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Home News Six Types of Leadership Styles in Education: A Guide for Educators

Six Types of Leadership Styles in Education: A Guide for Educators

Six Types of Leadership Styles in Education: A Guide for Educators

Do you aspire to serve as an educational leader who makes an impact in the lives of students? Exploring different types of leadership styles in education in a Master of Education (M.Ed.) program can help you take your career to new levels of success. 

Education leaders play critical roles in helping students learn and grow while creating safe and inclusive learning environments. But which leadership style is best suited to you? By understanding the following six types of leadership in education and how to leverage them, you can ultimately incorporate the leadership style that’s right for you and your school’s needs.

Understanding Leadership in an Educational Setting

Although most people may think of administration when they think of leadership in education, in reality, teachers and other educators inherently serve as leaders of their respective classrooms. No matter the specific setting, strong educational leadership can make all the difference in achieving desired goals and outcomes while helping students (or other teachers) feel valued and supported.

Significance of Leadership in Education

There’s no overstating the impact of effective leadership in education. Whether it’s a confident teacher leading a classroom of 20 students or a principal working to support their staff, educational leadership lays the foundation for safer learning environments, confident classroom management, and effective learning solutions that benefit everyone.

Exploring Six Types of Leadership Styles in Education

There are six primary leadership styles that are used in education, ranging from transformational to transactional. With an understanding of what each type entails, you can determine which approach may work best for you and your school.

Transformational Leadership Style: A Focused Approach

In simplest terms, transformational leadership in education involves leaders working directly with teams to lead by example. With this form of leadership, it is important to look past self-interests and at the “big picture,” striving toward a shared vision in a team setting. Transformational leaders in education tend to be extremely hands-on, working alongside other educators toward a common goal and making sure everybody’s opinions are considered throughout the process.

Instructional Leadership Style: Guiding Academics

Another common leadership style in education is instructional leadership, which is primarily focused on direct teaching and development of learners. The core purpose of this leadership style is to ensure teachers are empowered to do their jobs well, following the idea that all instructors should be able to rely on their knowledge to teach students while drawing on their unique experiences with minimal “rules” in place.

Constructivist Leadership Style: Building Knowledge Together

Another education leadership style to which many adapt is that of constructivist leadership, focused on identifying a problem and allowing students to come up with their own creative solutions. This type of leadership is effective when it comes to getting students and teachers to collaborate and problem-solve while building confidence and critical thinking skills.

Democratic Leadership Style: Encouraging Participation

For schools or districts in which the goal is to foster widespread collaboration and participation, a democratic leadership style may be the most effective approach for administrators, professors, and other education leaders.

Also commonly known as participative leadership, democratic leadership aims to involve teachers and other staff as much as possible in the decision-making process. The idea is that teacher experiences are valued and a solid reflection of the school’s needs. Taking these employees’ opinions into consideration when making key decisions can help everyone feel involved, heard, and valued.

Emotional Leadership Style: Leveraging Empathy

While perhaps less effective in an administrative leadership setting, emotional leadership  can  be a suitable strategy for leaders in a classroom setting. Essentially, this leadership style allows teachers and classroom leaders to connect with students on an emotional level, becoming mentors with a high degree of awareness. The outcome of this leadership style can lead to students’ ability to form safe bonds with their teachers, which can encourage more open, honest dialogue as well as more inclusive learning.

Transactional Leadership Style: Structured and Directive

Last but not least, transactional leadership is yet another common style used in different levels of education. Through this approach, leaders exchange rewards for those who follow instructions and yield desired outcomes. This style is frequent in classroom settings, especially early childhood education, where students may receive rewards for good performance in class. This can be effective because it reinforces positive behavior—but leaders who follow this style should remain mindful of negative consequences, too.

Impact of Leadership on School Culture

Strong educational leadership can have a major impact on school culture. This remains true in all educational settings, from the smallest of early childhood classrooms to the college lecture hall.

How Leadership Styles Shape School’s Culture

In many ways, the leadership style an educator or other leader follows can influence the overall culture of the classroom or the entire school and district. This is because leadership styles affect the way people within a school communicate and collaborate. Additionally, it plays into how people solve or respond to problems and how core values are followed. All of these are central factors in shaping a school’s learning culture.

Role of Leadership in Developing Positive Learning Environments

The ultimate goal of any educational leader is to help ensure all students and staff (where applicable) can enter an environment where they feel safe, included, and valued. Different leadership styles in early childhood education and other contexts can create the positive learning environments students need to thrive and grow.

How Are Different Leadership Styles Used in Education?

In a number of ways, various leadership styles can enhance performance, improve student learning, contribute to student growth, and even advocate for changing student needs.

The Link Between Leadership Style and School Performance

Effective leadership styles can impact school performance in terms of standardized test scores and other metrics. Educational leaders who create inclusive learning environments can empower students to perform their best day in and day out.

Ways Leadership Styles Affect Student Learning

Students tend to learn best in an environment where they feel their ideas are valued and their efforts are seen. An educational leadership style that supports these ideas can help students learn more readily and effectively.

How Leadership Contributes to Student Growth

All students require support in order to grow throughout their journeys. Effective leadership inside and outside the classroom can help students overcome learning obstacles and achieve their full potential.

Leadership’s Role in Advocating Student Needs

Oftentimes, learners rely on their teachers to recognize and advocate for their needs to administrators and other higher-ups. In this sense, an educational leadership style centered on listening to learners and genuinely valuing their input means educators can more effectively understand and advocate student needs to others in positions of power.

Choosing the Right Leadership Style in Education

Whether you are working as a teacher or in more of an administrative role, choosing and committing to a leadership style is an essential step to take in your career. Of course, not every leadership style is suited for all educators, which is why it’s so crucial to weigh your options and select the leadership style that will best serve the needs of your classroom, school, or district.

Factors to Consider When Choosing a Leadership Style

There is a lot to keep in mind when adopting a leadership style as an educator. First, think about your own strengths and weaknesses and how those might apply to your ultimate choice in leadership style. Do you naturally enjoy collaborating and working with others? If so, then a more transformational or instructional approach may be better.

On the other hand, you’ll also need to consider the needs of your school or classroom. This means taking a step back to assess what your learners truly need, then brainstorming leadership styles that may align best with those needs.

Adapting Leadership Style According to Needs

It’s also important to understand that choosing a leadership style doesn’t necessarily mean you’re committed to that approach for the rest of your career. In fact, your leadership style  should  evolve and change over time rather than remain static. This way, you are constantly reevaluating your strengths, weaknesses, and students’ needs and adapting to make changes as necessary.

How an M.Ed. in Administration and Supervision Program Can Help Form a Leadership Style

If you’re looking to build your confidence and knowledge as an educational leader, it may be time to explore a formal degree program that supports and provides you with the resources you need to thrive. An M.Ed. in administration and supervision can be an ideal way to gain a competitive advantage and expand your career prospects and opportunities.

How an M.Ed. in Administration and Supervision Gives Leaders an Advantage

Specifically, the M.Ed. in administration and supervision  at Marymount University is designed with educational leaders in mind, empowering students to become more effective and innovative leaders while fostering key values such as ethics, social justice, and integrity.

In addition, this program is offered fully online, allowing even the busiest of professionals to continue their crucial work while pursuing an advanced degree that benefits them. As part of this program, students can also pursue their administration and supervision licenses.

Career Opportunities After Master of Education in Administration and Supervision

Those who complete a Master of Education program can expand their career opportunities to encompass any number of in-demand roles, with potential options including:

  • Admissions counselor
  • Educational researcher
  • Senior curriculum specialist
  • Leaders in public, private, and Catholic schools

Likewise, all students who complete an  M.Ed. program through Marymount University  are also licensed to teach the following in the state of Virginia:

  • Elementary education (PK-6th grade)
  • Secondary education (6th-12th grade)
  • Special education (K-12th grade)

Potential Salary Ranges for Graduates

The potential salary for a graduate of an M.Ed. program varies greatly depending on a variety of factors, including the exact role, level of experience, and geographic location of the job. However, according to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the median pay of an elementary, middle, or high school principal with a master’s degree is  $101,320 per year . Meanwhile, postsecondary education administrators with master’s degrees earn a  median pay of $99,940 per year .

Can an Effective Leadership Style Enhance the Quality of Education?

There’s no denying the impact an effective leadership style can have on the overall quality of student education. Of course, not all leadership styles are ideal for all learning environments; that’s why it’s so essential to carefully assess needs and outcomes before settling on an educational leadership style for you. From there, you can serve as a confident leader who makes a true difference in the lives of your students.

Interested in earning a higher degree in the realm of education? Get in touch with an advisor at Marymount University to learn more about our program options.

https://marymount.edu/academics/education/master-of-education/administration-and-supervision/

https://marymount.edu/academics/education/master-of-education/

https://accountingprofessor.org/what-are-the-8-effective-leadership-styles-in-education/

https://www.bls.gov/ooh/management/postsecondary-education-administrators.htm

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leadership styles in educational institutions

Six Highly Effective Education Leadership Styles

A female leader standing in a school corridor

When it comes to leadership styles in education, there’s no one right approach. Effective education leadership means adapting one’s leadership style to suit a situation. An advanced degree in education, such as a Doctorate in Education (EdD), is an excellent way for educators to learn various leadership styles that can make them more effective leaders in different classroom settings and beyond—as a dean, school district superintendent, or university president, for example.

As ASCD highlights, leaders such as school principals are key agents of change in their schools. To be effective, they must ground their leadership in a moral purpose, an understanding of the nature of change, an environment of knowledge and sharing, an investment in relationships, and a dedication to creating coherence. But does someone in a leadership position know how to effect positive change in specific circumstances?

The National College for Teaching and Leadership (NCTL), a former government agency in the United Kingdom with a focus on academic improvement and interscholastic cooperation, developed the Advanced Diploma of School Business Management (ADSBM) to help education administrators improve their leadership skills. The ADSBM identified six different leadership styles that can be highly effective, though several can have negative consequences if deployed incorrectly.

Try Coercive Leadership with Caution

In general, the modern education system is not conducive to overbearing leaders. Most individuals in a leadership position will get good results when they listen to and rely on the staff rather than make demands. In certain circumstances, however, coercive leadership is necessary—mostly in cases of emergency, when immediate action is critical. In an emergency, the leader can inform his or her team that there is a single acceptable course of action, with the understanding that should the situation not improve quickly, the responsibility lies with that leader. But, the NCTL warns, the overall impact on the work climate will be negative, and it’s not an effective long-term management option due to its inflexibility, which can sap employees’ motivation and drive. Some find that the coercive method doesn’t instill much sense of ownership or responsibility in employees. In turn, it leaves little room for creativity and innovation.

Example: Following a major scandal involving the dean of admissions’ falsifying federal data, a university cleans house and brings in an interim dean to sort out the mess. The interim dean immediately implements strict procedures that create extra work for the admissions department in an attempt to restore trust in the system. The cost? Overworked employees and lowered morale.

Act Authoritatively

Strong leaders who understand the difference between demanding compliance and encouraging teams to pursue a common goal often garner respect for their authoritative leadership style, which the NCTL points out can be the most effective leadership style in education. Education leaders who use the authoritative leadership style most effectively are those with expertise that others lack. They may have an EdD or a plethora of experience, for example, and can command respect when their background immediately benefits the institution. Authoritative leaders present a clear, confident picture of what they can achieve, and they know how to inspire the staff to work toward those goals. The authoritative leadership style can backfire, the NCTL notes, when team members have a similar level of education and experience as their leader, as they might not readily follow someone they consider their peer.

Example: A school district hires a new superintendent with an advanced degree and decades of experience. The superintendent, based on her experience, immediately sets lofty academic goals the previous, less experienced superintendent had not. She inspires confidence within the district that everyone can meet her raised standards within the proposed time frame.

Stay Affiliative

The affiliative style of leadership puts people first. It’s a smart approach for most situations because people appreciate feeling valued and heard. Moreover, workplace morale is especially important in education, which relies on faculty and staff communicating directly and effectively with students and parents. Affiliative leadership, which focuses on unity, empathy, and communication, is the opposite of coercive leadership. The only clear pitfall of this style is that it can erroneously communicate to employees whose performance is mediocre that they’re doing well.

Example: The new principal at an elementary school notices that the previous leader left his teachers feeling replaceable and unmotivated. The new principal establishes a policy of meeting with teachers individually once a month for a half-hour. During these meetings, he listens to their unique concerns and problems and aims to provide specific guidance and solutions.

Be Democratic

In a setting full of competent employees, smart leaders give power to the people. They maintain control while allowing plenty of room for change and adaptation. The democratic style of leadership relies heavily on input from the education team. By seeking feedback from colleagues, democratic leaders ensure everybody takes ownership for decision-making and success. This leadership style can significantly boost morale. Democratic leaders must balance this benefit with the potential pitfall of slowing down progress due to an increase in meetings and debates over minor issues.

Example: An unpopular college dean has left morale low among tenured professors who felt their voices were not valued. The new dean institutes biweekly staff meetings and a faculty committee that can vote on new rules and regulations.

Pursue Pacesetting

For education leaders in charge of a team of skilled, motivated, passionate professionals, the task is simple: set a high bar for competency and productivity across the board, and the rest will follow. This leadership style, known as pacesetting, requires a driven leader who sets the tone with his or her own work ethic. Instead of making demands, the leader communicates expectations by example. Pacesetting can lead to burnout, so it’s an approach leaders should use only every so often, under appropriate circumstances.

Example: A research professor takes over a laboratory filled with passionate, excited students and professors conducting important research in their field. The new leader says he expects the research findings to be published in a major research journal—a feasible goal given the dedication of the team.

