The gap between primary and secondary schools teachers in followership style at Adni Islamic School, Malaysia

Abstract

The purpose of this quantitative research was to investigate the gap between primary and secondary school teachers in followership style at Adni Islamic School, Malaysia. Surveys were completed by 92 teachers from both respective schools which included the completion of the related questionnaire designed with two parts. First part is about demographic of respondents second part is about followership styles which consist of independent thinking and active engagement dimensions. The Descriptive Statistic was used to investigate if followership styles as proposed by Kelley (1992) represent the followership style of primary and secondary school teachers at Adni Islamic School (AIS) as well as to investigate which followership is mostly practised by school teachers. The independent samples t-test analysis was employed to examine if there were significant differences of followership styles between the primary and secondary school teachers of AIS by gender and in school level. The findings of this research show that all Kelley’s Followership Styles (exemplary, alienated, pragmatist, conformist and passive) represent the followership style of primary and secondary school teachers at AIS. The most practised followership style is exemplary which amounted to 39 (42.3%) of teachers. Furthermore, the findings show that there was a significant difference in followership styles between the male primary and secondary school teachers of AIS. On the contrary, there was no any significant difference of followership styles between the female primary and secondary school teachers of AIS. In general, there was no any significant difference of followership styles between both schools. The findings enhance the theoretical study of followership by providing empirical evidence needed to validate further research. Based on the findings of this study, it is recommended that the respective educational organization structures maintain the domination of exemplary followership style and enhance followership, since it is especially related to help followers achieve exemplary level that is be expected to promote higher levels of organization performance. Suggestions concerning further research on the subject of followership are presented.