Principals’ Managerial Styles As Determinat of Public Senior Secondary School Efectiveness in Kwara State

ABSTRACT


INTRODUCTION
Principals as school administrators remain central source of school leadership and unique in the management of staff, students, facilities and relevant educational stakeholders to ensure the effectiveness of the school system.The managerial roles of principals' in the general performance of the school cannot be overemphasized as they are very relevant in providing leadership for improved instruction and better curricular to enhance high-academic excellence in educational sector The triumph or collapse of educational system particularly at the secondary school level to a greater extent depends on principals who plan, coordinate and utilize other resources towards enhancing academic excellence in the school.
Thus, the importance of the managerial styles cannot be modulated for the actualization of school effectiveness.The efficacy of the school system is hinged on principals' possession of administrative skills Open Access: https://ejournal.papanda.org/index.php/ijesslike: instructional programmes, students and staff personnel services, financial and physical resources management as well as school community relation (Cunha & Magano, 2019).Adjudicating from these scenario it is evident that ineffectiveness of public senior secondary schools is not unconnected with the laxity, inadequacy and deficiency in principals' managerial styles.
Scholars in educational industry unanimously agreed that educational leadership is a fundamental determinant of school effectiveness and the principals' leadership behaviour has undisputable effects on the characteristics of the school which ultimately impact the quality of school effectiveness.Gumu etal, (2018) affirmed that distinctions in leadership paradigms are critical components of school effectiveness.
Thus, the styles of leadership unveiled by principals determine the efficacy or otherwise of the school system.Some principals have failed in school leadership because of many management problems relating to institutional planning, human relations, discipline, instructional supervision and community relations experienced which ultimately retards the school progress.Studies carried out by many scholars show that effectiveness of the school hinges on environmental and personal factors of the students (Okumbe, 2018).
It was observed by the researcher that some secondary schools principals abdicate their duties and divorce themselves from statutory responsibilities and authority entrusted to them leading to decline in the system.This practice is very much common in rural schools with low supervision by Ministry of education and Teaching Service Commission.It was against this background that the study investigate principals' managerial styles and school effectiveness in public senior secondary schools in Kwara State.
The Federal Government of Nigeria through the National Policy on Education (2004) stated that the success of any educational system hinged on proper planning, organization, control and coordination of human and non-human resources by the school heads.However, the efficacy of the school principals in optimal performance of these functions for enhancing the effectiveness of schools has remained a subject of debate among scholars in educational sector and relevant stake holders in the sector in that this segment of education is losing its germaneness in Nigeria and apparently fruitless in accomplishing the stated goals in the national policy (Aghenta & Omorgie, 2018).Thus it is arguable that principals' managerial styles are very important for the running of the various organizations including secondary schools.Principals leadership practices determine the level of desired outcomes of schooling which can be measured by the indicators of high performing schools (Hallinger,2018) The principals relate to the staff through team management and formal structure of staff meetings.Subsequently, when the management team functions well through the principal's managerial style, the school excel in both quality and quantity.
The principal is an important personality in the management of the school for several reasons which include but are not limited to the following: liaising with Vice Principals and Head of Departments in upholding the culture of the school; maintaining school ethics and discipline; Management of school funds; management of the general welfare of staff and students; soliciting support for the school from the host community and developing the quality and standards of education (Obama;Eunice & Orodho, 2015).Some aspects of school management such as instructional, administrative, democratic and bureaucratic leadership styles are always good, coercive and authoritarian management styles are always frowned at and are therefore not conducive.The contemporary worldwide increase towards the acquisition of quality education has created anxiety in the hearts of stakeholders in the education sector on the types of leadership styles which school administrators/principals should adopt for effective and efficient implementation of national curriculum which would pave way for high educational output.
Thus, effective management of the secondary school system is born out of strict observance of the goals and objectives of the education.To achieve the set goal of this level of education, there is need for the adoption of appropriate administrative techniques by the principals to enhance the effectiveness of Indonesian Journal of Education and Social Science, 2(2), 2023, pp. 124-132 Open Access: https://ejournal.papanda.org/index.php/ijess the institutions.Recent visitation by the researcher to some of the secondary schools in the state revealed that there is poor principals' managerial techniques which led to pitiable school climate.The place of management in the secondary school system requires charisma, desire, willpower, education, experience, training, and effective and appropriate managerial styles of principals to a larger extent is determined by the work performance of school personnel, which includes teachers and principals (Cunha & Magano, 2019), Concerns begin to evolve as a result of the failure accompanying the pursuit of these goals and objectives.Although the failure to achieve these goals as visible in the ineffectiveness of secondary schools in terms of personnel administration, school community relation, financial and physical resources management.Despite the great investment including provision of equipment, qualified teachers, and the commitment and support of parent, students still let down the society.Thus, the study examined principals' managerial styles as determinant of school effectiveness in public senior secondary schools in Kwara State.

