The Effect of Principals Leadership and HR Practices of Schools on Faculty and Consequently on Student Outcomes

Abstract

In Pakistani metropolitan cities, at school level, there are two types of educational systems running parallel to each other. These are public schools run by Federal Government, overseen by federal directorate of education. And chains of private schools who either operate at provincial or national level with limited number of campuses in key cities of Pakistan. Principals of schools in these systems have different level of power and authority. This study was conducted to ascertain the type of leadership exercised by principals in both type of schooling systems in the city of Islamabad. Effects of leadership style of principal on HR functions that are Recruitment and selection, Training and development, and Empowerment of faculty members and consequently, its effects on student outcomes. The researchers have developed two separate questionnaires for principal and faculty. A sample of 30 schools was constructed which had equal proportion of Public and Private sector schools. With public sector further segmentation was done on the basis of girls and boys schools. Response rate was 86.66% in public sector and 46.66% in private sector schools. The analysis of the data showed that in Islamabad principal leadership style is slightly tilted towards instructional leadership in public sector and is more towards transformational leadership in private schools. Regression and Hierarchical Multiple Regression (HMR) was used to see the effects of Principal Leadership Style on student outcomes. The results show that Principal Leadership Style varying level of effects on student outcomes. But this effect is mediated by faculty, working conditions of school and human resource practices. Independently,principal’s leadership stylehas not much effect. It was also found that Empowerment of faculty had most profound effects on student outcomes in relation to HR functions mentioned above. Other important results are also found which are elaborated in relevant sections of the document.