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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY EDU 702
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LEADERSHIP STYLE
OF THE HEADMASTERS AND THE SCHOOL CLIMATE
OF PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN KLANG
PREPARED BY:
SITI KHALIJAH BINTI ZAINOL 2013977165
PREPARED FOR:
DR. JOHAN @ EDDY LUARAN

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CHAPTER 1: THE BACKGROUND INFORMATION
1.1 INTRODUCTION
The increasing numbers of people who had higher educations are becoming the main focus
of a lot of countries nowadays. Yet, in the world with changes happen so quickly, making more of
the similar education will not be adequate to tackle the trials that will be met in the future. Many
countries demand for a better achievement from their schools. The roles of the headmasters are
growing more and more according to the change of the time. The headmasters play an important
role to ensure the schools will become the most efficient place for the pupils to receive their formal
education.
Education is designated by (Gallagher & Kirk, 1983) as the reflection of the civilization,
presenting its powers, flaws, expectations, prejudices and important standards of its culture.
Therefore, it plays a critical part in the growth of the individual, society and nations at large.
In Malaysia, education can be attained through the public school system that offer free
education for all Malaysian citizens, private schools, or even homeschooling. Granting to the law,
elementary education for all Malaysian children is required. As of 30th
April 2014, there about
7,757 primary schools and 2,375 secondary schools in Malaysia. It showed that the government of
Malaysia has taken serious about education. The government allocates a big allocation for the
education every year. Education in Malaysia is recognized as an ongoing effort to raise up the
potentials to produce the all-rounded and balanced individuals in term of intellect, spirit, physical
and emotional. The objectives of this effort are to produce educated and accountable citizens who
can give back to the community and the nation.

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School is an important place where the teaching and learning takes place. A school is an
educational organizations that offer primary and secondary education. In other word, it is a place
to educate the children. There are no fixed guidelines when the children should start their preschool
education. Nevertheless, most of the parents in Malaysia will send their kids to the preschool at
the years of 5. The majority of the preschool education providers is from the private preschools.
However, in that respect are some of the preschool conduct by the government or religious group.
Elementary education starts at the age of seven. The pupils need to serve the elementary education
for 6 years. There are two types of elementary school; Malay-medium National Schools and Non-
Malay-medium National-type Schools or known as vernacular schools. The vernacular schools are
divided into two which are National-type Schools (Chinese) and National-type Schools (Tamil).
At the end of year 6 of schooling, the pupil will sit for the Primary School Achievement Test. After
completing the elementary education, the students will further their studies in secondary education.
The students spend 5 years before the complete their secondary education. Secondary education is
divided into two categories which are lower form (Form 1 until Form 3) and upper form (Form 4
until Form 5). At the end of Form 3, the pupils have to seat for Lower Secondary Education and
at the end of Form 5, the students will sit for the Malaysian Certificate of Education.
Freiberg and Stein (1999) perceived that the schools are including the students, teachers,
programmed time for the learning and other activities and ranked administration structure. The
highest position in the school is the headmaster/principal. Hence, the headmaster/principal has a
huge obligation to make sure the school is running smoothly. Generally, there are some similarities
in the function of the schools. The similarities are in the organizational and management structures.
However, every school has their own roles and functions, and the effects that affected the children

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in the schools. Some schools are better compared than others. The researchers believed that the
school that manage to perform above the average and able to achieve above average in academic
has the above average students’ behaviour. It implies that there is a relationship between students’
behaviour and the students’ achievement.
The deviation in students’ behaviour and academic results are influenced by the
headmaster/principal (Dunklee, 2000). The headmaster/principal conducts their schools from
his/her principles and standards. The school activities are grounded by the decisions of the
headmaster/principal. The headmaster is capable to influence the behaviour of the people in the
organization. It is almost inconceivable that the schools can do well without the efficacious and
efficient leader. In a nutshell, the headmaster/principal has an accountability towards the students,
staffs and teachers in the school to create a positive school climates that assists the efficacy of
teaching and learning activities.
According to (Wilmore, 2002), the headmasters play miscellaneous roles. The headmasters
are accountable for implementing the policy of education, monitoring all school activities and
promising that their schools operate efficiently. According to (Hargreaves & Fink, 2003), the tasks
of the headmasters are separated into two functions which are instructional and
leadership.nstructional and leadership. The instructional role emphases on the training and
education of children by generating inspiring and exciting actions that underpin the development
of the children to become dynamic people. The leadership role mainly includes organizations'
management that involved students and teachers and judgement.

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Goleman (2000) suggested the Six Leadership Styles. He found that, the
headmaster/principal uses one of the leadership style at any time based on the suitability. The Six
Leadership Styles are such as commanding, visionary, affiliative, democratic, pacesetting and
coaching. In 1930s, a psychologist named Kurt Lewin established his leadership style framework.
Then, the framework has become the basis of many methodologies later. He claimed that there are
three main leadership styles. There are autocratic, democratic and laissez faire. The leadership
styles can be open or close, flexible or rigid, manipulative or participatory and product driven or
process driven.
Leadership style is one of the main factors in considering and setting up the school climate
in a school. The creation of the school climate is started by the headmaster/principal. Then, it is
replicated in the rapport among the teachers and between the teachers and the students. It means
that, the headmaster is responsible to create the school atmosphere that he/she desires through
his/her behaviour.
1.2 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
A school climate study identifies that climate is one of the few serious issues that has been
recognized for improving success of a school. One significant factor that influence school climate
is headmaster leadership style.
Thus, this study will emphase on the relationship between leadership style and school
climate. Leadership is important to assure the school has the positive and open school climate. By
applying the appropriate leadership style, it can assist the school to reach its goals and objectives.

