadership practices that play a paramount role in the performance of organizations. Leadership practices needs to be given the attention they require in for more efficient and effective organizations. The study recommends that target setting for the overall school performance should be cascaded down to individual targets. The setting of targets needs to be a collaborative process between school leaders in this case Principals and Heads of Departments with teachers. Allocation of more resources was recommended to training and enhancing the competences and capabilities of the Human Resources as this is reflected in the performance outcome of the schools. It’s key that training programs be aligned to the performance goals set and also be as a result of a training needs assessment process. It is recommended that rewarding of teachers be linked to performance. Aligning rewards to performance reinforce and encourage repetition of good behavior. When delegating tasks, the leaders in this case School principals and Heads of departments need to also transfer authority to execute the tasks. This would hence enhance confidence among teachers and increase the level of performance.