Leadership styles of school principals : a multiple-case study

النوع : Mémoire

This study was set to explore the leadership styles among school principals as measured by the Leadership Orientations Questionnaire (LOQ) developed by Bolman and Deal (1991). The LOQ has two forms: one is self-rated by principals, and the other is addressed to school teachers to rate their principals on two dimensions: behavior and leadership. Under these two dimensions there are four subscales called frames. These are: the structural frame, human resource frame, political frame and symbolic frame. The subjects involved in the study were 8 school principals and 158 school teachers drawn from four schools of which three were private fee-paying in Mount-Lebanon and one public situated in Beirut. The study used the LOQ and a structured interview to gather data on the leadership styles of school principals. A pilot study was conducted to ascertain the reliability and validity of the LOQ and the clarity of the questions asked in the interviews. Pilot study results showed that this kind of research was compared to Bolman and Deal's (1991) study and useful to gain understanding of the leadership style of school principals as received by both the principals themselves and school teachers. Access to schools was secured by means of informed consent signed by the subjects participating in the study. Both quantitative and qualitative data analyses were conducted. Main results showed that the principals rating was the most as human resource frame. As to teacher ratings of the principals in relation to leadership frames, the principals were rated the highest on structural frame in section I and Section II. Moreover, the majority of the teachers think that the principals that they work with are Structural. The study concluded with recommendations addressed to school principals, teachers, education policymakers and researchers interested in furthering the understanding of leadership styles in educational contexts in Lebanon. Such styles have clear implications on how school affairs are internally managed.