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Thus, it is important for the headmaster/principal to know and recognize the style of the leadership
and when is the appropriate time to use it.
Best practices in educating the student changes as the educational procedures and processes
is shifting as well. Hence, the leadership style also evolves and develops from time to time.
Through the progress of the leadership style, the headmaster/principal also improves the way they
influence the teachers and the ambiance of the school.
Mazarella and Smith (1989) declare that some of the headmaster/principal apply an
autocratic, democratic and the laissez-faire leadership style. An effective school leader must
become actively involved in curricular and instructional events that directly touch on student
achievement (Cotton, 2003).
Hoy and Sabo (1998) noted that there are numerous types of school climate. The characters
of the school climate are such an open climate, an independent climate, a controlled climate, a
familiar climate, an authoritarian climate or a closed climate. Thus, the leadership style may affect
the climate of a school. In other word, a school leader is responsible to produce a healthy, strong
and safe surroundings in which pupils are contented and ready to learn meanwhile the teachers are
enthusiastic to work together to reach the school’s mission and goals.
1.3 STATEMENT OF THE RESEARCH PROBLEM
According to Murphy (2005), leadership is one of the critical elements of school
transformation for more than 25 years. To change a school, the headmaster/principal must use the
most appropriate leadership style to insure an active and efficient learning environment. A

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headmaster needs to possess a skill to assess and measure the impact of their own mode of
leadership. The changes in a particular school sometimes depend on the headmaster.
A headmaster must have a clear focus and understanding of what is the instructional
practice that already have in the school and what is their expectations in order to change the school.
Janc and Appelbaum (2004) summarized that the understanding is implied on inferring data,
examining the plans and choosing proper methods. In addition, the efficient school leadership is
usually related with better-quality student accomplishment, excellence learning and school climate
(Waters, Marzano, & McNulty, 2004). According to Bulach, Boothe and Picket (2006), an initial
sign of school climate and students accomplishment is a reflection of the headmaster’s/principal’s
behaviour.
O’Hanlon and Clifton (2004) stated that a positive school climate cannot be created based
on the headteacher’s expectations, examples and beliefs only in order to shape the climate of the
school. Many researchers claimed that the leadership style of the school leaders influences the
climate of the schools. Thus, this research proposal will investigate the relationship between the
leadership style and school climate.
Since there are numerous outcomes of the relationship between leadership style of the
headmasters and the school climate, hence another study should be conducted in order to find out
the precise relationship between the leadership of the headmasters and the school climate.

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1.4 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
The research objectives of this proposal are such below:
1.4.1 To investigate the leadership style of the headmasters Klang primary schools.
1.4.2 To analyse the school climate of the primary schools in Klang.
1.4.3 To investigate the relationship between leadership style and the school climate.
1.4.4 To identify the ways to improve the school climate.
1.5 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
Here are the research questions of this proposal.
1.5.1 What are the style of leadership applied by headmasters?
1.5.2 How is the school climate of in the primary schools in Klang?
1.5.3 What are the inferences of the headmaster’s leadership styles for school climate?
1.5.4 What are the roles of the headmasters in order to improve the school climate? How can
school climate be improved?
1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The outcome of this proposal will contribute to knowledge which might explain the
relationship between leadership style and the school climate. Many previous researchers believe
that the beginning of the improvement of the teachers’ and students’ performance is by improving
the school climate. The finding of this study also will disclose how the headmaster altering the

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leadership style to create a positive school climate. The finding of this study also will help the
headmaster to know more about their own style of leadership.
1.7 OPERATIONAL DEFINITIONS
These following definitions are used in this study:
1.7.1 Leadership Style
Leadership style is defined as the way a leader leads which is reflected on how their
leadership is communicated, implementation of power and authority and to what extend these will
affect the teachers and other staff (Mazarella and Smith, 1989). In other word, the leadership style
can be described the way of the leader inspires his/her follower by forcing or encouraging his/her
subordinates.
Hersey and Blanchard (1993) summarized that the leader nurtures his/her leadership style
through experience, education and training as well. According to these authors, they found that
leadership style is more to distinguish of the subordinates on their leader’s behaviour. Commonly,
the evaluation of the teachers towards the leadership styles of the school leader is usually based on
how the school leader leads the school.
For the purpose of this study, the leadership means the action of leading a group of people
or organization, or the ability to do that.

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1.7.2 School Climate
School climate refers to the quality and atmosphere of the school. It is an overall concept
that refers to teachers’ awareness of the school’s work setting that affected by the formal
organization, informal organization and politics. According to Hoy and Miskel (2001), school
climate is a set of internal characteristics and beliefs, values and attitudes of pupils and staff
members, school leaders and parents, the level of freedom, style of leadership and job satisfaction.
As a conclusion, school climate means the school’s environment that primarily effects by the
school leader and explains on how the perception of the teachers and pupils towards the values
and school attitudes.
The school climate may differ from each other. In some schools, we can feel the friendly,
welcoming and reassuring environment and whereas in some schools, we feel the negative aura
such as unfriendly, inhospitable and insecure. The moods and the aura that are stimulated by a
school’s atmosphere are known as school climate. It is hard to offer a brief meaning for school
climate but most researchers decide that it is a multidimensional idea that comprises physical,
social, and academic dimensions.
For the purpose of this study, school climate refers to the quality and personality of the
school and it reflects to standards, aims, morals, social relationships, teaching and learning
practices and organizational configurations.

