Implementing the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) in a challenging context: Results from a large scale quantitative study

An emphasis on school performance is not just a national issue but must be examined within the global context (Pashiardis, 2015). Successful leadership is ensured by school leaders' compliance to a set of basic practices within particular school contexts (Marishane, 2013). Thus, school leadership could be described as highly contextualized. Furthermore, successful leadership supports diverse learner populations, which in turn promotes school quality, equity and social justice and is not isolated from the community. The worldwide goal of education systems is that schools must be successful, and yet, when results of standardized tests, such as PISA, PIRLS and TIMSS are revealed, many students perform below the bench mark, especially in South Africa (Spaull, 2013). The question thus arises whether school leadership, and particularly styles, has an influence on school performance.  Leadership styles are primarily concerned with relationships, structured tasks and a leader's position. Clark (2016) noted that in an ever changing leadership environment leadershipstyles have to be evaluated. Chandra and Priyono (2016) emphasise the impact of leadership styles on performance, the work environment and job satisfaction while Shamaki (2015) asserts that the appropriate leadership style could make teachers more effective in terms of job productivity. Furthermore, the adoption of different leadership styles by school leaders shows positive results with regards to school effectiveness (Tatlah & Iqbal, 2012). As change in any education system is inevitable, leadership styles of educational leaders which can vary according to their cultural, personal, psychological and educational qualities and play a key role in the change process (Inandi, Tunc & Gilic, 2012). Looking at research conducted in several countries regarding leadership styles, the results are quite different. In most European countries the entrepreneurial style of the principals can be regarded a European dimension of successful school leadership. On the other hand, the participative leadership style is associated with low-performing schools (Pashiardis, 2011). Research that has focused on the teachers’ job satisfaction with reference to the leadership style of the principal has been surveyed for our purpose of this research. It was found that  the democratic leadership style is the most appealing leadership style that attracted teachers in Kenya (Kiboss & Jemiryott, 2014) and Nigeria (Shamaki, 2015) while the transformational leadership style was preferred by teachers in Turkey (Okçu, 2014) and Rawalpindi (Ali & Waqar, 2013). It is evident that preferred school leadership styles are rooted within contextual aspects such as tradition and culture.  However, in this study the focus was on the results of the teachers and principals with regards to the MLQ in the South African context. The paper will describe school leadership styles and the influence that the styles have on school performance. The research questions were:

a)    What leadership style is preferred by principals and teachers in the South African context?

b)    What is the impact of a chosen leadership style on the academic performance of schools in the South African context?

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