RESEARCH METHODOLOGY EDU 702

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LEADERSHIP STYLE OF THE HEADMASTERS AND THE SCHOOL CLIMATE

OF PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN KLANG

PREPARED BY:

SITI KHALIJAH BINTI ZAINOL 2013977165

PREPARED FOR:

DR. JOHAN @ EDDY LUARAN

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CHAPTER 1: THE BACKGROUND INFORMATION

1.1 INTRODUCTION

The increasing numbers of people who had higher educations are becoming the main

focus of a lot of countries nowadays. Yet, in the world with changes happen so quickly, making

more of the similar education will not be adequate to tackle the trials that will be met in the

future. Many countries demand for a better achievement from their schools. The roles of the

headmasters are growing more and more according to the change of the time. The headmasters

play an important role to ensure the schools will become the most efficient place for the pupils to

receive their formal education.

Education is designated by (Gallagher & Kirk, 1983) as the reflection of the civilization,

presenting its powers, flaws, expectations, prejudices and important standards of its culture.

Therefore, it plays a critical part in the growth of the individual, society and nations at large.

In Malaysia, education can be attained through the public school system that offer free

education for all Malaysian citizens, private schools, or even homeschooling. Granting to the

law, elementary education for all Malaysian children is required. As of 30th April 2014, there

about 7,757 primary schools and 2,375 secondary schools in Malaysia. It showed that the

government of Malaysia has taken serious about education. The government allocates a big

allocation for the education every year. Education in Malaysia is recognized as an ongoing effort

to raise up the potentials to produce the all-rounded and balanced individuals in term of intellect,

spirit, physical and emotional. The objectives of this effort are to produce educated and

accountable citizens who can give back to the community and the nation.

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School is an important place where the teaching and learning takes place. A school is an

educational organizations that offer primary and secondary education. In other word, it is a place

to educate the children. There are no fixed guidelines when the children should start their

preschool education. Nevertheless, most of the parents in Malaysia will send their kids to the

preschool at the years of 5. The majority of the preschool education providers is from the private

preschools. However, in that respect are some of the preschool conduct by the government or

religious group. Elementary education starts at the age of seven. The pupils need to serve the

elementary education for 6 years. There are two types of elementary school; Malay-medium

National Schools and Non-Malay-medium National-type Schools or known as vernacular

schools. The vernacular schools are divided into two which are National-type Schools (Chinese)

and National-type Schools (Tamil). At the end of year 6 of schooling, the pupil will sit for the

Primary School Achievement Test. After completing the elementary education, the students will

further their studies in secondary education. The students spend 5 years before the complete their

secondary education. Secondary education is divided into two categories which are lower form

(Form 1 until Form 3) and upper form (Form 4 until Form 5). At the end of Form 3, the pupils

have to seat for Lower Secondary Education and at the end of Form 5, the students will sit for the

Malaysian Certificate of Education.

Freiberg and Stein (1999) perceived that the schools are including the students, teachers,

programmed time for the learning and other activities and ranked administration structure. The

highest position in the school is the headmaster/principal. Hence, the headmaster/principal has a

huge obligation to make sure the school is running smoothly. Generally, there are some

similarities in the function of the schools. The similarities are in the organizational and

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management structures. However, every school has their own roles and functions, and the effects

that affected the children in the schools. Some schools are better compared than others. The

researchers believed that the school that manage to perform above the average and able to

achieve above average in academic has the above average students’ behaviour. It implies that

there is a relationship between students’ behaviour and the students’ achievement.

The deviation in students’ behaviour and academic results are influenced by the

headmaster/principal (Dunklee, 2000). The headmaster/principal conducts their schools from

his/her principles and standards. The school activities are grounded by the decisions of the

headmaster/principal. The headmaster is capable to influence the behaviour of the people in the

organization. It is almost inconceivable that the schools can do well without the efficacious and

efficient leader. In a nutshell, the headmaster/principal has an accountability towards the

students, staffs and teachers in the school to create a positive school climates that assists the

efficacy of teaching and learning activities.

According to (Wilmore, 2002), the headmasters play miscellaneous roles. The

headmasters are accountable for implementing the policy of education, monitoring all school

activities and promising that their schools operate efficiently. According to (Hargreaves & Fink,

2003), the tasks of the headmasters are separated into two functions which are instructional and

leadership.nstructional and leadership. The instructional role emphases on the training and

education of children by generating inspiring and exciting actions that underpin the development

of the children to become dynamic people. The leadership role mainly includes organizations'

management that involved students and teachers and judgement.

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Goleman (2000) suggested the Six Leadership Styles. He found that, the

headmaster/principal uses one of the leadership style at any time based on the suitability. The Six

Leadership Styles are such as commanding, visionary, affiliative, democratic, pacesetting and

coaching. In 1930s, a psychologist named Kurt Lewin established his leadership style

framework. Then, the framework has become the basis of many methodologies later. He claimed

that there are three main leadership styles. There are autocratic, democratic and laissez faire. The

leadership styles can be open or close, flexible or rigid, manipulative or participatory and product

driven or process driven.

Leadership style is one of the main factors in considering and setting up the school

climate in a school. The creation of the school climate is started by the headmaster/principal.

Then, it is replicated in the rapport among the teachers and between the teachers and the

students. It means that, the headmaster is responsible to create the school atmosphere that he/she

desires through his/her behaviour.

1.2 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

A school climate study identifies that climate is one of the few serious issues that has

been recognized for improving success of a school. One significant factor that influence school

climate is headmaster leadership style.