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1.7.3 School Leader
A head teacher or school leader is defined as the individual who lead and supervises the
activities of the school and dwell in the position of the school leader (University of Leicester,
1994). Chapman and Synder (1997) mentioned that, head teacher is an “influential gatekeeper”
that plays important roles in forming the school and emerging mutual goals, supporting
cooperative work structures and encouraging learning climate. The school leader is working as the
individual who has power and responsible to regulate the values believed by the school.
For the purpose of this a school leader refers to an individual who leads the capacities and
capabilities of the teachers, students, parents and staff towards the shared educational goals.
1.7.4 Primary Schools
There are 6 years of education in primary schools. It starts at the age of seven and ends at
the age of twelve. It refers to Year 1 to Year 6. There are two classified in primary schools which
known as Level 1 that consists Year 1 until Year 6 and Level 2 comprises Year 4 until the year 6.
Pupils will be promoted to the next year without looking at their academic performance (Ministry
of Education, 2014). For the design of this study, the primary schools refer to the schools which
involved the children age seven to twelve years old.

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1.8 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
There are a few limitations of the study that has been identified. The first limitation is the
respondents. The respondents for this study are the teachers in the primary schools in Klang. The
genders, years of teaching and the length of periods that they have been working in that school
might affect their perceptions of headmaster’s leadership style.
The second limitation is the sample size. The sample size of the study can be considered
as small because it is limited to 100 samples only. Some of the teachers are not choosing to become
the sample because a few of them might have not in the school for some reasons.
Besides, the third limitation is the place of the study conducted. The survey will be
conveyed in the primary schools in Klang Districts. Consequently, the results cannot be applied to
exemplify the relationship in the whole state of Selangor.

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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 INTRODUCTION
In this chapter, the researcher discussed in some of the literature reviews pertaining to the
leadership and school climate. The function of the literature review is to possess a full
understanding of a concept of leadership style, to inspect different leadership styles to figure out
the efficiency of each mode and how the relationship among the individuals in the school affected.
Also, it discusses on the school climate whereby it focused on the type of school climate.
2.2 LEADERSHIP
Leadership is the one of the most topic that has been discussed by the researchers.
Leadership is an important element to ensure the success of the organization. According to Adlam
(2003), leadership is a complex and difficult concept. It is because the success of the organization
is based on the approaches that occupied by the organizational leader.
(Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, 2006) defined leadership as the act of leading a
group of people or an organization, or the capability to do this. It is also expressed as the position
of being the leader. In other words, the leaders apply their powers and controls over the followers
and subordinates to attain their support and cooperation (Anderson, Ford and Hamilton 1998).
Schermerhorn, Hunt and Osbonr (2008) said that, leadership is an interpersonal influence
that used by the leader to make the individuals, groups or people to do what the leader desires. As
a consequence, the leaders are focusing on what he/she wants from their subordinates and the input
from the subordinates is not stimulated. However, Maxwell (1999) objected this opinion.

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According to him, the attention of the leaders is to build the better rapport with the subordinates
in order to promote and increase the organizational productivity.
There is another view of the leadership dimension. According to Sergiovanni (1999), the
leadership consists three elements; heart, head and hand. Consistent with the opinions, he believes
that beliefs, values and visions are the heart of the leadership. The experiences that gathered over
some period of the time and the capability to recognize the current situation is the head of the
leadership. Lastly, the hand of the leadership means that the actions and decisions that has been
employed by the leader.
In the new contemporary context, Dubrin (1998) believed that leadership is the capability
of the leader to inspire his/her followers who are expected to reach the organizational aims. This
effort related to the transformation, inspiration and motivation. It can be concluded that the leader’s
mission is to form followers’ confidence in their job so as to be active on their line of work. In
addition, the leaders are responsible to explain the clear picture of what the organization should
be, persuade the followers and direct all actions toward achieving it.
In a nutshell, the leader is expected to continuously produce new ideas to increase
efficiency and output within the organization. The leader is demanded to serve desired strategies
for implementing the ideas/vision and inspire subordinates to complete the vision by using their
own creativities to enhance their relationship in and outside the school.

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2.3 THE IMPORTANCE OF LEADERSHIP
The deficiency of leadership can be a disaster. Due to lack of leadership, organizations
move gradually, decay, and it may be failed. Most of the research about organizations emphases
on decision-making and suggests that if decision-making is appropriate, complete, and accurate,
the things will blend smoothly.
Sashkin and Sashkin (2000) claimed that the leadership is important because the leaders
help to shrink the doubt and hesitation in organizations or society. Leaders use positive actions to
complete long-term objectives and deliver strong positive causes for their actions, goals and
accomplishments. These scholars believed that the effective leaders can bring the changes in
peoples’ life, inspire the followers and teach them to make sense by captivating suitable actions
that can assist transformation.
Schermerhorn et al. (2000) preserve that leadership is the core of any organization because
it concludes the accomplishment or catastrophe of the organization. In an organization such as a
school, the significance of the leadership is replicated in each part of the school. The school leader
is capable to avoid disturbing behaviour by encouraging positive relationship by employing
various methods to produce a harmless and compassionate environment.
Leadership is important to transform the school to be succeed. This finding can be found
in a report by Barker (2001), which describes the school leader as an individual that able to produce
the desired atmosphere to stimulate the possible motivation off the staff and students. He also
mentioned that the good and efficient school leader can transform the school, which had a lack of
directions to be the joyful, goal-oriented and industrious school.

