The influence of basic school head teacher’s leadership styles on teacher performance in the Wa municipality of the Upper West region of Ghana

Abstract

Leadership is very necessary in an organization to shape the goals, coordinate efforts, motivate employees and improve their performances. Therefore, this study assessed the influence of basic school head teachers’ leadership styles on teachers’ job performance in the Wa Municipality of the Upper West Region of Ghana. The cross sectional descriptive survey design was used for the study. The population of the study was all teachers and head teachers in the public basic schools in the Wa Municipality. Multi-stage sampling technique was used to select 200 respondents comprising of 12 head teachers and 188 teachers. Data was gathered through questionnaires formulated based on the research questions. The data were statistically analysed using means, standard deviations and Pearson Product Correlation Coefficient. The study found that the dominant leadership style in basic schools in the Wa Municipality was autocratic leadership style. The study brought to light that the level of effectiveness of head teachers’ leadership style on teacher job performance in the basic schools was low. This revealed that the leadership style adopted by the heads was not effective in improving performance of teachers. The study showed a statistically significant and moderate relationship between head teachers’ leadership style and job performance among teachers, in that, the actions and inactions of a head teacher in one way or the other influence the performance of teachers in the classroom either negatively or positively. It was recommended among others that head teachers of basic schools in particular can be encouraged to use democratic leadership style in the management of basic schools. Similar research could be carried out in other districts to confirm or refute the findings of this study