Implement Coaching

The coaching style of leadership requires time, but it can result in significant long-term gains. Capable and effective coaches show underperforming employees the skills to be successful, giving individualized feedback and staying empathetic toward educators’ needs. In time, these employees can improve their job performance. However, because this style requires a highly capable leader who is willing to work with struggling employees for a significant length of time, the NCTL says it is used the least.

Example: A principal, upon starting a new job at a middle school, realizes several longtime teachers are struggling to adapt to new state standards. Rather than fire them and lower morale across the school, the principal decides to meet regularly with each of them, providing one-on-one support to ensure they keep up with current standards. The principal also works with new teachers, sitting in on classes and giving in-depth feedback.

Learn More about Effective Education Leadership

Becoming a stronger education leader is a worthy goal, as effective leadership positively affects teacher job satisfaction and, ultimately, student performance. Education Week notes that leaders indirectly—but significantly—impact student outcomes when they ensure faculty members have access to the resources to meet the demands of their work, provide direction and vision for the school, and offer professional development opportunities for teachers.

Moreover, Forbes notes that effective education leaders acknowledge the existence of disadvantaged populations in education systems, while also showing this doesn’t have to be a barrier to success. They leverage testing when necessary to understand opportunities for improvement within the school, evaluate their own performance, and view all stakeholders as partners.

Professionals with an EdD or similar advanced degree understand the need to adapt leadership styles in education to various situations. An award-winning program such as American University’s online Doctorate in Education can equip you with the tools necessary to thrive as an education leader in any scenario. Learn more and apply today.

American University, Online Doctorate in Education

ASCD, “The Change Leader”

Education Week, “Leadership”

Forbes, “The Eight Characteristics of Effective School Leaders”

The Edvocate, Four Major Types of Educational Leadership

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In This Article Expand or collapse the "in this article" section Theories of Educational Leadership

Introduction, general overview of educational leadership styles and related theories.

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  • Historical and Philosophical Foundations
  • Conceptual Approaches and Frameworks Exemplars
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Theories of Educational Leadership by Lorri Michelle Johnson Santamaría LAST REVIEWED: 30 August 2016 LAST MODIFIED: 30 August 2016 DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199756810-0153

Prior to understanding theories of educational leadership, it is important to begin with a comprehensive definition of educational leadership. In this article, educational leadership is the professional practice of a leader (or leaders) in an administrative role(s) working with, guiding, and influencing educators in a particular context toward improving learning and other educational processes in early childhood education centers and in elementary, secondary, and postsecondary institutions. These people are most often individuals or small teams employed as school site leaders, principals, and assistant or associate administrators. In early childhood, higher education, or other educational settings these individuals may serve as center director, head of school, department chair, academic dean, provost, or president. Theories of educational leadership have origins in the United States, where frameworks have been drawn largely from industry and commerce management principles. Leadership theories and practices drawn from business-oriented frames of reference have been adopted and adapted for use in educational settings in the United States and similarly developed nations. Therefore, theories of educational leadership have been derived from a diversity of interdisciplinary conceptualizations and models over time. As a result, theories of leadership can be considered emergent, dynamic, and subject to further evolution. In fact, every theory of educational leadership is subject to investigation by researchers in educational centers, schools, and university settings who seek to better understand the dynamics of leadership in a variety of educational contexts. Beyond seminal notions and ideations of educational leadership, developing and sometimes groundbreaking theories contribute to the existing canonical literature in the field. Nonetheless, most theories of educational leadership comprise key elements, which often include capabilities, approaches, and practices. A closer look at these elements further reveals theoretical types of educational leadership (e.g., styles, traits, behaviors), characteristics of educational leadership (e.g., management versus leadership, power, coercion, conceptual frameworks), or the activities or practices educational leaders engage in as expressions of their leadership in action (e.g., approaches, ways of leading). Each element is dependent on the educational context within which it occurs and warrants the consideration of multiple and international perspectives for relevance in diverse and global societies in the 21st century. Therefore, this article includes a representative sampling of influential textbooks, handbooks, journals, and relevant literature as exemplars of sources to explain, illuminate, introduce, interrogate, and evaluate a variety of educational leadership theories. Additionally, this article provides historical and philosophical foundations, general overviews, conceptual frameworks, supporting literature on large data sets, and multiple complementary international perspectives of the theories considered. Pertinent examples are provided from each area for further exploration, consideration, and study by readers.

While literature on educational leadership styles and related leadership theories has been contested by scholars in works such as Spillane, et al. 2004 , representative research discusses leadership styles as relevant to the field. Contributions on educational leadership styles provide reference points from which to begin a deeper consideration of theories of educational leadership. Familiarity with these works (e.g., servant, authentic, instructional/ pedagogical, distributed, transactional, transformational, etc.) is relevant for students, aspiring leaders, practitioners, and academics interested in the discipline to understand ways in which the theories have been developed, are manifested, and are sometimes contested in educational settings. Following the general to specific, business, commerce, management to education progression, and cross-disciplinary nature of educational leadership theories, servant leadership emerges as one of the oldest if not the first leadership style. Many researchers have studied servant leadership, however, Greenleaf and Spears 2002 (originally published in 1977) provide the most thorough presentation of the type. The authors of these works present philosophical underpinnings of servant leadership in educational and other contexts with clear connections to authentic, transactional, and transformational conceptualizations of leadership in education. Evidence of the dynamic nature of educational leadership is provided in the varied opinions on particular leadership styles. For example, scholars, in works such as Avolio and Gardner 2005 , present authentic leadership in schools, while Southworth 2012 and West-Burnham 2013 present understandings of and counter-perspectives to instructional and pedagogical leadership. Similarly, Harris 2004 features the pros and cons of distributed leadership specific to educational contexts. Building on multiple voices in educational leadership, an intriguing juxtaposition is found to exist between transactional and transformational leadership. To learn about it, new students and practitioners should consult Bass 1999 . Complementing this work, the contributors to Leithwood, et al. 2009 write about and assert the benefits of transformational leadership, whereas Fink 2005 and Day 2003 offer critiques of this style. In a further departure of transactional leadership, Shields 2010 pushes beyond the theory by introducing transformative leadership as a style more inclusive of leadership for social justice and more appropriate for culturally and linguistically diverse contexts. This work is similar to those of Bogotch 2002 and Brown 2004 . Further demonstrating the multiple ways in which educational leadership styles can be conceptualized by scholars and researchers in the field, Fehr, et al. 2015 and Frick 2009 investigate moral leadership. Readers are reminded that this comprehensive general overview is open to additional exploration and, as such, it is not exhaustive. It is designed to set the stage for conceptual framing of educational leadership theories through a deeper consideration of the theme. Selected handbooks and textbooks serve to bring together all of the aspects covered in this entry in single volumes from a variety of worldviews and perspectives.

Avolio, Bruce J., and William L. Gardner. 2005. Authentic leadership development: Getting to the root of positive forms of leadership. Leadership Quarterly 16.3: 315–338.

DOI: 10.1016/j.leaqua.2005.03.001

Excellent read. Leading scholars in the field provide readers with diverse theoretical and methodological perspectives, including discourse on definitions for the constructs of authenticity, authentic leaders, authentic leadership, and authentic leadership development, including a detailed description of the components of authentic leadership theory.

Bass, Bernard M. 1999. Two decades of research and development in transformational leadership. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology 8.1: 9–32.

DOI: 10.1080/135943299398410

Peer-reviewed article is significant because it offers a review of the research to the date of publication on transformational leadership considering application in interdisciplinary contexts (business, military, industrial, hospital, and educational). A key contribution because it states research findings that indicate women leaders tend to be more transformational than their male counterparts.

Bogotch, Ira E. 2002. Educational leadership and social justice: Practice into theory. Journal of School Leadership 12.2: 138–156.

Expert author in the field explores and defines social justice leadership in educational contexts and concludes its creation is dependent on community context and players with pluralistic or individual means and ends. Important foundational reading for understanding other theorists who include social justice aspects in their scholarly contributions on educational leadership.

Brown, Kathleen M. 2004. Leadership for social justice and equity weaving a transformative framework and pedagogy. Educational Administration Quarterly 40.1: 79–110.

DOI: 10.1177/0013161X03259147

Features strategies to help pre-service leaders develop as transformative, reflective scholars and practitioners actively engaged in political, emancipatory interests by way of examination of ontological and epistemological assumptions, values and beliefs, context and experience, and competing worldviews.

Day, Christopher. 2003. What successful leadership in schools looks like: Implications for policy and practice. In Handbook of educational leadership and management . Edited by Brent Davies and John West-Burnham, 87–204. London: Pearson Education.

Book chapter in edited handbook. Offers a balanced critique of transformational leadership from an international perspective.

Fehr, Ryan, Kai Chi Sam Yam, and Carolyn Dang. 2015. Moralized leadership: The construction and consequences of ethical leader perceptions. Academy of Management Review 40.2: 182–209.

DOI: 10.5465/amr.2013.0358

Current research provides an overview of moral leadership and features the construction and consequences of ethical leader perceptions. It also reveals ways in which values underlying the moralized behaviors of leaders determine specific types of follower behavior.

Fink, Dean. 2005. Developing leaders for their future not our past. In Developing leadership: Creating the schools of tomorrow . Edited by Martin J. Coles and Geoff Southworth, 1–20. Maidenhead, UK: Open Univ. Press.

Frick, William C. 2009. Principals’ value-informed decision making, intrapersonal moral discord, and pathways to resolution: The complexities of moral leadership praxis. Journal of Educational Administration 47.1: 50–74.

DOI: 10.1108/09578230910928089

Good article for understanding the nuances of what is meant by moral leadership. The research featured explores internal struggles experienced by school leaders when making ethically informed judgments. Contains principals’ intimate reflections about professional decision making in response to personal versus organizational and/or professional value discrepancy.

Greenleaf, Robert K., and Larry C. Spears. 2002. Servant leadership: A journey into the nature of legitimate power and greatness . Mahwah, NJ: Paulist.

The seminal book on servant leadership, this book is an interdisciplinary must-read for those interested in learning more about this enduring leadership style. Originally published in 1977.

Harris, Alma. 2004. Distributed leadership and school improvement: Leading or misleading? Educational Management Administration & Leadership 32.1: 11–24.

DOI: 10.1177/1741143204039297

Important article on the topic by a leading scholar who suggests further research is needed to confirm a relationship between distributed forms of leadership and improved student learning outcomes.

Leithwood, Ken, Doris Jantzi, and Rosanne Steinbach. 2009. Changing leadership for changing times . 2d ed. Maidenhead, UK: Open Univ. Press.

Originally published in 1998. Examines the types of leadership that are likely to be productive in creating and sustaining schools with records of improvement. It is based on a long term study of “transformational” leadership in school restructuring contexts and offers what the authors consider to be a highly readable account of leadership that is grounded in empirical evidence.

Shields, Carolyn M. 2010. Transformative leadership: Working for equity in diverse contexts. Educational Administration Quarterly 46.4: 558–589.

DOI: 10.1177/0013161X10375609

Author/scholar and leader in the field delineates a theory of transformative leadership, distinct from other theories (transformational or transactional leadership) to assess the utility of the theory for guiding the practice of educational leaders who want to effect both educational and broader social change.

Southworth, Geoff. 2012. Connecting leadership and learning. In Leadership and learning . Edited by Jan Robertson and Helen Timperley, 71–85. London: SAGE.

The author in this edited book argues that leadership should be focused on teaching and learning and, in particular, pedagogical practices.

Spillane, James P., Richard Halverson, and John B. Diamond. 2004. Towards a theory of leadership practice: A distributed perspective. Journal of Curriculum Studies 36.1: 3–34.

DOI: 10.1080/0022027032000106726

Widely read scholars of educational leadership suggest the term style offers a fixed approach to leadership and that more critique of this term is called for with regard to educational leadership.

West-Burnham, John. 2013. Contemporary issues in educational leadership. In Principles of school leadership . Edited by Mark Brundrett, 9–26. London: SAGE.

West-Burnham offers a commentary on the evolution of school leadership and management theory.

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Navigating Educational Leadership: Challenges, Styles, and Impacts -A Systematic Review

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2024, International Multidisciplinary Journal of Research for Innovation, Sustainability, and Excellence

The systematic review delves into the multifaceted landscape of educational leadership and management, highlighting diverse leadership styles, challenges in leadership development, impacts on teaching practices and student outcomes, and gender disparities in leadership roles. Transformational, instructional, and distributed leadership styles emerge as pivotal in shaping educational institutions, with effective practices positively influencing teaching quality and student achievement. However, challenges such as the lack of established qualifications for school leaders and gender disparities pose significant barriers to leadership development and equity. The study emphasizes the need for policymakers and stakeholders to prioritize the cultivation of effective leadership pipelines and support mechanisms to address these challenges. Initiatives to promote gender equity and empower women in leadership roles, such as scholarships and fellowships, are also advocated. Ultimately, the findings underscore the critical role of educational leadership in shaping the future of education and call for collaborative action to cultivate inclusive, effective, and visionary leadership practices that advance educational excellence and equity.

