The relationship between leadership behaviours and problem solving abilities of school managers

Key Words: Leadership, Problem Solving, Educational Management The purpose of this study is to find out the relationship between the leadership behaviours and problem solving abilities of school managers. The problem of this research is the analysis of the relationship between leadership behaviours and problem solving abilities of school managers and assistant managers working in state and private secondary and high schools. The type of school, age, gender and managerial experience are the variables of the study. The universe of this study is comprised of the managers and assistant managers working in state and private schools in İstanbul. The sample includes 72 school managers in total, 21 female and 51 male. Transformational Leardership Behaviours Questionnaire, originally developed by Avalio& Bass and Problem Solving Questionnaire, originally developed by Heppner& Peterson were used to analyse the leadership behaviours and problem solving skills. IVData were analysed using statistical techniques of mann Whitney-U, Kruskal Wallis-H and Pearson Correlation in SPSS version 11. Results of the study showed that there is a positive correlation between the leadership behaviours and problem solving abilities of school managers. No significant differences were found in leadership behaviours depending on years of experience in the administrative position. Analysis of total scores of Leadership Behaviours and Problem Solving Questionnaire showed that women have more dominant leadership behaviours and problem solving abilities than men. Moreover, no significant differences were found between the feamle managers in state schools and the ones in private schools. Besides, the results showed that male managers in state schools differ from the ones in private schools in problem solving abilities even no significant differences were found in leadership behaviours.