Thus, this study will emphase on the relationship between leadership style and school

climate. Leadership is important to assure the school has the positive and open school climate.

By applying the appropriate leadership style, it can assist the school to reach its goals and

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objectives. Thus, it is important for the headmaster/principal to know and recognize the style of

the leadership and when is the appropriate time to use it.

Best practices in educating the student changes as the educational procedures and

processes is shifting as well. Hence, the leadership style also evolves and develops from time to

time. Through the progress of the leadership style, the headmaster/principal also improves the

way they influence the teachers and the ambiance of the school.

Mazarella and Smith (1989) declare that some of the headmaster/principal apply an

autocratic, democratic and the laissez-faire leadership style. An effective school leader must

become actively involved in curricular and instructional events that directly touch on student

achievement (Cotton, 2003).

Hoy and Sabo (1998) noted that there are numerous types of school climate. The

characters of the school climate are such an open climate, an independent climate, a controlled

climate, a familiar climate, an authoritarian climate or a closed climate. Thus, the leadership style

may affect the climate of a school. In other word, a school leader is responsible to produce a

healthy, strong and safe surroundings in which pupils are contented and ready to learn

meanwhile the teachers are enthusiastic to work together to reach the school’s mission and goals.

1.3 STATEMENT OF THE RESEARCH PROBLEM

According to Murphy (2005), leadership is one of the critical elements of school

transformation for more than 25 years. To change a school, the headmaster/principal must use

the most appropriate leadership style to insure an active and efficient learning environment. A

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headmaster needs to possess a skill to assess and measure the impact of their own mode of

leadership. The changes in a particular school sometimes depend on the headmaster.

A headmaster must have a clear focus and understanding of what is the instructional

practice that already have in the school and what is their expectations in order to change the

school. Janc and Appelbaum (2004) summarized that the understanding is implied on inferring

data, examining the plans and choosing proper methods. In addition, the efficient school

leadership is usually related with better-quality student accomplishment, excellence learning and

school climate (Waters, Marzano, & McNulty, 2004). According to Bulach, Boothe and Picket

(2006), an initial sign of school climate and students accomplishment is a reflection of the

headmaster’s/principal’s behaviour.

O’Hanlon and Clifton (2004) stated that a positive school climate cannot be created based

on the headteacher’s expectations, examples and beliefs only in order to shape the climate of the

school. Many researchers claimed that the leadership style of the school leaders influences the

climate of the schools. Thus, this research proposal will investigate the relationship between the

leadership style and school climate.

Since there are numerous outcomes of the relationship between leadership style of the

headmasters and the school climate, hence another study should be conducted in order to find out

the precise relationship between the leadership of the headmasters and the school climate.

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1.4 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

The research objectives of this proposal are such below:

1.4.1 To investigate the leadership style of the headmasters Klang primary schools.

1.4.2 To analyse the school climate of the primary schools in Klang.

1.4.3 To investigate the relationship between leadership style and the school climate.

1.4.4 To identify the ways to improve the school climate.

1.5 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

Here are the research questions of this proposal.

1.5.1 What are the style of leadership applied by headmasters?

1.5.2 How is the school climate of in the primary schools in Klang?

1.5.3 What are the inferences of the headmaster’s leadership styles for school climate?

1.5.4 What are the roles of the headmasters in order to improve the school climate? How can

school climate be improved?

1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The outcome of this proposal will contribute to knowledge which might explain the

relationship between leadership style and the school climate. Many previous researchers believe

that the beginning of the improvement of the teachers’ and students’ performance is by

improving the school climate. The finding of this study also will disclose how the headmaster

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altering the leadership style to create a positive school climate. The finding of this study also will

help the headmaster to know more about their own style of leadership.

1.7 OPERATIONAL DEFINITIONS

These following definitions are used in this study:

1.7.1 Leadership Style

Leadership style is defined as the way a leader leads which is reflected on how their

leadership is communicated, implementation of power and authority and to what extend these

will affect the teachers and other staff (Mazarella and Smith, 1989). In other word, the leadership

style can be described the way of the leader inspires his/her follower by forcing or encouraging

his/her subordinates.

Hersey and Blanchard (1993) summarized that the leader nurtures his/her leadership style

through experience, education and training as well. According to these authors, they found that

leadership style is more to distinguish of the subordinates on their leader’s behaviour.

Commonly, the evaluation of the teachers towards the leadership styles of the school leader is

usually based on how the school leader leads the school.

For the purpose of this study, the leadership means the action of leading a group of

people or organization, or the ability to do that.

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1.7.2 School Climate

School climate refers to the quality and atmosphere of the school. It is an overall concept

that refers to teachers’ awareness of the school’s work setting that affected by the formal

organization, informal organization and politics. According to Hoy and Miskel (2001), school

climate is a set of internal characteristics and beliefs, values and attitudes of pupils and staff

members, school leaders and parents, the level of freedom, style of leadership and job

satisfaction. As a conclusion, school climate means the school’s environment that primarily

effects by the school leader and explains on how the perception of the teachers and pupils

towards the values and school attitudes.

The school climate may differ from each other. In some schools, we can feel the friendly,

welcoming and reassuring environment and whereas in some schools, we feel the negative aura

such as unfriendly, inhospitable and insecure. The moods and the aura that are stimulated by a

school’s atmosphere are known as school climate. It is hard to offer a brief meaning for school

climate but most researchers decide that it is a multidimensional idea that comprises physical,

social, and academic dimensions.

