Principals’ Leadership Styles, Decision-Making Skills, Communication Forms and Public Senior Secondary Schools Principals’ Administrative Effectiveness in Oyo State, Nigeria

Abstract

Public secondary school principals in Oyo State, Nigeria, seem to have been chastised for their ineffectiveness, as indicated by low teacher engagement, poor record-keeping and low student academic attainment. This study looked into the impact of these characteristics on the administrative performance of public senior high school principals in Oyo State. The study employed a survey research approach, and the population included all 14,402 teachers and 629 principals in public secondary schools in Oyo State. A multi-stage sampling procedure was used to select 4,204 teachers and all principals in the sampled schools. Teachers Questionnaire (TEQ) (α = 0.951) and Principal Interview (PI) were used for data collection. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to answer research questions and test hypotheses at a 0.05 level of significance. The results showed a significant combined influence of leadership styles, decision-making skills, and communication forms on the administrative effectiveness of public secondary school principals in Oyo State (F (3,3917)) = (21723.35);  (Adj. R² = 0.923, p < 0.05). There was a significant relative influence of these factors on the administrative effectiveness of principals. There were significant differences in communication forms (t = 2.318, p < 0.05), decision-making skills (t = 5.048, p < 0.05), and administrative effectiveness (t = 5.435, p < 0.05) between male and female principals in secondary schools, Oyo State. Public secondary school principals in Oyo State should focus on developing effective leadership styles, decision-making skills, and communication forms to enhance their administrative effectiveness.