From traditional leadership to transformative leadership: A conceptual study on the Leadership Style of the School Principals

Introduction: The effectiveness of a school is largely dependent upon its principal. His behavior influences the way a school functions. The most crucial factor in any school is the leadership behavior of the principal and how the principal carries out his leadership behavior and how that reflects the efficiency of school functioning. Today one can notice there is a phenomenal change in the leadership behavior of the principal. Now the environment they are working in is very competitive, advanced, and technical. There are a lot of risks they are encountering in every situation to give their school a sustainable future. In one way they have to address the expectation of society and in the other, they are to meet the expectation of the management. Though their position is tough yet they have to continue their performance up to the satisfaction of the stakeholders. Rationale: The previous research studies were mostly centered on a traditional concept of the leadership style of the principal, which narrows down the role of the principal, and most considered him an instructional leader. Considering this is a research gap the researchers conducted qualitative research on the transformative leadership style of the principal. The ethnographic interview and ethnographic observation established the authenticity and internal consistency of the data and the results thus derived were with a high level of validity. Objective: The purpose of the study was to study the leadership behavior of the school principal concerning transformative leadership style and also to compare the effectiveness of transformative leadership styles concerning the outcomes of the school. Methods: This is a Qualitative Research (QR). Considering the nature of the research, the researchers decided to use a typical research design named concept analysis, since the research tries to identify the insight of the principal towards transformative leadership style through the opinion of their staff members. Research Tools: The Researcher prepared an interview schedule with the questions which were modified from the original questionnaire named, Leadership Behaviors Development Questionnaire (LBDQ) developed by Ohio State University, USA. Data Collection techniques: The data was collected through an Ethnographic interview and Ethnographic observation schedule over an extended period and the writing of extensive field notes by the researchers. Data analysis and interpretation: As this is a qualitative research design, after the data was collected, an in-depth analysis was done, to remove data redundancy, bring stability to the opinion of the respondents, to compare & contrast the opinion of the participants in non-contrived situations. Results: It was found that mostly the principals of urban-based secondary schools are much more aware, motivated, and active in the implementation of transformational leadership style compared to their counterparts in the schools located in the rural area. Again, the ethnographic observations reported that there was a very significant relationship between transformative leadership and the job satisfaction of the staff members. The attrition rate of the staff member was found less and the performance of the school was also continuously better compared to the school leaders having a negative mindset towards transformation. It was also found that transformative leaderships are good for emotional control, social adjustment, and creativity in the professional environment. It was also revealed that the schools with transformative leadership are more advanced in the achievements of many key performance indicators (KPIs). Conclusion: The study concluded that it is very much indispensable for the principals to understand the expectations of the stakeholders and bring innovation to the school. This is required to bring sustainability to the school and rise in a competitive environment.