The relationship between strategic leadership practices and self-efficacy among school leaders in Republic of Maldives

Abstract

The main purpose of the study is to investigate if there is any significant relationship between Strategic Leadership characteristics of Maldivian school leaders and their Self-efficacy. The study employed a survey method and data were collected using an adapted questionnaire with seven point Likert scale. It measured the Self-Strategic Leadership Practices and Self-efficacy characteristics. Data were collected from 23 schools in the capital city Male’, Maldives. A total of 200 school leaders (45 males and 155 females) participated in the study. The data were analyzed using frequencies, descriptive statistics and Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient. The findings of the study revealed that the school heads in the capital city of Maldives possessed all the nine dimensions of Strategic leadership. It also indicated that school leaders’ in Male’ have quite a bit of control in their roles as school heads, revealing a high perception level of self-efficacy. Moreover, results of the correlation analysis indicated that there was a statistically significant and positive relationship between Strategic Leadership characteristics and leaders’ Self-efficacy characteristics. The scope of the study limited the research by confining it to school leaders’ residing in the capital city of Maldives and besides that, the study is confined to the original ninepoint model of strategic leaders (five organizational abilities and four individual characteristics of strategic leaders) by Davies (2004); Davies and Davies (2006); Davies and Davies (2009). Moreover, the present study provides a starting-point for further research exploring the strategic leadership qualities and self-efficacy of school leaders which are vital to bring a positive reform in schools. As countries strive to reform education system and improve students’ performance, a lot of challenges are faced by the school leaders. Thus, this study highlights that executing effective leadership styles such as strategic leadership are essential to deal with both the need for continuity and the need for change. It further indicates that both self-efficacy and strategic leadership are importance for school leaders’ as they affect performance of the leaders through different mechanisms.