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Cunningham and Cordeiro (2000) and Tirozzi (2001) declare that the school leader is a
focus of all school upgrading initiatives in teaching and learning. Hence, the school leader is a
change agent for school triumph and the nonstop development in organizational performance. If
the school leaders is unable to be productive and vision-oriented, the school improvement will just
stay as a fantasy.
2.4 LEADERSHIP THEORIES
Over some period of time, a few theories of leadership have been recommended. Some of
the leadership theories are such below:
2.4.1 Great Man and Trait Theories
The great man theory is based on the ideas that the great leader is born, not made. This
theory is frequently described the leader as a hero and destiny to have the desired leadership. It is
based on the judgment that the leaders are accurate and leadership is deep-rooted in the ability of
their justice. Leaders are raised by their supporters due to the inimitable talents that do not have
on others.
Trait theories is related to the great man theory. Trait theories believe that certain people
possess some qualities and traits that make them suitable to be a leader. Trait theories often
recognize specific persona or behavioral characteristics shared by leaders. Trait leadership is
defined as combined designs of personal appearances that disclose a variety of individual
differences and raise reliable leader efficiency across a variety of group and organizational
situations (Zaccaro, Kemp, & Bader, 2004).

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The theory of trait leadership established for primary leadership research which mainly
attentive on finding a group of transmissible characteristics that distinguished leaders from
nonleaders. Leader effectiveness refers to what extent of a leader can influence the individual or
group performance, followers’ pleasure, and success as a whole (Derue, Nahrgang, Wellman, &
Humphrey, 2011).
Zaccaro and colleagues (2004) produced a model to comprehend the traits of the leader
and their consequence on the performance. The model is based on other models of leader traits and
leader effectiveness and it is depicted in the figure below (Mumford, Zaccaro, Harding, Fleishman,
& Reiter-Palmon, 1993; Mumford, Zaccaro, Harding, et al., 2000).The first principle is that
leadership arises from the collective influence of numerous qualities to develop the independent
evaluation of traits. Zaccaro (2001) claimed that effective leadership is resulting from an
interconnected set of thinking capabilities, social capabilities and disposition trends, with every
set of qualities accumulation to the others influence. The second principle is the leader traits vary
in their central of influence on leaders.
Figure 1

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2.4.2 Behavioural Theories
Behavioural theories are grounded on the assumption that the great leader is made, not
born. The root of the behavioural theory is based on the actions of the leader not the mental quality
that possess by the leaders. In this theory, the scholars believe that the people can learn how to
become a leader through experience, teaching and observation.
Hersey and Blanchard (1988) report that the behavioural method was started at the
University of Michigan and Ohio State University in 1945. Several studies were done to find out
the behaviours of the leader that responsible for the success. Therefore, their findings expose two
forms of leaders’ behaviours. The two forms are task-oriented leaders and people oriented leaders.
The task-oriented leaders are concentrating on the structure of the organization and the
operating procedure. Task-oriented leaders are nonetheless concerned about the motivation of their
subordinates; however, it's not their core concern (Schermerhon et al., 2000). The people oriented
leaders are concentrating on their behaviors to secure that they fulfilled the internal needs of the
people. Thus, they will pursue to encourage their subordinates through stressing on the human
rapport. People oriented leaders still focus on the task and the consequences but they execute them
through varied methods.
2.4.3 Situational and Contingency Theories
Situational theories suggest that leaders select the best direction of action according to the
situational variables. Different styles of leadership may be more proper for some kinds of decision-
making. For instance, in a situation where the leader is the most well-informed and experienced

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member in that particular group, an authoritarian style of leadership might be the most desirable.
In other cases where group members are skilful and experts, a democratic style would be more
efficient.
Meanwhile, contingency theories are focused on particular variables that related to the
atmosphere that might control the particular style of leadership that suited best in that situation.
According to scholars in this theory, they claimed that no leadership style is best in all
circumstances.
According to Hoy and Miskel (2001), they suggest that the situational characteristics of a
school have more impacts than a leader’s behaviour on leadership efficacy. Thus, it can be
concluded that, a few types of leadership can be applied according to the situation and people.
2.4.4 The New Leadership Perspectives
Due to the arguments that there were no leadership style is the best, some scholars came
up with the new perspectives of the leadership. The answer of the requirement for the best initiative
to enhance the performance of the organization, new point of view have risen. The new point of
view of leadership perspective is charismatic and transformational theories. The new leadership
methodologies are the key answer in order to change people and organization to accomplish the
outcomes needed (Sashkin and Sashkin 2003).

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2.5 LEADERSHIP STYLES
Leadership is focused more on the needs of the people and the organization that we are
heading rather than the needs of our own. Leadership styles cannot attempted on in order to
discover which titles that suit best. Instead, they ought to be adapted to the specific requests of the
circumstances, the specific requirements of the individuals included and the specific difficulties
confronting by the system.
Leaders show leadership in numerous parts. Some of the character made for by the leaders
are such as expressing and bringing forth the goals and purposes, creating social systems, handling
and inspiring staffs and offering leadership (Daresh, 2002). Leadership styles can be recognized
by their stylistic characteristics, an inherent leadership point of thought and a lot of administration
aptitudes regular of every trend.
2.5.1 Transactional Leadership
The transactional leadership was first designed by Max Weber in 1947. And so, it was
promoted by Bernard M. Bass in 1981. The transactional leadership was made based on the
premises that the subordinates are inspired by the rewards and punishment schemes. For instances,
the staff will be paid back if they can reach the target, meanwhile for those who were unable to
achieve it, will be penalized. It is seconded by Bass (1990) that a transactional leader reaches the
target objectives by giving incentives for those who are capable to match expectations. The
rewards may be in the form of salary increment, appreciation or bonus. Employees who are
ineffective to meet the expectations, however, will incur their penalty. Such dealings or exchanges;