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While issues of education reform and improving schools have long focused on the decisive role of the teacher, the critical role of the school leader has gained increasing attention in the public sphere, given shifts in federal education pohcy that have focused more explicitly on the importance of great teachers, as well as great leaders. As a result, research on educational leadership affirms that leadership matters and sets the scope, structure, and sequence of student learning and academic programmatic delivery (Brown & Hunter, 2006). The question facing all professional educator preparation programs is, what kind of leaders are we producing? It is important for schools, colleges, and departments of education to demonstrate the effectiveness and utility of their professional leadership preparation programs. The public vilification of schools and student achievement portend a unique opportunity to delineate the complex nature of our work. The piupose of this special issue of the Joumal of School Leadership is to expand the knowledge and research base on issues of educational equity, community engagement, and academic excellence as informed by leadership theory, research, and practice. It does this by featuring the work of students and faculty of the Holmes Scholars® Program and extending both the conversations and the research that deal with issues of equity, engagement, and educational excellence as perceived, valued, experienced, and informed by the educational leader.

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The gender of school leaders makes a difference in career paths, personal life, and characteristics of workplace. There is additional evidence that men and women are appointed or elected to lead different kinds of educational jurisdictions. Even if those differences did not exist, equitable access to leadership positions for people of different backgrounds would make this an important issue. This article reports gender-related findings from the American Association of School Administrators 2015 Mid-Decade Survey. Findings confirm many of the trends in research on the superintendency over the past 15 years. The profiles of women superintendents are becoming more like their male counterparts. Both men and women appear to be less mobile than in the past. Men and women are spending about the same time as teachers before becoming superintendents, women and men appear to experience stress similarly, and women are receiving mentoring much more than in the past. There are few data to support the beliefs that women superintendents, more than men, are limited by family circumstance although this survey sheds no light on perspectives of women aspirants. This survey also confirms that there are a variety of paths to the position providing opportunities for women who have not necessarily had the typical teacher/principal/central office administrator trajectory. Nevertheless, significant differences still exist. Most important is that men are still four times more likely than women to serve in the most powerful position in education, and both women and men of color are still grossly underrepresented.

wajeeha aurangzeb

Leadership is the ability through which people follow a leader at their own will. Leaders do not exert any influence upon others; instead they give a vision and have a clear picture and prerequisite skills of how to achieve it. Educational leadership is the process of directing the potentialities and energies of teachers, students, parents and all the stakeholders towards the achievement of shared educational goals. It has become evident through researches that leadership is that ability which is genderless. Comparative studies related to gender in school administration has proved that under female leadership the performance level and learning achievement of students was higher. The prime responsibility of educational leaders is to convert teaching institutions into learning institutions. The gender differences in leadership styles are observable but it is not proved that men are better leaders as compared to women. Both of them can excel in effective educational leadership if they ...

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The gender of school leaders makes a difference in career paths, personal life, and characteristics of workplace. There is additional evidence that men and women are appointed or elected to lead different kinds of educational jurisdictions. Even if those differences did not exist, equitable access to leadership positions for people of different backgrounds would make this an important issue. This article reports gender-related findings from the American Association of School Administrators 2015 Mid-Decade Survey. Findings confirm many of the trends in research on the superintendency over the past 15 years. The profiles of women superintendents are becoming more like their male counterparts. Both men and women appear to be less mobile than in the past. Men and women are spending about the same time as teachers before becoming superintendents , women and men appear to experience stress similarly, and women are receiving mentoring much more than in the past. There are few data to support the beliefs that women superintendents, more than men, are limited by family circumstance although this survey sheds no light on perspectives of women aspirants. This survey also confirms that there are a variety of paths to the position providing opportunities for women who have not necessarily had the typical teacher/principal/central office administrator trajec-tory. Nevertheless, significant differences still exist. Most important is that men are still four times more likely than women to serve in the most powerful position in education, and both women and men of color are still grossly underrepresented.

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The relation between leadership styles in higher education institutions and academic staff’s job satisfaction: A meta-analysis study

Gamze kasalak.

1 Department of Educational Sciences, Akdeniz University, Antalya, Turkiye

Beysun Güneri

Vesile ruya ehtiyar, Çiğdem apaydin, gulay Özaltın türker.

2 Department of Social Sciences, Muğla University, Muğla, Turkiye

Associated Data

The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.

In this study, it is aimed to examine the relationship between leadership in higher education institutions [HEIs] and academic staff’s job satisfaction, which is formed by combining different leadership styles in higher education institutions, using the meta-analysis method based on correlational research. For this purpose, it was investigated whether there was a significant difference between the effect sizes of the studies investigating the relationship between leadership in HEIs and academic staff’s job satisfaction between the years 2010–2022, according to the moderator variables (leadership styles, continent, culture, and Human Development Index [HDI]). A total of 57 research data, including sample size and Pearson correlation coefficient data, were evaluated within the scope of the research. Correlational studies were calculated according to the random effect model in terms of effect direction and overall effect size; The estimated effect size value was found to be 0.374. This value shows that the overall effect size of the relationship between leadership in HEIs and academic staff’s job satisfaction is positive and moderate. However, there is no significant difference between the effect sizes of the research examining the relationship between leadership styles in HEIs and academic staff’s job satisfaction, according to continent, culture and HDI moderator variables.

Introduction

Problem statement.

New approaches to leadership in higher education are explored as universities face the challenges of competing in a globally competitive world while designing opportunities to build and develop sustainable leadership. While similar challenges exist in all industries, higher education is uniquely positioned given its role in developing new knowledge and disseminating existing knowledge ( Jones et al., 2012 ). Universities provide qualified human capital by leading research activities to draw the attention of many institutions to the unresolved problems or weak areas of society, and also help the development of almost every sector effecting the economy. Therefore, universities need educational leaders who can fulfil their duties with the highest efficiency, integrity and the highest ethical standards in order to achieve their goals. Education leaders have many responsibilities including research, supervisory, administrative roles, job placement, supervision, event management and oversight of extra-curricular activities ( Akhtar et al., 2021 ). However, Javed et al. (2020) state that responsibility is largely dependent on the leader and is subjective. According to the authors, to whom and what the leader is responsible for is subjective matter.

The changing demand for higher education challenges traditional assumptions not only about the nature, purpose, and place of higher education in society, but also about the most appropriate management and leadership systems that should operate in educational institutions. For example, Bolden et al. (2012) compares the traditional university model as a community of academics with a highly democratic and decentralized decision-making process that represents leadership as a shared responsibility with the increasingly common institutional or entrepreneurial approaches to leadership and management in universities. In recent studies, it has been examined how various leadership styles in higher education affect quality effectiveness, commitment, perception of organizational support, citizenship, and satisfaction in organizations ( Alonderiene and Majauskaite, 2016 ; Sharma et al., 2016 ; Syakur et al., 2020 ; Öztürk and Kılıçoğlu, 2021 ).

To investigate current trends in higher education research, Tight (2012) analysed various higher education articles published between 2000 and 2010, he found an increase not only in quantity but also in quality of publications. Gumus et al. (2018) examined the leadership trends in educational organizations between the years 1980–2014 in their bibliometric study, and they found that the overall rate of the study group at the level of about 10 percent. It is observed that in the humanistic leadership theories period, leadership studies in higher education institutions are subjected to various leadership areas such as collaborative and distributed leadership ( Youngs, 2017 ); transactional leadership ( Sims et al., 2021 ); responsible leadership ( Akhtar et al., 2020 ), instructional leadership ( Shaked, 2021 ); transformational leadership ( Sathiyaseelan, 2021 ); ethical leadership ( Gok et al., 2017 ) and servant leadership ( Dahleez and Aboramadan, 2022 ). The issue of leadership in higher education institutions, especially whether different leadership styles exist in higher education institutions, whether they are necessary, and whether the same theory and application framework is valid for the higher education sector as in other institutions ( Siddique et al., 2011 ; Amzat and Idris, 2012 ) brought it to the fore. Because, as a large institution, a university is managed by various structures and administrative bodies, from the Rector, Vice-Rectors and Deans to academic councils, department managers, and administrative boards. Therefore, leadership styles in higher education institutions refer to different management roles and titles, from strategic management to managerial roles, transformational and visionary roles ( Settles et al., 2019 ). It can be concluded that the roles of leaders in higher education can be complex and varied. Li et al. (2022) support this by emphasizing the complexity of the roles of education leaders in higher education, stating that they are responsible for fulfilling a variety of tasks from educational visionary to legal oversight. Apart from this, job satisfaction of lecturers is another important variable in order to increase the quality of education and training and to create university performance at universities. As suggested in limited research, appropriate leadership styles in higher education can increase the job satisfaction of academic staff ( Alonderiene and Majauskaite, 2016 ). When leaders in HEI exhibit leadership characteristics and actions consistent by encouraging the job satisfaction, they positively affect many factors such as employee retention ( Harris et al., 2016 ), organizational justice and organizational trust ( Dahleez and Aboramadan, 2022 ), organizational commitment ( Mwesigwa et al., 2020 ), academic staff performance ( Jameel and Ahmad, 2020 ). Nguyen et al. (2021) , found a high correlation between leadership and job satisfaction, and state that the leader style is important. Shaari et al. (2022) found a relationship between transformational and transactional leadership and job satisfaction in their research on academic staff. Therefore, this research focuses on the effect of leadership styles in HEIs on academic staff’s job satisfaction.

There are various meta-analysis studies investigating the effects of leadership style on job satisfaction in educational organizations in resent studies ( Cakmak et al., 2015 ; Coğaltay et al., 2016 ). However, as a result of the literature review, no meta-analysis study was found that examines the effect of leadership style in higher education institutions on the job satisfaction of academic staff. It can also be stated that leadership studies in HEIs are less studied compared to leadership styles in primary, secondary and high school education institutions. It can be stated that the importance given to leadership in HEIs has increased significantly in recent years ( Belias and Koustelios, 2014 ). Therefore, this research, focuses on the effect of leadership in HEIs on job satisfaction of academic staff, is expected to contribute to the literature. In addition, it is thought that the research will provide an opportunity to explain how leadership in HEIs affects the job satisfaction of academic staff.

This study makes an important contribution to the literature, as it is the first research to examine leadership styles in HEIs and academic staff’s job satisfaction through meta-analysis method. Although there are many empirical studies in the literature ( Okan and Akyüz, 2015 ; Kiplangat et al., 2017 ), there is no study that clearly reveals the direction and effect of the relationship between leadership styles in HEIs and academic staff’s job satisfaction using the meta-analysis method. Although various empirical studies have been conducted to date, this study is summarized for the first time by combining the studies done so far with the psychometric meta-analysis method. In this context, the results of the relations obtained in the literature have been clearly revealed and a contributed the literature. Because, by bringing together the studies that deal with the relationships between these variables, it will be possible to determine the direction and strength of the relationships, and it will be possible to contribute to the literature. In addition, it will contribute to the clearer understanding of the relationship between leadership styles in HEIs and academic staff’s job satisfaction by researchers in the field. In summary, the study, and its results both contribute to the knowledge of literature and draw attention to the importance of increasing leadership styles studies in higher education institutions.

Literature review

Universities have its own challenges ( Anthony and Antony, 2017 ) because of having complex structure and uncertain decision-making processes ( Hendrickson et al., 2013 ) which reveals the need for different leadership styles ( Gigliotti and Ruben, 2017 ). In this context, it can be mentioned that the concept of leadership styles exists because there is a need for leadership in the management of higher education institutions.

According to Anthony and Antony (2017) , leaders in HEIs encourage academic staff towards their academic work and can create social networks among academic staff. In addition, leaders in HEIs follow the mission of the university with a visionary approach; as entrepreneurs, risk-taking and flexible individuals, they can create structures to support change and affect the culture and values of HEIs ( Anthony and Antony, 2017 ). It is also stated that leaders in higher education institutions are charismatic individuals who can foresee difficulties or opportunities, adapt to change, and do not hesitate to work to become stronger individually and professionally ( Asaari et al., 2016 ; Thompson and Franz, 2016 ). In addition, as a reflection of leadership in HEIs, strategy, ethics, professionalism, goal orientation, experience, passion, recognition, and self-confidence are also emerging ( Iordache-Platis, 2016 ). Since leaders in HEIs is associated with positions such as rector, dean, director, and head of department, academic leaders organize training programs, make planning in academic units, recruit academic staff, and evaluate and coordinate the institution ( Hacifazlioglu, 2010 ). Mamiseishvili et al. (2016) , on the other hand, state that especially department heads encourage productive behaviours through strong leadership roles in HEIs and are seen as a source that provides development opportunities as a model for other academic staff. Leaders in HEIs play a fundamental role in ensuring effective communication and thus building trust and transparency ( Gigliotti and Ruben, 2017 ). In summary, leaders in HEIs are used in this research to refer to individuals who work as permanent academic staff in higher education institutions and who assume leadership and management roles within the university system ( Morris and Laipple, 2015 ; Iordache-Platis, 2016 ) and it is related to the tasks or behaviours performed by the academic staff in the managerial position ( Pani, 2017 ).

Leaders in HEIs directly or indirectly influence the academic world by using their unique experiences, teaching, and research skills ( Thompson and Franz, 2016 ). One of the important variables affecting the academic world is job satisfaction. Job satisfaction is defined as the emotional reactions of employees towards their jobs and how they feel towards their jobs and organizations ( Spector, 1997 ) and is associated with increasing employee behavior, motivation, and productivity ( Bhuian and Islam, 1996 ). Leaders, with their knowledge and abilities, have an impact on the job satisfaction of the employees due to their features such as gathering people around certain goals and activating them to realize these goals ( Eren, 2001 ) and being able to transfer their feelings and thoughts to the employees strongly ( Goleman, 2002 ).

