Leadership Styles and Competencies of Kentucky School Principals: Transformational, Transactional, and Laissez-faire Leadership

Link: https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/leadership-styles-competencies-kentucky-school/docview/2933299999/se-2

Leadership Styles and Competencies of Kentucky School Principals: Transformational, Transactional, and Laissez-faire Leadership

Sierra McGinnis

Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School

in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for

the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy

University of the Cumberlands

May 2023

Analyze and present by: Punnarat Chinnapha, Ph.D.

 

Abstract

This study aimed to examine and provide insight into possible relationships between principal leadership styles, namely, transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire/passive in reference to principal demographics and school demographics. Additionally, the study analyzed whether principals align with authentic leadership competencies, including transparency, self-awareness, and ethical decision-making. The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ), Authentic Leadership Questionnaire (ALQ), and a demographic questionnaire were employed to collect data. Findings showed significant relationships between alternative school principals and transformational leadership scores. Additionally, results suggested male principals are more likely to have transactional and passive leadership styles. Additionally, the findings suggested that future research is necessary to investigate diverse principal populations in rural school settings and other contexts.

 

Conceptual Framework & Research Questions

There exists a vast number of literature supporting the importance of leadership styles in educational settings and how leadership styles can have a significant impact, direct or not, on school performance (Abdulrasheed et al., 2016; Allen et al., 2015; Atasoy, 2020; Berkovich et al., 2019; Henry et al., 2012; Khalifa et al., 2016; Welsh & Little, 2018; Urick & Bowers, 2014). This study aims to examine and provide insight into possible relationships between principal leadership styles in reference to principal demographics and school demographics as well as examining whether principals align with authentic leadership competencies. Thus, the main 6 questions are formed as follows:

1. To what extent is principal transformational leadership related to principal school type, school setting, biological sex, age, ethnicity, and education level?
2. To what extent is principal transactional leadership related to principal school type, school setting, biological sex, age, ethnicity, and education level?
3. To what extent is principal passive leadership related to principal school type, school setting, biological sex, age, ethnicity, and education level?
4. To what extent is principal transformational leadership related to principal self-awareness and ethical decision-making?
5. To what extent is principal transactional leadership related to principal self-awareness and ethical decision-making?
6. To what extent is principal passive leadership related to principal self-awareness and ethical decision-making?

Each research question was separated into hypotheses. Questions 1-3 contained 6 hypotheses each, and questions 4-6 contained 2 hypotheses each. Thus, this study examined 24 hypotheses in total.

 

Research Design & Methodology

The quantitative correlational study examined the leadership styles of Kentucky school principals in varying educational settings and of varying demographics. The quantitative correlational study utilized a positivist research paradigm. Positivist research operates under hypothetico-deductive research guidelines, which is cyclical and begins with theories derived from literature, which build testable hypotheses (Park et al., 2020).

This study examined the principal leadership styles of Kentucky school principals in various education settings. The study also examined correlations between principal leadership styles, namely, transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire/passive and the demographics of biological sex, age, ethnicity, and education level. Lastly, the study examined correlations between principal demographics and leader decision-making and self-awareness attributes. This research designs included descriptive and causal research designs.

The independent variables in this study included educational settings, principal demographics, and behavioral attributes of principals. Dependent variables included transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire/passive leadership competencies. The researcher utilized the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) 45-item, which measures transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire leadership styles and Authentic Leadership Questionnaire (ALQ) 16-item, which measures a leader’s self-awareness, balanced processing, ethical decision-making, and transparency (Cervo et al., 2016). The MLQ and ALQ use a five-point Likert scale Both survey instruments allow the study to examine principal leadership styles and attributes through self-reported means.

Lastly, this quantitative research study emphasized the use of linear regression analysis as a data analysis tool.

Sample

The study utilized a purposive sampling of school principals in Kentucky. Following Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval, the researcher contacted current Pre-school – G.12 principals in Kentucky within the study parameters via calls and email. She received 103 responses and omitted 5 as unusable. Thus, the sample size is ninety-eight (N = 98).

The research utilized a G*Power analysis to determine the appropriate target sample size of at least 68 participants, with a df of 62.

The study utilized multivariable linear regression analyses from JASP to analyze collected data. The regression coefficient, β, suggested the influence of the independent variable (x) on a dependent variable (y). The R² values suggest variance between variables. The p-value determines statistical significance (Schneider et al., 2010).

 

Findings

The demographics of the 98 surveyed Kentucky school principals are as follows:

54 males (55.1%) and 44 females (44.9%)

Age: 3.1% aged 26-30 (n = 3), 7.1% aged 31-35 (n = 7), 26.5% aged 36-40 (n = 26), and 63.3% aged 40+ (n = 62).

Ethnicity: 98% is white/Caucasian (n = 96), 1% is Black/African American (n = 1), and 1% is two or more ethnicities (n = 1).

Education Level:  93 respondents holding a master’s degree (94.9%) and 5 holding a doctoral degree (5.1%).

Type of school: traditional school principals (n = 45, 45.9%), alternative school principals (n = 32, 32.7%), and dual-school type principals (n = 25, 21.4%).

School setting: 64.3% reported a rural school setting (n = 63), and 35.7% reported an urban school setting (n = 35).

Below are the results of statistical data analysis using linear regression analysis to provide findings to questions 1 to 3 (18 hypotheses were tested).

Below is an example of the statistical results using linear regression analysis to provide findings to questions 4 to 6 (tested a total 4 hypotheses).

The first research findings indicated that alternative and dual-school type principals are more transformational than traditional school principals. Dual-type school principals are the least likely to be passive-avoidant than alternative or traditional school principals. Moreover, alternative school principals are more transactional than traditional school principals.

Second, alternative school principals are more transactional than traditional school principals. Additionally, biologically male principals are less transformational than biologically female principals.

Third, dual-school-type principals are less passive than alternative and traditional school principals. Additionally, biologically male principals are more passive than biologically female principals.

Fourth, transformational leaders make ethical decisions and are self-aware.

Fifth, transactional leaders make ethical decisions.

Sixth passive leaders make less ethical decisions and are less self-aware.

 

Limitations & Recommendations

The strength of this study provides insight into Kentucky principals' transformational, transactional, and passive leadership styles. Its implications can help superintendents with hiring processes for school principalships. Additional research can yield more conclusive and robust findings that will assist future educational policymaking, prescribed hiring processes, and administrative leadership practices. Study replications should cover additional geographical areas by extending the geographic parameters.

The limitations of this study address the lack of qualitative approaches that could have provided more in-depth knowledge of the subjects and their direct casual relationships. The survey is a self-reported question that relies on human interpretation and self-perceptions, which may cause bias in the responses.