COMPARATIVE STUDY OF LEADERSHIP STYLES IN PUBLIC ANDPRIVATE SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN IDO LOCAL GOVERNMENTAREA OF IBADAN, OYO STATE

This study compared the leadership styles of principals dominating in bothpublic and private secondary schools in Ido Local Government Area of Ibadan,Oyo State, and also investigated the principals' gender differences. Leadershipstyles examined include: autocratic, visionary, pacesetting, democratic, coach-ing,servant,laissez-faire,transformational,transactional,bureaucraticanddig-ital. A descriptive research design was adopted. The population of the studyconsists of 26 public secondary schools and 97 registered private secondaryschools. The total population of teachers in the study were 1194. Using theTaro Yamane formula, a sample size of 306 respondents were sampled of whichquestionnaires were administered and 305 questionnaires were retrieved andused for analysis. A self-designed questionnaire that yielded reliability coefβi-cients of r= 0.942, 0.911, 0.924 were used for data collection. A research ques-tion and two hypotheses were used to guide the study. The βindings of the studyshowed a signiβicant difference in the leadership style adopted by school prin-cipals of both school types with mean =92.5 and 1149, SD= 9.712 and 11.634,while (t = 0.719; df= 301, p <0.05). There is also a signiβicant gender differenceintheleadershipstyleadoptedbyprincipalsofbothschoolswithmean=125.14and 120.97, SD= 14.195 and 9.318 and (t= 2.909; df= 301; p< 0.05). The studyconcluded that though there are signiβicant differences in the leadership stylesadopted by the school principals, there are no one best leadership styles. It istherefore recommended that; principals of both school types should blend andadopt styles that best βit the situation at hand. Thus, leadership style should beapplied based on contingency.