The relationship between leadership styles and communication skills of school administrators in secondary education

The aim of this research is to determine the relationship between leadership styles and communication skills of school administrators according to opinions of school administrators and teachers who work in secondary education.The research was based on the relational search model. In 2009-2010 Academic Year, 14969 teachers and 319 school administrators -who work in secondary educational institutions within the Ministry of Education and in the boundaries of the central districts of Ankara like Altındağ, Etimesgut, Gölbaşı, Keçiören, Çankaya, Mamak, Sincan and Yenimahalle- form the content of this study. The teachers and the school administrators who work in Keçiören, Çankaya, Mamak and Yenimahalle, due to the transport facilities and the number of schools which represent the basis of the study, form the sampling of the study. In these four districts, there are 200 high schools. The number of teachers is 9161 and the number of school administrators is 200 working in these schools.During the study, ?Multi-factor Leadership Questionnaire-Assessment Form (5x short)? was used to determine the leadership styles of schools administrators and also ?The Scale of School Administrators? Effectiveness During Communication? was used in order to determine the level of communication skills.The findings of the search are: According to the teachers who work in Secondary schools, the perception of school directors is in mid-level regarding communication skills, while the school directors think it?s high level. It?s been found out that there is a significant difference in teachers? and school administrators? views regarding communication skills. While school administrators working in secondary schools have more positive approach to transformational leadership styles comparing to the teachers ,the teachers have more positive approach to transactional leadership than school administrators.The results show that communication skills of school administrators are closely related with transformational leadership and the level of school administrators' having communication skills is not closely related with transactional leadership. The study has shown that, as transformational leadership skills of the school administrators increase, communication between the school administrators and the teachers increase accordingly, and as transactional leadership skills of the school administrators increase, communication between school directors and teachers decrease. Finally, as school administrators' transformational leadership skills increase, the communication of school administrators and teachers increase. As school administrators' transactional leadership skills increase, the communication between school administrators and teachers decrease.Key words: Communication, Organizational communication, Transformational leadership, Transactional leadership.