TRANSACTIONAL LEADERSHIP STYLE OF PRINCIPALS IN THE ADMINISTRATION OF PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN SOUTH-EAST NIGERIA

1. TITLE:
TRANSACTIONAL LEADERSHIP STYLE OF
PRINCIPALS IN THE ADMINISTRATION OF PUBLIC
SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN SOUTH EAST NIGERIA
Ph.D ORAL PRESENTATION
By:
ONYINYE, ANN UGWU
EBSU/PG/Ph.D/2019/10440
SUPERVISOR: Prof. Mrs. U. Aja-Okorie

2. Background to the Study
Quality leadership styles are crucial in modern school administration
because of increased school enrolment, technology application in
education, social conflict in school, availability and utilization of
resources among others
According to Lawal (2009), the style of leadership is a strategy employed
by the leader in governing his people to achieve organizational goal.
All leaders whether in formal or informal organization employ a method
in dealing with the people to achieve the aim and objective of such
organization; hence, the application of good leadership styles can bring
positive changes in secondary school administration.
Leadership types range from autocratic, democratic, laissez-faire,
transformational, transactional, pseudo-democratic leadership types
among others.

3. However this study is hinged on transactional leadership styles
because it has been tried by other researchers in other countries
education system (Northouse, 2016; Hoyt and Simon (2016)
and found to be significant in enhancing effective
administration.
 Transactional leadership styles is a type of leadership where
the leaders transact all activities to the subordinates in order for
them to contribute their own quota in school activities.
Transactional leaders work in exchanges with followers to
bring out good results in them in relation to task performance
(Lawal, 2009).
The extent to which principals use this leadership style could
enhance the administration of secondary schools in South East
Nigeria.

4. With the increasing numbers and sizes of secondary schools in Nigeria, the
problems of leadership by school principals could obviously become more
complex
 Some schools experience more conflicts than others in management of staff
and financial resources and this might be attributed to the differences in
principal’s leadership style.
For instance, many principals in secondary schools often conflict with the dean
of study or others with viable positions because of poor accountability which
could be directly linked to the leadership styles of principals
 Among such cases are CSS Umuohara and CSS Umuogodoakpu Ngbo where
principals and their Dean of study fought because of poor financial accountability.
 In addition, the researcher visited some schools and discovered that most
teachers and students were often absent in schools because of inactive or passive
nature of some school principals.
Although Many leadership styles have been tried in the administration of
secondary schools in Nigeria, the researchers’ interaction and observation showed
that most principals do not follow specific rules in school administration and this
often result in negative behaviours that affect performances of both the staff and
students. Hence, the need for the present study.
Statement of the Problem

5.  The main purpose of this study was to determine the usage of transactional leadership
style of principals in the administration of public secondary schools in South East Nigeria.
Specifically, the study sought to;
 Ascertain principals’ use of contingent reward approach of transactional leadership style
in the administration of public secondary schools in South-East, Nigeria base on gender.
 Determine principals’ use of management by exception active of transactional leadership
style in the administration of public secondary schools in South-East, Nigeria base on
gender.
 Find out principals’ use of management by exception passive of transactional leadership
style in the administration of public secondary schools in South-East, Nigeria base on
gender.
 Ascertain principals’ use of Laissez Faire approach of transactional leadership style in the
administration of public secondary schools in South-East, Nigeria base on gender.

6.  The findings would be beneficial to the theories used in the study
 The principals would benefit from the study because the identification of how
to use the elements of transactional leadership style in school administration
might help them to relate well with teaching and non-teaching staff without
any form of conflict as a result of clash of interest which often manifest in
terms of sharing of responsibilities and benefits to staff.
 The teaching and non-teaching staff of secondary schools would also benefit
from the findings, it might help them to understand the leadership styles of
principals irrespective of their individual ability or gender differences and
observe to do according to the principals directives as rewards or punishment
are attached to any behaviour or the staff.
 The use of transactional leadership styles by could promote positive changes
in school administration that helps the learners to maximize their achievement
potentials in schools.
 The finding would serve as resource material for researcher in educational
administration and planning, etc.

7.  The study covered the transactional leadership style of principals in the
administration of public secondary schools in South East Nigeria.
 The geographical scope of the study covered all public secondary
schools in the five States of South-East Nigeria.
 The content scope of the study covered the contingent rewards,
Management-By-Exception Active, Management-By-Exception Passive
and Laissez Faire Approaches of transactional leadership style applied by
principals in secondary school administration.
 The subject of the study were the male and female teachers in the public
secondary schools in South East of Nigeria focusing on the differences
between male and female teachers’ opinions on principals’ transactional
leadership style in secondary schools

9. Conceptual Framework
Theoretical Framework
Review of Empirical Studies
Summary of Related Literature Reviewed

10. Design of the Study
The design of this study was descriptive Survey design.
Area of the Study
The study was carried out in South East Nigeria Nigeria.
Population of the Study
The population of the study comprised all the seven thousand and seventy
three (7073) members of Academic Staff Unions and twenty one (21)
Provosts of Federal Colleges of Education in the six geo-political Zones in
Nigeria (Source: COEASU Office and NCCE, Abuja, 2018).

