Teachers` perceptions of the principal`s leadership behavior and the school discipline

Abstract

This study aims to determine the leadership behavior of the secondary school principals as perceived by their teachers by using the Leadership Behavior Description Questionnaire (LBDQ). It also attempts to measure the effects of independent variables namely gender of teachers and principals, academic qualifications, teaching experience on the dependent variables of Initiation Structure and Consideration of principals. The secondary purpose of this study is to investigate and determine the relationship between teachers' perceptions of their principals' leadership behavior and schools' discipline problems. This study involved 254 teachers who were chosen from five secondary schools in the district of Kuala Kangsar, Perak. The data collected were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 8.0. The findings revealed that there is significant difference in the perceptions of Initiation Structure of principals based on the gender of teachers (t = 3.183, p = 0.002) and gender of principals (t = -3.330, p 0.001). There is also significant difference in the perceptions of Consideration of principals based on the gender of principals ( t = - 2.597, p = 0.010) and teaching experience of teachers (F = 6.873, p = 0.001). The seriousness of the school discipline problems is found to be lowly and negatively but significantly correlated to ·Initiation Structure (r = -0.152, p = 0.015) and Considerati9n (r = -0.315, p = 0.000) of principals.