The Relationship Between School Culture And Principals’ Leadership Style In Secondary Schools Of Bishoftu Town Administration

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between School Culture and Principals’ Leadership style in Secondary Schools of Bishoftu Town Administration. In that regard, it employed a mixed research method involving both qualitative and quantitative data. A sample of 197 participants inclusive of school heads, teachers, and supervisors were selected through stratified simple random and purposive sampling techniques with probability proportion to size. Both primary and secondary data was collected. The major sources of data include secondary schools Principals, supervisors, department heads, and teachers. Primary data was gathered through survey questionnaire, and key informant interviews. Secondary data sources such as government reports, books and educational journals were also consulted for related information. Descriptive statistics such as frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviations as well as inferential statistics like t test and correlation were used for data analyses through SPSS-Version 20 software. Key findings from the study showed that most of the secondary schools were lacks strong work culture and committed leadership to improve the overall performance the school system. Weak enforcement of school norms, values and rules by the respective leaders were constituted the major reasons poor culture which can be insignificantly influenced the achievement of the stated goals and objectives. The study also found that laissez-faire leadership style was the most common practiced leadership style followed by democratic and autocratic leadership style in the study area. Though inadequately practiced by the school heads, a democratic leadership style had has a strong association with school culture and can be explained by the school culture taken into consideration. This implied that any improvement in school culture would positively affect the practices of democratic leadership style in secondary schools of the study area.The study concluded that unless a well-established school cultures with proper leaderships style, of which democratic leadership style is adopted, school performance will continue to decline and the surrounding community lacks faith on the capacity of the respective leaders to bring significant changes in school performance. The researcher recommended that the Bishoftu Education Office school leaders in collaboration with training institutes have to provide training for current principals on the concepts and practices of leadership styles and organizational culture; encourage the adoption of leadership strategies by school leaders as democratic or participative style, facilitating annual forums and experience sharing programs among school leaders; and conducting further studies on issues related to school culture and leadership styles.