For the purpose of this study, school climate refers to the quality and personality of the

school and it reflects to standards, aims, morals, social relationships, teaching and learning

practices and organizational configurations.

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1.7.3 School Leader

A head teacher or school leader is defined as the individual who lead and supervises the

activities of the school and dwell in the position of the school leader (University of Leicester,

1994). Chapman and Synder (1997) mentioned that, head teacher is an “influential gatekeeper”

that plays important roles in forming the school and emerging mutual goals, supporting

cooperative work structures and encouraging learning climate. The school leader is working as

the individual who has power and responsible to regulate the values believed by the school.

For the purpose of this a school leader refers to an individual who leads the capacities and

capabilities of the teachers, students, parents and staff towards the shared educational goals.

1.7.4 Primary Schools

There are 6 years of education in primary schools. It starts at the age of seven and ends at

the age of twelve. It refers to Year 1 to Year 6. There are two classified in primary schools

which known as Level 1 that consists Year 1 until Year 6 and Level 2 comprises Year 4 until the

year 6. Pupils will be promoted to the next year without looking at their academic performance

(Ministry of Education, 2014). For the design of this study, the primary schools refer to the

schools which involved the children age seven to twelve years old.

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1.8 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

There are a few limitations of the study that has been identified. The first limitation is the

respondents. The respondents for this study are the teachers in the primary schools in Klang. The

genders, years of teaching and the length of periods that they have been working in that school

might affect their perceptions of headmaster’s leadership style.

The second limitation is the sample size. The sample size of the study can be considered

as small because it is limited to 100 samples only. Some of the teachers are not choosing to

become the sample because a few of them might have not in the school for some reasons.

Besides, the third limitation is the place of the study conducted. The survey will be

conveyed in the primary schools in Klang Districts. Consequently, the results cannot be applied

to exemplify the relationship in the whole state of Selangor.

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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 INTRODUCTION

In this chapter, the researcher discussed in some of the literature reviews pertaining to the

leadership and school climate. The function of the literature review is to possess a full

understanding of a concept of leadership style, to inspect different leadership styles to figure out

the efficiency of each mode and how the relationship among the individuals in the school

affected. Also, it discusses on the school climate whereby it focused on the type of school

climate.

2.2 LEADERSHIP

Leadership is the one of the most topic that has been discussed by the researchers.

Leadership is an important element to ensure the success of the organization. According to

Adlam (2003), leadership is a complex and difficult concept. It is because the success of the

organization is based on the approaches that occupied by the organizational leader.

(Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, 2006) defined leadership as the act of leading a

group of people or an organization, or the capability to do this. It is also expressed as the position

of being the leader. In other words, the leaders apply their powers and controls over the followers

and subordinates to attain their support and cooperation (Anderson, Ford and Hamilton 1998).

Schermerhorn, Hunt and Osbonr (2008) said that, leadership is an interpersonal influence

that used by the leader to make the individuals, groups or people to do what the leader desires.

As a consequence, the leaders are focusing on what he/she wants from their subordinates and the

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input from the subordinates is not stimulated. However, Maxwell (1999) objected this opinion.

According to him, the attention of the leaders is to build the better rapport with the subordinates

in order to promote and increase the organizational productivity.

There is another view of the leadership dimension. According to Sergiovanni (1999), the

leadership consists three elements; heart, head and hand. Consistent with the opinions, he

believes that beliefs, values and visions are the heart of the leadership. The experiences that

gathered over some period of the time and the capability to recognize the current situation is the

head of the leadership. Lastly, the hand of the leadership means that the actions and decisions

that has been employed by the leader.

In the new contemporary context, Dubrin (1998) believed that leadership is the capability

of the leader to inspire his/her followers who are expected to reach the organizational aims. This

effort related to the transformation, inspiration and motivation. It can be concluded that the

leader’s mission is to form followers’ confidence in their job so as to be active on their line of

work. In addition, the leaders are responsible to explain the clear picture of what the organization

should be, persuade the followers and direct all actions toward achieving it.

In a nutshell, the leader is expected to continuously produce new ideas to increase

efficiency and output within the organization. The leader is demanded to serve desired

strategies for implementing the ideas/vision and inspire subordinates to complete the vision by

using their own creativities to enhance their relationship in and outside the school.

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2.3 THE IMPORTANCE OF LEADERSHIP

The deficiency of leadership can be a disaster. Due to lack of leadership, organizations

move gradually, decay, and it may be failed. Most of the research about organizations emphases

on decision-making and suggests that if decision-making is appropriate, complete, and accurate,

the things will blend smoothly.

Sashkin and Sashkin (2000) claimed that the leadership is important because the leaders

help to shrink the doubt and hesitation in organizations or society. Leaders use positive actions to

complete long-term objectives and deliver strong positive causes for their actions, goals and

accomplishments. These scholars believed that the effective leaders can bring the changes in

peoples’ life, inspire the followers and teach them to make sense by captivating suitable actions

that can assist transformation.

Schermerhorn et al. (2000) preserve that leadership is the core of any organization

because it concludes the accomplishment or catastrophe of the organization. In an organization

such as a school, the significance of the leadership is replicated in each part of the school. The

school leader is capable to avoid disturbing behaviour by encouraging positive relationship by

employing various methods to produce a harmless and compassionate environment.

Leadership is important to transform the school to be succeed. This finding can be found

in a report by Barker (2001), which describes the school leader as an individual that able to

produce the desired atmosphere to stimulate the possible motivation off the staff and students.

