Leadership types among secondary school principals in the south-eastern state of Nigeria

The Leader Behaviour Description Questionnaire – Form Twelve – was used for the first time in Nigeria to identify leadership types among principals of secondary schools in the South-Eastern State of Nigeria. The questionnaire was completed by 182 graduate teachers and 30 secondary schools. Findings show that transactional leadership is perceived as the dominant type in the secondary school system of south-eastern Nigeria. This is followed by system, and then person oriented leadership respectively in that order. Further analysis shows that even when teachers were categorized by qualification, experience, sex, religion, age and school environment, their perception did not change. These findings point to some important implications for educational management: first in terms of training educational administrators for position of leadership, and then more specifically, in terms of the criteria necessary for selecting persons to duty posts in educational organisations in Nigeria. Ref., tables.