Recent framing of effective leadership has emphasised key leadership qualities such as being: visionary, transactional, transformational, instructional, inspirational, spiritual, strategic, situational, analytic and self-motivational among others. Leadership styles of educational managers and school heads could have direct consequences on school effectiveness. These leadership styles are many, the most common ones, however, are authoritarian, laissez faire (paternalistic) and democratic leadership styles.

Although there are cutting edge theories of educational leadership that complement those I have already mentioned, and which educational managers and administrators of schools may use for school improvement. They include the Least Preferred Co-worker (LPC) contingency theory by Fred Fiedler, the Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) theory, Path-goal theory by Robert House, and Kouzes and Posner’s (2012) leadership theory.

The Least Preferred Co-worker contingency theory is one in which the leadership style of an administrator is fixed and measured in a bipolar scale using an instrument to find the person’s leadership orientation. It is also called a contingency model because its usage is dependent on certain prevailing conditions at a particular time.This theory helps the administrator to examine and make changes to his or her leadership style. An example of the bipolar scale is: unco-operative/cooperative; hostile/supportive; unfriendly/friendly. According to Fiedler, the higher the score (positive), the higher the administrator’s human relations, but when the score is low (negative), the implication is that the administrator is rather task oriented. 

The Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) leadership theory basically describes how educational administrators see themselves as leaders working with subordinates in a group. Although, vertically, the leader is at the topmost position, the fellow tries to maintain the position through series of exchange agreements with subordinates who are essentially those below him or her in the vertical ladder. The leader works hard as an in-group member and expects those he or she is leading to emulate. Per the requirement of this theory, the leader also has to trust and share administrative duties with subordinates.

The Path-goal theory states that leaders’ behaviour should be contingent to the satisfaction, motivation and performance of their subordinates. The theory also argues that an educational administrator’s behaviour should necessarily be to support teachers’ abilities aimed at compensating for their deficiencies.

Kouzes and Posner’s (2012) theory is the final theory. The theory entails five principles of leadership which are: model the way, inspired a shared vision, challenge the process, enable others to act and encourage the heart.

According to Kouzes and Posner, school leaders should be able to also inspire a shared vision. Based on this principle, educational managers and administrators of schools should lead based on constructive and productive dreams, and looking into the future with a solid vision as a driving force. Also heads of educational institutions should note that commitment from subordinates is not a thing that can be commanded but rather inspired. By implication, heads of schools need to show appreciation for individual excellence and should let their followers know that they appreciate them. Just a “thank you” and a pat at a teacher’s back may be enough to motivate him or her. Heads of schools need to institute award schemes in their schools to honour hardworking but deserving teachers, ancillary staff and students. This principle encourages school administrators to change the status quo if it is not working for them. There should be innovations paving the way for old ways of doing things to give way to new ways of doing things. It means heads of schools need to be proactive and venturing out instead of waiting for fate. They should rise up and meet challenges head-on and look outside the box to take risks.

None of the leadership styles and theories of the leadership is exclusively reserved as enough panacea for the numerous challenges confronting school administration in our contemporary Ghanaian education system. The appropriateness of the application of any of the leadership styles and theories to school administration, to a large extent, is hinged on the atmosphere of an educational institution in terms of the nature of teachers and students. By implication, for there to be academic improvement in our schools, there is the need for the headmasters and headmistresses of the schools, whom I refer to as educational administrators, to explore which leadership style and/or theory is/are appropriate to their leadership contexts, and which would guarantee innovative and pragmatic ways of making their leadership more relevant and effective relative to the achievement of the goal of bringing about quality teaching and learning.

By Dr Inusah Salifu

*The writer is a Research fellow of BPI, and a lecturer at the School of Education, University of Ghana, Legon.