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He also mentioned that the good and efficient school leader can transform the school, which had

a lack of directions to be the joyful, goal-oriented and industrious school.

Cunningham and Cordeiro (2000) and Tirozzi (2001) declare that the school leader is a

focus of all school upgrading initiatives in teaching and learning. Hence, the school leader is a

change agent for school triumph and the nonstop development in organizational performance. If

the school leaders is unable to be productive and vision-oriented, the school improvement will

just stay as a fantasy.

2.4 LEADERSHIP THEORIES

Over some period of time, a few theories of leadership have been recommended. Some of

the leadership theories are such below:

2.4.1 Great Man and Trait Theories

The great man theory is based on the ideas that the great leader is born, not made. This

theory is frequently described the leader as a hero and destiny to have the desired leadership. It

is based on the judgment that the leaders are accurate and leadership is deep-rooted in the ability

of their justice. Leaders are raised by their supporters due to the inimitable talents that do not

have on others.

Trait theories is related to the great man theory. Trait theories believe that certain people

possess some qualities and traits that make them suitable to be a leader. Trait theories often

recognize specific persona or behavioral characteristics shared by leaders. Trait leadership is

defined as combined designs of personal appearances that disclose a variety of individual

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differences and raise reliable leader efficiency across a variety of group and organizational

situations (Zaccaro, Kemp, & Bader, 2004).

The theory of trait leadership established for primary leadership research which mainly

attentive on finding a group of transmissible characteristics that distinguished leaders from

nonleaders. Leader effectiveness refers to what extent of a leader can influence the individual or

group performance, followers’ pleasure, and success as a whole (Derue, Nahrgang, Wellman, &

Humphrey, 2011).

Zaccaro and colleagues (2004) produced a model to comprehend the traits of the leader

and their consequence on the performance. The model is based on other models of leader traits

and leader effectiveness and it is depicted in the figure below (Mumford, Zaccaro, Harding,

Fleishman, & Reiter-Palmon, 1993; Mumford, Zaccaro, Harding, et al., 2000).The first principle

is that leadership arises from the collective influence of numerous qualities to develop the

independent evaluation of traits. Zaccaro (2001) claimed that effective leadership is resulting

from an interconnected set of thinking capabilities, social capabilities and disposition trends,

with every set of qualities accumulation to the others influence. The second principle is the

leader traits vary in their central of influence on leaders.

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Figure 1

2.4.2 Behavioural Theories

Behavioural theories are grounded on the assumption that the great leader is made, not

born. The root of the behavioural theory is based on the actions of the leader not the mental

quality that possess by the leaders. In this theory, the scholars believe that the people can learn

how to become a leader through experience, teaching and observation.

Hersey and Blanchard (1988) report that the behavioural method was started at the

University of Michigan and Ohio State University in 1945. Several studies were done to find out

the behaviours of the leader that responsible for the success. Therefore, their findings expose two

forms of leaders’ behaviours. The two forms are task-oriented leaders and people oriented

leaders.

The task-oriented leaders are concentrating on the structure of the organization and the

operating procedure. Task-oriented leaders are nonetheless concerned about the motivation of

their subordinates; however, it's not their core concern (Schermerhon et al., 2000). The people

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oriented leaders are concentrating on their behaviors to secure that they fulfilled the internal

needs of the people. Thus, they will pursue to encourage their subordinates through stressing on

the human rapport. People oriented leaders still focus on the task and the consequences but they

execute them through varied methods.

2.4.3 Situational and Contingency Theories

Situational theories suggest that leaders select the best direction of action according to the

situational variables. Different styles of leadership may be more proper for some kinds of

decision-making. For instance, in a situation where the leader is the most well-informed and

experienced member in that particular group, an authoritarian style of leadership might be the

most desirable. In other cases where group members are skilful and experts, a democratic style

would be more efficient.

Meanwhile, contingency theories are focused on particular variables that related to the

atmosphere that might control the particular style of leadership that suited best in that situation.

According to scholars in this theory, they claimed that no leadership style is best in all

circumstances.

According to Hoy and Miskel (2001), they suggest that the situational characteristics of a

school have more impacts than a leader’s behaviour on leadership efficacy. Thus, it can be

concluded that, a few types of leadership can be applied according to the situation and people.

2.4.4 The New Leadership Perspectives

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Due to the arguments that there were no leadership style is the best, some scholars came

up with the new perspectives of the leadership. The answer of the requirement for the best

initiative to enhance the performance of the organization, new point of view have risen. The new

point of view of leadership perspective is charismatic and transformational theories. The new

leadership methodologies are the key answer in order to change people and organization to

accomplish the outcomes needed (Sashkin and Sashkin 2003).

2.5 LEADERSHIP STYLES

Leadership is focused more on the needs of the people and the organization that we are

heading rather than the needs of our own. Leadership styles cannot attempted on in order to

discover which titles that suit best. Instead, they ought to be adapted to the specific requests of

the circumstances, the specific requirements of the individuals included and the specific

difficulties confronting by the system.

Leaders show leadership in numerous parts. Some of the character made for by the

leaders are such as expressing and bringing forth the goals and purposes, creating social systems,

handling and inspiring staffs and offering leadership (Daresh, 2002). Leadership styles can be

recognized by their stylistic characteristics, an inherent leadership point of thought and a lot of

administration aptitudes regular of every trend.