Research hypothesis

Leaders are the role models of their subordinates within an organization. Various negative behaviours exhibited by leaders (for example, hiding information from subordinates; presenteeism) may also negatively affect their behaviour ( Dietz et al., 2020 ; Akhtar et al., 2021 ). Therefore, it is extremely important for leaders who are role models to exhibit positive behaviour. Thus, employees will create an environment of creativity where they can improve their services, generate new ideas and encourage new ways of working ( Karatepe et al., 2020 ). Similarly, given that academic staff take their leaders as role models, academics can pay attention to whether their own values are in line with the values displayed by the leaders in their institutions ( Lee et al., 2017 ). It is expected that the job satisfaction of academicians who exhibit leadership styles appropriate to their own values will be positive. In a limited number of studies, it is stated that there are positive and significant relationships between leadership styles in higher education and job satisfaction of academic staff ( Schulze, 2006 ; Lan et al., 2019 ). Based on this, the following hypotheses were developed in the research:

H1 : There is a positive relationship between leadership in HEIs and academic staff’s job satisfaction.

The relevant literature shows that different styles of leadership in HEIs have an impact on the job satisfaction of academic staff, either directly or through intermediary factors ( Alonderiene and Majauskaite, 2016 ; Dalati et al., 2017 ; Barnett, 2018 ; Rahman, 2018 ; Suong et al., 2019 ; Mwesigwa et al., 2020 ; Djaelani et al., 2021 ).

One of the important leadership styles that affect the job satisfaction of academic staff from research variables is transformational leadership. Transformational leadership is a process that changes the values, beliefs, and attitudes of its followers ( Riggio, 2014 ) and aims to increase the self-confidence of individuals by revealing their talents and skills ( Eren, 2015 ). In this context, transformational leadership draws a framework for the transformation of knowledge in HEI ( Basham, 2012 ; Cetin and Kinik, 2015 ). A transformational higher education leader can increase job satisfaction by gaining the respect of the academic staff, considering the moral and ethical consequences of decisions, and giving individual incentives to increase the motivation of academic staff ( Bass et al., 2003 ). Therefore, it is thought that transformational leadership in higher education may have a positive effect on academic staff’s job satisfaction. According to the research conducted by Mwesigwa et al. (2020) shows that transformational leadership styles positively affect the job satisfaction of academic staff. It is also stated in the same study that job satisfaction tends to increase when they provide better and more suitable working conditions by giving academic staff the freedom to take decisions, provide them opportunities to develop themselves with additional training programs, support their career development by counselling, reward them with incentive programs, provide fringe benefits, empower them and encourage their participation in some studies and some projects ( Mwesigwa et al., 2020 ). In related studies, it has seen that there are positive and significant relationships between job satisfaction and transformational leadership styles ( Robyn and Preez, 2013 ; Ali et al., 2014 ; Suong et al., 2019 ; Jameel and Ahmad, 2020 ).

Another style of leadership that positively affects academic job satisfaction is transactional leadership ( Suong et al., 2019 ; Jameel and Ahmad, 2020 ). In transactional leadership, where the authority of the leader is dominant, the successful completion of tasks and follower harmony are emphasized through contingent rewards ( Northouse, 2018 ). In this context, it can be mentioned that transactional leadership in HEIs uses reward or punishment to direct and maintain the extrinsic motivation of academic staff ( Zheng et al., 2019 ). As a result, a transactional leader who clearly expresses the expectations in higher education institutions and promises awards and status to the academic staff if these expectations are met can positively affect the job satisfaction of the academic staff ( Bateh and Heyliger, 2014 ).

In passive leadership, it is said that the leader avoids taking responsibility, refrains from making decisions, does not give feedback, and makes little effort to help his followers to meet their needs ( Northouse, 2018 ). In passive leadership, it can be emphasized that leaders in higher education institutions are passive, ineffective, and unwilling or incapable of making decisions on their own when they lack knowledge, experience, and expertise. As a result, this leadership may negatively affect the job satisfaction of academic staff, as it causes lack of motivation and role ambiguity in academic staff ( Belias and Koustelios, 2014 ).

It is important for academic staff to be aware of the existence of a servant leader who consider their views into account, loves, and respects them, understands, supports and exalts them ( Yukl, 2018 ). However, increasing love, trust, and appreciation among teaching staff can be supported by spiritual leadership. In this way, spiritual leaders are a source of inspiration for the high performance of the academic staff, increase cooperation and encourage learning together ( Yukl, 2018 ). Therefore, according to relevant literature examining the relationship between servant leadership ( Alonderiene and Majauskaite, 2016 ), spiritual leadership ( Wong et al., 2015 ; Djaelani et al., 2021 ) and job satisfaction, it can be concluded that both servant leadership and spiritual leadership have a positive effect on job satisfaction.

In this research, within the scope of “others” leadership styles, coach leadership, hr. specialist leadership, autocrat leadership, contingent, leadership, top management leadership, institutional leadership, empowering leadership, fair leadership, and democratic leadership styles were examined. It has been emphasized that these leadership styles are discussed in studies specific to higher education institutions, and that the relationship between academic staff’s job satisfaction and job satisfaction is positive in related studies ( Haras, 2010 ; Muhonen, 2016 ; Alonderiene and Majauskaite, 2016 ; Lee et al., 2017 ; Rahman, 2018 ; Hee et al., 2020 ).

Based on this, the following hypothesis were developed in the research:

H2 : Leadership style is a moderating variable for the positive relationship between leadership in HEI and academic staff’s job satisfaction.
H2a : There is a positive relationship between transformation leadership style in HEIs and academic staff’s job satisfaction.
H2b : There is a positive relationship between transactional leadership style in HEIs and academic staff’s job satisfaction.
H2c : There is a negative relationship between passive leadership style in HEIs and academic staff’s job satisfaction.
H2d : There is a positive relationship between servant leadership style in HEIs and academic staff’s job satisfaction.
H2e : There is a positive relationship between spiritual leadership style in HEIs and academic staff’s job satisfaction.
H2f : There is a positive relationship between other leadership styles in HEIs and academic staff’s job satisfaction.

Depending on many factors such as the level of economic development, management styles ( Vliert and Einarsen, 2008 ), cultural values ( Wu et al., 2018 ), individualistic-collectivist structure of employees ( Hou, 2017 ), there are studies that show that leadership approaches differ on a country basis. Therefore, it is seen that different styles of leadership come to the fore in different geographical regions ( Aycan et al., 2000 ; Vliert et al., 2010 ). For example, Mittal and Dorfman (2012) found that the dimensions of egalitarianism and empowerment are more important in European cultures than Asian cultures in their study examining the levels of servant leadership in different geographical regions. They stated that the dimensions of empathy and humility were more suitable for Asian cultures rather than European cultures. In addition, there are also studies that comparatively examine academic staff’s job satisfaction in different countries ( Lacy and Sheehan, 1997 ; Bentley et al., 2013 ). For example, Lacy and Sheehan (1997) found in their study that academics in the United States (60%) were more satisfied with their jobs than academics in Hong Kong (50%). Bentley et al. (2013) determined the job satisfaction rate of academics in South Africa, located on the African continent, as 51%, the job satisfaction rate of academics in the USA as 61%, and the job satisfaction rate of academics in Finland, located in the European continent, as 67%. Based on all this literature, it is predicted that the continent of the country in which the academic staff work will be the moderator variable in their perceived leadership styles and job satisfaction and the following hypothesis were developed:

H3 : The continent in which the countries are located is a moderating variable for the positive relationship between leadership in HEI and academic staff’s job satisfaction.

It has been stated in studies on a wide variety of organizational and national issues that there may be differences in different leadership preferences ( Hofstede, 2001 ) and job satisfaction levels in societies that differ in terms of cultural values ( Taras et al., 2010 ). In studies on leadership, it has been emphasized that collectivist and individualistic cultural values are important among social cultural values ( Aycan et al., 2013 ). Triandis (1995) argues that leadership tends to be paternalistic and supportive in collectivist cultures, and achievement-oriented and participatory in individualistic cultures. According to House and Aditya (1997) , “benevolent autocrat” leadership is the most admired leadership style in collectivist cultures. In a study, it was determined that employees with high collectivistic values perceived less mobbing when they perceived their managers as paternalistic leaders ( Durmaz et al., 2020 ). Personal relationships are more important than duty in collectivist societies and personal relationships must be established first ( Hofstede, 2001 ). Trust in institutions is established with the leader within personal relationships. An employee who trusts his leader is expected to have a positive job satisfaction ( Shi et al., 2020 ; Zhou et al., 2022 ). Karadağ (2020) , also mentions that because there is a stronger acceptance and respect for authority in collective cultures, leaders create more influence on these collective cultures than those in individual cultures. In line with all these research findings, it can be said that leadership is important in ensuring the job satisfaction of academic staff in collectivist cultures. The fact that institutions are seen as a family in collectivist cultures contributes to the employee’s developing a sense of loyalty to the institution and management ( Saylık, 2017 ). As a result, it can be mentioned that the relationship between perceived leadership in higher education and job satisfaction in countries with collectivist cultures is higher than in countries with individualistic cultures ( Aycan, 2006 ; Saylık, 2017 ; Durmaz et al., 2020 ). In line with the results of the relevant research, the following hypothesis has been developed:

H4 : The positive relationship existing between leadership in HEIs, and academic staff’s is stronger in countries with collectivist cultures compared to countries with individualistcultures.

In a country, a high level of education affects development with a positive trend in terms of economic and social results, as it will create a qualified workforce. In this context, the evaluation of the education index in the HDI subcategory is important in terms of revealing the level of education, enabling comparison with different countries, and determining the measures and improving policies to be taken in countries with low education levels ( Fırat et al., 2015 ). For example, in the context of job satisfaction, Blanchflower and Oswald (2005) stated that Australia, which ranked third in the HDI in 2004, ranks lower levels in the international job satisfaction rankings. In another study, cooperation in scientific publications, order of authorship, superiority and leadership in research activities were investigated between countries with different HDI. According to the results of this research, it is stated that the leadership characteristics of the authors participating from the countries with high HDI are more developed and they are especially responsible for the studies. It has been revealed that the authors of countries with medium and low levels of human development have a low level of leadership roles and show little participation as a corresponding author ( González-Alcaide et al., 2017 ). In this context, it was predicted in the research that leadership styles in HEIs and job satisfaction in universities will also differ according to HDI variables.

H5 : The positive relationship existing between leadership in HEI and academic staff’s is stronger in countries with very high/high human development indices (HDI) compared to countries with medium/low HDI.

Materials and methods

Research design.

In this study, the meta-analysis method was used to determine the relation between leadership in HEIs and academic staff’s job satisfaction. Meta-analysis is a statistical method that aims to systematically bring together the quantitative findings of similar and independent studies on a specific subject in a consistent and coherent way according to selection criteria ( Borenstein et al., 2009 ) and to reveal important moderator variables ( Cohen et al., 2007 ; Dinçer, 2014 ).

Study sample and selection criteria

Since publication bias is stated as an important negative factor in meta-analysis studies, it was preferred to use scientific articles and unpublished postgraduate theses in this study. The data used in the study are limited to January 2010–August 2022. The reason for the determination of this range can be shown as the increase of research on leadership in HEIs since 2010. It is also stated that the foundations of humanist leadership theories were laid ( Karadağ, 2020 ). The reason why the research sample includes academic staff in higher education institutions can be cited as the frequent interactions between leaders and employees and the opportunity to examine the relationships between various variables as a result of these interactions ( Syed et al., 2021 ). In addition, this sample was preferred to better understand the positive results of leadership styles to be exhibited in the academic environment ( Li et al., 2022 ). The search process was carried out in English language by keywords and article texts or abstracts in all publications worldwide, between January 2010 and August 2022. Studies contain statistical information necessary for correlational meta-analysis (Pearson correlation values, sample size). Studies measure the relationships between leadership in HEIs and academic staff’s job satisfaction.

Clearly specifying the studies to be included in the meta-analysis in line with certain criteria and being consistent with the purpose of the research are important criteria to prevent publication bias ( Berman and Parker, 2002 ). Therefore, first, a literature search was conducted in the Scopus, Web of Science, Proquest, and Ebsco databases to identify studies to be included in the meta-analysis. At this phase, the “leadership” term was taken as a base, and the terms “job satisfaction,” “faculty’s job satisfaction,” “faculty,” “academic staff’s job satisfaction,” “academic staff” OR “higher education” OR “university” OR “college” were used in the title, keywords, and abstract fields and searched in English. In line with this search model, 241 publications from ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database, 25 publications from Ebsco database, 152 publications from Web of Science database and 328 publications from Scopus database were reached. Thus, a total of 746 publications were reviewed for this study; A total of 215 publications describing the relationship between leadership and job satisfaction were included in the research. However, 44 of them were conducted in a qualitative study design. In 41 studies, Pearson correlation values were not specified; In 16 studies, the variable related to job satisfaction was not defined. In addition, it was determined that the sample of 54 studies consisted of both administrative and academic staff. Therefore, 155 studies were excluded from the analysis. In the second phase, the remaining 60 studies were analysed in detail 32 of these studies were excluded from the analysis because they were the same study which were in different databases; and 28 studies found appropriate to use in this study.

As a result of the examinations, a research sample including studies suitable for meta-analysis was obtained. Accordingly, there are 57 independent data sets obtained from 28 different studies in the study sample ( Table 1 ).

Frequency of the studies included in meta-analysis of the leadership in HEIs and academic staff’s job satisfaction.

When the descriptive statistics of the research included in the meta-analysis were examined, it was seen that 28 studies examining the relationships between leadership styles in HEI and academic staff’s job satisfaction were conducted in 9 studies between 2010 and 2015, 10 between 2016 and 2018, and 8 between 2019 and 2020. There is no study in 2021 and 2022. A total of 7,283 academic staff included in the sample.

