Principals’ Personality Traits as Predictor of their leadership effectiveness in Secondary schools in Anambra State

Abstract

The study investigated the principals’ personality traits as predictor of their leadership effectiveness in secondary schools in Anambra State. The study was guided by three research questions and three hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. Correlation research design was utilized for the study. The population of the study comprised all the 5,286 teachers in public secondary schools in Anambra State, out of which a sample size of 793 teachers was drawn through stratified sampling technique. Two sets of instruments titled ‘‘Principals Personality Traits Scale (PPTS)’’ and ‘‘Leadership Effectiveness Scale (LES) were used for data collection. The instruments were validated by three experts comprising two lecturers from the Department of Educational Management and Policy, and the other a specialist in Measurement and Evaluation all from the Faculty of Education, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka. The reliability of the instrument was ascertained using Cronbach Alpha which yielded overall coefficients of 0.76 and 0.79 for PPTS and LES. The researcher together with three research assistants collected data for the study. A 98% return rate was recorded. Data collected were analyzed using multiple regression. The findings of the study revealed among others that principals’ openness trait is a strong predictor of their leadership effectiveness in secondary schools in Anambra State. It was also reported that agreeable trait is a significant predictor of their leadership effectiveness in secondary schools in Anambra State. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that the Post Primary School Service Commission should organize personality traits tests before appointment of principals to ensure that they possess the requisite traits to run the school affairs.