2.5.1 Transactional Leadership

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The transactional leadership was first designed by Max Weber in 1947. And so, it was

promoted by Bernard M. Bass in 1981. The transactional leadership was made based on the

premises that the subordinates are inspired by the rewards and punishment schemes. For

instances, the staff will be paid back if they can reach the target, meanwhile for those who were

unable to achieve it, will be penalized. It is seconded by Bass (1990) that a transactional leader

reaches the target objectives by giving incentives for those who are capable to match

expectations. The rewards may be in the form of salary increment, appreciation or bonus.

Employees who are ineffective to meet the expectations, however, will incur their penalty. Such

dealings or exchanges; the promise of incentive for good execution, and discipline for poor

performance is characterizes effective transactional leadership (Bass, Avolio, Jung and Berson,

2003).

Thus, transactional leadership is less attractive because the leader depends on the inactive

administration by granting immunity. Administration by exemption is, "when leaders deal with

the staffs by concentrating on errors, postponing judgments, or escaping intervening till

something has got awry, or remunerations focused on acknowledgement if the work completed"

(Howell & Avolio, p. 892). This can be concluded that the leader only communicates with his

staffs when they were unable to satisfy the criteria and procedures that has been set (Bass, 1990).

Due to the rewards and punishment systems, transactional leadership has not really

provided much in motivation to inspire the people to do beyond their abilities. In other words,

the staffs who are under the transactional leadership, tend to make the minimal effort. It is

because they just do their work to avoid the punishment (Bass, 1990).

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A study led by Howell and Avolio (1993) endorses that conditional remuneration

leadership brings the negative effect on the performance of the staffs. Conditional remuneration

is observed as "a lively and positive exchange between leaders and followers where followers are

granted for finishing and completing the aims". If the leaders are failing to fulfil the promised

incentives, the followers will show the unpredictability in their behaviours. It is also will reflect

that the leader is an ineffective leader. Furthermore, research (Howell and Avolio, 1993)

suggests that the level of conditional remuneration leadership relies on organizational

background and situations.

2.5.2 Transformational Leadership

Transformational leaders are more inspiring compared to transactional leaders because

they accept the best from everyone on their team and themselves too. This contributes to high

production and output and greater commitment from everyone in their units. Transformational

leadership is different from transactional leadership in term of the aims. The transformational

leaders aimed for the innovation, meanwhile, the transformational leaders focused more on

preparation and implementation. The transformational leadership attempts to generate new

chances for personnel in an organization, while transactional style works only in an existing

structure (Tucker, Georgia, Russell, College, and Emory, 2004). Another different characteristic

between those two styles is, the intention of the transformational leadership is to inspire and

motivate people, whereas transactional leadership emphases on how to manipulate the influence

and power (Tucker, et al, 2004).

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The focus of the transformational leadership is people (Burke, Stagl, Klein, Goodwin,

Salas and Halpin, 2006). Bass (1990) clarifies that such leadership encourage the followers to do

beyond their self-awareness and lets them to concentrate and bring the outcome for the group or

society (Stewart, 2006). Transformational leaders are able to express an attractive idea of the

prospect by connecting the ideologies and leading through example. This leadership will develop

the morale of the team and provides motivation to the team members (Stewart, 2006).

2.5.3 Autocratic Leadership

Autocratic leaders make their own decisions, firm and employ close control over the

staffs by providing the rule and regulations of the policies and procedures to the staffs. The

autocratic leaders have usually built their own judgments and depend on their own ideas in

decision making and they occasionally ask the opinions from their own subordinates. The

autocratic leaders also stress on the obedience by the followers without telling the followers why

they should do or don’t. When the goals set, the autocratic leaders usually employ the threats and

punishments to inculcate fear among the employees to ensure their decisions are accepted by the

employees without having any arguments.

According to Hersey and Blanchard (1993), the communications between the leaders and

the followers are very minimal. That is because the leaders are only more to focus on what the

followers have to do and follow the decision made rather than listen and discuss about the

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decision before the decision making. In other words, the leaders do not trust the abilities of their

employees. The leader loves to critiques, occasionally compliments his/her employees and over

controlling them until become less dedicated to their task (Goleman, Boyatzis and Mckee, 2002).

Under the autocratic leadership, there is no teamwork among the teachers. It is because

the teachers are utilized by the school leader to accomplish the ends that have been put up. The

teachers do not have any rights to express their opinion and they just carry out their works

because they have to do that and they are afraid of the punishments. Hersey and Blanchard,

(1993) summarizes it will lead the dissatisfied teachers to create a group in order to fight the

school’s goals.

Nevertheless, the autocratic leadership can be applied if the decision is required to be

fixed within the short point of time and the team members are less experienced. Though, this

style can be discouraging and it will lead to the high staff turnover and absenteeism.

2.5.4 Bureaucratic Leadership

Bureaucratic leaders believe in the strict structured procedures, but they are not really

strict as autocratic leaders. The bureaucratic leaders hold tightly to the protocol. This kind of

leadership, do not offer any space for any new improvements or problem solving decisions

because all the decisions made must follow the protocol that has been presented earlier. Leaders

make sure that their employees have followed all the previous stages before they can proceed to

the next level of the authority. This type of the leadership normally exists in universities,

hospitals, banks and government. It is because that bodies have usually asked this sort of leader

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in their arrangements to assure the quality, increase safety and decrease fraud. The individuals or

leaders who prefer the quick process will experience frustration (Weber, 1905).