Unpublished studies (i.e., dissertations) were also included in the study, since only the criticisms of including published articles in meta-analyses were considered. Of the 28 studies included in the research, 15 are articles and 13 are dissertations. Three studies in Africa (Nigeria, Uganda, South Africa), eleven studies in the Americas (United States), eleven studies in Asia (Pakistan = 2, Saudi Arabia = 2, Azerbaijan, Oman, Malaysia, Palestine, Iran, Indonesia), and three studies in Europe were conducted (Lithuania, Sweden and Turkiye).

Coding procedure

Coding is a data extraction process in which clear data and data suitable for research are extracted from the information compiled in the studies ( Karadağ, 2020 ). A coding form was created by the researchers to code the studies included in the meta-analysis process. In the coding form, (i) descriptive statistics and (ii) statistics of research variables were coded in Excel. Within the scope of descriptive statistics, the references of the research, the year it was published, the information about the sampling (sample size, the country in which the research was conducted, the cultural classification of the countries and the classification of the HDI of the countries), the names of the data collection tools were coded. Methodological analysis information and quantitative values (Pearson correlational values between leadership in HEI and academic staff’s job satisfaction) used within the scope of statistics of research variables are also defined. Coding was done in an appropriate way in the coding form. Thus, it is aimed to develop a special coding system specific to meta-analysis research that will examine the characteristics of both descriptive and research variables in detail.

Moderator variables, analysis, and operational definitions

Moderator analysis is an analysis method used to test the direction of the differences between subgroups and the average effect sizes of the variables ( Karadağ, 2020 ). The statistical significance of the difference between the moderator variables was tested using the Q statistical method developed by Hedges and Olkin (1985) . In this method, the Q b value was calculated to test the homogeneity between the groups ( Kulinskaya et al., 2008 ; Borenstein et al., 2009 ). In the study, leadership styles, the continent, national culture and HDI variables were determined as moderator variables since they were thought to play a role in the average effect size.

The first moderator variable is leadership styles. In this research, moderators of leadership styles include: (i) transformational leadership, (ii) transactional leadership, (iii) passive leadership, (iv) servant leadership, (v) spiritual leadership and (vi) other. Other leadership styles discussed in the research are the studies gathered under the title of “other” and include the styles of leadership in which research based on a single frequency are found.

The second moderator variable, the continent where the research took place, was evaluated in terms of whether they were moderators in the relationship between leadership styles in HEI and academic staff’s job satisfaction. In this study, there are 6 studies from the African continent (3 countries), 22 studies from the Americas (11 countries), 20 studies from the Asian continent (11 countries), and 9 studies from the European continent (3 countries).

The third moderator variable is the national cultures of the countries (individualistic and collectivist cultures) named by Triandis and Gelfand (1998) and classified in Hofstede Insights (2020) . People living in societies with an individualistic culture use their preferences within the social framework in the society; individuals in collectivist cultures meet the needs of their families and social frameworks before their own needs ( Triandis, 1996 ) and shape their national cultures by preserving the integrity and order of the society Biddle (2012) . In individualistic societies, individuals shape the society according to their own decisions and preferences and accept life as their own Biddle (2012) . In collectivist societies, the services of individuals to society are taken as basis for social order and the life of individuals is seen as belonging to the society, they are a part of ( Biddle, 2012 ). In line with all these views, the relationship between leadership in HEI and academic staff’s job satisfaction in countries with individualistic and collectivist cultures has been reviewed. In this study, of the 57 studies included in the national culture moderator analysis, 26 ( n  = 13) belong to a collectivist culture and 31 ( n  = 14) belong to an individualistic culture. The majority of research on individualistic culture has been carried out in the United States and European countries.

The fourth and final moderator variable is the current HDI, which expresses the economic, social, political and cultural processes ( United Nations Development Programme (UNDP),2019 ) that expand individuals’ choices. In this meta-analysis study, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) (2019) is based on the HDI classification United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) (2019) . Human development reports provide information and comments to eliminate general disadvantages in all countries in the world ( Koçal, 2018 ). In the report, countries are classified as very high human development, high human development, medium human development, and low human development United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) (2019) . Human development indices range from zero to one. The closeness of the index value to one is an indicator of very high human development. Considering the distribution of the research according to the HDI, it is seen that 42 studies have a very high index (19 countries), 6 studies a high index (5 countries), 4 studies a medium index (2 countries), and 5 studies a low index (2 countries).

Effect size analyses

Effect size is a standard measure value used to determine the strength and direction of the relationship in the meta-analysis study ( Borenstein et al., 2009 ). In this relational meta-analysis study, the effect size was calculated with the Pearson correlation coefficient (r).

There are two main models in the meta-analysis: the fixed effects model and the random effects model. In order to determine which model to use, it was taken into account whether the prerequisites of the model were met with the characteristics of the studies included in the meta-analysis ( Kulinskaya et al., 2008 ; Borenstein et al., 2009 ). The fixed effects model includes the assumption that the study is functionally the same, and the goal is to estimate the effect size for a single defined population. If the study is believed to be unequal in functionality and generalizations are to be made over the estimated effect size for larger populations, the model to be used is the random effects model. In this study, a random effects model was applied in the meta-analysis processes when all conditions were taken into account. Comprehensive Meta-Analysis (CMA V 2) software was used in the meta-analysis processes.

The common method bias

Various applications have been made in line with the recommendations in the literature to reduce the common method bias ( Javed et al., 2020 ; Akhtar et al., 2021 ). First, Aslam et al. (2021) recommends stating the purpose of the research before applying the data collection tools and paying attention to the confidentiality and anonymity of the answers obtained from the data collection tools. When all the studies included in this meta-analysis study are examined, it can be said that confidentiality and anonymity are taken into account within the scope of the ethical dimension of the research and the purpose of the research is stated. Common method bias is also the case when a researcher creates estimates of validity and reliability that may lead a researcher to believe that a scale does not accurately reflect an implicit measure but does so accurately. Such an error may cause common method bias in future meta-analysis studies ( Wall, 2014 ). As a result, the studies included in the meta-analysis were examined and it was seen that the data collection tools used were suitable for the purpose of the studies, and the validity and reliability information was presented. Thus, the existence of common method bias cannot be mentioned in this study.

Statistical methods/analysis (reliability and validity of the study)

The reliability and validity of the results is considered one of the most important criteria in a meta-analysis. In this context, the steps for reliability and validity are as follows:

  • In this study, while determining the inclusion and exclusion criteria, all the characteristics related to the field of study (leadership and job satisfaction) were evaluated together. The target set for job satisfaction is to evaluate the satisfaction of the academic staff with their jobs; It is not about assessing their life satisfaction.
  • Since the studies included in the meta-analysis were not functionally equivalent, the random effects model was used.
  • In this study, attention was paid to research sensitivity by including both published and unpublished studies to avoid publication bias. Also, no evidence of publication bias was observed with a funnel plot or tests. It was also determined that the effect size was not affected by publication bias.
  • Coding reliability was performed to determine whether the studies in the coding form were coded correctly. For this purpose, two field experts experienced in meta-analysis studies were asked to recode approximately 17 studies, which were randomly selected and correspond to 30% of the studies included in the coding list, by adhering to the coding list created by the researchers. Cohen’s Kappa consistency coefficients, which were used in meta-analysis studies to determine the reliability of the coding form and to measure the reliability between raters ( Leary, 2012 ), were calculated and the value was found to be 0.92 ( p  < 0.001). According to Landis and Koch (1977) , this value indicates an “almost perfect” agreement between the coders.
  • The basic condition for sampling in meta-analysis studies is that the sample best represents the population. The sampling is not expected to be the same as the population, as there are inclusion or exclusion criteria for sampling, and it consists of total errors that occur by chance. However, it is expected that an infinite number of studies will take place for meta-analysis in order for the sampling error to be zero ( Karadağ, 2020 ). Therefore, considering that the sample of the studies included in the meta-analysis is not infinite; Random effects model was used in this study. In meta-analysis studies, correlation values are converted to “Fisher Z” values and analyses are performed on these values. While the analysis findings are being evaluated, they are interpreted by converting them into correlation coefficients. In correlation data, the correlation coefficient is used as the effect size in relation to the direction of the relationship (positive or negative). Correlation coefficient effect sizes are interpreted if it is between ±0.00 and ± 0.10, it is very weak; If it is between ±0.10 and 0.30, it is weak; between ±0.30 and 0.50 is moderate; ± 0.50 to 0.80 strong; ± 0.80 and above as a very strong effect ( Cohen et al., 2007 ).

Descriptive analysis

As can be seen in the forest plot examination ( Supplementary Figure S1 ), all the random effect sizes for the correlation between leadership in HEIs and academic staff’s job satisfaction were significant ( p  < 0.05), and the confidence interval for each effect size did not cross zero.

Meta-analysis results between leadership in HEIs and academic staff’s job satisfaction are presented in Table 2 . The findings support the H1 hypothesis, which states that there is a positive relationship between leadership in HEIs and academic staff’s job satisfaction. While the average effect size was determined to be r  = 0.374, the lower bound value was calculated as r  = 0.247 and the upper bound value as r  = 0.504.

Meta-analysis results related to relationship between leadership in HEIs and academic staff’s job satisfaction.

In the other hypothesis sentences of the research; leadership styles, the continent in which the countries were located, the national culture and the HDI might be moderators for the relationship between leadership in HEIs and academic staff’s job satisfaction.

It is seen that the H2 hypothesis, which states that leadership styles have a moderator effect on the relationship between leadership in HEIs and academic staff’s job satisfaction, is supported ( Q b  = 51.786 p < 0.05). From the leadership styles obtained from the studies included in the meta-analysis, spiritual leadership is very strong on the job satisfaction of the academic staff ( r  = 0.894); servant ( r  = 0.658), other ( r  = 0.632) and transformation ( r  = 0.569) leadership styles are strong on job satisfaction of academic staff; passive leadership ( r  = −0.412) has a medium effect on the job satisfaction of the academic staff, and transactional leadership ( r  = 0.265) has a weak effect on the job satisfaction of the academic staff.

H3, which asserted that the continent in which the countries are located was the moderating variable regarding the positive relationship between leadership in HEIs and academic staff’s job satisfaction, was not supported. In the moderator analysis performed, the positive relationship between leadership in HEIs and academic staff’s job satisfaction was not statistically significant ( Q b  = 6.219, p  > 0.05). Although the relationship difference was not statistically significant, teacher self-efficacy appears to have a positive relationship with academic staff’s job satisfaction in the continents of America ( r  = 0.273), Asia ( r  = 0.316), Africa ( r  = 0.373) and Europe ( r  = 0.754).

The findings did not support H4, which asserted that the national culture was a mediating variable for the positive relationship between leadership in HEIs and academic staff’s job satisfaction. In the moderator analysis performed, there was no significant difference between national culture [collectivist culture ( r  = 0.348) and individualistic culture ( r  = 0.397) ( Q b  = 0.139; p  > 0.05)].

H5, which expresses the role of The HDI as a moderator variable for the positive positive relationship between leadership in HEIs and academic staff’s job satisfaction was not supported. In the analysis of the moderator, the average effect size difference was found to be statistically insignificant ( Q b  = 1.501, p  > 0.05). Although the effect difference was not statistically significant, the relationship between leadership in HEIs and academic staff’s job satisfaction was in countries with low HDI ( r  = 0.332), medium HDI ( r  = 0.319), with high HDI ( r  = 0.612) and with very high HDI ( r  = 0.350).

Publishing bias

Since publications that produce meaningful results are included in the research process and negatively affect the analysis process, it is recommended to detect publication bias before starting the meta-analysis ( Kalkan, 2017 ). The most commonly used method for publication bias is the funnel plot. The results of the funnel scatterplot showing the probability of publication bias of the studies included in the meta-analysis in this study are shown in Figure 1 .

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Funnel scatter plot illustrating relationship between leadership in HEIs and academic staff’s job satisfaction.

In case of any publication bias, the funnel plot is expected to be significantly asymmetrical. In particular, most of the studies included in the study are expected to be at the top of the figure and very close to the combined effect size. In line with all these indicators, it can be mentioned that no evidence of publication bias was observed in any of the 57 studies subjected to meta-analysis. However, since not all the individual effect sizes of the studies are symmetrical in the funnel, it is necessary to look at the publication bias statistics. Confidence tests showing the bias of the studies included in the meta-analysis and their results are given in Table 3 .

Confidence tests and results showing the bias of studies included in the meta-analysis.

As seen in Table 3 , the results of Rosenthal’s Fail-Safe N Test reveal that the meta-analysis result is statistically significant ( p  = 0.000). In other words, to eliminate the significance of meta-analysis results, 3,087 studies with zero effect size value are needed ( Z value = 39.493; p  < 0.00; alfa value = 0.05). The fact that Kendall’s Tau coefficient obtained from Begg and Mazumdar Rank Correlations is not statistically significant (Tau = 0.043; z value for Tau = 0.474; p value (1-tailed) = 0.317; p value (2-tailed) = 0.634) is an indication that there is no publication bias. From the result of Egger’s Linear Regression method ( p  = 0.325 > 0.05), it can be stated with 95% confidence that there is no publication bias. According to the results of Rosenthal’s Fail-Safe N Test, Begg and Mazumdar Rank Correlations, and Egger’s Linear Regression method, which were used to determine the validity and publication bias of the research, it was concluded that the publication bias was low. In this study, publication bias was tested also using Duval and Tweedie’s trim and fill tests in Table 4 .

The results of Duval and Tweedie’s trim and fill tests.

