A STUDY OF THE LEADERSHIP BEHAVIORS REPORTED BY PRINCIPALS AND OBSERVED BY TEACHERS AND ITS RELATION WITH PRINCIPALS’ MANAGEMENT EXPERIENCE

The present paper aims to study the leadership behaviors reported by principals and observed by teachers and its relationship with management experience of principals. A quantitative method used in this study. Target population included all principals and teachers of guidance schools and high schools in Dashtiari District, Iran. A sample consisted of 46 principals and 129 teachers were selected by stratified sampling and simple random sampling methods. Leadership Behavior Description Questionnaire (LBDQ) developed by Kozes and Posner (2001) was used for data collection. The obtained data were analyzed using one sample and independent t-test, correlation coefficient and pearson chi-square test. The results showed that teachers describe the leadership behaviors of their principals relatively good. However, the principals themselves evaluated their leadership behaviors as very good. In comparison between leadership behaviors self-reported by principals and those observed by teachers, it was found that there is a significant difference between the views and evaluations of teachers and principals on all components of leadership behaviors of principals, except empowerment. In fact, principals have described their leadership behaviors at a better and more appropriate level than what teachers have done. From the perspective of both teachers and principals, there is no significant relationship between none of the components of leadership behaviors and management experience of principals.