2.5.5 Charismatic Leadership

Charismatic leaders have many traits; they are identified as possessing a solid sensation

of principles, self-confidence, having a foremost character and a violent desire to act upon others

(Northouse, 2013).The charismatic leader leads by instilling dynamism and enthusiasm into their

follower. A charismatic leader is someone who is often on the run. The charismatic leaders are

being not someone who goes for the motionless state. The charismatic leaders need to be

dedicated to the organization or the group for a long time. If the charismatic leaders plan to quit

from a particular organization, group or organization, it may harm the company if the triumph

that achieved by that division was devoted to the charismatic leaders not to them. The society

needs to work hard to win back the trust of the employees because the employees were too used

to the charisma of the charismatic leaders (Weber, 1905).

2.5.6 Laissez-faire Leadership

Robbins (2007) explained the laissez-fair style as abandons accountabilities that has been

used to avoid making conclusions. Laissez- Fair is detached in the work of the unit. It is a

challenging task to protect this leadership style except the leader’s employees are skillful and

highly-motivated. Leaders allow their group members to be a decision maker. (Mondy and

Premeaux, 1995).

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The laissez-faire leadership is best fitted for the experienced and high skill workers. It is

because the workers simply need very minimal supervision from the leader. The laissez-faire

leadership gives the power to the employees to make the decision. According to Lewin, Lippit

and White (1939), the laissez-faire leadership is also recognised as the “hand off” leadership

because the leader assigns the tasks to the employees by providing minimal guidance or without

giving them instructions at all.

2.5.7 Democratic Leadership

The democratic leadership is also known as participative leadership. That is because the

democratic leadership allows the subordinates to share the job of decision making with the

leader. The leader will provide the opportunity to the subordinates to voice out their thoughts.

However, the leader still has the authorization to make the concluding decision. A school leader

may take a series of discussion and arrangement with the teachers about a topic before any

conclusion is reached. According to Dubrin (1998), the democratic leaders let the employees to

elect on an issue before any decision is called for. He/she also trains the employees and discuss

about their needs or demands.

The democratic leadership is seen as a critical element of authorization, fellowship and

cooperation. The researchers agreed that the school, which is encouraging the Democratic

leadership will be more effective compare to the school who do not employ the democratic

leadership. Perez, Milstein, wood and Jacquez (1992), stated that when teachers are able to share

their opinions, they will become more responsible for the school.

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However, the democratic leadership is not best suited during the crisis which required

immediate action. That is because a great deal of time will be wasted in the meeting before the

decision can be made and it may cause the misunderstanding and lack of direction (Dubrin,

1998). Nevertheless, Goleman et al. (2002) believed that democratic leaders can create a positive

school climate because the leader always make sure that the teachers have high self-esteem.

2.6 SCHOOL CLIMATE

Andrew Halpin and Don Craft were the founders of the school climate. In 1963, they

circulated their research finding on the school climate. Numerous researchers and academicians

defined school climate in many ways. Freiberg Stein (1999) believed that the school climate is

the core element of a school. The school climate is important to inspire the pupils, teacher sand

the school leader to ensure they love the school and happy to be there.

Hoy and Miskel (1996), define school climate as a fairly persistent quality of the entire

school, which is felt by the group, portrays their mutual opinions of the actions and stimuli their

attitudes and behaviour in school. In addition, Gilmer (1971) summarized organizational climate

as those characteristics that differentiate an organization from its kind and effect the action of

people in the organization. Therefore, the climate in one school is different from the others.

2.7 THE IMPORTANCE OF SCHOOL CLIMATE

Fopiano and Norris (2001) and Pasi (2001) said that a helpful and open school climate

fosters a sense of belonging, promote resiliency and reduce potential negative conditions of the

family environment. The social and expressive desires are corresponding with learning

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requirements. Students who experience bad surroundings at home can be assisted to realize their

potential by providing a school climate that cultivates, cares and challenges them.

According to Brooks (1999), pupils are more likely grow well when they are in the

school environment that provides contented surrounding and valued by teachers. Many of the

teenagers join and involved with gangsters because they want to be accepted and connected with

others. Based on these feelings, it is important to create a positive school climate in order to

ensure they feel welcomed and not isolated. Pasi (2001) added that the school climate is

meaningfully influencing the way of pupils feel about learning.

2.8 TYPES OF THE SCHOOL CLIMATE

Halpin (1966) mentioned that there were several different types of climates that exist in

schools. The types of the climates are such as open climate, autonomous climate, controlled

climate, familiar climate, paternalistic climate and closed climate.

2.8.1 Open Climate

An open climate is used to define the openness and truthfulness of communication that

occurs among the school leader, teachers, pupils and parents. Hoy and Sabo (1998) stressed that

the open climate encouraged the cooperative, supportive and receptive attitudes of the school

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leader and teacher. The school leader shows sincere concern for the teachers in persuading and

inspiring staff members. The school leader uses low directives that provide the freedom for the

teachers to carry out their tasks in their own way that they feel good. The school leader will not

allow the teachers to be disruptive or burdened by the routine duties.

In the open school climate, teachers are more accepting, cooperative and respect their

professionalism. They are gentle and enthusiastic to help the students when they are required to

do so. The teachers show high commitment to work hard to assure the excellence of their pupils.

The teachers also have a good rapport between them and respect each other. When the team

spirit is good between the school leader and the teachers, they can be accessible and easily

approachable by the parents in order to maintain the tight kinship between the school and the

outsiders (Halpin 1966). Hoy and Tarter (1997) summarized that in order to make an open and

healthy school climate, the school needs to sustain a school leader who possesses, high

supportive and low directive behaviour, the teachers with highly engaged and very low frustrated

behaviour.