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the promise of incentive for good execution, and discipline for poor performance is characterizes
effective transactional leadership (Bass, Avolio, Jung and Berson, 2003).
Thus, transactional leadership is less attractive because the leader depends on the inactive
administration by granting immunity. Administration by exemption is, "when leaders deal with the
staffs by concentrating on errors, postponing judgments, or escaping intervening till something has
got awry, or remunerations focused on acknowledgement if the work completed" (Howell &
Avolio, p. 892). This can be concluded that the leader only communicates with his staffs when
they were unable to satisfy the criteria and procedures that has been set (Bass, 1990).
Due to the rewards and punishment systems, transactional leadership has not really
provided much in motivation to inspire the people to do beyond their abilities. In other words, the
staffs who are under the transactional leadership, tend to make the minimal effort. It is because
they just do their work to avoid the punishment (Bass, 1990).
A study led by Howell and Avolio (1993) endorses that conditional remuneration
leadership brings the negative effect on the performance of the staffs. Conditional remuneration is
observed as "a lively and positive exchange between leaders and followers where followers are
granted for finishing and completing the aims". If the leaders are failing to fulfil the promised
incentives, the followers will show the unpredictability in their behaviours. It is also will reflect
that the leader is an ineffective leader. Furthermore, research (Howell and Avolio, 1993) suggests
that the level of conditional remuneration leadership relies on organizational background and
situations.

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2.5.2 Transformational Leadership
Transformational leaders are more inspiring compared to transactional leaders because
they accept the best from everyone on their team and themselves too. This contributes to high
production and output and greater commitment from everyone in their units. Transformational
leadership is different from transactional leadership in term of the aims. The transformational
leaders aimed for the innovation, meanwhile, the transformational leaders focused more on
preparation and implementation. The transformational leadership attempts to generate new
chances for personnel in an organization, while transactional style works only in an existing
structure (Tucker, Georgia, Russell, College, and Emory, 2004). Another different characteristic
between those two styles is, the intention of the transformational leadership is to inspire and
motivate people, whereas transactional leadership emphases on how to manipulate the influence
and power (Tucker, et al, 2004).
The focus of the transformational leadership is people (Burke, Stagl, Klein, Goodwin, Salas
and Halpin, 2006). Bass (1990) clarifies that such leadership encourage the followers to do beyond
their self-awareness and lets them to concentrate and bring the outcome for the group or society
(Stewart, 2006). Transformational leaders are able to express an attractive idea of the prospect by
connecting the ideologies and leading through example. This leadership will develop the morale
of the team and provides motivation to the team members (Stewart, 2006).

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2.5.3 Autocratic Leadership
Autocratic leaders make their own decisions, firm and employ close control over the staffs
by providing the rule and regulations of the policies and procedures to the staffs. The autocratic
leaders have usually built their own judgments and depend on their own ideas in decision making
and they occasionally ask the opinions from their own subordinates. The autocratic leaders also
stress on the obedience by the followers without telling the followers why they should do or don’t.
When the goals set, the autocratic leaders usually employ the threats and punishments to inculcate
fear among the employees to ensure their decisions are accepted by the employees without having
any arguments.
According to Hersey and Blanchard (1993), the communications between the leaders and
the followers are very minimal. That is because the leaders are only more to focus on what the
followers have to do and follow the decision made rather than listen and discuss about the decision
before the decision making. In other words, the leaders do not trust the abilities of their employees.
The leader loves to critiques, occasionally compliments his/her employees and over controlling
them until become less dedicated to their task (Goleman, Boyatzis and Mckee, 2002).
Under the autocratic leadership, there is no teamwork among the teachers. It is because the
teachers are utilized by the school leader to accomplish the ends that have been put up. The teachers
do not have any rights to express their opinion and they just carry out their works because they
have to do that and they are afraid of the punishments. Hersey and Blanchard, (1993) summarizes
it will lead the dissatisfied teachers to create a group in order to fight the school’s goals.

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Nevertheless, the autocratic leadership can be applied if the decision is required to be fixed
within the short point of time and the team members are less experienced. Though, this style can
be discouraging and it will lead to the high staff turnover and absenteeism.
2.5.4 Bureaucratic Leadership
Bureaucratic leaders believe in the strict structured procedures, but they are not really strict
as autocratic leaders. The bureaucratic leaders hold tightly to the protocol. This kind of leadership,
do not offer any space for any new improvements or problem solving decisions because all the
decisions made must follow the protocol that has been presented earlier. Leaders make sure that
their employees have followed all the previous stages before they can proceed to the next level of
the authority. This type of the leadership normally exists in universities, hospitals, banks and
government. It is because that bodies have usually asked this sort of leader in their arrangements
to assure the quality, increase safety and decrease fraud. The individuals or leaders who prefer the
quick process will experience frustration (Weber, 1905).
2.5.5 Charismatic Leadership
Charismatic leaders have many traits; they are identified as possessing a solid sensation of
principles, self-confidence, having a foremost character and a violent desire to act upon others
(Northouse, 2013).The charismatic leader leads by instilling dynamism and enthusiasm into their
follower. A charismatic leader is someone who is often on the run. The charismatic leaders are
being not someone who goes for the motionless state. The charismatic leaders need to be dedicated
to the organization or the group for a long time. If the charismatic leaders plan to quit from a
particular organization, group or organization, it may harm the company if the triumph that

