Secondary school education and society: Principals’ leadership styles’ impact on teachers’ productivity rate in Delta State, Nigeria

Education is important to every society because it is the foundation of development. Likewise, the type of leadership in place in any stratum of society determines the development and productivity rate of such a society. Thus, this study is an assessment of the impact of Principals’ leadership styles on teachers’ productivity rate in secondary schools in parts of Delta State. The need to embark on the research is motivated by the low level of productivity amongst secondary school teachers, amid others. The research intended to capture the effect of autocratic, democratic and laissez-faire leadership styles on the productivity rate of secondary school teachers based on how Principals use them. The study was founded on Argyis’ immaturity maturity continuum theory. The population of the study was 90 respondents while Pie-Charts, degrees, and simple percentages were used for data analysis. The data were generated from direct field measurement, with a Questionnaire as an instrument for data collection. The findings show that the type of leadership with which a Principal runs his school can affect the productivity of teachers and that when teachers are involved in making decisions that affect their work, their productivity level increases. Based on the findings, it was recommended that Principals should operate people-oriented and democratic styles of leadership for Secondary schools’ teachers’ productivity to increase.