When Duval and Tweedie’s trim and fill tests results in Table 4 are examined, it is seen that there is no significant difference between the observed effect and the artificial effect determined to adjust for the effect that may arise from publication bias. The difference between the fixed effect size and the observed effect size is zero, since there is no missing data on both sides of the centerline and the studies concentrated on both sides show a symmetrical distribution ( Coğaltay et al., 2014 ).

Discussion and conclusion

In the current study, that was conducted to examine the relation leadership in HEIs and academic staff’s job satisfaction, using the meta-analysis method, the overall effect size of 57 different studies that were determined in accordance with the selection criteria was calculated. In addition, it was aiming to answer the question if there was a significant relation between the parameters according to the moderator variables (leadership theories, the continent where the research was conducted, national culture and HDI).

The first finding of the study is that there is a moderate and direct relation between leadership in HEIs and academic staff’s job satisfaction. As the related studies in the literature are examined, it is stated that leadership in HEIs is related to academic staff’s job satisfaction ( Alonderiene and Majauskaite, 2016 ; Harris et al., 2016 ; Barnett, 2018 ; Liu et al., 2021 ). Academic staff should be satisfied with their jobs to fulfil their educational, research-investigation-based, and social responsibilities such as teaching, designing practice hours for the course material, conducting scientific studies, and carrying out projects. There is a direct relation between the academic staff’s job satisfaction and the program/education outcomes, the higher the satisfaction level of the academic staff’ results with the greater the program/education outcomes. High leadership behaviours exhibited by academic staff’ are also considered important on academic staff’s job satisfaction. Academic staff’ due to their position as scientists are expected to be able to lead, influence, stimulate the society while being open to communication and permissive ( Caglar, 2004 ). This identity can be accepted as an indicator of the job satisfaction of the academic staff in terms of developing the vision of the university and producing a sense of belonging, as well as their leadership styes.

In this research, it has been determined that leadership styles are moderators in the relation between leadership in HEIs and academic staff’s job satisfaction. According to this finding, the effect of spiritual leadership on the relationship between the academic staff’s job satisfaction and the leadership in HEI is at the highest level; It has been determined that servant, other and transformational leadership styles have positive and strong effects. Moreover, passive leadership has negative and moderate effects while transactional leadership has positive but weak effects on the relation between leadership in HEIs and academic staff’s job satisfaction.

It is an expected result that the effect of leadership styles on the relation between leadership in HEIs and academic staff’s job satisfaction is direct and significant. In this study, it was determined that there is a positive and high level of relationship between spiritual leadership and academic staff job satisfaction. Spiritual leadership emphasizes the spiritual side of people, and it is seen that spiritual leaders emphasize issues such as love, compassion, honesty, harmony, unity, and peace ( Polat, 2011 ). Moreover, it is stated that managers who show spiritual leadership characteristics are adored by their employees which is in direct relation with job satisfaction expectations ( Pio and Tampi, 2018 ; Maryati et al., 2019 ; Djaelani et al., 2021 ). The fact that leaders in HEIs also have strong spiritual feelings towards the institution can positively affect their job satisfaction.

In this study, it was determined that there is a positive and high level of relationship between servant leadership and academic staff job satisfaction. It is also stated in the literature that servant leaders, who have the characteristics of helping the success and development of the employees in the institution and dedicating themselves to developing the vision of the institution, increase the job satisfaction of the individuals working in the institution ( Amah, 2018 ; Zargar et al., 2019 ; Adiguzel et al., 2020 ). It is expected that the presence of a manager who supports their employees within the organization will have an impact on the job satisfaction of the employees’. Likewise, a leader in HEIs who is devoted to the institution and who aims to develop the vision of the institution and whose servant-leader characteristics dominate is expected to have a high levels of job satisfaction.

In the study, it was determined that that there is a positive and high level of relationship between transformational leadership and academic staff job satisfaction. Many studies examining leadership styles and job satisfaction in higher education have concluded that there is a moderate and positive relationship between transformational leadership and academic staff job satisfaction ( Duyan, 2019 ; Gölebakar, 2020 ). Transformational leaders aim to change the perceptions of the employees in the organization by way of variety of activities by putting their employees in the center of the activities stemming a high levels of job satisfaction within the institution ( Cote, 2017 ). It can be said that leaders in HEIs displaying transformational leadership styles and taking their own interests and needs as the basis while achieving their goals they focus on will increase their job satisfaction.

In this research, it has been determined that passive leadership has negative and moderate levels effect on academic staff job satisfaction and transactional leadership has a positive and low-level effect on academic staff job satisfaction. Passive leadership is a leadership style in which the leader does not interfere with the process and avoids talking to employees or setting the desired standards ( Bass et al., 2003 ). Transactional leadership, on the other hand, is defined as a process based on mutual interests between the leader and the employee, in which employees gain prestige and wages as a result of meeting the expectations of the leaders ( Isa et al., 2011 ). It is inevitable that both leadership characteristics will have lower effects on job satisfaction than other leadership styles. As a matter of fact, it is stated in the literature that the relation between passive and transactional leadership and job satisfaction is low, and there is even a negative relation ( Nguni et al., 2006 ; Nazim and Mahmood, 2018 ). In this manner, it can be said that leaders’ acting with a certain salary or extrinsic motivation or hiding their leadership characteristics have an insignificant effect on their job satisfaction or that the effect is less than those with other leadership styles.

No statistically significant difference was observed in the relation between leadership in HEIs and academic staff’s job satisfaction in any of the four continents within the scope of the research. Owing to globalization in the 21st century, it is an expected result that leadership and job satisfaction are expected to be high among the characteristics of the teaching staff independent of geographical locations. Although the continent variable was determined as the moderator variable for the relationship between leadership n HEIs and job satisfaction, it was determined that continent was not a significant variable in this study. It is possible to state that there are studies with similar findings in the literature however, there are more studies that conclude that continent is a significant variable ( Hou, 2017 ; Wu et.al., 2018 ; Neubert et al., 2022 ). There might be different reasons for this. First of all, it was aimed to reveal cultural, economic and social differences while determining the continent variable as a moderator variable. Since the sample size that could detect national differences in the research universe could not be reached, it is thought that these dimensions should be compared with a larger sample set in future studies, although universities operate in different geographies, it is thought that this has led to such a result because they are in a similar organizational structure. Since the structure of universities does not change radically on a geographical basis, it is thought that continental difference does not have a significant moderator effect on the relationship between leadership n HEIs and job satisfaction.

In this study, it was determined that the relationship between leadership in HEIs and academic staff’s job satisfaction did not differ according to countries with collectivist and individualistic society. Although a society’s being in an individualistic or collectivist culture gives information about the individuals, institutions, behaviours and functioning of those institutions ( Carıkcı and Koyuncu, 2010 ); Individualist and collectivist cultures cannot always exhibit a homogeneous structure, both at the social and institutional level. Even within the same country or society, a heterogeneous structure is exhibited in terms of cultural approach ( Hofstede et al., 2010 ; Keçeci, 2017 ). There are different findings about individualism–collectivism and job satisfaction in the literature. Hui et al. (1995) found that job satisfaction is higher in collectivist societies. Nevertheless, Harrison (1995) , Griffeth and Hom (1987) , and Lincoln and Kalleberg (1985) reported that employees in individualistic cultures have higher job satisfaction. Although there are studies stating that leadership styles (spiritual, paternalistic, educational) are higher in collectivist cultures than in individualistic cultures ( Novikov, 2017 ; Saylik, 2017 ; Karadağ, 2020 ). In his research, Saylik (2017) concluded that there is no significant relationship between collectivism and leadership styles emphasizing authoritarianism, interventionism, and insufficiency. Similar research findings, which determined that the relationship between leadership styles in academic organizations and academic staff job satisfaction, do not differ according to countries with collectivist and individualistic society structures, also support the findings of this research ( Durmaz et al., 2020 ). As a result, it can be said that both cultural structures can affect the leadership in HEIs and academic staff’s job satisfaction direct or reverse from different aspects.

Likewise, it was determined that HDI types were not moderators in the relation between leadership in HEIs and academic staff’s job satisfaction. Among the countries included in the research, it can be said that the academic staff working in different countries in terms of HDI find the profession of academics valuable, they are satisfied with their work and their perceptions of leadership in HEIs are high. Although Blanchflower and Oswald (2005) found in their research in Austria that their country has a high HDI index, the job satisfaction of the employees found at low level. However, Hamutoğlu et al. (2020) , found that all employees in higher education institutions in Norway with a high HDI index are satisfied with their institutions. Although there are differences in the literature, it can be said that academic staff working in countries with different levels of human development find their profession valuable and are satisfied with their job. As a result, it can be accepted that the relationship between academic staff’s perceived leadership styles and job satisfaction does not differ significantly according to the level of human development.

Limitations and suggestions for future research

The current study was conducted using data obtained from primary sources. The major disadvantage of the current research is the possibly relational nature of the studies from which the data were obtained. Considering that qualitative studies are more effective in explaining the nature of leadership in HEIs, claiming that the obtained results can fully explain the causal effects would be biased. In addition, the fact that most of the studies on the academic staff’s job satisfaction levels of leadership in HEIs are correlational indicates the existence of a potential method bias.

Despite the strategies developed to access the studies to be included in the current meta-analysis, it was not possible to reach all studies. It can be explained with the fact that the full texts of some studies could not be accessed through the searched databases can be cited. Hence, some studies that are thought to contain data suitable for the current research could not be reached. Although there were no statistical results indicating publication bias, the absence of publication bias could not be guaranteed as unpublished studies were not accessible. Secondly, in this study studies reporting the correlation coefficient (r) were included in the meta-analysis. Therefore, researchers may be advised to report the findings that led to the meta-analysis, rather than providing a single conclusion. Thirdly, since the publication language of the studies included in the current research was limited to English, studies published in other languages could not be reached. Thus, most of the included studies were conducted in various states of the United States. Further meta-analysis studies should consider studies published in different languages to reveal cultural differences. Another limitation of the study is that the sample of the present study consists of studies published between 2010 and 2022. Accordingly, this limitation should be considered when generalizing the results obtained.

Due to the positive relations between the leadership in HEIs and academic staff’s job satisfaction, it may be recommended to give trainings to the faculty to improve their leadership skills within the institution. In addition, it can be suggested that scientific studies that reveal the effects that increase the job satisfaction of the academic staff should be periodically updated and measures should be taken to increase the job satisfaction within the institution. It is recommended that all findings required for inclusion of individual studies in such meta-analysis studies should be reported by the researchers. For future studies, it is recommended to conduct studies examining similar variables based on the findings of international reports that allow OECD countries to be compared in terms of education.

Theoretical implications

Theoretically, this research confirmed that the relationship between leadership in higher education and job satisfaction is positive. It has contributed to the importance of leadership styles in higher education in ensuring the job satisfaction of academic staff. It has been revealed that when academic staff are recognized, supported and rewarded by university administrators, their job satisfaction levels will tend to increase. Therefore, the leadership style of university administrators will contribute to the job satisfaction of academic staff. This research has mentioned on the importance of leadership styles adopted in higher education institutions in theory in recent years. Thus, future research will contribute to the further growth and integrative potentials of these leadership types.

Practical implications

This research provides policy makers, practitioners, and administrators with relevant information in a variety of ways. According to the findings of the research, firstly, spiritual leadership should be adopted by the academic staff in order to ensure job satisfaction. It is necessary to adopt a leadership approach that will consider the emotional, spiritual and mental needs of academic staff in higher education institutions. Thus, the learning, research and teaching climate in higher education institutions can be positively affected. Administrators in higher education should develop an academic organizational structure inspired by a new and strong culture that will meet all the needs, desires and aspirations of academic staff. Servant leadership is another leadership that academic staff should adopt to ensure job satisfaction. It may be beneficial to develop leadership training programs that listen to and care for academics’ needs and try to assist their career development. In this case, higher education institutions should try to create an open, sincere, and honest workplace in order to ensure the job satisfaction of their academic staff. A friendly academic environment enables teaching staff to make the profession an enjoyable career. Moreover, it can be suggested to raise awareness of administrators and academic staff working in higher education institutions by giving trainings on the importance of servant leadership. The findings showed that it is beneficial for academic staff to develop transformational leadership skills to increase job satisfaction. For the academic staff to be more productive and achieve high performance, the presence of more transformational leaders in the institution can be recommended. In an academic environment where the competencies of academic staff are evaluated and rewarded, academic staff who research and teach, might be highly motivated and less likely to seek new jobs. In summary, university administrators who adopt transformational leadership should create an academic environment where innovative and creative thinking abilities are encouraged and valued.

The changing leadership roles of administrators, who will increase the job satisfaction of academic staff in higher education institutions in the future, will be an indispensable and important subject of future research. This research shows that humanist leadership roles rather than traditional leadership roles are important in increasing academician job satisfaction in today’s higher education institutions. In-depth research is needed to understand the basis of these positive reactions to spiritual, servant and transformational leadership roles in higher education institutions.

Data availability statement

Author contributions.

