Leadership Styles

John R. Hoyle

The mystery of why one leader's style is more effective than another's is unsolved. Leadership style consists of a leader's general personality, demeanor, and communication patterns in guiding others toward reaching organizational or personal goals. Leadership style research has been dominated by self-report perceptions of subordinates about their leader's behavior patterns in decision making, interpersonal relations, planning, instructional leadership, and management efficiency. Among widely used instruments to assess leadership style are the organizational climate description questionnaire (OCDQ), leadership behavior description questionnaire (LBDQ), and the organizational health inventory (OHI). These instruments gather faculty and staff perceptions of the leadership style of the principal and other organizational dynamics in a school organization. The results of these perceptions have been helpful to principals who may see themselves as democratic, inclusive leaders, while the data reveal an authoritarian, aloof bureaucrat. A principal may organize for and believe in site-based decision making, but subordinates' perceptions ...

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