Impact Of Principals’ Transformational Leadership Style On Public Secondary School Students’ Academic Performance In Lari Sub-County, Kiambu County

Abstract

The aim of this project was to explore the significance of principal’s transformational leadership style on student’s academic performance in Lari Sub County. Transformational leadership is a theory of behaviours and traits focused on the interaction between leaders and followers of an organization (Avolio, 1999). It constitutes of four components: idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration. In the corporate world, transformational leaders have been associated with high performance in the corporate world. Limited study has been done in Kenya on transformational leadership and academic performance and none in Lari Sub-county. This study sort to explore the impact of transformational leadership by the principal on academic performance. It also tested the impact of confounding variables including Principal’s gender, age, education level and duration of stay at same school. The study was carried out in Lari sub-county. With a small homogeneous target population, purposive sampling was used. Characteristics of transformational leadership were measured on a sample of principals through self and others assessment using MLQ. Relationship of variables was tested using SPSS. Linear regression approach was used to determine whether principal’s transformational leadership had a significant influence on academic performance. Principal’s idealized influence was found to have a correlation of 31.7% with academic performance. The r-square value indicated that a principal’s idealized influence explained 10.0% of the total variation in academic performance. The regression model was significant in explaining the relationship between the variables, F = 12.073, p = 0.049 < 0.05. Principal’s inspirational motivation had a correlation of 39.3% with academic performance. The r-square value indicated that a principal’s inspirational motivation explained 15.5% of the total variation in academic performance. Regression model was significant in explaining the relationship between the variables, F = 10.411, p = 0.043 < 0.05. Principal’s intellectual stimulation had a correlation of 54.6% with academic performance. The r-square value indicated that a principal’s intellectual stimulation explained 29.8% of the total variation in academic performance. The regression model was significant in explaining the relationship between the variables, F = 13.723, p = 0.028 < 0.05. Principal’s individualized consideration had a correlation of 45.6% with academic performance. The r-square value indicated that a principal’s individualized consideration explained 20.7% of the total variation in academic performance. The regression model was significant in explaining the relationship between the variables, F = 11.171, p = 0.041 < 0.05. The study revealed that the principal’s transformational leadership had positive impacts on students’ academic performance.