Relationship between delocalized principals’ transformational leadership and institutional performance among public secondary schools in the Lower Eastern region, Kenya

Abstract

The study determined the relationship between the delocalized principals’ transformational leadership and institutional performance in public secondary schools in the lower Eastern region Kenya. It was informed by the need to illustrate the extent to which implementation of delocalization policy has contributed to improved institutional performance. Transformational leadership theory, path-goal theory and contingency theories provided theoretical underpinnings of the study. It adopted descriptive cross sectional survey design and correlational research design. Multistage sampling was used to select 144 Principals, 144 senior teachers and 6 educational officials from 1086 subjects. Questionnaires and interview schedules were used to collect data from sampled respondents. Qualitative data obtained was analyzed thematically while quantitative data was cleaned coded and analyzed descriptively and inferentially with the aid of the Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 26.0 computer software. Frequency and percentages were used to describe the existing relationship between the variables while hypothesis were tested using regression analysis at 95% level of significance. The study established that there is a positive and significant relationship between idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation as well as individualized considerations and institutional performance. Ultimately, study illustrated that there exists a positive and significant relationship between transformational leadership as implemented by the delocalized Principals and institutional performance of their schools. It is therefore recommended that TSC should formulate and implement best practices of delocalization to enable education stakeholders reap its inherent benefits. Ministry of Education (MOE) should organize training workshops for Principals on best practices for implementation of transformational leadership.