PRINCIPALS’ ETHICAL LEADERSHIP PRACTICES AS CORRELATE OF TEACHERS’ JOB PERFORMANCE IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN ANAMBRA STATE

Abstract

The study investigated principals’ ethical leadership practices as correlate of teachers’ job performance in public secondary schools in Anambra State. The study was guided by three research questions and three null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 alpha level. Correlational research design was adopted for this study. The population of the study comprised 7,027 teachers in 267 public secondary schools in Anambra State. Multistage sampling procedure was used to draw 786 teachers for the study. Two sets of instruments titled Principals’ Ethical Leadership Practices Questionnaire (PELPQ) and Teachers’ Job Performance Questionnaire (TJPQ) were used for data collection. The instruments were face validated by three experts of which two were from the Department of Educational Management and Policy, and one in Measurement and Evaluation Unit in the Department of Educational Foundations, all from the Faculty of Education, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka. Cronbach alpha method was used for a test of internal consistencies of the instruments which yielded overall coefficient value of 0.80 and 0.79 for PELPQ and TJPQ respectively. The instruments were administered by the researcher and three research assistants and 97% return rate was recorded. Data collected were analyzed using Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Coefficient to answer the research questions and test of correlation to test hypotheses. The findings of the study revealed among others that ethical guidance and orientation practices have strong and significant relationships with teachers’ job performance in public secondary schools in Anambra State. It was also found that there is moderate correlation between principals’ ethical power sharing practices and teachers’ job performance in secondary schools in Anambra State. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that principals should organize periodic meetings, constitute committee and delegate authority to members of staff as means of fostering ethical power sharing practices that can contribute to increase in job performance of teachers.