Purpose of study
The study examined principals' managerial styles and school effectiveness in public senior secondary schools in Kwara State.Accordingly, the study was to: (1) Explore managerial styles adopted by the principals in public senior secondary schools in Kwara State; (2) Find out the relationship between the principals' managerial styles and public senior secondary schools effectiveness in Kwara State.

Research Questions
The following research questions were raised to guide the conduct of the study.( 1) What are the managerial styles adopted by the principals of public senior secondary senior secondary schools in Kwara State?; (2) What is the relationship between principals' managerial styles and public senior secondary schools effectiveness in Kwara State?

LITERATURE REVIEW
Managerial styles is the basic task maturity of the individual or group being led with maturity being defined in terms of the capacity to set high but realistic goals.Kemp and Nathan (2019) identified three styles of leadership namely authoritarian, democratic and laissez-faire.According to Adeyemi (2018) the authoritarian or autocratic leadership style is used when leaders tell their employees what they want to be done and how they want it accomplished, without getting the advice of followers.This style results in the group members reacting aggressively and uninterestingly in the work environment.They further suggest that authoritarian style should normally only be used on rare occasions.This often results in unending industrial disputes in an organization hence affecting the achievement of the overall goals and objectives.
Cheptors etal (2018) identified three types of managerial styles which include autocratic, democratic and laissez fare.Accordingly, autocratic leader exercises control of power where such despotic leaders are typical of making choices on their own ideas and judgment; and rarely accept advice from followers.This involves total manipulation of a group.On the other hand, democratic leaders are accommodative and welcome ideas and contributions from group members.The authors affirmed that this type of leadership style is mostly accepted by researchers as one of the most effective styles that brings about increase in groups' morale.Members of group in a democratic setting are more engaged, encouraged and rewarded for their productivity.Laissez faire leadership style, according to Cheptoras, etal (2018) are permissive and interact freely with group members as rules are not imposed on the subjects.Such leaders repose trust and confidence in their subordinates.The subordinates are at the will to act and take responsibilities for their actions.
Open Access: https://ejournal.papanda.org/index.php/ijess The participative or democratic leadership style involves the leader including one or more employees in the decision making process in determining what to do and how to do it.However, the leader maintains the final decision making authority.Using this style is not a sign of weakness; rather, it is a sign of strength that your employees will respect (Obama, Eunice & Orodho, 2015).The laissez-faire style of leadership, according to Flippo and Munsinger, ( 2018) is where a leader succumbs to Theory Y, which argues that people are innately motivated, naturally like to do work and therefore there should be no rules since everybody has an inborn sense of responsibility.However, this style of leadership may result in indiscipline due to non-enforcement of rules and regulations in a school leading to poor performance in both national and external examinations Thrupp (2017) claims that school effectiveness is characterized as socially and politically decontextualized body of literature which provided support for the supervisory system in schools.Most school effectiveness studies show that 80% or more of students 'achievement can be explained by student background rather than schools (Teddlie & Reynolds, 2017).The Commonwealth Secretariat (2013) in its report revealed the indicators of school effectiveness as; purposeful leadership, the involvement of the heads of department in decision making, the involvement of other teachers, structured lessons, intellectually challenging teaching, work-centered environment, maximum communication between teachers and pupils, efficient and accurate record keeping, parental and community involvement, positive climate, consistency among teachers, productive division of labour among teachers and good parental report.These factors are used to observe an effective school and its head.The leadership styles of school principals is significant in ensuring effectiveness of the school system (Lin, 2019).Certainly much research has been conducted on styles of leadership of school leaders` but the impact of leader on school effectiveness is still blurred.
Several studies have been conducted on principals leadership styles and school effectiveness.
Umar (2019) examined principals' administrative strategies and secondary schools effectiveness in Yobe state.The study adopted descriptive survey design.The population of the study comprised all public secondary schools principals' in the three educational zone of the state.Simple random sampling technique was adopted to select teachers in the secondary schools from the three educational zones.
Questionnaire tagged "Principals Administrative Strategies for School Effectiveness was used to elicit relevant data for the study.Descriptive statistics of frequency distribution and percentage was used to answer the research questions raised in the study.The findings of the study revealed that principals' instructional supervision were not fairly carry out and that the leadership styles of principals' were more of autocratic and laissez-faire.The study recommended among others that principals should adopt suitable leadership approach which could enhance school effectiveness.
Ijaz and Muhammed (2012) investigated the nexus between leadership styles and school effectiveness: Empirical evidence from secondary level.The study employed correlational type of research.
The population of the study was made up of secondary school head teachers and deputy head teachers of public and private secondary schools in Lahore Davison.Convenient sampling technique was used to select two out of five districts of Lahore Division.Leadership Styles and School Effectiveness Questionnaire was designed for data collection.Pearson Product Moment Correlation statistics was used to test the hypotheses formulated in the study.The findings of the study revealed that there was significant relationship between leadership styles and school effectiveness.
While Andre (2019) investigated the relationship between effective principal leadership and school effectiveness as perceived by teachers.
Quantitative research design was adopted for the study.Adapted Questionnaire from Water etal.( 2013) titled "Effective Principals Leadership Practice Questionnaire was used for the collection of relevant data for the study.The findings revealed that positive relationship exist between leadership styles and school