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achieved by that division was devoted to the charismatic leaders not to them. The society needs to
work hard to win back the trust of the employees because the employees were too used to the
charisma of the charismatic leaders (Weber, 1905).
2.5.6 Laissez-faire Leadership
Robbins (2007) explained the laissez-fair style as abandons accountabilities that has been
used to avoid making conclusions. Laissez- Fair is detached in the work of the unit. It is a
challenging task to protect this leadership style except the leader’s employees are skillful and
highly-motivated. Leaders allow their group members to be a decision maker. (Mondy and
Premeaux, 1995).
The laissez-faire leadership is best fitted for the experienced and high skill workers. It is
because the workers simply need very minimal supervision from the leader. The laissez-faire
leadership gives the power to the employees to make the decision. According to Lewin, Lippit and
White (1939), the laissez-faire leadership is also recognised as the “hand off” leadership because
the leader assigns the tasks to the employees by providing minimal guidance or without giving
them instructions at all.
2.5.7 Democratic Leadership
The democratic leadership is also known as participative leadership. That is because the
democratic leadership allows the subordinates to share the job of decision making with the leader.
The leader will provide the opportunity to the subordinates to voice out their thoughts. However,
the leader still has the authorization to make the concluding decision. A school leader may take a

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series of discussion and arrangement with the teachers about a topic before any conclusion is
reached. According to Dubrin (1998), the democratic leaders let the employees to elect on an issue
before any decision is called for. He/she also trains the employees and discuss about their needs
or demands.
The democratic leadership is seen as a critical element of authorization, fellowship and
cooperation. The researchers agreed that the school, which is encouraging the Democratic
leadership will be more effective compare to the school who do not employ the democratic
leadership. Perez, Milstein, wood and Jacquez (1992), stated that when teachers are able to share
their opinions, they will become more responsible for the school.
However, the democratic leadership is not best suited during the crisis which required
immediate action. That is because a great deal of time will be wasted in the meeting before the
decision can be made and it may cause the misunderstanding and lack of direction (Dubrin, 1998).
Nevertheless, Goleman et al. (2002) believed that democratic leaders can create a positive school
climate because the leader always make sure that the teachers have high self-esteem.
2.6 SCHOOL CLIMATE
Andrew Halpin and Don Craft were the founders of the school climate. In 1963, they
circulated their research finding on the school climate. Numerous researchers and academicians
defined school climate in many ways. Freiberg Stein (1999) believed that the school climate is the
core element of a school. The school climate is important to inspire the pupils, teacher sand the
school leader to ensure they love the school and happy to be there.

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Hoy and Miskel (1996), define school climate as a fairly persistent quality of the entire
school, which is felt by the group, portrays their mutual opinions of the actions and stimuli their
attitudes and behaviour in school. In addition, Gilmer (1971) summarized organizational climate
as those characteristics that differentiate an organization from its kind and effect the action of
people in the organization. Therefore, the climate in one school is different from the others.
2.7 THE IMPORTANCE OF SCHOOL CLIMATE
Fopiano and Norris (2001) and Pasi (2001) said that a helpful and open school climate
fosters a sense of belonging, promote resiliency and reduce potential negative conditions of the
family environment. The social and expressive desires are corresponding with learning
requirements. Students who experience bad surroundings at home can be assisted to realize their
potential by providing a school climate that cultivates, cares and challenges them.
According to Brooks (1999), pupils are more likely grow well when they are in the school
environment that provides contented surrounding and valued by teachers. Many of the teenagers
join and involved with gangsters because they want to be accepted and connected with others.
Based on these feelings, it is important to create a positive school climate in order to ensure they
feel welcomed and not isolated. Pasi (2001) added that the school climate is meaningfully
influencing the way of pupils feel about learning.

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2.8 TYPES OF THE SCHOOL CLIMATE
Halpin (1966) mentioned that there were several different types of climates that exist in
schools. The types of the climates are such as open climate, autonomous climate, controlled
climate, familiar climate, paternalistic climate and closed climate.
2.8.1 Open Climate
An open climate is used to define the openness and truthfulness of communication that
occurs among the school leader, teachers, pupils and parents. Hoy and Sabo (1998) stressed that
the open climate encouraged the cooperative, supportive and receptive attitudes of the school
leader and teacher. The school leader shows sincere concern for the teachers in persuading and
inspiring staff members. The school leader uses low directives that provide the freedom for the
teachers to carry out their tasks in their own way that they feel good. The school leader will not
allow the teachers to be disruptive or burdened by the routine duties.
In the open school climate, teachers are more accepting, cooperative and respect their
professionalism. They are gentle and enthusiastic to help the students when they are required to do
so. The teachers show high commitment to work hard to assure the excellence of their pupils. The
teachers also have a good rapport between them and respect each other. When the team spirit is
good between the school leader and the teachers, they can be accessible and easily approachable
by the parents in order to maintain the tight kinship between the school and the outsiders (Halpin
1966). Hoy and Tarter (1997) summarized that in order to make an open and healthy school
climate, the school needs to sustain a school leader who possesses, high supportive and low
directive behaviour, the teachers with highly engaged and very low frustrated behaviour.

