Transformational leadership behaviors of school principals: a qualitative research based on teachers’ perceptions

Transformational leadership helps school principals’ to frame their attitudes to move their schools forward. It has four major characteristics. Of these, idealized influence is defined as leader’s behavior and the follower’s attributions about the leader. Inspirational motivation refers to the ways by which transformational leaders motivate and inspire those around them. Individualized consideration represents the leader’s continuing effort to treat each individual as a special person and act as a mentor who attempts to develop their potential. Finally, intellectual stimulation represents the leader’s effort to stimulate followers to be innovative and creative to define problems and approach them in new ways. It is considered that principals who demonstrate these major characteristics of transformational leadership have effects on satisfaction among teachers and better performance at school. Therefore, this study purposes to discover the level of transformational leadership behaviors that school principals demonstrate at schools during their administrative practices on daily basis. Results reveal that school principals demonstrate high level of characteristics of transformational leadership in terms of idealized influence, inspirational motivation, individualized consideration and intellectual stimulation behaviors.

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Transformational leadership ,

school principals ,

school administration ,