A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON DOMINANT LEADERSHIP STYLE PRACTICES IN PRIVATE AND GOVERNMENT SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN JIGJIGA CITY ADMINISTRATION, ETHIOPIA

Abstract

The aim of this study was to compare the dominant leadership styles in private and government secondary schools in Jigjiga city administration. One hundred (100) teachers through simple random sampling and forty two (42) school leaders through purposive sampling were selected from each sector of secondary schools in Jigjiga city administration. The study employed descriptive survey design. The study used closed ended questionnaire to collect data from school leaders and teachers of both sector. Frequency, percentage, mean score and t-test were used to analyze the data. The finding of the study revealed that autocratic, democratic and laissez-faire leadership styles are being practiced collectively at a similar level in private secondary schools while laissez-faire leadership style is the most practiced when compared to the autocratic and democratic leadership style in government secondary schools. Based on the study, there was no significant difference in autocratic, laissez faire and democratic leadership styles in public and private secondary schools while autocratic leadership style is the most preferred leadership style by the follower’s in the government secondary schools and democratic and laissez faire leadership styles were the most preferred leadership styles by the followers in the private secondary schools. Based on the findings it was recommended that principals of private secondary schools should strengthen the mixture of the three leadership styles and the principals of government secondary school should not stick to a specific leadership style. It was concluded that an autocratic, democratic and laissez-faire leadership style was equally practiced by the private secondary school leaders while laissez-faire leadership style is the most dominant leadership style practiced by school leaders of the government secondary schools. Teachers of government secondary schools believed that their leaders mostly practiced laissez faire and autocratic leadership style, while democratic leadership style is fairly practiced, teachers of private secondary schools believed that their leaders fairly practiced autocratic, democratic and laissez faire leadership style at similar. It’s recommended that school leaders should practice democratic leadership style up to the satisfaction of teachers and school leaders of private secondary schools should keep on practicing a mixture of all the leadership styles as a good leader is characterized by mixing all the leadership