ABSTRACT
Organizational climates of schools reflect the type of administration, teachers, facilities, learning conditions, communication process of the school and the students in the school. The major purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of the leadership styles of principals on school climate in Ikeja Educational Zone of Lagos State. Four research questions and two null hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The researcher, in order to establish the relationship reviewed related literatures which also served as theoretical framework for the study. The literature also provided some useful information needed for this investigation. The study adopted ex-post factor and the sample consisted of principals and teachers. The population of the study was 84 principals and 4,200 teachers from 84 schools in Ikeja education zone. 45 principals and 450 teachers were randomly selected from the two local government areas. The questionnaire was construction to find answer to the four research questions and was tested. Two hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The findings of the study showed that leadership style of the principals have influence on the organizational climate of secondary schools in Ikeja education zone of Lagos state, again, the effective performance of teachers and progress in academic development of the students depends on the adoption of right leadership style of the principals of these schools. Finally, the study discovered that adequate supply of instructional materials in these schools is also dependent on the leadership styles of principals of open climate system of the school.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
Education is one of the important factors that help in bringing about rapid social and economic development in any given nation. This is as a result of the fact that it is through the medium of education that the various categories of manpower are developed. It is the manpower resources that manipulate the available physical and financial resources to provide the services and functions that eventually bring about economic and national development. Without well trained and well developed manpower resources, no meaningful economic and national development can take place (Eneasator, 1997). It can be seen as an important channel through which development can be attained. Federal Republic of Nigeria (2004:8) states that education is the most important instrument of change and fundamental change in the intellectual and social outlook of any society which has to be preceded by an educational revolution”.
This is why nations of the world have budgeted so much money on the education sector. The school as an organization exists for the purpose of coordinating the material and human resources of its environment towards the achievement of some pre-determined educational goals. For the school administrator to achieve this task, there is need to maintain a positive organizational climate within the school.
School is a social institution whose members are in continuous interaction. Any one who visits two or more schools will notice differences in class sizes, courses offered and physical surroundings. These are concrete elements which help to form the distinguishing characteristics of each individual school. Other perhaps obvious characteristic of each individual school includes its climate. The social interactions taking place between principals and students, principals and teachers and among students in the school constitute climate of the school. Meanwhile, the life of the members and the commitment to work will be questionable if the climate is not favourable. The school as a formal organization has peculiar characteristics which distinguish it from other organizations. One of the peculiar characteristics of the school organization is the climate. The term climate is used to describe psychological structure of organization.
According to Edem (2003) a school achieves its goals structure by means of it degree of centralization, formalization, stratification and complexity. Also the school goals may functionally be sorted according to the level of production, efficiency, adaptation and satisfaction of staff.
A school which is associated with centralization, formalization, stratification, production and efficiency is said to be bureaucratically oriented. On the other hand, a school associated with complexity adaptability and satisfaction of its staff is said to be professionally oriented. Climate here means the feel, personality or character of the organization’s, environment. Tagiur and Litwin in Ekprara (2007) viewed organizational climate as the Milieu, atmosphere, culture, feel, tone, or the internal quality of an organization, especially as experienced by its members and noticed by visitor to the school. School climate may be considered as a set of internal characteristics that distinguish one school from another and influence the behaviour of the people in it. In this context, school climate is an end product of the school groups – students, teachers, administrators as they work to balance the school goal and individual aspects of a social system. Their end product includes shared values, social beliefs and social standards.
Commenting on the school climate Halpin and Croft (1963) opined that school climate is in a continuum ranging from “open” to “closed.”
According to them:
Open climate is characterized by functional flexibilities where esprit, trust and consideration are high disengagement, hindrance, production emphasis and aloofness are low, and intimacy is average. A closed climate is characterized by functional rigidity where hindrance, disengagement, production emphasis and aloofness are high esprit, trust and consideration are low and intimacy is average. (p: 27)
School climate reflects the struggles, both internal and external. The type of people who compose the school organization, the work process, the means of communication and the exercise of authority within the individual organization constitute the climate. The differences in organizational climate of schools are easily recognized but it is difficult to name the dimensions of these differences. School administrative style influences and permeates attitudes and reaction of all members of the school. Halpin (1963) describes three organizational climates. In one school, the teachers and principal are zestful and exude confidence in what they are doing, they find pleasure in working with each other; the pleasure is transmitted to the students who thus are given at least, a fighting chance to discover that school can be a happy experience.
In the second school, the brooding discontent of teachers is palpable, the principal tries to hide his incompetence and his lack of sense of direction behind a cloak poorly because the attitude he displays to others vacillates randomly between the obsequious and the officious. And the psychological sickness of such a faculty spills over on the students who in their own frustration feed back to the teachers a mood of despair.
