Influence of headteachers leadership styles on Employees in secondary school access to their rights In Nandi East Kenya

Abstract

The study was to find out the influence of headteachers leadership styles on employee access to their rights in secondary schools in Nandi East district. The objectives of the study were: to establish how autocratic leadership style on access to employee rights, to investigate the influence of laissez-faire leadership style on employee rights and to determine the influence of charismatic leadership style on employee access to their rights. All literature reviewed related to the study was done under the following categories; autocratic leadership styles and employee rights, democratic leadership style and employee rights, Laissez-faire leadership style and employee rights and charismatic leadership style and employee rights. The research was based on four research objectives and four research questions. The study was modeled by the postulates of path theory also known as path-goal theory of leader effectiveness or path-goal model. The research adopted descriptive survey design to study the influence of headteachers leadership style on employee access to their rights. The target population was 2254 teachers from public secondary schools in Nandi East and 127 teachers and 60 support staff forming 50% of the target population. Dat was collected using two questionnaires for teachers and support and staff. A return rate of 91% for the teachers was realized and a return rate of 80% for the support staff was achieved. Data was analysed by use of frequencies and percentages while qualitative data was analyzed using description and discussion. From the findings the most popular leadership style used by headteachers was democratic although support staff indicated with the highest percentage that their headteachers used Laissez faire style. Conclusions and recommendations were made based on the findings, suggestions for further research were made on carrying out the research on a larger area and also on the need to find out the role of trade unions in sensitizing employees on their rights.