2.8.2 Autonomous Climate

Autonomous climate is also known as independent climate. This type of climate

represents a climate where teachers are given enough freedom to function in the school. The

school leader shows a good example where he/she is a passion and persistence person,

meanwhile, both teachers and pupils are happy where there is no exterior threat or influence.

Teachers have excessive aspiration to work and pupils are highly interested to acquire

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knowledge. The relationship among the school leader, teachers, pupils and parents are close

(Halpin, 1966).

2.8.3 Controlled Climate

The major quality of the controlled climate is tough work. The tough work is over-

emphasized until there is just a little time left for a social life. The things become worse until

sometimes there is no time to spend for our own social life. Most of the teachers spend a lot of

time to prepare the paperwork until there is no time for the teachers to interact with each other.

The students are hardworking however, they are not encouraged to participate in extracurricular

activities. The school leader does not possess a good rapport with the teachers, students and

parents to avoid the closed relationship. Parents are also not fortified to come to the school to

discuss about their child development because the time can be utilized for something else (Silver,

1983) and (Halpin 1966).

2.8.4 Familiar Climate

The school leader is concerned about sustaining the outgoing climate in order to make

sure the task could be accomplished. There will be a group of the teachers who are not dedicated

to their main job. Some of the dedicated teachers dislike the manner how the school leaders

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manage the school. Consequently, they will have different point of views from the school leader

and other teachers. For those who shared the same point of view will form a clique and become

friends because they shared the same attitude. Most of the students do not take serious in their

studies and they always find excuses to be out of the class or absent from school without any

solid reasons. The parents are not interested to be involved actively in their children’s education

and they think it is not important to attend the Parents-Teacher meetings (Silver, 1983) and

(Halpin 1966).

2.8.5 Paternal Climate

In this climate, the school leader is hardworking but unfortunately it brings no effect to

the teachers. The relationship between the school leader and the teachers are closed, but the

expectations for teachers are not reasonable. The school leader expects the energetic teachers,

but he/she used autocratic leadership. Consequently, most of the teachers, parents and pupils tend

to put distance from the school leader. The pupils could not share their problems and difficulties

with confidence, meanwhile, their parents are just visiting the school when they are asked to do

so (Costley and Todd 1987). For instance, the parents will visit the school during the Report

Card Signing Day.

2.8.6 Closed Climate

According to Halpin (1966), the main characteristic of closed climate is lack of obligation

and unproductive. There is no commitment at all between the school leader and the teachers.

31

The school leader emphases more about the routine duties and unnecessary paperwork rather

than stresses on the accomplishment of the task. The school leader is like to control and rigid.

The school leader is insensitive, not ready to give a hand and cold as well. Thus, the teachers are

hopeless and restless. The relationship between teachers are also full of suspicion and they do not

trust the school leader and even their own students. The mood in the school is so tensed and

divided. Hoy and Tarter (1997) found that those characteristics may lead to the unhealthy school

climate are also known as closed climate.

2.9 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEROWK

The conceptual framework for this study is shown in the Figure 2.

32

The headmasters’ leadership style gave a big effect towards the teachers and school

climate. The headmasters who apply the leadership styles which encourage and create a healthy

and safe environment will create a positive climate and getting a positive cooperation and

involvement from the teachers. Meanwhile, the headmasters who adopt the leadership which

instill insecure and fear environment will create the negative school climate and as a result, it

may bring the negative effects towards the teachers as well.

CHAPTER 3 : RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 INTRODUCTION

33

Headmasters’ Leadership Style

Effect towards School Climate

Effect towards Teachers

Negative School Climate

Positive School Climate

Figure 2

This chapter contained the research design, population and sample, instrumentation, data

collection and data analysis plan.

3.2 RESEARCH DESIGN

This research proposal will use a quantitative approach, whereby, the survey is used to

collect the data. The quantitative research is more suitable to be used to gain exact information. I

use the survey method in order to collect the data from the teachers of primary schools in Klang.

Rasool (2000) stated that the survey method such as questionnaires and interviews is and

effective way to gain the information.

This research is designed to distinguish the leadership style of the headmasters in a three

selected primary schools in Klang, to analyse the school climate of those selected schools, to

investigate the relationship between leadership style and the school climate and to identify the

ways to improve the school climate.

The headmasters’ leadership style gave a big effect towards the teachers and school

climate. The three primary schools that has been selected were SK Telok Gadong, SK Sungai

Udang and SK Teluk Pulai. They were selected because of the location that's near to each other.

Besides, the researcher would like to see if the differences in the style of leadership employ by

the headmasters could cause the effect towards teachers’ commitment and affected the pupils’

achievement in Primary School Achievement Test (UPSR).

3.3 SAMPLE AND POPULATION

34

The population for this inquiry is the primary teachers in Klang district. Sowell (2001)

defines a target population as a group of people that share mutual features that the researcher

targets to simplify his/her outcomes. In educational research, the population is regularly selected

from the students or the teachers. This research applies the non-random sampling method,

whereby, convenience sampling is applied. This non-random sampling technique can be

pondered as the best of all non-random samples due to the including all themes that are

accessible that makes the sample better to be representative the whole target population.

Convenience sampling is employed because the group of individuals is appropriate and

pragmatic for the survey. The usage of convenience samples is barely limited to psychology

(Presser, 1984). Some of the research is depending deeply on mall-intercept models (Diamond,

2000).