GK and BG designed the study, reviewed the literature, organized the database, and performed the meta analysis of manuscript. BG, VE, and ÇA contributed to introduction. GK wrote findings, results, and conclusion of the manuscript. GT reviewed literature and edited the manuscript and references. All authors have read and approved the submitted version.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher’s note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Supplementary material

The Supplementary material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1038824/full#supplementary-material

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Educational Ethical Leadership: Characteristics and Styles

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leadership styles in educational institutions

  • Vilma Žydžiūnaitė   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-4455-9653 2  

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Educational ethical leadership is related to institutional behavior according to a set of principles and values that are recognized by the majority of employees as a basis for the common good. Applying ethics to leadership involves considering ethics when making decisions. Educational ethical leadership is a conscious decision and is driven by a belief in the dignity and rights of others. Choosing to follow an educational ethical path at the institution creates a positive experience for everyone and improves the functioning of the activities. Educational ethical leadership incorporates particular styles that are united by the influence of a leader and the desired result – transformation of employees or followers, change of the personal qualities of employees/followers, and them beginning to show solidarity and work in focused groups or teams. Employees see the educational leader as a role model to follow. The chapter will provide the answers to the following questions: What are the essential characteristics of educational ethical leadership? What are the characteristics that unite the definitions of educational ethical leadership? What are the styles of educational ethical leadership and how is each style characterized? What are of educational ethical leadership? What are the characteristics of an educational ethical leader? What does it mean being an educational ethical leader? What are the effects of educational ethical leadership? What does practicing educational ethical leadership include? The chapter’s aims are to characterize educational ethical leadership through differences and similarities of existing definitions and to provide the characteristics of educational ethical leadership styles.

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Žydžiūnaitė, V. (2023). Educational Ethical Leadership: Characteristics and Styles. In: Eaton, S.E. (eds) Handbook of Academic Integrity. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-079-7_139-1

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-079-7_139-1

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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Principals' leadership styles and its impact on teachers' performance at college level.

\nUzma Sarwar,

  • 1 School of Education, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an, China
  • 2 School of Education, Huanggang Normal University, Huanggang, China
  • 3 Management Sciences Department, COMSATS University Islamabad, Islamabad, Pakistan

In this study, we examined the impact of principals' leadership style on the performance of teachers at the college level. For this purpose, we collect data from 300 college teachers via a random sampling approach. A self-administrated questionnaire (five-point Likert Scale) was used to collect data. For detecting relationships and differences among the opinions of the study's participants, correlation and the t -test were used. This study has revealed that the majority of college principals practice a democratic style of leadership at a higher level, Laissez-faire at a moderate level, and autocratic at a low level in their colleges. Moreover, it has been also revealed that when principals increase the use of a democratic leadership style, teacher performance may progress as well. The findings revealed that principals' leadership style had a positive impact on the performance of teachers. The study exposed a strong statistically positive relationship between college principals' leadership style and teacher performance. Thus, the results of this study suggest that college principals' should adopt the leadership style according to the level of teachers. The leadership style should be changed with specific situations in the colleges.

Introduction

Effective leadership is necessary for the advancement of teachers as well as society. In the technological advancement of the 21st century, there are many challenges to compete including worldwide teachers' networks which demand a great educational leader for educational institutions. There are three main aspects of a principal's leadership in dealing with educational and cultural reforms such as increasing participation, transferring vision, and producing change. The effectiveness of leaders in the educational sector is valued by their competencies to contribute to improving the quality of education in the era of technological advancement ( Sungtong, 2007 ; Abbas et al., 2020 ).

The main job of a principal is to assist in leading, directing, and coordinating various activities inside the college. The primary responsibility of the principal is to create and sustain an excellent teaching-learning environment for the educational programs running in the college. The principal is also responsible to support the teachers in their teaching practices. Principals have a critical role to play in achieving the institution's goals and objectives. Among these responsibilities, principals must give genuine and effective leadership, resulting in improved professional presentation among teachers. The principal is responsible to give highly valued visions that are focused on their day-to-day methods and that serve to foster a good culture that is supportive of exceptional teacher performance ( Nanson, 2010 ; Saleem et al., 2020 ).

In various locations and circumstances, a lot of researchers explained leadership such as Okumbe (1998) describes leadership as “a specific attitude adopted by a leader toward his or her subordinates to motivate them to achieve the organization's objectives and goals.” Western (2013) states that leadership is recognized as the abilities and practical skills of the persons, groups, or organizations to lead, influence, or provide guidance to other persons, teams, or the whole organization. Chin (2015) explains leadership in the context of the American academic environment as a process of social influence through which an individual can enlist the aid and support of others in the attainment of common as well as ethical tasks. Northouse (2018) and Wu et al. (2020) highlight that leadership is a prominent power relationship in which one party (leader) promotes movements or changes in others (followers).

Furthermore, Phuc et al. (2021) also found that a leadership style refers to a leader's style of giving directions, implementing plans, and motivating followers. Among others Bhoomireddy (2004) ; Goel (2005) , and Crum and Sherman (2008) a leader uses a different style of leadership considering the situation. In situations of emergency, an autocratic style of leadership is considered more effective while for a highly motivated and aligned team democratic or laissez-faire styles are recognized as more effective ( Department of the Army, 2006 ).

Problem statement

Besides, this study is proposed to measure the impact of different principal leadership styles on the teacher's performance currently serving in colleges in the major with the highest rate of population province Punjab, Pakistan. Although wide research has been conducted to report this phenomenon from different perspectives and in different contexts, leftovers anonymous has not yet adequately resulted. The linkage between principal leadership styles and teacher performance is still mostly unmapped in the context of Pakistan ( Quraishi and Aziz, 2018 ; Maqbool et al., 2019 ; Yasmin et al., 2019 ; Saleem et al., 2020 ). Especially, the govt. college teachers in many Pakistani cities for example Faisalabad, Punjab. Therefore, concerning education in Pakistan, more clarification is imperative to determine how and what style of leadership for principals positively or negatively affects teacher performance at the college level in Faisalabad.

Research objectives

These objectives were developed for this study:

1. To explore the leadership styles of principals practiced at the college level.

2. To examine the relationship between a principal's leadership style and the performance of teachers at the college level.

Research questions

1. Whether the style of leadership matter in the case of a college principal?

2. Whether a principal's leadership style effects the performance of teachers at the college level?

Based on prior studies and extant literature review, the following are the hypotheses of the study:

H1: There is a significant role of principal leadership style at the college level.

H2: There is a significant relationship between principal leadership style and the performance of teachers at the college level.

Literature review

Literature has many shreds of evidence about the leadership and the styles used by various leaders in their organizations for increasing the performance of their workers. While there are various leadership theories and psychology, few of them are more well-known. For example, the behavioral theory of leadership focuses on how leaders behave and assumes that these traits can be copied by other leaders. Sometimes this theory is called the style theory, it suggests that leaders are not born successful, but can be created based on learnable behavior. This theory of leadership is focused heavily on the leader's action.

The second type of leadership theory is contingency leadership, also called situational theory which focuses on the context of a leader. The function of this theory is to look at the situational effects of success or failure. A leader's effectiveness is directly determined by the situational context. While the personality of a leader is a small factor in the success of a leader and the most important factor is the context and situation. This theory suggests that good leaders can adjust their leadership style according to the situation. A contingency theory includes Hershey and Blanchard's Situational Theory, the Evans and House Path-Goal Theory, and Fiedler's Contingency Theory.

Another leadership theory is the great man theory which is also called the trait theory which suggests good leaders are born. They have innate traits and skills that make them great and these are things that cannot be taught or learned. The trait theory suggests that leaders deserve to be in their position because of their special traits.

Among others, management theory is a leadership theory called transactional leadership and focuses on supervision, organization, and group performance of the employees. Transactional leadership is a system of rewards and punishments. Transactional leadership is regularly used in businesses, when employees do something successfully, managers reward them and vice versa. Transactional rewards and punishments are given based on the idea that people only do things for the reward.

Additionally, the following are the leadership styles used by educational leaders: Autocratic, Democratic, and Laissez-Faire. The participative leadership theory is not as common in all types of business. It's called democratic leadership and suggests that employees be directly involved in decision-making in their organization. The leader simply facilitates a conversation and then takes all the suggestions and comes up with the best possible action. In this theory, everyone is very involved with decisions for the team and organization with the leader simply helping direct the charge. Autocratic styles of leadership are known for being authoritative and having the most power in the decision-making process. These types of leaders are known for employing an autocratic leadership style in their leadership style in organization. This type of leader merely gives instructions to group members on how to execute tasks in a given manner, and they avoid establishing obvious lines of communication between employees and followers. Furthermore, these executives never enable employees or other types of workers to participate in the development of organizational policies ( Smylie and Jack, 1990 ; Hoy and Miskel, 1992 ; John, 2002 ). Leaders exercising the autocratic style do not ask for any suggestions or initiative from followers. Because it provides great motivation to the leaders, the autocratic leadership style has been successful. It allows for speedy decision-making because only one person makes decisions for the entire group and keeps each conclusion to themselves until he or she deems it is necessary to share it with the rest of the group ( Lewin et al., 1939 ).

Democratic leadership style refers to a situation in which the leader and followers are doing the same amount of labor. This style consists of the leader sharing the decision-making abilities with followers through promoting the interest of the followers and by practicing social equality. Participative leadership or shared leadership are terms used to describe this type of leadership. Any business, including educational institutions, can benefit from this sort of leadership. This approach emphasizes the importance of all members of the group participating in the decision-making process ( Research Gate, 2018 ).

A laissez-faire leadership styles give complete rights and powers to their followers to make decisions to establish goals and work out the problems and hurdles. In this style, decision-making is passed on to the followers. This style focuses on no interference in the affairs of others ( Research Gate, 2018 ). When a leader is hands-off and allows followers to make decisions, this is known as the Laissez-Faire style of administration. Independences are entirely indestructible in Laissez-faire due to group objectives, processes, and operational techniques. These administrators don't intervene too often. This style was identified by Hackman and Johnson (2009) as having the most realistic style, especially when employees are mature and enthusiastic about their work. The laissez-faire leadership style allows for complete autonomy in group decision-making without the involvement of the leaders.

The directive leadership style of principle is similar to the assignment-based method, in which the leader provides teachers with specific rules, standards, and directions for organizing, sorting, as well as completing tasks. When the subordinates' capacity is low and the task at hand is mind-boggling or ambiguous, these techniques are thought to be appropriate. When the boss delivers more directions, the workers are more satisfied ( Hoy and Miskel, 2001 ).

Leaders (Principals) who practice a supportive style of leadership are known for their relationship-oriented style of leadership, which includes the leaders' camaraderie and availability to all employees in the business. This type of leader is continuously concerned about the challenges and concerns of their employees and coworkers. These leaders create a friendly environment for their subordinates and work to improve their employees' lives. It's a powerful technique for assistants who require self-assurance, who want to chip away at unpleasant or upsetting duties, or who don't feel fulfilled at work ( Hoy and Miskel, 2001 ).

Leaders (Principals) that use a consultative style of leadership in their administration have a lot of confidence. These leaders are generous, but they lack confidence and optimism in their employees. Most of the time, these leaders make their final decisions on their own, but they do include their subordinates and seek their input on the problem before establishing any policy inside the college. Workers have positive attitudes toward their employers, administrations, and their jobs. When the workers believe that enough interviews have not been conducted, they freely accept the chief's commands, but they occasionally secretly oppose the request through opposition, particularly when the director decides on a bigger part of the runs guideline ( Owens, 1981 ). The top of the organization is in charge. The majority of the time, center administration assigns tasks to lower-level employees to keep them under control. Examining, evaluating, and administering are all completed. Control is viewed by subordinates as a means of maintaining a high standard ( Ukeje, 1998 ).

Leaders (Principals) who use an achievement-oriented approach to administration are very intelligent, and they present their employees with a variety of challenges that they can meet. These principles involve teachers in achieving the organization's goals and objectives and give rewards for the successful completion of a task. These leaders have strong directive and supporting personalities. They help their followers with their problems and help them in discovering a solution. When achievement-oriented employees are available in the organization, this approach becomes very successful. The administrator who incorporates this method into their leadership style will be able to effortlessly attain their specified goals and objectives ( Lussier and Achua, 2001 ).

Leaders' way of communication and manners with their followers (teachers) are extremely important for the success of any educational institution. According to Oxford (2005) , communication is a specific technique for sending any type of information from one person to another. According to Hannagan (2002) , communication is a process of passing on information about the feasibility of specific work methods, and it is regarded to take on several aspects. It can be mandated, for example, by defining certain practices that must be completed; motivational, in that it encourages more significant exertion; and mistake-correcting, in that it provides information about the degree of blunder being completed. Whatever the case may be, the importance of communication in educational institutions has been undervalued for a long time, particularly at colleges. Hannagan (2002) went on to say that if we want to achieve a greater level of performance, we can do it with the support of improved and proper communication.

The involvement of the followers (teachers) in the decision-making process by its leader (principal) can boost confidence and improves performance. According to Okumbe (1998) , the principal and teachers collaborate on a specific topic or problem and explore strategies to regulate the organization's functioning to enhance the involvement of teachers in the decision-making. Involvement in decision-making is a common occurrence for people who take initiative, but lack of insertion in leadership is associated with autocratic administrations, open innovation is represented, and leaders may hesitantly incorporate personnel in decision-making.

According to The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), teachers' performance is negatively impacted by their lack of engagement in decision-making processes. “There are significant sensations of remoteness from regional and national-level judgments that are finally joined to educators as unchallengeable decisions, frequently separated as of their everyday state” ( UNESCO, 2006 ). Educators lose confidence in their ability to achieve good and even particular sense alienated and more incompetent in their personalities due to a lack of adequate interactions or conversations. On the other hand, Ndu and Anagbogu (2007) claimed that if educators are not connected in administration, they become outsiders in the college setting. As a result, most professors do not give it their all to have a complete sense of responsibility and loyalty to the college.

Yasmin et al. (2019) found that the impact of transactional and transformational guidance styles has been contrary to teachers' performance. They argued that both leadership styles, for example, transformational and transactional styles of principles of the schools/colleges have not supported improvement in teacher's performance in the short-run.