A third school was marked by neither joy nor despair but by hallow ritual. Here one gets the feeling of watching an elaborate charade in teachers, principal and students alike are acting out parts. The implication of the foregoing statements is that the climate of the school may be a determining factor in the type of educational programme and activities carried out in an individual school. This goes to show that structures and functions influence the character of the school, the dispositions of the teachers and students, and the flow, design and articulation of schools educational system are great determinants of school climate.
Generally, the term organizational climate has its root in the work of Lewin (1936) who showed that understanding human behaviour requires, one considering the entire situation in which behaviours occur. Eneasator (1997:300) opined that ‘in conceptualizing organizational climate, it is necessary to think of the person and the organizational environment as complementary parts of the one situation’. This is due to the fact that the behavioural disposition of an individual is determined by the interaction of the individual and his/her environment at any given time. Ukeje, Akabogu and Ndu (1992) defined organisational climate to include the way the organization deals with its members and its environment. This implies that schools and colleges can be identified with specific climate that describes the interaction and influence pattern among members in that school or college.
Eneasator (1997:300) defined organizational climate as ‘a set of attribute specific to particular organization that may be induced from the way the organization deals with the members and its environment’. Schools are organizations and also have climate. According Chamberline in Ezeonu (2008), a school’s organizational climate is ‘subtle spirit that exists in a school both in minds of teachers and students in every act, which may never be exactly ascribed or analyzed, but which an experienced observer recognizes when he/she enters a school’. School organizational climate has been defined as the “feel” of a school that helps each individual feels personal worth, dignity and importance, while simultaneously helping to create a sense of belonging to something beyond us. Teachers are the focus of any human resource development and also the major agent through which the curriculum finds its fulfillment and actualization Cheng (1994) observed that since teachers occupy very important position in any educative process, they must be highly motivated and enthusiastic so as to carry on their task of teaching and guiding the young ones and adults under their care. Udeozor (2004) noted, if a conducive organizational climate is created in a school, teachers would be happier, more co-operative and more improved task performance whether they are in Urban or Rural schools.
From these definitions, one can see that organizational climate reveals the internal status of the organization, speaks clearly on the quality of interpersonal relationship; the level of satisfaction among members, the willingness of members to contribute to the accomplishment of common goals and the acceptability of constituted authority of the organization. Therefore, it is the subjective impressions created in the teachers and students by the structures and functions together with leadership assumption, characters and behaviours that the school climate and has strong influence on the achievement of school goals. However, it seems that school climate in some areas appears to indicate that many teachers are dissatisfied with the job because of unconducive organizational climate such as inadequate co-operation between the principals and teachers, poor working conditions and poor communication. It is against this background that the study ventured to find out the influence of leadership styles of principals on school climate.
Statement of Problem
The goal of any educational venture is to bring about improvement in the learner. Leadership styles do this by bringing about improvement on teachers and students as it is said that the success or failure of any educational programme depends to a large extent on what happens in the classroom.
Over the years, there has been an incessant cry on the falling standard of education in the country. This seems to be confirmed by the rate of failures in both internal and external examinations, increasing incidents of students’ indiscipline and bad behaviour of teachers. All these are blamed on poor leadership of principals and dereliction of duty by the teachers.
Over the years, there has been a rapid growth in the number of schools. There arose a number of unqualified classroom teachers who were appointed principals of secondary schools in the states. Appointments to principalship were based on seniority and academic qualifications which did not necessarily include courses in educational administration.
This criteria for appointment appears not to be yielding the best materials for the school organizational climate. As a result of this development, some unqualified and inexperienced teachers were appointed principals of schools. Some principals in our schools today therefore lack necessary experiences, training and qualifications for the positions they are occupying.
From the above statement, it would be expected that Ikeja Educational Zone would be having some problems of leadership vacuum in their schools. The study therefore was to investigate the influence of leadership styles of principals on the organizational climate of schools as a means to improve the performance of students, principals and teachers and hence the quality of education in the zone.
Purpose of Study
The general purpose of the study is to investigate the influence of the leadership styles of principals on school climate in Ikeja Education zone of Lagos state. Specifically, the study seeks to:
- Determine the leadership style of principal that influence school climate.
- Determine leadership styles at principal that influence school environment in Ikeja education zone.
- Determine how leadership styles of principal that influence teachers’ effective in Ikeja education Zone.
- To determine the extent leadership styles of principal influence students’ behaviour in Ikeja education zone.
