Leadership Style and Business Educators’ Job Performance in Senior Secondary Schools in a Changing Environment

Abstract

This paper investigated leadership styles and Business Educators’ job performance in senior secondary schools in
Rivers State, Nigeria. The Study population comprised all the 288 secondary schools in the State. Out of this population, a
sample of 240 senior secondary schools that offers Business subjects was taken and selected through the stratified random
sampling techniques. Out of 3,466 teachers of business subjects (including principals) in the schools, a sample of 2040 teachers
was selected through the stratified random sampling techniques. This sample was made of 240 principals who are considered to
be the leaders and 1800 teachers. Two instruments were used to collect data for the study. There were the leadership style
questionnaire and the teachers’ job performance questionnaire. The data collected were analyzed using frequency counts,
percentages, correlation matrix and t-test. It was found that the democratic leadership style was the most commonly used
leadership style among leaders of senior secondary schools in the State. Teachers’ job performance was also found to be at
moderate level in the schools. Teachers’ job performance was found to be better in schools having leaders using autocratic style
than in schools having leaders using laissez-faire styles. It is then recommended that leaders generally should imbibe a mixture
of autocratic and democratic styles of leadership in their school administration in order to enhance better job performance among
teachers. The use of the laissez-faire leadership style should be discouraged among school leaders as it could not bring a better
job performance.