Leadership styles of principals based on setting, zone, and location of public colleges of education in Ghana

This study investigated the leadership styles of principals in public Colleges of Education (CoEs) in Ghana based on the setting, zone and location of the colleges. The quantitative method of the cross-sectional survey design was adopted for the study. The census sampling technique was employed to obtain 38 principals for the study. The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) by Bass and Avolio (2004) was adapted to collect data from the principals. Means, standard deviation, t-test and ANOVA were utilised in analysing the data. The descriptive analysis established that genrally, principals of public CoEs in Ghana mostly used transformational leadership style as compared to transactional and laissez-faire leadership styles. The inferential analyses also revealed that there were no statistically significant differences in the leadership styles of the principals based on setting, zone and location of the colleges. Among the recommendations is that the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC), formerly known as the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), should consider competence when selecting and appointing principals and not the setting, zone and location of public CoEs because generally, these variables did not statistically significantly determine the leadership styles adopted by the principals.

Key words: leadership styles, principals, setting of college, zone of college, location of college