Influence of Principals’ Leadership Styles on Students’ Academic Performance in Secondary Schools in Awendo Sub-County, Kenya - Full Length Research Paper

Oct 15, 2026

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The study establishes how principals’ democratic, autocratic, and laissez faire leadership styles influence academic performance of secondary students in Awendo sub-county, Kenya. It responds to gaps where Awendo lagged behind other sub-counties in mean scores between 2012 and 2016. Using descriptive survey and correlational designs, the research applies questionnaires, interviews, document analysis, and focus groups, analyzes quantitative and qualitative data, and reports leadership accounts of 37.4%, 43.8%, and 15.7% of performance variation.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages7

Reading Time18 min

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Abstract

Introduction

Study focus and leadership styles

African Educational Research Journal Vol. 7(1), pp. 22-28, January 2019 DOI: 10. 30918/AERJ.71.18.096 ISSN: 2354-2160 Full Length Research Paper Influence of principals’ leadership styles on students’academic performance in secondary schools in Awendo sub-county, Kenya Millicent Oyugi1 and Julius O. Gogo2* 1Awendo High School, Kenya. 2Maseno University, Kenya. Accepted 28 December, 2018 | ABSTRACT
Studies conducted in USA, Dubai, South Africa, Nigeria, Uganda, central region of Kenya and some part of Nyanza region have revealed that principals’ leadership styles influence performance in schools. Leadership style was found to contribute 32.8% to the students’ performance in Kinangop. However, there was no information about the influence principals’ leadership style has had on the students’ academic performance. Awendo sub-county performed below average with a mean of 4.9 for the period 2012 to 2016 yet in the same region Uriri sub-county had a mean of 6.5 and Rongo sub-county 5.8. The purpose of this study was, therefore, to establish the influence of the principals’ leadership styles on secondary students’ academic performance in Awendo sub-county. The objectives of the study were to: determine the influence of principals’ democratic leadership style on students’ performance; establish the influence of principals’ autocratic leadership style on the students’ performance; and to establish the influence of principals’ laissez faire leadership styles on students’academic performance. A conceptual framework was used to show the interplay regarding the independent variable, which is leadership styles and that of the dependent variable, which is students’ academic performance. The research employed descriptive survey and correlational designs to obtain information. The study population consisted of 35 principals, 340 teachers and 1400 form four students of 2015. Saturated sampling method was used to obtain 30 principals as the remaining 5 were used for piloting. Simple random sampling was used to sample 186 teachers and 301 students from the 30 sampled schools. Data was collected using questionnaire, interview schedules, document analysis and focus group discussions. Face and content validity of the instruments were determined by experts in educational administration. The reliability was tested using test-retest method and a Pearson’s r of 0.86 for Principals’ questionnaire obtained. Quantitative data was analyzed using frequency count, mean, percentage, correlation and simple linear regression. Qualitative data was transcribed, analyzed and used for triangulation. Leadership styles were measured using a rating scale adopted from Donclark Questionnaire Model for attributes of democratic, autocratic and laissez faire styles whilst students’performance was measured by the school mean score. The study established that democratic leadership accounted for 37.4% of variation in students’ academic performance as signified by adjusted R square 0.374. Autocratic leadership accounted for 43.8% of variation in students’ academic performance and Laissez faire leadership style accounted for 15.7% of variation in students’ academic performance. Principals are encouraged to balance the use both democratic and autocratic styles but avoid Laissez faire style. The study is significant to stakeholders in education in assisting principals to practice leadership styles that would enhance students’academic performance in secondary schools.
Keywords: Leadership style, principal, academic performance, secondary education. | | --- | | *Corresponding [author. E-mail: jotieno2009@gmail.com](author. E-mail: jotieno2009@gmail.com). | INTRODUCTION Leadership style consists of a leader's general personality, demeanour and communication patterns in guiding others toward reaching organizational or personal goals and it is believed to affect performance (Wallace, 2009) . Cole (2004) observes that even if an institution has all the finan

FAQs

What was the aim of the study in Awendo sub-county?

To determine the influence of principals’ leadership styles—democratic, autocratic, and laissez faire—on secondary students’ academic performance in Awendo sub-county.

Which research designs and sampling approaches were used?

The study employed descriptive survey and correlational designs. It used saturated sampling for principals and simple random sampling to select teachers and students from sampled schools.

What were the key findings about the leadership styles’ impact on students’ performance?

Democratic leadership accounted for 37.4% of variation, autocratic leadership for 43.8%, and laissez faire leadership for 15.7%, indicating that principals should balance democratic and autocratic approaches and avoid laissez faire.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Stanley