Saleem et al. (2020) found that the directive leadership style had a significant effect on teacher job performance in the studied schools, followed by the supportive and achievement-oriented leadership styles. Contrariwise, though participative leadership was identified as a significant predictor, it was not considered a favorable predictor of teacher job performance.

Lee et al. (2019) found a link between transformational (but not transactional) leadership and higher levels of supervisory coaching and performance feedback, and that these job resources mediate the relationship between transformational leadership and work engagement. Moreover, the results showed that work engagement mediates the relationships of both supervisory coaching and performance feedback to turnover intention. Generally, Asian leaders can effectively facilitate some aspects of HRD through development-focused behaviors which serve as job resources to boost work engagement and reduce turnover intention.

Teachers' performance improves as principals assign equitably varied responsibilities to teachers. According to Oxford (2005) delegation is the process of delegating rights, power, and responsibility to subordinates. According to Webster (2002) the procedure of cooperating with authorities to accomplish another. Similarly, Okumu (2006) discovered that compelling assignments affect teachers' performance. The findings were fascinating and instructive, they did not reveal how the assignment of responsibilities can improve educator performance at all colleges. Healthfield (2004) examined that for an assignment to be fruitful, the principal must establish designated destinations, determine expert errands, and select who will do them. Chapman (2005) discovered that leaders' involving their followers in the decision-making process, and the equal delegation of duties improved followers' performance. McNamara (2010) stated that for the assigned task to be completed successfully, the boss and the subordinate must agree on when the job is to be completed or if it is a continuing obligation when the survey dates are when the reports are due, and if the project is unpredictable, what assistance the manager can provide. McNamara (2010) found leaders' assigning their subordinates to responsible tasks improved subordinates' performance.

Data and methodology

The nature of the study is descriptive and data was collected using a survey method through a questionnaire. According to Creswell (2008) , descriptive research is the process of examining multiple steps such as quantitative data collecting and analysis to increase prior knowledge about a certain problem or subject. The study's population consisted of all teachers employed in Faisalabad District Government Degree Colleges. A sample of 300 teachers was selected from the sampled colleges in the Faisalabad Division using a simple random selection technique. The data was collected using a self-administered questionnaire on three leadership styles (Autocratic, Democratic, and Laissez-faire) which comprised 30 items about leadership styles and teacher performance 1 . The tool's reliability was calculated to be 0.79. A five-point Likert scale was used in the questionnaire. SPSS was used to analyze the data collected from the respondents (version-20). To explore the differences in the demographic of teachers' perspectives, descriptive and inferential statistics were used ( Table 1 ).

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Table 1 . Demographic statistics of all respondents.

Data analysis

The results demonstrated in Table 1 shows the demographics statistics of the responded. The demographic variables includes: gender, locality, qualification, professional qualification, teaching subjects and their teaching experience. The results shows that most of our responded in this study are male, living in the urban areas and having BS qualifications. As the professional quantification is compulsory for the teaching, our most of the responded have done B.Ed to fulfill the requirement. As for as our most of the college teachers are teaching arts subjects which are common in the multiple classes and they have teaching experience up to 10 years. Results demonstrated in Table 2 indicate that majority of the college teachers agreed that their principals use a democratic leadership style at a higher level (Mean = 4.52, SD = 1.212), and Laissez-faire at a moderate level (Mean = 3.55, SD = 1.053), and autocratic at a low level (Mean = 3.16, SD = 1.013). Based on said outcomes, this study has discovered that the majority of college principals practice a democratic style of leadership in their colleges. The below graphs also shows the leadership styles practiced by college principals in their colleges.

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Table 2 . Overall mean scores and standard deviation of college teachers' responses toward leadership style used by college principals ( N = 300).

A Pearson R correlation test was used to investigate the relationship between principals' leadership style and teachers' performance at the college level.

The results of Table 3 discovered that principals' leadership style had a positive relationship with teacher performance (r = 0.209). The result of p -value occurred as ( p = 0.000 < 0.000 and 0.05 levels). Based on said outcomes, it has been discovered that there had a significant and strong positive relationship between the independent variable (Leadership styles) and the dependent variable (Performance of the teachers). As a result, it has been discovered that when principals increase the use of a democratic leadership style, teacher performance may improve as well. Furthermore, when the principal includes teachers in the decision-making process, communicates well with them, and distributes work evenly, teachers' performance may also improve.

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Table 3 . Relationship with Principals' leadership style and teachers' performance.

Discussion and summary

This study has discovered that the majority of college principals practice a democratic style of leadership in their colleges. The research discovered a strong positive relationship between college principals' leadership styles and teacher performance. The majority of the teachers agreed that democratic leadership is used by principals in their administration. Teachers' performance improves when principals involve them in decision-making, courteously communicate with them, and properly delegate their responsibilities ( Tables 2 , 3 ).

College administration is crucial because colleges give education, which is critical for the country builders' financial, sociological, and ethical development. Any college with a bad administration will have a bad education, which will lead to the country's backwardness. Education is deemed to be important for the development of a country, as Panda (2001) has correctly stated that education empowers a country to achieve growth and respect for its citizens. This study's findings are consistent with Nanson's (2010) findings, which found that the democratic leadership style of college administrators has a positive impact on teachers' performance. These findings, as summarized by Okumu (2006) and Nanson (2010) , backed up the findings of this study, which found a positive association between college principals' leadership style and teacher performance. The findings of this study are also in line with the findings of Imhangbe et al. (2019) as they also discovered that democratic leadership style had a positive relationship with teachers' job performance. The results of our study also show that the principal democratic leadership style was the most frequent practice of leadership as perceived by the teachers, followed by the autocratic leadership style at the college level. Therefore, both styles of leadership exerted a statistically significant effect on the performance of teachers in college. Unsurprisingly, the practice of these two principals' leadership styles was found to be positive at the college level. On the other hand, the laissez-fair leadership style of the college principal was identified as unhelpful to the performance of teachers. Henceforth, the leadership style of college principals should be autocratic and/or democratic leadership styles in colleges to optimize the performance of teachers. Additionally, the findings of the study also suggest that college principals should encourage teachers to participate in their administration and decision-making.

This study has discovered that the majority of college principals practice a democratic style of leadership at a higher level, Laissez-faire at a moderate level, and autocratic at a low level in their colleges. Moreover, it has been also discovered that when principals increase the use of a democratic leadership style, teacher performance may improve as well. Furthermore, when the principal includes teachers in the decision-making process, communicates well with them, and distributes work evenly, teachers' performance may also improve. This study recommends that principals working in government colleges should increase their practice of the autocratic style of leadership for enhancing the performance of the teachers at the maximum level.

Limitations and study forward

This research study is limited to investigating the three leadership styles, autocratic, democratic, and laissez-faire practiced by the Principles in Pakistani colleges located in Punjab only. A comprehensive research study can be conducted by exploring other leadership styles in other provinces of Pakistan.

Data availability statement

The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.

Ethics statement

The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an, China. The patients/participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study.

Author contributions

US: conceptualization, data curation, validation, and writing—original draft. QY: funding acquisition. RT: investigation and resources. US and QY: methodology. US and RT: writing—review and editing. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

Acknowledgments

US would like to thank her parents, who supported her in this work. We thank the reviewers whose comments/suggestions helped to improve the quality and readability of this manuscript.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

The handling editor MA declared a shared affiliation with the author RT at the time of review.

Publisher's note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Supplementary material

The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.919693/full#supplementary-material

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Keywords: principal, leadership styles, teachers performance, college, Pakistan

Citation: Sarwar U, Tariq R and Yong QZ (2022) Principals' leadership styles and its impact on teachers' performance at college level. Front. Psychol. 13:919693. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.919693

Received: 13 April 2022; Accepted: 26 July 2022; Published: 06 September 2022.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2022 Sarwar, Tariq and Yong. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Qi Zhan Yong, qizhanyong@snnu.edu.cn

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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    Stay Affiliative. The affiliative style of leadership puts people first. It's a smart approach for most situations because people appreciate feeling valued and heard. Moreover, workplace morale is especially important in education, which relies on faculty and staff communicating directly and effectively with students and parents.

  5. Leadership Styles in Education: Nine Ways Educators Guide Talent

    1. Transformational Leadership Style. The transformational leadership style relies heavily on encouragement to inspire others to do their best and continue reaching for their goals. It is a style the resonates with teachers, as all teachers want their students to become the best version of themselves. In addition to providing support and ...

  6. Theories of Educational Leadership

    General Overview of Educational Leadership Styles and Related Theories. While literature on educational leadership styles and related leadership theories has been contested by scholars in works such as Spillane, et al. 2004, representative research discusses leadership styles as relevant to the field.Contributions on educational leadership styles provide reference points from which to begin a ...

  7. (PDF) Navigating Educational Leadership: Challenges, Styles, and

    Transformational, instructional, and distributed leadership styles emerge as pivotal in shaping educational institutions, with effective practices positively influencing teaching quality and student achievement. ... Themes related to educational leadership styles, challenges, impacts on teaching practices, and student outcomes were ...

  8. Leadership style and performance in higher education: the role of

    The credibility of higher education institutions hinges upon certain dynamic factors among which leadership has widely been considered and validated as the most critical in all respects. Similarly, leadership styles have been measured as the potential and significant predictor for various organizational outcomes.

  9. Frontiers

    The findings confirmed that teacher leadership styles are the most prevalent kind of leadership among instructors, followed by school leadership (Harris, 2002). Moreover, leadership styles significantly affect the teachers' performance in the institution, which affects the teaching and learning process (Eyal and Roth, 2011).

  10. Educational Leadership

    Educational leadership is defined as the quality and competence of exerting leading influence on educational organization members, teachers and faculty, students, and diverse stakeholders within and beyond certain educational organizations and settings toward the achievement of educational visions and goals. According to organizational levels ...

  11. Leadership Styles in Education

    Leadership styles are as unique as the individuals displaying them. Educators have the task of disseminating knowledge and instructing on various topics. How they do so changes from teacher to teacher. The education field has many leadership examples. A visionary leader, for example, may seek to start a group at work for colleagues to deal with ...

  12. PDF CHAPTER 6 Leading to Learn: School Leadership and Management Styles

    leadership style tend to develop professional development programmes for instructionally weak teachers. •In more than one quarter of TALIS countries, teachers whose school principal adopts a more pronounced instructional leadership style are more likely to engage in collaborative activities with their colleagues.

  13. The relation between leadership styles in higher education institutions

    The issue of leadership in higher education institutions, especially whether different leadership styles exist in higher education institutions, whether they are necessary, and whether the same theory and application framework is valid for the higher education sector as in other institutions (Siddique et al., 2011; Amzat and Idris, 2012 ...

  14. A review on leadership and leadership development in educational

    1. Introduction. Leadership in education often stands in the spotlight, mostly because of growing responsibilities for school principals and the accountability-driven context they work in (Hitt & Tucker, 2016; Leithwood, 2010; Muijs, 2010).The management of schools is of vital importance to public administration as in OECD-countries (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) on ...

  15. Strategy and Strategic Leadership in Education: A Scoping Review

    Strategy and strategic leadership are critical issues for school leaders. However, strategy as a field of research has largely been overlooked within the educational leadership literature. Most of the theoretical and empirical work on strategy and strategic leadership over the past decades has been related to non-educational settings, and scholarship devoted to these issues in education is ...

  16. Educational Ethical Leadership: Characteristics and Styles

    Educational ethical leadership is related to respect for values and supporting the dignity and rights of others. Ethical leaders create school cultures governed by fair, clearly articulated expectations, rather than cultures driven by personalities or politics (Göçen, 2021).Educational ethical leadership is the conscious decision, and it means that employees' behavior is oriented to ...

  17. Frontiers

    Additionally, the following are the leadership styles used by educational leaders: Autocratic, Democratic, and Laissez-Faire. ... Any business, including educational institutions, can benefit from this sort of leadership. This approach emphasizes the importance of all members of the group participating in the decision-making process ...

  18. Educational Leadership and the Impact of Societal Culture on Effective

    These studies facilitate a better understanding of educational leadership styles and behaviours in different countries and cultures, but do not necessarily help leaders who seek guidance related to culturally diverse school communities, and in particular culturally diverse staff. ... These reports confirm the need for the institutions that ...

  19. Schools and Institutional Leadership in Action: A Systematic Literature

    Selznick (1957/1984) recognised that institutions require a particular type of leadership that is concerned with the promotion and protection of values. Although not a new theory, institutional leadership has not received much attention by both researchers and practitioners since its formation, which has given way to the more familiar concepts ...

  20. Investigating Leadership Styles and Their Impact on the Success of

    the school have an impact on the effectiveness of school leadership. In a school, the principal is the leader who builds a strong team that performs the delegated. tasks accountably. An effective ...

  21. (PDF) Impacts of Different Leadership Styles on the Performance of

    correlation between educational institution improvement and transformational leadership. Consequently, n=79 basic eligibilit y requirements were eliminated. Therefore, n =167 was

  22. PDF Managing educational institutions: School heads' leadership practices

    Weighted means were employed to establish the levels of leadership practices of school leaders and the performance of teachers. To decide how different variables are associated with each other, the T-test, F-test, post-hoc tests, and Pearson r were utilized. 3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION. 3.1.

  23. The Relationship Between School Administrators' Leadership Styles

    Educational institutions are one of the most important organizational structures, for which both input and products are basically "human." Therefore, schools are organized to meet the needs of the information age of the 21st century and to identify, select, and educate students who have leadership potential. ... and the level of the laissez ...

  24. Leadership Styles, Role, And Opportunities; Reflection In Educational

    Leadership is the key factor in organizing managing and uplifting an organization. It has wider implications for every aspect of life, especially in the educational paradigm.