The sample that had been used in this research was 100 teachers from the three selected

primary schools. The respondents were from the morning and afternoon session teachers. The

respondents were selected in order to gather the information regarding the teachers’ perception

towards the relationship between the headmasters’ leadership style and the school climate.

3.4 INSTRUMENTATION

The instrumentation that has been used is questionnaire. This questionnaire is adapted

from the Leadership Effectiveness Adaptability Description (LEAD-Other) and the

Organizational Climate Descriptive Questionnaire for Elementary Schools (OCDQ-RE). The

LEAD-Other will be used to evaluate the school leader’s leadership style, meanwhile, the

OCDQ-RE will be used to assess the school climate.

35

The OCDQ instruments were established by Halpin and Croft (Halpin, 1966) to measure

the numerous types of the organizational climate. The questionnaire is in closed-ended queries,

whereby, the respondents are simply needed to tick in the blank offered. The closed-ended

questions are contained four-item scale answers which are rarely occurring, sometimes occurs,

often occurs and very frequently occurs. The OCDQ questionnaire consists 42 questions. There

are two sections in the OCDQ. The first part assesses on the principal behaviour and in the

second part, it evaluates the teacher behaviour. There were six subscales in OCDQ-RE which are

supportive principal behaviour, directive principal behaviour, restrictive principal behaviour,

collegial teacher behaviour, intimate teacher behaviour and disengaged teacher behaviour.

For the LEAD instruments, it has been developed by the Centre of Leadership Studies,

Ohio University. According to Hersey and Blanchard (1977) the LEAD instrument is developed

to identify the three aspects of the conduct of a leader. The three aspects are style, style range

and style adaptability. In the LEAD, the respondents are given some situations and they need to

circle the appropriate answers that they remember the headmaster will do in that position. There

are approximately 12 questions in this particular section.

The researcher also included 3 open-ended questions to collect the information on how to

improve the school climate.

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The enlargement of the questionnaire is such below:

SECTION DESCRIPTIONS NUMBER OF ITEMS

Section A :

Demographic

Information

This section contains the questions

regarding the demographic data of the

respondents such as gender and age. In

addition, there are a few additional

questions such as years of teaching,

level of education and their teaching

area.

Question number 1 until

6 (6 questions).

Section B:

OCDQ Instruments

This section contains two parts, which

are related to the principal behaviour

and teacher behaviour. In principal

behaviour, there are 3 dimensions

which are supportive behaviour,

directive behaviour and restrictive

behaviour. The dimensions in teacher

behaviour are collegial behaviour,

intimate behaviour and disengaged

behaviour

Question number 7 until

48 (42 questions).

Section C:

LEAD Instruments

This section aims to identify the three

aspects in the behaviour of a leader.

The three aspects are style, style range

Question number 49 until

60 (12 questions)

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and style adaptability.

SECTION D

Open-ended questions

The purpose of this section is to gather

the opinions from the teachers on how

to improve the school climate.

Question number 61-63

(3 questions).

Table 1

3.5 DATA COLLECTION

The respondents in this study were the teachers in SK Telok Gadong, SK Teluk Pulai and

SK Sungai Udang. A briefing will be given before the questionnaires are distributed to them. The

contents of the briefing were about the purpose of this case study and type of the questions they

were required to answer. The questionnaire will be handed out during the working days or on

Saturday (after the In-house Training Session) or in any suitable time. The researchers also

uploaded the questionnaire via Facebook. The questionnaire could be responded within ten to

fifteen minutes. The researcher was responsible to supervise and be there when the questionnaire

was distributed and answered by the respondents. It is easy if the respondents have any enquires

regarding the questions in the questionnaire. The researcher collected back all the questionnaires

after the respondents completed it.

38

The steps in data collection are such follow:

39

Design the questionnaire

The questionaire contains three sections; demographic data, OCDQ instruments and LEAD instruments

Select the sample

100 teachers of SK Telok Gadong, SK Udang and SK Teluk Pulai will be chosen as the sample. They were from morning session and afternoon session and teachers.

Distribute the questionnaire

The questionnaire would be distributed during working days, on Saturday (after the In-house Training) or any suitable time.

Collect the questionnaire

The completed questionnaire will be

collected after 10-15 minutes.

Figure 3

3.6 DATA ANALYSIS

All the data that obtained from the respondents will be analyzed by using the Statistical

Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 17.0. This is one of the most compatible software that

can be used in order to key in and analyze the data obtained.

Research Objectives Section Analysis

i) To investigate the leadership

style of the headmasters

Klang primary schools.

Section C

(Question 49-60)

Data were analysed to figure out the

frequency, mean and the standard

deviation.

The respondents were given a few

situations and they were required to

circle only one choice that suited best

to the situations.

ii) To analyse the school

climate of the primary

schools in Klang.

Section B

Open

Engaged

Disengage

d

Closed

Data were analysed to find the

frequency, mean and the standard

deviation. The answers were grouped

in 4 categories:

1. Rarely occurs

2. Sometimes occurs

3. Often occurs

4. Very often occurs

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iii) To investigate the

relationship between

leadership style and the

school climate.

Section B

Supportive

Behaviour

Directive

Behaviour

Restrictive

Behaviour

Data were analysed to gauge the mean

and standard deviation. The answers

were grouped in 4 categories:

1. Rarely occurs

2. Sometimes occurs

3. Often occurs

4. Very often occurs

iv) To identify the ways to

improve the school climate.

Section D

(Question 61-63)

Data were analysed to calculate the

percentage and the frequency.

Table 2

41

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