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2.8.2 Autonomous Climate
Autonomous climate is also known as independent climate. This type of climate represents
a climate where teachers are given enough freedom to function in the school. The school leader
shows a good example where he/she is a passion and persistence person, meanwhile, both teachers
and pupils are happy where there is no exterior threat or influence. Teachers have excessive
aspiration to work and pupils are highly interested to acquire knowledge. The relationship among
the school leader, teachers, pupils and parents are close (Halpin, 1966).
2.8.3 Controlled Climate
The major quality of the controlled climate is tough work. The tough work is over-
emphasized until there is just a little time left for a social life. The things become worse until
sometimes there is no time to spend for our own social life. Most of the teachers spend a lot of
time to prepare the paperwork until there is no time for the teachers to interact with each other.
The students are hardworking however, they are not encouraged to participate in extracurricular
activities. The school leader does not possess a good rapport with the teachers, students and parents
to avoid the closed relationship. Parents are also not fortified to come to the school to discuss about
their child development because the time can be utilized for something else (Silver, 1983) and
(Halpin 1966).

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2.8.4 Familiar Climate
The school leader is concerned about sustaining the outgoing climate in order to make sure
the task could be accomplished. There will be a group of the teachers who are not dedicated to
their main job. Some of the dedicated teachers dislike the manner how the school leaders manage
the school. Consequently, they will have different point of views from the school leader and other
teachers. For those who shared the same point of view will form a clique and become friends
because they shared the same attitude. Most of the students do not take serious in their studies and
they always find excuses to be out of the class or absent from school without any solid reasons.
The parents are not interested to be involved actively in their children’s education and they think
it is not important to attend the Parents-Teacher meetings (Silver, 1983) and (Halpin 1966).
2.8.5 Paternal Climate
In this climate, the school leader is hardworking but unfortunately it brings no effect to the
teachers. The relationship between the school leader and the teachers are closed, but the
expectations for teachers are not reasonable. The school leader expects the energetic teachers, but
he/she used autocratic leadership. Consequently, most of the teachers, parents and pupils tend to
put distance from the school leader. The pupils could not share their problems and difficulties with
confidence, meanwhile, their parents are just visiting the school when they are asked to do so
(Costley and Todd 1987). For instance, the parents will visit the school during the Report Card
Signing Day.

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2.8.6 Closed Climate
According to Halpin (1966), the main characteristic of closed climate is lack of obligation
and unproductive. There is no commitment at all between the school leader and the teachers. The
school leader emphases more about the routine duties and unnecessary paperwork rather than
stresses on the accomplishment of the task. The school leader is like to control and rigid. The
school leader is insensitive, not ready to give a hand and cold as well. Thus, the teachers are
hopeless and restless. The relationship between teachers are also full of suspicion and they do not
trust the school leader and even their own students. The mood in the school is so tensed and
divided. Hoy and Tarter (1997) found that those characteristics may lead to the unhealthy school
climate are also known as closed climate.

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2.9 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEROWK
The conceptual framework for this study is shown in the Figure 2.
The headmasters’ leadership style gave a big effect towards the teachers and school
climate. The headmasters who apply the leadership styles which encourage and create a healthy
and safe environment will create a positive climate and getting a positive cooperation and
involvement from the teachers. Meanwhile, the headmasters who adopt the leadership which instill
insecure and fear environment will create the negative school climate and as a result, it may bring
the negative effects towards the teachers as well.
Headmasters’
Leadership
Style
Effect towards
School Climate
Effect towards
Teachers
Negative
School Climate
Positive
School Climate
Figure 2

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CHAPTER 3 : RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 INTRODUCTION
This chapter contained the research design, population and sample, instrumentation, data
collection and data analysis plan.
3.2 RESEARCH DESIGN
This research proposal will use a quantitative approach, whereby, the survey is used to
collect the data. The quantitative research is more suitable to be used to gain exact information. I
use the survey method in order to collect the data from the teachers of primary schools in Klang.
Rasool (2000) stated that the survey method such as questionnaires and interviews is and effective
way to gain the information.
This research is designed to distinguish the leadership style of the headmasters in a three
selected primary schools in Klang, to analyse the school climate of those selected schools, to
investigate the relationship between leadership style and the school climate and to identify the
ways to improve the school climate.
The headmasters’ leadership style gave a big effect towards the teachers and school
climate. The three primary schools that has been selected were SK Telok Gadong, SK Sungai
Udang and SK Teluk Pulai. They were selected because of the location that's near to each other.
Besides, the researcher would like to see if the differences in the style of leadership employ by the
headmasters could cause the effect towards teachers’ commitment and affected the pupils’
achievement in Primary School Achievement Test (UPSR).

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3.3 SAMPLE AND POPULATION
The population for this inquiry is the primary teachers in Klang district. Sowell (2001)
defines a target population as a group of people that share mutual features that the researcher
targets to simplify his/her outcomes. In educational research, the population is regularly selected
from the students or the teachers. This research applies the non-random sampling method,
whereby, convenience sampling is applied. This non-random sampling technique can be pondered
as the best of all non-random samples due to the including all themes that are accessible that makes
the sample better to be representative the whole target population. Convenience sampling is
employed because the group of individuals is appropriate and pragmatic for the survey. The usage
of convenience samples is barely limited to psychology (Presser, 1984). Some of the research is
depending deeply on mall-intercept models (Diamond, 2000).
The sample that had been used in this research was 100 teachers from the three selected
primary schools. The respondents were from the morning and afternoon session teachers. The
respondents were selected in order to gather the information regarding the teachers’ perception
towards the relationship between the headmasters’ leadership style and the school climate.
3.4 INSTRUMENTATION
The instrumentation that has been used is questionnaire. This questionnaire is adapted from
the Leadership Effectiveness Adaptability Description (LEAD-Other) and the Organizational
Climate Descriptive Questionnaire for Elementary Schools (OCDQ-RE). The LEAD-Other will
be used to evaluate the school leader’s leadership style, meanwhile, the OCDQ-RE will be used to
assess the school climate.