METHODS
Descriptive research design of correlation type was adopted for this study.The population of the study comprise 6, 483 students and 384 principals in all the 384 public senior secondary schools in the three senatorial districts that constitute Kwara State (Kwara Central, Kwara North and Kwara South).
Multistage sampling technique was employed for the study.Ten public senior secondary schools were randomly selected from each of the three senatorial districts that make up the Kwara state, thus 30 public senior secondary schools were selected using Research Advisor ( 2006) and Simple Random Sampling Technique was used for the study.Also, 279 teachers were proportionally selected for the study as the number of teachers in the sampled schools varied.Principals Managerial Styles Questionnaire (PMSQ) and School Effectiveness Questionnaire (SEQ) were designed to elicit relevant information from the participants.
The researcher adopted test re-test method of reliability where 50 copies of the questionnaires were administered to the participants who share similar characteristics with the study population, but not part of the sample at interval of two weeks to determine the internal consistency of the questionnaire and yielded 7.20 and 8. 81 for PMSQ and SEQ respectively thus ascertained the reliability of the instruments for the study.The data gathered for the study were statistically analyzed using descriptive research Open Access: https://ejournal.papanda.org/index.php/ijessstatistic of frequency, percentage and mean rating to answer the research question 1, while.PPMC was used to answer the research question 2.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Research Questions As shown in table 1, 47 out of the total participants unanimously agreed that autocratic style was adopted by the principals' of public senior secondary schools which represents (16.8%) of the entire participants in the study.Also, 225 out of the total participants agreed that democratic style was adopted by the principals in public senior secondary school which represents 80.6%.While, 7 (2.5%) of the total participants agreed that laissez faire was the adopted managerial style by the principal in public senior secondary school.Therefore, it can deduced from the above that most of the public senior secondary schools principals' in Kwara State adopt democratic managerial style.The table 2 showed that there was negligible correlation between principals' managerial styles and school effectiveness (r = 0.139).This implies that principals' managerial style has no significant influence on effectiveness of public senior secondary schools in Kwara State.Therefore, there was no relationship between principals' managerial styles and school effectiveness in public senior secondary schools in Kwara State.

