The role of leadership skills of high school principals in knowledge management process competencies

The aim of this study is; to examine the level of high school principals? showing knowledge management process competencies and leadership skills; to find out the predictive power of leadership skills for knowledge management competencies according to the teachers? perceptions. It is also aimed; to find out high school principals? opinions about their own practices related to the knowledge management process competencies and leadership skills they show at lowest and highest levels according to the teachers? perceptions and about the contributions of leadership skills to knowledge management process competencies. The research was conducted with sequential mixed design which is one of the mixed methods designs including quantitative and qualitative techniques. The sample of the quantitative part consisted of 573 high school teachers working in Çukurova district of Adana province in 2011-2012 education year. Quantitative data were obtained through ?School Principal Knowledge Management Process Competencies Scale? developed by researcher and ?Leadership Practices Inventory? developed by Kouzes and Posner (2001). Participants of the qualitative part were 27 high school principals working in the schools where the quantitative data were collected. Qualitative data were gathered with semi-structured interviews with the high school principals. In the analysis of quantitative data, parametric analysis techniques were used and in the analysis of qualitative data, content analysis method was used. The some of the significant results were as follows: High school principals showed the knowledge management process competencies and the leadership skills often. There was a significant, medium level and positive correlation between the knowledge management process competencies and the leadership skills of high school principals. Leadership skills of high school principals were significant predictor of their knowledge management process competencies. High school principals thought that leadership skills including inspiring a shared vision, challenging the process, modeling the way and enabling others to act contributed to their knowledge management process competencies.