Principals’ Leadership Styles and Their Effect on Students’ Academic Achievement in Public Secondary Schools in Nyeri County, Kenya

Abstract

The concept of school leadership has attracted the attention of many stakeholders in the education sector. Students’ academic achievement is greatly determined by the decisions made by the school leadership. The leadership styles used by leaders influence the decision making process, communication process, and implementation of decisions made. The study sought to determine the effects of principals’ leadership styles on students’ academic achievement in public secondary schools in Nyeri Central Sub-County. The specific objectives of the study were: to establish what leadership style prevails in public secondary schools in Nyeri Central Sub-County; to establish the extent to which task-oriented leadership style influences students’ academic achievement and to determine the extent to which relationship-oriented leadership style influences students’ academic achievement in public secondary schools in Nyeri Central Sub-County. The study was guided by the contingency theory of leadership developed by Fred Fiedler. The study used descriptive research design to establish whether there is any influence of the leadership style used on students’ overall academic achievement. The study was carried out in Nyeri Central Sub-County. The total number of principals in these schools was 22 with 490 teachers. Schools were stratified by categories and then randomly sampled. Teachers were first stratified by gender and then randomly sampled. The sample size of the study was determined by using Krejcie’s and Morgan’s table of sampling where 214 teachers, 19 schools and 19 principals formed part of the sample size. After pilot study, the researcher checked validity and reliability of the tools. The tools of data collection were deemed acceptable at a coefficient of between 0.7-0.9. Data was collected using self-administered questionnaires. Quantitative data obtained was organised using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 24. Both inferential and descriptive statistics were used to analyse data. ANOVA was used to determine the relationship between leadership styles and students’ achievement. Mean, mode and percentages were used to analyse the descriptive data obtained. The study revealed that the most prevalent leadership style was relationship-oriented leadership style. Leadership styles were found to influence students’ achievement where task-oriented leadership was associated with high students’ achievement, and relationship-oriented style associated with low students’ achievement. The study recommends that principals’ should incorporate different leadership styles depending on the situation at hand to promote high students’ achievement.