School principals’ leadership style and school outcomes

Purpose – While the significance of principals for the organizational behavior of schools is crucial, school leaders’ influence on school outcomes is indirect and mediated through various means that leaders employ in order to increase the productivity of their school. Although the exercise of power is viewed among the main factors explaining followers’ willingness to comply with leaders’ demands and means to promote school effectiveness, it is rather surprising that the educational administration literature lacks substantial evidence testifying to the mediating effect that principals’ use of various powerbases has on school effectiveness. The purpose of this paper is to make an attempt to fill this gap. Design/methodology/approach – Questionnaires were administered to 954 teachers coming from 191 randomly sampled public elementary schools. Findings – Evidence testifying to the relation between leadership styles and use of powerbases suggests that the transformational leadership style is positively related...