35. 35
The OCDQ instruments were established by Halpin and Croft (Halpin, 1966) to measure
the numerous types of the organizational climate. The questionnaire is in closed-ended queries,
whereby, the respondents are simply needed to tick in the blank offered. The closed-ended
questions are contained four-item scale answers which are rarely occurring, sometimes occurs,
often occurs and very frequently occurs. The OCDQ questionnaire consists 42 questions. There
are two sections in the OCDQ. The first part assesses on the principal behaviour and in the second
part, it evaluates the teacher behaviour. There were six subscales in OCDQ-RE which are
supportive principal behaviour, directive principal behaviour, restrictive principal behaviour,
collegial teacher behaviour, intimate teacher behaviour and disengaged teacher behaviour.
For the LEAD instruments, it has been developed by the Centre of Leadership Studies,
Ohio University. According to Hersey and Blanchard (1977) the LEAD instrument is developed
to identify the three aspects of the conduct of a leader. The three aspects are style, style range and
style adaptability. In the LEAD, the respondents are given some situations and they need to circle
the appropriate answers that they remember the headmaster will do in that position. There are
approximately 12 questions in this particular section.
The researcher also included 3 open-ended questions to collect the information on how to
improve the school climate.

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The enlargement of the questionnaire is such below:
SECTION DESCRIPTIONS NUMBER OF ITEMS
Section A :
Demographic
Information
This section contains the questions
regarding the demographic data of the
respondents such as gender and age. In
addition, there are a few additional
questions such as years of teaching,
level of education and their teaching
area.
Question number 1 until 6
(6 questions).
Section B:
OCDQ Instruments
This section contains two parts, which
are related to the principal behaviour
and teacher behaviour. In principal
behaviour, there are 3 dimensions which
are supportive behaviour, directive
behaviour and restrictive behaviour.
The dimensions in teacher behaviour are
collegial behaviour, intimate behaviour
and disengaged behaviour
Question number 7 until
48 (42 questions).
Section C:
LEAD Instruments
This section aims to identify the three
aspects in the behaviour of a leader. The
three aspects are style, style range and
style adaptability.
Question number 49 until
60 (12 questions)

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SECTION D
Open-ended questions
The purpose of this section is to gather
the opinions from the teachers on how
to improve the school climate.
Question number 61-63
(3 questions).
Table 1
3.5 DATA COLLECTION
The respondents in this study were the teachers in SK Telok Gadong, SK Teluk Pulai and
SK Sungai Udang. A briefing will be given before the questionnaires are distributed to them. The
contents of the briefing were about the purpose of this case study and type of the questions they
were required to answer. The questionnaire will be handed out during the working days or on
Saturday (after the In-house Training Session) or in any suitable time. The researchers also
uploaded the questionnaire via Facebook. The questionnaire could be responded within ten to
fifteen minutes. The researcher was responsible to supervise and be there when the questionnaire
was distributed and answered by the respondents. It is easy if the respondents have any enquires
regarding the questions in the questionnaire. The researcher collected back all the questionnaires
after the respondents completed it.

38. 38
The steps in data collection are such follow:
Design the
questionnaire
• The questionaire contains three sections;
demographic data, OCDQ instruments and LEAD
instruments
Select the
sample
• 100 teachers of SK Telok Gadong, SK Udang and
SK Teluk Pulai will be chosen as the sample.
They were from morning session and afternoon
session and teachers.
Distribute the
questionnaire
• The questionnaire would be distributed
during working days, on Saturday (after the
In-house Training) or any suitable time.
Collect the
questionnaire
 The completed
questionnaire will be
collected after 10-15
minutes.
Figure 3

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3.6 DATA ANALYSIS
All the data that obtained from the respondents will be analyzed by using the Statistical
Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 17.0. This is one of the most compatible software that
can be used in order to key in and analyze the data obtained.
Research Objectives Section Analysis
i) To investigate the leadership
style of the headmasters
Klang primary schools.
Section C
(Question 49-60)
Data were analysed to figure out the
frequency, mean and the standard
deviation.
The respondents were given a few
situations and they were required to
circle only one choice that suited best
to the situations.
ii) To analyse the school climate
of the primary schools in
Klang.
Section B
 Open
 Engaged
 Disengaged
 Closed
Data were analysed to find the
frequency, mean and the standard
deviation. The answers were grouped
in 4 categories:
1. Rarely occurs
2. Sometimes occurs
3. Often occurs
4. Very often occurs

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iii) To investigate the
relationship between
leadership style and the
school climate.
Section B
 Supportive
Behaviour
 Directive
Behaviour
 Restrictive
Behaviour
Data were analysed to gauge the mean
and standard deviation. The answers
were grouped in 4 categories:
1. Rarely occurs
2. Sometimes occurs
3. Often occurs
4. Very often occurs
iv) To identify the ways to
improve the school climate.
Section D
(Question 61-63)
Data were analysed to calculate the
percentage and the frequency.
Table 2

41. 41
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