School principal's leadership style : a factor affecting staff absenteeism in secondary schools

Abstract

Teacher absenteeism is a persistent problem in many countries as it tends to reduce the quality of education and results in poor performance of students. The purpose of this study was to assess whether principal's leadership style had a relationship with absenteeism among teachers in secondary schools in Baringo County, Kenya. The objectives of the study were; to assess the effect of transformational leadership style on teacher absenteeism, and to establish the effect of transactional leadership style on teacher absenteeism. A survey research design was used for this study. The institutions studied were selected using stratified random sampling technique. The two strata considered were public and private secondary schools. A modified Multi-factor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) was used to determine leadership style of the principal. The leadership styles were identified as the independent variable, while absenteeism was the dependent variable. There was a significant negative linear relationship between transformational leadership style and absenteeism (R2=0.854, β=-0.927, t=13.283, F=176.4, and p=0.000), and a significant positive linear relationship between transactional leadership style and absenteeism (R2=0.665, β=0.823, t=7.790, F=60.70, and p=0.000). It was therefore concluded that principal's leadership style influences absenteeism.