12.  The population for this study was twenty eight thousand sixty
hundred and ninety four (28694) teachers and principals from one
thousand three hundred and ten (1310) public secondary schools
scattered in twenty one (21) Education Zones in South East States of
Nigeria (Source: Federal Ministry of Education Archives and States’
School Directory, 2020-2021).
 The population distribution based on States is: Ebonyi (2633
teachers); Abia (3970 teachers); Anambra (5737 teachers); Enugu
(8680 teachers) and Imo (7674 teachers).
 The population distribution based on gender is: Ebonyi (1257 males
and 1373 females); Abia (2288 males and 1689 females); Anambra
(3071 males and 2666 females); Enugu (4793 males and 3887
females) and Imo (3928 males and 3746 females) (See Appendix B in
page 83).

13.  The sample of this study was 395 teachers made up of 211males and 184 females
from two hundred and thirty two public secondary schools in South East Nigeria
(20% of school population).
 Taro Yamane sampling formula was used to determine the sample size of 395
teachers from five (5) States from the population (See Appendix B in page 108).
 First, purposive sampling technique was used to select the 5 States in the South
East Nigeria to ensure proper representation of all the states.
 Second, simple random sampling technique without replacement was used to
drawn 36 teachers (17 males and 19 females) from Ebonyi; 55 teachers (32 males
and 23 females) from Abia; 79 teachers (42 males and 37 females) from Anambra;
119 teachers (66 males and 53 females) from Enugu and 106 teachers from Imo
(54 males and 53 females) making it a total of 395 teachers.
 Finally, stratified random sampling technique was used to draw the sample size of
211 males and 184 females teachers based on the gender in the proportion of
50:48

14.  The instrument for data collection was questionnaire titled,
“Transactional Leadership Style of Principals in the Administration
of Secondary School Questionnaire” (TLSPASSQ).
 The questionnaire was self-developed from literature by the
researcher on the transactional leadership styles needed in school
administration.
 The questionnaire is divided into two sections, A and B. Section A
contains items which was used to elicit information on personal
profile of the respondents.
 Section B elicited information from the respondents on the gender
interaction of principals with transactional leadership style in
secondary schools’ administration in South East Nigeria.

15. The instrument was face validated by
three (3) experts-two in the Department
of Educational Foundations (Educational
Administration and Planning Option), and
one from Measurement and Evaluation of
the Department of Science Education, all
in Ebonyi State University Abakaliki.
Validation of the Instrument

16.  In order to determine the reliability of the instrument, the researcher
administered thirty (30) copies of the instrument to thirty teachers
and principals from four public secondary schools in Benue State.
 The responses of the teachers and principals were collected and
subjected to estimate of Internal Consistency using Cronbach Alpha
statistics with the aid of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS).
 The reliability indices of 0.75, 0.67, 0.67 and 0.70 based on the
clusters. The general reliability index of the instrument was 0.67.
These reliability indices are considered reliable enough since the
indexes were up to 0.60 and above.
 The choice of using Cronbach Alpha approach is because the
responses to the items are polytomously scored, that is, every
response in this type of analysis should attract a mark (Shona, 2019);

17.  The researcher, with eight (8) research assistants (teachers) personally
administered the instrument directly to the respondents in the sampled
schools.
 The researcher and the assistants stayed and collected back the filled copies
of questionnaire after completion.
 Follow up visits was carried out to retrieve the instrument from those
respondents who did not complete them on the spot.
 The researcher instructed the assistants on how to administer and retrieve the
instrument with the use of appeal method of approach to the respondents to
enable them respond to the instrument without bias mind

18. Mean and standard deviation were used to
analyse the data collected on the research
questions while t-test of independent sample
was used to test the hypotheses developed for
the study at 0.05 level of significance.
The following values were assigned to the
responses of the items:
Strongly Agree (SA) = 4 points
Agree (A) = 3 points
Disagree (D) =2 points
Strongly Disagree (SD) = 1 point

19. Principals do not apply the contingent reward approach of transactional
leadership style in the administration of public secondary schools in South-
East, Nigeria
Principals do not apply the management by exception active of
transactional leadership styles in the administration of public secondary
schools in South-East, Nigeria.
Principals do not apply the management by exception passive of
transactional leadership style in the administration of public secondary
schools in South-East, Nigeria.
Principals highly used Laissez Faire Approach of Transactional Leadership
Style in the administration of public secondary schools in South-East,
Nigeria.

20.  There was no significant difference (P>0.05) in
principals’ use of contingent reward approach,
management by exception active and management by
exception passive approach of transactional leadership
style in the administration of public secondary schools
in South-East, Nigeria base on gender.
 there was significant difference in (P<0.05) principals’
use of Laissez Faire of transactional leadership style in
the administration of public secondary schools in
South-East, Nigeria base on gender.

21. The discussion of the study were made based on the headings:
 Principals Use of Contingent Reward Approach of Transactional Leadership Style in
the Administration of Public Secondary Schools in South-East, Nigeria base on gender
 Principals Use of Management by Exception Active of Transactional Leadership Style
in the Administration of Public Secondary Schools in South-East, Nigeria base on
Gender
 Principals Use of Management by Exception Passive of Transactional Leadership Style
in the Administration of Public Secondary Schools in South-East, Nigeria base on
Gender
 Principals Use of Laissez Faire Approach of Transactional Leadership Style in the
Administration of Public Secondary Schools in South-East, Nigeria base on Gender

22.  Discussion of the Findings
 Conclusion
 Educational Implications of the Study
 Recommendations
 Limitations of the Study
 Suggestions for Further Studies
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23.  REFERENCES (In-text)
 APPENDICES
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24. Thanks for Listening