Discussion of Findings.
The answer to research question one shows that that most of the public senior secondary schools principals' in Kwara State adopt democratic managerial style.This implies that the principals' involves teachers and other subordinates in the decision making process in the administration of secondary schools.Using this style is not a sign of weakness; rather, it is a sign of strength that your employees will respect (Obama, Eunice and Orodho, 2015).The findings corroborates the study conducted by Nsubuga (2018) which reveals that an effective principal pays more attention to planning work, special tasks and permits teachers to participate in decision-making processes in an effort to achieve school goals.Using this style is of mutual benefit as it allows them to become part of the team and allows to make better decisions.According to Ogunasanwo, (2014) the participatory leadership style provides a climate of sense of unity in pursuit of set goals in secondary schools.
The study conducted by Bass (2018) equally corroborates the finding when he asserts that democratic leaders solicit for subordinates input to enhance effective service delivery.Thus, the principals' disclosed openness in communication and seek for teachers' inputs create an environment where staff Indonesian Journal of Education and Social Science, 2(2), 2023, pp.124-132 Open Access: https://ejournal.papanda.org/index.php/ijessoften exercised self-direction and commitment towards the actualization of the institutional goals.The findings are corroborated by Kendra (2013) studies which revealed that democratic leadership style enhances institution productivity, synergy and group morale.Also, Obilade (2019) asserted that, democratic leadership style encompasses on the notion that everyone, by the virtue of their human status, should play a part in the group's decisions.In addition, studies carried out by Akande (2018) found that democratic leadership style is one of the most effective and creates higher productivity, better contributions from group members and increased group morale.Democratic leadership style enhances cross fertilization of ideas, creativity in solving problems and group members are encouraged to share their thoughts and philosophies.Also, the current finding is synonymous with trait theory of leadership.
The theory assumed that leaders are made with certain qualities such as sense of responsibility, intelligence, creativity and self-confidence to lead the subordinates in the organization (Kovach, 2019).
The answer to research question two shows that the there was no relationship between principals' managerial styles and school effectiveness in public senior secondary schools in Kwara State.This implies that principals' managerial styles do no significantly influence school effectiveness in public senior secondary schools in Kwara State.Substantiating the outcome of this finding Olaniya (2019) accentuated that inadequacy of physical facilitates in schools, over-crowded classrooms especially in urban schools and the absence of laboratory facilities in many rural schools inhibit effective teaching and learning processes in the school occasioned by managerial styles of principals.This situation tends to have substantial effect on school effectiveness.The results is in tandem with the work of Ibukun (2019) which revealed that the contemporary global environment, school effectiveness in term of instructional transformation, participatory and distributive leadership has no link with the leadership styles but on the efficacy of implementation of national curriculum which would pave way for high educational output.
Neither democratic nor autocratic styles of management adopted by the secondary school principals influence the efficacy of the school system.
Substantiating the findings of the study, Adeyemi (2014)  The success or failure of secondary school students depend largely on the leadership style adopted by the institutions' heads..Managerial leadership styles are key determinants of effectiveness in secondary schools.Thus, to enhance the effectiveness of schools,principals should respect the dignity and worth of the teachers by consulting staff in the school affairs before making final decisions.It was revealed through affirms that leadership behaviour do occupies central position in school administration.Cunha and Magano (2019)  accentuated that the effectiveness of the school system is hinged on principals' possession of administrative skills like: instructional programmes, students and staff personnel services, financial and physical resources management as well as school community relation.Ayandoja et al. (2017)  equally concurs with the findings of the study that managerial styles of principals are not fundamental for the effectiveness of schools, but rather the quality of training acquired by prospective school principals improves their administrative vision and mission.Some aspects of school management such as instructional, administrative, democratic and bureaucratic leadership styles are always good, coercive and authoritarian management styles are always frowned at and are therefore not conducive in attainment of school goals and objectives.CONCLUSIONManagerial styles of principals are critical variables in the administration of public senior secondary schools which to a larger extent determine the effectiveness of schools.The need for improvement in educational leadership has become a top priority for school reform in Nigeria industry especially in contemporary era when relevant stakeholders question the efficacy of the system standard.
It was recommended among other that mentorship programme should be periodically organized for school leaders to inspire their vision and mission on leadership.Nicholas, Francis and Chidi (2017) examine principals' leadership styles and school effectiveness in Enugu Local Government Area of Enugu State, Nigeria.Ex-post facto descriptive research design was adopted.For data collection, instruments used were structured questionnaire and interviews.The Indonesian Journal of Education and Social Science, 2(2),2023, pp.124-132Open Access: https://ejournal.papanda.org/index.php/ijesseffectiveness.in the state.Consequent on the findings, leadership styles enhance school effectiveness and that parents or guardians in Taraba should avoid rushing to principals with a particular administrative style.Nurabadi et al. (2021) came up with a panoply of determinants comprising qualities of leadership rooted in instructional prowess and spirituality as the roads to school teachers' performance and students' academic achievement.In the study, instructional, transformational and spiritual leadership were taken as independent variables.The school quality, which is reflected in the students' achievement, is dependent on the earlier factors mentioned.That is why it was concluded by Nurabadi et al. (2021) that there were both direct and indirect effects of instructional leadership, transformational leadership, and spiritual leadership on teachers' performance and students' academic achievement.But the research attempt was based on elementary schools.Talking about secondary school education, one cannot, however, totally close eyes to the findings of the study.In other words, there are elements of relevance in the findings to the secondary school parlance.

Table 1 .
What are the managerial styles adopted by the principal of public senior secondary schools?

Table 2 :
what is the relationship between principals' managerial styles and Public senior secondary school effectiveness in Kwara State.